Stars Echo (별의 소리 / Byeolui Sori-Korean, あなたに逢いたくて / Anata ni Aitakute-Japanese -2004)

Starring:
Jo Hyun Jae as Sung-jae
Nakagoshi Noriko as Misaki
Lee Da Hae as Ji-young
Tanihara Shosuke as Suji
Kurotani Tomoka as Tomoko
Lee Joon Ki as Chan-gyu
Kim Yong Hee (김용희) as Min-suk

The Story is centered on the love between a musically gifted South Korean man, Sung-jae Jo Hyun Jae, and a Japanese woman, Misaki Nakagoshi Noriko. Misaki, who feels guilty over her boyfriend's death, is transferred to Korean and meets Seong-jae who helps her cure her wounds of the past memories with love.



Wow! For a Korean romance, this one was really good. I'm not a fan of Korean romances because the endings either have someone in the main couple split, die of illness, or they end up with someone other than their main love. So I was a little frightened watching this.

I'm glad I did. The flow was fast but corners weren't cut. The love triangle wasn't drug out to where you want to beat someone up or kill yourself. LOL! And it was a happy ending. Okay, I cried when her boyfriend died at the beginning. He was such a sweet guy. (I'd like to find out this person's name because I can't read Japanese/Korean in the credits and he's not credited in the review pages. Errrgh.)

This movie had me laughing at the subtitlers. Poor guys. The Korean and Japanese was switched off sooooo much that I'm sure it just made their heads spin.

Lee Jun Ki


Jo Hyun Jae

Strawberry Shortcakes (Sutoroberii Shooto Keikusu/ストロベリーショートケイクス-2006)

Starring:
Chizuru Ikewaki - Satoko
Noriko Nakagoshi - Chihiro
Yuko Nakamura - Akiyo
Kiriko Nananan - Toko
Ryo Kase - Nagai
Masanobu Ando - Kikuchi
Ayaka Maeda - Michiru
Seminosuke Murasugi
Yoko Ishino


Based on the eponymous manga for girls by cartoonist Kiriko Nananan, the pic follows the ups and downs of four female friends in Tokyo looking for love and trying to cope with the responsibilities in their lives. The main characters, impeccably played by four powerful actresses, are modern, self-sufficient women and their stories are told with mild irony and a dash of melancholy. The result is a movie that is lighthearted at times, a little sad at others, crazy and sometimes serious, but always special, that investigates the psychology of its characters and offers an accurate depiction of urban Japan, thanks to its director’s know-how. While many overly ambitious directors struggle to tell even one fairly comprehensible story, Yazaki skillfully weaves a powerful depiction of not one, but four women, creating an indissoluble and moving whole that doesn’t succumb to sentimentalism.
I'm not sure if I liked this movie or not. It was a slow movie and the characters looked so much alike I couldn't tell who was who. So that was really confusing. And just when I thought I was going to start liking it....*boom!*....the movie was over.

It had a strange aura about it. I couldn't really feel any happiness in it. Sort of a gloomy movie. Even the end, even though they seemed to be in better spirits couldn't make up for the "gray clouds" that hung over this movie.

I so desperately wanted to like this movie because it had Masanobu Ando. But his little bit piece in the movie just wasn't enough to make this movie any better. Okay, naked Ando-san was a nice touch. LOL! *smiles*

If you are desperate, depressed, suicidal, or any of the combination of the three, don't watch this movie.