Attention Please (アテンションプリーズ-2006)

Starring:
Ueto Aya as Misaki Yoko
Nishikido Ryo as Nakahara Shota
Maya Miki as Mikami Tamaki
Aibu Saki as Wakamura Yayoi
Uehara Misa as Hirota Saori
Koizumi Kotaro as Tsutsumi Shuusuke
Kohinata Fumiyo as Sakurada Shinya
Otsuka Chihiro as Sekiyama Yuki
Nanase Natsumi as Kinoshita Asami
Otomo Minami as Higashino Haruka
Fueki Yuko as Asou Kaoru
Takahashi Mariko as Kagawa Reiko
Koichi Mantaro as Watanabe Makoto
Asano Kazuyuki as Wakamura Shozo
Inoue Jun as Dazai Shinichiro
Mano Yuuko as Murayama Mizuho
Hoshino Natsuko as Takemoto Rie
Tanaka Sogen (田中聡元) as Ooki Mitsuya
Ishikawa Maki (石川真希) as Chief Nagano
Guests
Takaoka Sousuke as Tsukasa (ep1)
Higashihara Aki as Tsukasa's girlfriend (ep1)
Yamasaki Shizuyo as Yoshimura Chiemi (ep1, 11)
Sai Ryoji as Saori's gym mate (ep3)
Moriguchi Yoko as Katsuragi Shiho (ep5)
Yatsu Isao as the taxi driver (ep6)
Yamasato Ryouta as Okaba Goro (ep7, 11)
Asami Reina as Kubota Rina (ep7)
Yamaguchi Nikki (山口日記) as Oshima Megumi (ep7)
Takuya (たくや) & Kazuya (かずや) as the twin passengers (ep9)
Ichikawa Chieko (市川千恵子) (passenger, ep9)
Arai Kazuo (新井量大) (passenger, ep9)
Mori Koko (森康子) (passenger, ep9)
Rui Hisashi (塁央) (passenger, ep9)
Komuro Yuta (passenger, ep9)
Kuroda Shiho (黒田志保) (passenger, ep9)
Kimura Kaela (木村カエラ) as herself (ep10)
Fujimoto Shizuka (ep10)
Yamada Meikyo (passenger, ep11)
Izumi Akiko (passenger, ep11)
Shibuya Asuka as the newcomer trainee (ep11)

Losing her mother at a young age, Misaki Yoko (Ueto Aya) was raised amongst three brothers. Yoko is a slightly boyish girl who is bullheaded and hates dishonesty. Ever since she was young, she enjoyed the company of boys over girls. She starts a band with four of her boy friends and becomes the lead singer. Then one day, one of the members of the band, Tsukasa, gets a job at a bank in Tokyo. Due to Tsukasa leaving town, the band breaks up and though Yoko finds herself lonely, she puts on a strong act in front of Tsukasa. She can't tell Tsukasa how she truly feels for him. On the day Tsukasa leaves for Tokyo, Yoko goes along with the band members to the airport to see him off. The guys get excited when they see some cabin crew ladies and Yoko has no idea why. She reminds them that even she can wear a uniform, but the guys only make fun of her. That's when Tsukasa tells Yoko he wonders what she'd look like dressed in uniform. This is when Yoko decides she wants to work as a Cabin Attendant.

Hmm? This was absolutely a cute drama. No doubt. I had my doubts but watching Misaki grow as an adult was pretty hilarious to see. I myself sometimes find myself not really wanting to grow up either. I guess we all keep a bit of the kid of ourselves hidden away somewhere.

I was a little disappointed in the "romance" between her and Nakahara. We all knew it was there. We expected it but they never really made the connection. Yeah, the special after the drama ended showed a little more concern for their romance but still they left us wondering..."What the hell?" Damn, a hug would have surficed. So that left me a little bummed.

So if you watch it, don't expect a lot from the male and female leads. But in all, this drama was quite amazing and I actually learned something about the behind the scenes activities of a cabin attendant. LOL!

Nishikido Ryo

Battle Royale(Batoru rowaiaru-2000)

