Blood and Bones (Chi to hone / 血と骨 -2004)

Starring:
Takeshi Kitano - Joon-pyong Kim
Hirofumi Arai - Masao Kim
Tomoko Tabata - Hanako Kim
Joe Odagiri - Takeshi Park
Kyoka Suzuki - Yong-hee Lee
Yuko Nakamura - Kiyoko Yamanashi
Jae Baxley - Fight Spectator
Mari Hamada - Sadako Toritani
Atsushi Ito - Yong-il / Young Joon-pyong
Shuuji Kashiwabara - San-myung Jang
Kazuki Kitamura - Yoshio Motoyama
Jun Kunimura - Yong-sang Jo
Yutaka Matsushige - Nobuyoshi Ko
Naoyuki Morita - Young Masao
Mami Nakamura - Sanae Otani
Takashi Nishina - Yong-su Kim
Kozo Sato - Tae-su Kim
Sansei Shiomi - Sung-ki Kim
Miako Tadano - Chun-mi Kim
Susumu Terajima - Hee-bom Park



Blood and Bones painstakingly describes the life of infamy lead by Kim Shun-Pei, an unskilled laborer from Cheju, an isolated island in the far South of Korea, from his arrival in Osaka in 1923, full of dreams and ambitions, for lack of more distinctive qualities, to his unmourned death in North Korea. Expatriated into Japan during the era of its colonial rule over the peninsula, he seems to be seeing/seeking (as do his compatriots) a land of opportunities for fortune, fame (to a lesser extent) and prior to these fantasies, work.

But unlike his fellow immigrants, Kim is a man who knows no law but the one dictated by his own iron will, and hardly any other means of expression than his two fists and his rage, with which he will establish his authority over the small community of his peers, a silent diaspora scattered in a few alleys that will remain their horizon for the rest of the film.


This was an excellent movie! Kitano Takeshi was awesome as the abusive, controlling father.

I've read that this movie was critiqued for the "abuse" towards Koreans in Japan during Japan's occupation of Korea. I didn't see that in this movie. What I saw was a normal reaction to how ANY ethnicity would react if a father who was the way he was would respond. Black, White, Asian, Mexican, Persian, etc...if were put about in those types of conditions, I would believe, would react the same as the Koreans did during that time.

I didn't even see a "Japanese" person depicted (even though the Koreans were actually Japanese actors) in the movie. It was all about the Koreans and how a family and the people involved in that family lived, loved, and learned and reacted to the man who took what he wanted and gave nothing back.

It was definitely a sad movie. There wasn't a single happy moment during the whole movie. I would hope they would have a part two of the movie because I'd like to see how the rest of the "children" became and how Masao lived after his father moved back to North Korea.

Oh yeah, Odagiri Joe was in it!! His part was quite big for the only 20 minutes he had in the whole movie. He was the first born son who was conceived out of rape. He was actually the most loving of the children especially towards Masao.

I wouldn't recommend this movie to everyone. Some serious mature scenes in this movie (yeah, I mean sex!) that was kind of gross since it was of the "old man". Ick!

Arai Hirofumi

I cannot believe I have not a single picture of Hirofumi-kun in any of my other previous posts of his movies. WTH? So here I go. He doesn't have the classic idol looks but he's cute in his own right. That Korean in him gives him a distinctive look that I really like. He can play tough guy or sweet guy...it works both ways for him. *muah!*

Watashitachi no Kyokasho (わたしたちの教科書 -2007)

AKA: Our Textbook

Starring:
Kanno Miho as Tsumiki Tamako (lawyer)
Ito Atsushi as Kaji Kohei (substitute teacher)
Tanihara Shosuke as Seri Naoyuki (Tamako's boyfriend, lawyer)
Shida Mirai as Aizawa Asuka (2nd year student)
Maki Yoko as Oshiro Saki (social studies teacher)
Fubuki Jun as Amagi Masumi (vice principal)
Sakai Wakana as Yoshikoshi Nozomi (English language teacher)
Ohkura Koji as Toita Atsuhiko (physical education teacher)
Sato Jiro as Kumazawa Shigeichi (Japanese language teacher)
Mizushima Hiro as Yahata Daisuke (Math teacher)
Maekawa Yasuyuki as Uda Masashi (Tamako's junior, lawyer)
Igarashi Shunji as Amagi Otoya (vice principal's son)
Ichikawa Miwako (ep7, 8) as Misawa Akiko
Yajima Kenichi as Judge
Haru

Class 2-3
Tomiura Satoshi as Kaneyoshi Riku
Tanimura Mitsuki as Nishina Tomomi
Suzuki Kasumi as Yamada Kazuko
Itoh Sairi as Sansei Mai
Yanagita Erika as Suto Ayaka
Ikeda Jun as Kobayashi Yuki
Ikeda Koshin (池田晃信) as Honda Masaki
Yamamoto Hikaru (山本ひかる) as Nobe Chiharu
Tonoshiro Yuma (登野城佑真) as Yamafuji Takumi

