Shopping Hero (ツーハンマン / Two Hand Man -2002)

Starring:
Nakamura Shunsuke as Yamada Makoto
Kawahara Ayako as Yuka
Tamaki Hiroshi
Maya Miki
Kohashi Kenji
Taguchi Hiromasa
Kusakari Masao
Suzuki Sawa
Becky

A story of a shy and quite office worker who by chance became a “masked demonstrator” in a TV shopping program. What happens when his longing lady fell in love with not the real him but the disguised self?

Yamada Makoto (Nakamura) works for TV shopping company as a troubleshooter. Although being a quite, shy, and extremely ordinary guy, he one day by chance performs as a “masked demonstrator” in a popular TV shopping program by wearing a superman-like costume. His enthusiastic speech and persuasive demonstration touches the heart of the audience, and not only he becomes a TV hero, he cheers up the people in need of help! A unique comedy love story is here! -- TV Asahi

This drama started out stupid but I didn't give up because the synopsis sounded cool. It actually got better. I didn't want to stop watching. I loved the fact that our "Shopping Hero" solved personal problems while selling a product at the same time. A few times I actually teared up.

I will say I wasn't too thrilled that they tried to make a romance between "Jimmy" and Yuka. First she was too ditzy and she had a fling with the president of the company who by the way is already married. Complicated? Yeah. I was actually routing for the girl that worked in the complaints department with "Jimmy".

Well, as the series progressed, the stories got boring. The last episode I fast forwarded to the end.....and the ending sucked. This drama became a dissappointment quick.

I really liked the character of "Jimmy" aka...Shopping Hero. He was sweet and kind but how could someone like him choose a woman who slept with a married man and she wasn't all that pretty anyway. Ehhh. So yeah, this drama sucked in my own personal opinion.

I hate saying that only because it had my first love Tamaki Hiroshi in it. I will say his character was sweet also. He loved an older women who has a small child. What endeared me the most was the fact that he loved the little boy as his own. *sigh*

Tamaki Hiroshi

Swallowtail Butterfly (スワロウテイル-1996)

Starring:
Hiroshi Mikami - Feihong
Chara - Glico
Ayumi Ito - Ageha
Yosuke Eguchi - Ryou Ryanki
Andy Hui Chi -On - Maofuu
Atsuro Watabe - Ran
Tomoko Yamaguchi - Shenmei
Nene Otsuka - Reiko
Kaori Momoi - Suzukino
Yoriko Douguchi - Hoshino
Mickey Curtis - Doctor
Tetsu Watanabe - Yakuza boss
Tadanobu Asano - Customer in club
Ken Enomoto - Voice work
Kent Frick
Kahori Fujii - Yuriko
Akio Jo
Sumie Kamogawa
Toshiyuki Kitami
Kenji Kohashi - Hoan
Shiek Mahmud-Bey - Arrow
Kae Minami
Ken Mitsuishi
Ryuushi Mizukami
Chris Peppler
Rolly
Toshiya Sakai
Sansei Shiomi
Keiichi Suzuki
Tomorowo Taguchi
Siro Takehatsu
Hua Rong Weng
Hajime Yamazaki

An industrial section of Japan got the name of Yentown as many immigrants come to make money and hope to go home rich. A small group of people in Yentown try to work together to survive, there is a girl named Ageha who has no family, Glico the hooker, Fei Hong a poor immigrant from Shanghai, Arrow an ex boxer from the US and Ren the mysterious guy who seems to know too much about guns. Fortune shines upon them when they find a cassette that we'll get them rich but along with money trouble will always follow.


This movie was off the scale over-my-head, under-my-feet. I was so confused.

First off, this movie was spoken in English, Japanese, and Chinese. It got so confusing. The English spoken, most of it anyway that was not spoken by an English speaker, was robotic and not fluid.

Second, the script, well.......the story was just wrong! It made no sense in my head. It was just stupid.

Third, well...there is no third. The actors were fine and dandy. Surprised to see a few that our now aged looking so young. I had to cut back a few times to look them up to make sure that the person speaking was really the person that was said to be the actor. Asano Tadanobu was more of a mere glance.

This movie wasn't great, in fact, I think I wasted a good two hours for nothing.