Starring:
Takeshi Kitano - Kitano (as Beat Takeshi)
Shin Kusaka - Yoshio Akamatsu - Boys #1
Ren Matsuzawa - Keita Iijima - Boys #2
Gouki Nishimura - Tatsumichi Ohki - Boys #3
Shigehiro Yamaguchi - Toshimori Oda - Boys #4
Taro Yamamoto - Shougo Kawada - Boys #5
Masanobu Ando - Kazuo Kiriyama - Boys #6
Yukihiro Kotani - Yoshitoki Kuninobu - Boys #7
Osamu Ohnishi - Youji Kuramoto - Boys #8
Yuuki Masuda - Hiroshi Kuronaga - Boys #9
Shirou Gou - Ryuhei Sasagawa - Boys #10
Sousuke Takaoka - Hiroki Sugimura - Boys #11
Yutaka Shimada - Yutaka Seto - Boys #12
Junichi Naitou - Yuichiro Takiguchi - Boys #13
Shigeki Hirokawa - Shou Tsukioka - Boys #14
Tatsuya Fujiwara - Shuya Nanahara - Boys #15
Hirohito Honda - Kazushi Niida - Boys #16
Yousuke Shibata - Mitsuru Numai - Boys #17
Satoshi Yokomichi - Tadakatsu Hatagami - Boys #18
Takashi Tsukamoto - Shinji Mimura - Boys #19
Ryou Nitta - Kyouichi Motobuchi - Boys #20
Yasuomi Sano - Kazuhiko Yamamoto - Boys #21
Tsuyako Kinoshita - Mizuho Inada - Girls #1
Eri Ishikawa - Yukie Utsumi - Girls #2
Sayaka Ikeda - Megumi Etou - Girls #3
Tomomi Shimaki - Sakura Ogawa - Girls #4
Tamaki Mihara - Izumi Kanai - Girls #5
Yukari Kanasawa - Yukiko Kitano - Girls #6
Misao Kato - Yumiko Kusaka - Girls #7
Takayo Mimura - Kayoko Kotohiki - Girls #8
Hitomi Hyuga - Yuko Sakaki - Girls #9
Anna Nagata - Hirono Shimizu - Girls #10
Kou Shibasaki - Mitsuko Souma - Girls #11
Satomi Ishii - Haruka Tanizawa - Girls #12
Chiaki Kuriyama - Takako Chigusa - Girls #13
Haruka Nomiyama - Mayumi Tendou - Girls #14
Aki Maeda - Noriko Nakagawa - Girls #15
Satomi Hanamura - Yuka Nakagawa - Girls #16
Sayaka Kamiya - Satomi Noda - Girls #17
Aki Inoue - Fumiyo Fujiyoshi - Girls #18
Asami Kanai - Chisato Matsui - Girls #19
Mai Sekiguchi - Kaori Minami - Girls #20
Takako Baba - Yoshimi Yahagi - Girls #21
Ai Iwamura - Girl - won last BR
Ai Maeda - Shiori, Kitano's daughter (voice)
Minami - Keiko
Michiko Yamamura - Reporter
Gou Ryugawa - Lieutenant Anjo
Takashi Taniguchi - Nanahara's father
Ken Nakaide - Mr. Hayashida - Home-room teacher of Class 3-B
Kanako Fukaura - Bus conductress (Basugaido)
Yuko Miyamura - Training Video Girl

At the dawn of the new millennium, Japan is in a state of collapse. Unemployment is endemic and school violence is out of control. The beleaguered government retaliates with Battle Royale... Each year, a randomly chosen class is pitted against itself on an abandoned island in a cruel game of survival. The rules of the game are simple: 1) it lasts three days; 2) Each player starts with food, water and a "weapon"; 3) if more than one player survives, everyone dies (by detonating special electronic necklaces; 4) there is no escape. Takeshi Kitano plays a downtrodden teacher turned Battle Royale operation leader. As the game progresses, terror and panic challenge the students' fragile trust in each other. But despite the game's brutality, the adolescent players remain obsessed with their crushes, their petty grudges - and their dreams...

I finally broke down and watched this. I'm not a girl who likes gore, horror, or intense thrillers. But everyone, and I mean everyone, keeps telling me that this was an awesome movie. Soooooooo...............................

Yeah, I watched it. Okay, Nobu's death was too much. Then there was the guy who's head was cut off and used to encase a hand grenade. But from other than those two instances....it was reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaally good. I was so happy to see Takashi-san, Ando-san and Taro-san. I love those guys! Tatsuya-san, I was never really a great fan of his because his character in Death Note just wasn't right. From that point on I've avoided his movies and/or dramas. Okay, my bad. He did a really good job in this one. Maybe Kira just wasn't the right character for him in Death Note. Or I could blame the writer's in that one because they totally annihilated that anime/manga movie. But I digress.....Death Note for another time.

I just couldn't imagine having to kill my boyfriend or friends. That's just insane. The part where the girls in the lighthouse "lost it" was very, unimaginably believable. And very sad. The trust was walking a thin line.....and "boom" it was lost in a second.

This was a very good movie all around. Scary, horrible, horrific, and just terribly sad.

Masanobu Ando

Tsukamoto Takashi

Fujiwara Tatsuya

Rookies

Starring:
Sato Ryuta as Kawato Koichi
Ichihara Hayato as Aniya Keiichi
Koide Keisuke as Mikoshiba Toru
Shirota Yu as Shinjo Kei
Nakao Akiyoshi as Sekikawa Shuta
Takaoka Sousuke as Wakana Tomochika
Kiritani Kenta as Hiratsuka Taira
Sato Takeru as Okada Yuya
Igarashi Shunji as Yufune Tetsuro
Kawamura Yosuke as Hiyama Kiyooki
Onoue Hiroyuki as Imaoka Shinobu

The story centers on Kōichi Kawatō, a high school (a former deliquent himself) teacher who attempts to raise his baseball team of delinquents out of suspension and into Japan's Kōshien national championship. Having been labeled a vicious teacher after a misunderstanding and accident happened at a prior school, can Koichi pull himself and his students out of societies trash can and into the limelight?