Tamako, an elite lawyer with a promising future, works for a reputable law firm. She is recently given an opportunity to take a case involving a young child who has been bullied at a local elementary school. Fully aware of the difficulties uncovering the truth in cases involving schools, Tamako is reluctant to proceed with her new client. Tamako is romantically involved with one of her colleagues, Naoyuki, and is hoping to further develop their relationship. However, Tamako's seemingly happy life comes to a sudden halt when she learns the news of an accident involving a young female high school student named Asuka. Asuka had apparently fallen from a classroom window on campus and suffered serious injuries. Tamako takes a strong interest in Asuka's case and immediately launches her own private investigation. --groink

What is it with me this week and tear-jerkers? I just seem to be all over them lately. LOL!

I decided last night that I was going to hit a drama series this time. This one seemed different plus it Hiro-kun in it. LOL! I'm so glad I did. I knew from the very first episode that I was in for a heart breaker but I trudged on.

This series was fascinating stuff and should be shown in the classroom everywhere. It might or might not change a life but it would definitely be worth trying. I guess you could say it hit a hot spot concerning the bully's side of things and how a bully's actions can forge a new life of despair for their victim.

Yes, this was sad in so many ways. Not only can the bully be a student but also a teacher and/or parent. No love triangles. This was all about the school system, the legal system, and the human heart.

This drama can in so many inspire you to talk with your kids and students. In many ways, we have all been bullied once in our lives. Thumbs up for this whole entire series!!

Robokon ( ロボコン -2003)

AKA: Robot Contest

Starring:
Masami Nagasawa - Satomi Hazawa
Shun Oguri - Koichi Aida
Atsushi Ito - Yotsuya
Takashi Tsukamoto - Kazuyoshi Takeuchi
Kazuma Suzuki - Zushi sensei
Risa Sudo - Sasaki sensei
Tsuyoshi Ujiki - Yoshiyuki Hazawa
Hideko Yoshida - Obaba
YosiYosi Arakawa - Gohara
Sei Hiraizumi - Wakita sensei

This film is based on a real technological competition opened every year in Japan since 1988.

Satomi (NAGASAWA Masami) is a student of a technical college. She is a lazy girl and poor at both study and club activities. One day, a teacher tells her she is short of credits and needs to have extra lessons. More lessons will be killing her, but the teacher gives her a proposal that if she joins the second robot club of the college and takes part in the coming RoboCon with the club, he will accept that as the credit.“Robot Contest” or RoboCon is competed by one hundred and twenty-four teams from sixty-two technical colleges - two teams from each college. Every team consists of one robot and three members of crew - a captain, an operator and a mechanic. The captain of Satomi’s team is the club leader Yotsuya (ITO^ Atsushi), who has dropped out of the first robot club of the college because it is too tightly organized, but is worried about too few members of his club and his small gift of robot operation. The mechanic is Aida (OGURI Shun), who is a lonely genius - having enough gifts in technological fields and no cooperation. And the operator is Satomi, who has never operated a robot before. Their robot is named “BOXhund”, designed with outstanding ideas but still incomplete .

The matches are a single elimination tournament. Two teams compete to make their robot carry more objects to the respective goal within three minutes. The design of the robot is free while it meets some requirements - the weight, the size when it stands still, the power supply, the budget, and so on. The first robot club wins the preliminary matches and proceeds to the final stage like every year; the second robot club loses the first round like every year. But it is not usual that the second robot club is invited to the final stage as one of two teams by recommendation of the judges. They have praised the design concept of “BOXhund”.

Satomi encourages the other members to win the final stage. Her team’s miserable defeat in the first round has awoke her long-sleeping competitive spirit. But they have a lot of problems to face - the incomplete robot, Satomi’s poor operation technique, little cooperation between the members, and having only a few months until the final stage.

It is touching that the club members try to make their way to the final top. ~~crunchy

I downloaded this movie ages ago and completely forgot about it until last night when I was on the hunt for a particular movie. You know somedays you want a thriller, some days a comedy, and some days a romance.

I happened upon Robokon and got that jolt of "deja vu" then it was like "oh yeah!" I have this movie on my hard drive. Duh!

So this morning, I opened it up and away I went.

This movie wasn't the greatest of my Shun-kun movies. Adorable as ever and with his best bud Takashi even sweeter!

The movie, to me, starts out a little abrupt and messy. There wasn't a clear line of communitcation from to the movie to me. I kept going...:"huh?" It wasn't till the middle of the movie that it started to make sense. Or maybe the subs weren't clear enough for me. Not sure. I need to learn Japanese quick!

This was a great time killer. I'll probably end up burning this on DVD but it's not going to be seen anytime soon again. I'd probably watch this out of boredom.

Oguri Shun and Tsukamoto Takashi