Kamen Rider Kuuga (200-2001)

Starring:
Yuusuke Godai/Kamen Rider Kuuga - Joe Odagiri
Kaoru Ichijo - Shingo Katsurayama
Sakurako Sawatari - Kazumi Murata
Oyassan - Kitaro
Minori Godai - Wakana Aoi
Shuichi Tsubaki - Yoshitaka Otsuka
Hikari Enokida - Kaori Mizushima
Nana Asahina - Shio Mizuhara
Jean Michel Sorrel - Serge Vasilov
Mika Natsume - Yuka Takeshima
Sadao Matsukura - Yudai Ishiyama
Morimichi Sugita - Takashi Matsuyama
Go Sakurai - Nobuyuki Yoneyama
Nozomi Sasayama - Eri Tanaka
Hitoshi Kashiwabara - Takashi Kikuchi
Junichi Shiina - Makoto Hatayama
Tatsuhiko Ebisawa - Fujio Mori
Tsurumaru Kameyama - Katsuaki Nishide
Shoji Kanzaki - Takashi Inoue
Keiko Motoshiro - Rie Okada
Atsuko Enokida - Machiko Naka
Sayuru Enokida - Kentaro Niibo
Hiroyuki Yashiro - Yutaro Kamata
Shuto Terashima - Tomoaki Takagi

Long ago, the Grongi Tribe terrorized the Linto until a warrior named Kuuga appeared and defeated the Grongi, sealing their leader within a cave. In present day, a multi-talented man named Yuusuke Godai finds himself linked to the mysterious stoned belt that was found within the escavated cave as the Grongi are ressurected and resume their murderous game on the desandants of the Linto, humanity itself. It is up to Yuusuke, along with the assembled Science Police, to use the various powers of Kuuga in order to stop and defeat the Grongi Tribesmen from their continuous killing and ensure the happiness of others. However, as endgame draws near, Yuusuke learns that there is a horrible revelation behind Kuuga and the Grongis' leader.

OMG! One of the first works from my Joe! He looks so totally different. Actually, the only way I realized who he was..was because of the mole on his chin. After awhile, I got used to looking at him looking so young and different. I'll call him "au naturale". His hair was dark and he actually looked Japanese for the very first time for me. LOL! Is that not weird?

Anyway, on to the review...........

Sad to say, this KR bored the hell out of me until the last 10 episodes....then it started getting interesting. I will say this fell into the KR theory....masked rider on crotch rocket (motorcycle). But the story, which I thought would be interesting....fizzled beyong belief. But I hung on to the end. Why is it that the KR stories don't end with the ultimate happy ending. You know guy gets girl....and they live happily ever after? Damn. I cried at the end. It was "happy" but it didn't fullfill me at all.

I will say the Odagiri Jo, we all know and love, was awesome. The naive and funny Jo is the best. Don't get me wrong. I love him in all of his movies and dramas but when he plays the innocent...well, my heart melts a little bit.

Anyway, this was okay but like I said it bored me. So at this moment, I'm taking a KR break for a while and then will hit Kabuto and Kiva.

In the Pool (In za pûru / イン・ザ・プール -2005)

Starring:
Suzuki Matsuo ... Psychiatrist Ichirô Irabu
Joe Odagiri ... Tetsuya Taguchi
Miwako Ichikawa ... Suzumi Iwamura
Seiichi Tanabe ... Kazuo Ômori
Toshiki Ayata
Chiharu
Noriko Eguchi
Yoko Fujita
Eri Fuse ... Editor-in-Chief
Ryo Iwamatsu ... General Manager Maenishi (as Ryô Iwamatsu)
Houka Kinoshita (as Hôka Kinoshita)
Kitarou (as Kitarô)
Maiko ... Nurse Mayumi-chan
Yoko Maki (as Yôko Maki)
Shunsuke Matsuoka
Noboru Mitani ... Doctor Himenogi
Leo Morimoto ... Professor Samata (as Reo Morimoto)
Yuko Nakamura
Kyusaku Shimada (as Kyûsaku Shimada)
Ikko Suzuki (as Ikkô Suzuki)
Yoji Tanaka (as Yôji Tanaka)
Masahiro Toda

In the PoolThe vast majority of modern urban dwellers harbor pernicious seeds of neurosis that could surface at any time in any number of bizarre forms. Irabu General Hospital is visited by many such people, all ordinary, but who suffer from extraordinary conditions. The cause of their illnesses? Stress, something we all know much about.

In the basement of Irabu General Hospital is the office of psychiatrist Ichiro Irabu (Suzuki Matsuo), who has inherited the hospital from his father. His unkempt, scraggly appearance belies his credentials. Under his white smock, he wears a leopard-striped shirt and army boots. His demeanor is gruff and unprofessional. He's loud, harbors a severe Oedipal complex, is prone to violent outbursts and barely hears a word his patients are saying. In short, he seems a complete slacker. But somehow all these detracting qualities add up to a strange magnetism that draws his patients to him out of, if nothing else, a sense of a shared fate and empathy. At Dr. Irabu's side is the voluptuous nurse, Mayumi, who seems to take no interest whatsoever in her job or her boss. All they share is a fondness for needles. Dr. Irabu, meanwhile, has taken to swimming at a local pool during his off hours.