Just like a lot of the young people these days, these students do not have much hope for the future and many do not even know what they want to do. However, Koichi Kawato (Ryuta Sato) is a teacher who is willing to prove that the world is full of hope and that they shouldn’t mock those who do have a dream.

The story takes place at a high school where the baseball team has just been told to suspend their activities because of an incident that occurred during a game. The students are betrayed by their teacher and are forced to take responsibility for the incident. This is when they meet Koichi Kawato, a teacher who believes in having dreams and who would do anything for his students, even if it means risking his job. Through their emotional and heart-to-heart confrontations with this teacher, the students realize that they haven’t and that they do not want to give up their dream.

This show, I've only seen 2 episodes so far, reminds me of GTO and Gokusen all mixed up in one. Throw in some H2...and *poof*...there ya go. I will say the "hottie" factor pulled me to this show. And I am so far impressed...a little. I guess there can only be so much school drama/comedy one can stand.

To reinforce the importance of student/teacher relationships is vital to any society (American or Japanese). If only students and teachers could sit down and watch some of these shows back-to-back to understand the difference between right and wrong in middle- and high-school society. Our kids would have a better learning environment and our teachers would be rewarded.

To reiterate, this show is really good and if you are big fans of any of these cuties, you won't be disappointed...so far.

How in the heck am I to post all the hottie pics? They are all so darn cute.

Sato Ryuta


The Boys

Crows Zero (Kurôzu zero~2007)

Starring:
Shun Oguri~Genji Takaya
Suzunosuke~Chuta
Sousuke Takaoka ~Izaki
Kyôsuke Yabe~Ken Katagiri
Takayuki Yamada~Tamao Serizawa
Shunsuke Daitô~
Kiritani Kenta~Tokio

The Suzuran Senior High School for Boys, nicknamed "The School of Crows", is the poorest achieving, most violent school in the country. The students are called "crows" and they band together in factions, battling each other for influence and power. But they all share a common goal ... one that has never been reached in the school's history: unification. No one faction has ever reigned supreme.

Oguri plays the role of Genji Takiya, a transfer student who attempts to take over Suzuran Boys High School and is mentored by old boy yakuza Katagiri as he faces off against rival Serizawa



OMFG! This movie is so damn awesome that I'm ordering it right freaking now! This movie, after reading all reviews before mine, has been given 4 out of 4 stars...by everyone! I have to agree with all my heart and soul with this one. First off it has two sugoi male leads...Oguri Shun and Yamada Takayuki! This movie was non-stop action, an awesome fighting scene at the end, a few comedic/exagerated moments, serious drama. Geez! Did I mention that it had Oguri-kun and Taka-kun? Whew! Another top 3 movie for me. The fighting scenes alone left my panties in a wad. LOL! The guys alone will love the testerone fighting scenes all by themselves. Totally a movie for both genders!!

Oguri Shun

Never enough Oguri Shun. How can someone like him be so damn cute? Kawaiiiiiiiiii! If only I were 13 years younger.............*dreaming* *....then sighs....*

Aoi Haru (Blue Spring)

Kujo~"Aren't there some flowers that aren't meant to bloom?"
Sensei~"I'd like to believe all flowers were, eventually."

Things aren't looking so great at Asahi High. This all-boys school has a high drop-out rate and the boys are intellectually challenged since most skip school. Many are on drugs, they smoke, and in gangs. Sounds like any American inner-city high school right?

The new leader of the senior class is Kujo (Matsuda Ryuhei) whose general apathy is punctuated by moments of violence and physical prowess by those who challenge his control. All he had to do was play a "clapping" game on the roof that required him to hold on to the roof rails while standing on the outside. If you mess up, you fall to your death. Aoki (Arai Hirofumi) has been his best friend since elementary school and is considered his "gopher" in the gang, which Aoki doesn't like. Yukio (Takaoka Sousuke) learns to play the guitar but ponders killing and eventually does by killing Ota (Yamazaki Yuta) in a bathroom stall. Kimura (Oshibe Yusuke) was a pitcher on the baseball team but has been having a losing streak. Feeling down on his luck, he decides to quit school and join the yakuza (mob) his brother is affiliated with. Yoshimura (Oshinari Shugo) wants to join Kujo's gang but lacks the know-how to do so. His only option is to be their look-out and scout while they do nefarious deeds. The Ghost (Eita) is a sickly kid who sleeps through class, runs off during lunch, and takes care of the sakura trees that surround the school yard. (I've no clue really why this character was in the movie...seriously! Maybe so we could look at a sweet, cute Eita as a kid. *smiles*) All the while, Kujo considers quitting school.

Kujo~"Aren't there some flowers that aren't meant to bloom?"
Sensei~"I'd like to believe all flowers were, eventually."



All I can say is..is that this was a freakin' AWESOME movie. I'll admit that this movie isn't for most. The teen angst was amazing! Totally amazing. Sugoi! Sugoi! Sugoi!

Matsuda Ryuhei



And for those of you who didn't know...he's the older brother of Matsuda Shota of LIAR GAME! OMG! I didn't review Liar Game. Or I thought I did and it didn't save. What the.....?????