License To Live (1998)

Starring:
Hidetoshi Nishijima - Yutaka
Shun Sugata - Shinichiro
Lily - Sachiko
Kumiko Aso - Chizuru
Sho Aikawa - Kazaki
Yoriko Douguchi - Miki
Ren Osugi - Murota
Hiromitsu Suzuki - Kurume
Kosuke Toyohara - Doctor
Kôji Yakusho - Fujimori
Masahiro Toda - Akira Ueda
Michiko Yamamura - Ueda's Mother
Taro Suwa
Akira Otaka - Garbage Man
Masaharu Ishibashi - News Announcer

Twenty-four year old Yutaka wakes from a coma after 10 years, only to find that the family he remembers from before the accident has fragmented. His parents have spearated, his sister moved to the US, and he can't even find his mother. Confused, he tries to find old friends, only to discover he has nothing to talk to them about. He sets about bringing his family back together, but is halted in his tracks by a chance encounter with the man responsible for his accident.

This was an overly slow movie. Slooooooooooow! Lots of still shots. And those stills were seconds long.

The focus of the movie was to show how Yutaka's life had changed in the 10 years he was in the coma but instead it showed that maybe being in a coma wasn't so bad.

I was terribly confused as to why his family didn't take the first plane, train, automobile to his side once he had awaken. Instead we find him with his father's best college buddy who was not so interested in being the babysitter.

This was listed as a comedy but to me it wasn't that at all. Yeah, there were some cute moments that had you smile but not so much so to make you laugh. The best moment, I thought, was when Fujimori dragged Yutaka to an exotic massage parlor. But after the experience, it wasn't all that to him. Even though he was in a 24 year old body, his brain still functioned as that of a 14 year old....so sex wasn't the experience he had imagined or not imagined...depending on how you look at it.

Surprisingly, it was the last scenes at the very end of the movie that had me. Yutaka-"Did I actually exist?" Fujimori-"Yeah, you existed." And then the surpising ending that had me in tears. It was so sad. Just thinking about it now makes my heart ache......................

It was hard getting through this movie because it wasn't an action nor comedy. But the ending was worth the time...............

Yama Onna Kabe Onna ( 山おんな壁おんな -2007)

Starring:
Ito Misaki as Aoyagi Megumi
Fukada Kyoko as Mariya Marie
Oikawa Mitsuhiro as Okuzono Masayuki
Koike Eiko as Oyama Haruka
Tanihara Shosuke as Tamura Takehiko
Nishijima Hidetoshi as Iguchi Shohei
Kawata Hiroki as Matsubara Tetsuhito
Miura Rieko as Koroita Rika
Uehara Misa as Yoshino Kanako
Yazawa Shin as Toyokawa Misato
Nukumizu Youichi as Kazunuma Tadashi
Wakabayashi Go as Okuzono Goemon
Komoto Maki as Nagashima Masumi
Yonehara Kosuke (米原幸佑) as Morita Goro
Tokui Yuu as Harada Kenji
Suzuki Sawa as Harada Yuko
Matsuoka Kanon (松岡佳音) as Kuwata Ryoko

Guests
Washio Machiko (ep1)
Masako (雅子) as Jinguji Sayoko (ep2)
Ogura Hisahiro as Tominaga Shigeo (ep2)
Iwahashi Michiko (岩橋道子) as Tamura Miyuki (ep2,5)
Sasano Takashi as Aoyagi's father (ep2-5,7&8)
Yamanaka So (山中聡) as Uenohara (ep2,3)
Yoshimura Tamao (吉村玉緒) as Swimsuit saleswoman (ep3)
Kasahara Orito as Mariya's younger brother (ep3-5)
Hasegawa Jun as Herself (ep3)
Maro Akaji as Ijuin (ep4)
Matsumoto Jun as The pickle merchant (ep4)
Muramatsu Toshifumi as Sasaki workshop manager (ep4)
Enjoji Aya as Nankota (ep5)
Oka Mayumi as Mariya's mother (ep5)
Hida Keiko (樋田慶子) as Mariya's grandmother (ep5)
Minami Miho (南美穂) as Nana (ep5)
Megu-chan (メグちゃん) as Marie (ep5)
Suzuki Kosuke as Komiyama (ep5)
Taguchi Kazumasa (田口主将) as The custodian (ep5)
Kinoshita Hoka as Midorikawa (ep6)
Takemoto Satoko (竹本聡子) as Takoko (ep6)
Seki Keisuke as The doctor (ep6)
Suzuki Shohei (鈴木昌平) as Sleepy man on bus (ep7)
Akaza Miyoko as Aoyagi's mother (ep7)
Sato Jiro as Kazuo, Aoyagi's cousin (ep7&8)
Yatsu Isao as Doctor Oyabu (ep7)
Oshima Yoko as The angry customer (ep7)
Takasugi Ko as Kokubo (ep7)
Yamaguchi Makiya as Sawada (ep7)
Ono Haruko (小野晴子) as Makihara Masato (ep9)
Sato Kazuya as Kuzunuma Daisuke (ep9)