At the pool, Irabu regularly runs into a man who seems quite obsessed with swimming. He is Kazuo Ohmori (Seiichi Tanabe), a brash, confident young company man who has been put in charge of a large outlet mall development project. He has a wife, a mistress and a reputation for getting the job done. But the project has him very busy and more anxious than usual. Wondering how to best deal with his accumulating stress, he happens upon a magazine article that prompts him to take up swimming. He finds it to be just what the doctor ordered. But as the demands of his job begin to get in the way of his newfound ritual, he sees his health deteriorating, which only further fuels his craving to swim, eventually implanting a "pool dependence," which he must satisfy.

Meanwhile, a salesman at medium-size manufacturing company, Tetsuya Taguchi (Joe Odagiri) one day wakes up to find himself with a 24-hour erection. In great discomfort and pain, he rushes to an urologist who offers little help except to pass him on to Dr. Irabu, who quickly realizes that Taguchi is a man who can't express his feelings, particularly to women, and is highly suppressed. Irabu is direct. "There's something you're not telling me." In fact, Taguchi's wife, Sayoko, recently left him to be with a company friend, with whom she had an affair. But Taguchi has never let her go emotionally, and has bizarre nightly dreams of her. He knows he must stop being such a pushover but how? Fixing his constant erection takes primary concern, however, which is increasingly causing him more pain and embarrassment, especially at work. At one point, he is ordered to go on a business trip with clients at a hot springs resort. With his erection showing no signs of receding, Irabu finally tells him he must confront his ex-wife.

Irabu is visited by one more patient, a serious, hard-working magazine writer by the name of Suzumi Iwamura (Miwako Ichikawa). Her meticulous investigative instincts make her a good expose writer but they also threaten to be her undoing as she craves verification. Once a thought gets into her head, her mind won't let it go. This leads to a neurotic condition where she constantly worries about whether she's left the gas or electricity on at her apartment, or the door unlocked. At one point, she even worries that she left the burner gas on at Korean barbecue restaurant. She finds it increasingly difficult to go anywhere and repeatedly leaves in the middle of her work to rush home and check her appliances. Irabu prescribes a series of highly unconventional exercises such as going and throwing rocks at a rival hospital. Suzumi, though suspect of Irabu's seemingly self-driven methods, gradually comes to trust him until the day he jars loose a startling incident from her childhood that lies at the root of her problem. An incident with criminal ramifications, no less. The two have no choice but to investigate further in hopes of reaching closure.



I have to laugh at this movie. I laughed because it was funny imagining Joe Odagiri with a constant erection. I think that entire part of the story was the only part of the movie that kept me watching. The rest...........bored me to tears.

I mean, yeah, the doctor was riot. He was insane. LOL!

This movie was so unconventional. At times, I was like..."Huh?" I'm sure there was supposed to have been a moral to this story. I guess it was a reminder that we all have some sort of stress or erratic behavior of some sort. We just have to face our problems or laugh them off as we go on.

This was a good time waster. When Joe-kun plays in comedic roles, he totally rocks. He sometimes comes across as the innocent when he is cleaned up and shaved. But then, when he plays the "bad" guy.....he rules there too!

In all, the movie was okay in general.

Fine, Totally Fine (Zenzen Daijobu/ 全然大丈夫 (完全没问题) -2008)

Starring:
YosiYosi Arakawa - Teuro Tohyama
Yoshino Kimura - Akari Kinoshita
Yoshinori Okada - Hisanobu Komori
Noriko Eguchi - Umezawa
Shima Ise - Tomoko
Keizo Kanie - Eitaro
Kitaro - Kurita
Seminosuke Murasugi
Toshie Negishi - Toyohara
Ichiro Ogura - Kotaro
Taka Okubo
Kayoko Shiraishi
Naoki Tanaka - Yuhara

Teruo, the eldest son of a used bookstore owner has a dream: to build the world scariest haunted house. About to reach his 30th birthday, Teruo is still idling away his life. One day, through the introduction of childhood friend Hisanobu, an extremely clumsy painter/artist comes to work at the bookstore. Meet Akari. A cute, attractive girl that both Teruo and Hisanobu soon fall for.



Hmmm? I saw this movie 2 days ago so I'm a little behind in posting. Sorry!! *sheepishly hides her face in her shirt*

This movie I though would be better. Maybe because it was early in the morning that I decided to watch it. I don't know but it bored me too sleep. Yeah, BORED.

I had some cute, quirky moments but I really didn't see a point to this movie. The only part I really liked was the sub plot between Akari and Yuhara. I really think the story should have revolved around Yuhara because of his mysteriousness. I really enjoyed watching the screen when his parts came up.

Other than that, this movie was a waste of my morning. I enjoyed the nap though. LOL!