Azumi and Azumi 2: Death or Love

Azumi
Starring:
Aya Ueto .... Azumi
Oguri Shun .... Nachi
Narimiya Hiroki .... Ukiha
Kohashi Kenji .... Hyuga
Kaneko Takatoshi .... Amagi
Ishigaki Yuma .... Nagara
Nagayama Eita .... Hiei
Endo Kenichi .... Sajiki Isshin
Odagiri Joe .... Bijomaru Mogami


Azumi 2
Starring:
Ueto Aya as Azumi
Ishigaki Yuma as Nagara
Kuriyama Chiaki as Kozue
Oguri Shun as Ginkaku / Nachi
Kitamura Kazuki as Kanbee Inoue
Endo Kenichi as Kinkaku


Orphaned as a little girl, Azumi (Aya Ueto) is raised in the forest with a group of ten children by their master (Yoshio Harada), who trains them to be peerless assassins. Azumi and Nachi (Shun Oguri) are the strongest of the fighters. When the group comes of age, the master gives them one final test. He tells them to team up with the person to whom they feel closest. Then he tells them to kill that person, explaining that an assassin never gets to choose whom to kill. The teens reluctantly fight to the death. Then the survivors are brought out of the woods to begin their work, assassinating the corrupt warlords who are preventing peace in the land. The assassins, particularly Azumi, perform their missions with flair, but complications arise. One of the teens (Takatoshi Kaneko) is poisoned by a ninja's blade, one (Kenji Kohashi) falls in love with a circus performer (Aya Okamoto), and Azumi begins to question her desire to live the violent life of an assassin. Meanwhile, one warlord (Naoto Takenaka) cleverly escapes their blades, and together with his bodyguard Kenbei (Kazuki Kitamura) and a "monkey-faced" ninja, Saru (Minoru Matsumoto), they find Bijomaru (Jô Odagiri from Bright Future), a violent madman, release him from prison, and unleash him upon the young team of assassins. Azumi, based on the manga by Yu Koyama, is the first of cult director Ryuhei Kitamura's (Versus) films to be made within the Japanese studio system. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide


Aaaagh! I was going to review this last night but I watched both Azumi's back-to-back and it was late. Plus, I was not in the right mind to post this review. OMG! This movie, especially the first one, was AWESOME. What movie can make you cry in the first 10 minutes? This one did and I cried throughout this one and the second one. Why? Why? Why did the have to kill Nachi at the very beginning? It wasn't fair. And Eita? He is one of Japan's most popular actors! Did he even have a line. Killed right before Nachi! They killed off 2 of Japan's finest in less than 0 minutes. Sheesh!

The suffering Azumi went through. Uuuugh! No girl, woman, whatever should have to lose the man she loves...TWICE!! I was wanting a freakin' happy ending when I realized Oguri Shun was back in the second movie. Whyyyyyyyy!!!!!!!!!! So for almost 4 hours straight I was a blubbering idiot. Oh don't get me wrong the action was awesome. I started out watching these two movies all alone and gradually a member of my family would start asking questions or sitting next to me about what they heard or had seen. Next thing you know, I have both my sons and my husband sitting next to me. And I, of course, am the only one bawling like a baby.
My only complaint with the movie was the second one. I felt the second one was put together toooooo fast to accomodate the first movie and Azumi fans. The quality wasn't as good and the script seemed rushed to fit what they needed into a 2 hour movie. Hell, there should have been more depth in Azumi's and Ginkaku's relationship. And why was Nagara in the second movie? He didn't do anything except get killed and make me cry even more. That was my only complaint. If you don't want to see Oguri Shun get killed again, don't watch the second one. Don't torture yourself like I did. The first Azumi movie was the best anyway. But if you feel you need some kind of completion then go ahead and watch the second one.

Odagiri Joe

I have to make this comment about Joe. Damn! He is such a versatile actor. I'm looking forward to watching Mushi-shi! He can play good guys, bad guys, whatever-kind-of guys well. If you have to see him at his full potential then watch Shinobi. I saw the anime so I couldn't watch the movie only because well....I know the ending. LOL!

Narimiya Hiroki


Kohashi Kenji


Eita