Megumi is a top sales person at the handbag section of a department store. Many people admire, and sometimes even envy, Megumi for her beauty and outstanding skills to sell products to customers. However, Megumi secretly suffers from a complex: she is flat-chested and was once nicknamed "kabe onna" (wall woman) by her former classmate. One day, a new sales person named Marie joins Megumi's department. Unlike Megumi, Marie is extremely busty as if she's carrying mounds (yama) on her chest. On top of her great bosoms, Marie also has her own special way of effortlessly selling the products to the customers. Though feeling a little threatened by Marie at first, Megumi soon realizes that they have more things in common than anybody else: they both take pride in their career and dedicate themselves to helping their customers. Through numerous obstacles, Megumi and Marie foster special friendships with each other. --groink

Okay, I was prepared to say this was one of the funniest, light-hearted, romantic shows on. Then I got to the last episode. That got so F'd up that I wanted to throw the computer through the window. This is a Japanese drama..it's not supposed to end up like a freakin' Korean drama....damn it to hell!

Okay, she chose the guy I hoped she would at the end but then.......well, she ended up with him but yet...didn't.

Okay, okay, okay....it was hilariously funny with the "boob" jokes. Then you had the idiot puns and physical comedy included. I won't lie that it wasn't funny because it was damn funny.

I wonder what Tanihara Shosuke looks like in everyday clothes. He's always in a business suit and dressed up to the "nines". I'd like to see him in some old, faded jeans and worn t-shirt. LOL!

I really loved this drama until the very last second when the drama failed me. They had to play dirty tricks. EVIL!

Furijia (Freesia: Bullets Over Tears

Starring:
Tamayama Tetsuji
Tsugumi
Nishijima Hidetoshi

During the Edo era, violent revenge was not only an acceptable practice, but an official one in which vendettas were authorized by the government. Freesia revives this concept of legal vendetta and brings it to a cold, contemporary Japan. Under the Vengeance Act, criminals receive official notice of their execution and face off in a designated area at a designated time with registered gun-wielding hitmen. Cool, silent, and impervious to pain, Kanou Hiroshi (Tamayama Tetsuji) just joined the Katsumi Vengeance Agency, and immediately establishes himself as an ace hitman with his sharp shooting and emotionless personality. Almost as cold is Higuchi (Tsugumi), who organizes the agency's paperwork. She has some personal vendettas of her own to settle, amongst them against Higuchi's acquaintance Toshio (Nishijima Hidetoshi). These three lonely people are haunted by a common memory, a military experiment years ago that forever changed their lives...

Umm...I for some damn reason loved this movie too. Yeah, I'm easily pleased. This was a weird, yet intriguing movie. I was soooo surprised to see Tetsuji-san in this part. Totally the complete opposite from him in his drama Brother Beat. I was so drawn to his character. I felt weak and sad for him. He so easily killed but yet you knew he longed to feel pain and sadness. So instead you felt all the emotions for him. It was just so, so, so sad. Don't expect to have this movie inspire you in anyway. If you are already PMSing or in deep depression don't watch it either. This movie is very moving but so meloncholy. I wasn't to keen with Higuchi. I couldn't feel where her character was supposed to go except with her relationship with Kanou. Toshio, hmmmmm.......He felt but yet you wanted him to feel awful for what happened at the start of the movie. He was partly to blame. Was there any morose? Who was the character that was always texting Toshio? Higuchi's brother? Maybe.


This isn't subbed...so you can imagine what they would say in English...hehe.