Shining Boy and Little Randy (Hoshi ni natta shonen/ 星になった少年 -2005)

Starring:
Yuya Yagira ... Tetsumu Ogawa
Takako Tokiwa ... Sario Ogawa
Katsumi Takahashi ... Kosuke Ogawa
Yu Aoi ... Emi Murakami
Mitsuko Baisho ... Asako Fujisawa
Sayoko Oho
Kazuyuki Aijima
Tetsuya Takeda
Brother Tom
Takehiko Ono

Tetsumu, an introverted youth, realizes he has a natural ability of communicating with elephants. This prompts him to leave for Chiang Mai in Thailand to become Japan¡¯s first elephant trainer. Having found his place in the world, Tetsumu develops into a strong, confident young man. He returns to Japan with the dream of building a green ¡°paradise¡± for his ivory-tusked friends. Meanwhile, he starts a career as an elephant trainer for touring shows. He meets Emi, a woman seven years his senior and falls in love.

I write this with tear stains on my face. This movie is so touching. The love of animals and family and the role they play together.....this is that movie. Yagira Yuya, again, has picked a beautiful masterpiece that totally takes the heart and turns it inside out and outside in, in one motion.

You don't have to love elephants or animals in general to understand the mentality of youth growing up. The separation of child with its mother. The bullying and what gains and losses it brings.

Take everything.....the good and the bad of growing up.....

This will bring you heartaches and smiles....not at once....

Be prepared for the onslaught of mixed emotions at the end......bring the Kleenex.

Yagira Yuya

Umizaru (海猿-2005)

Starring:
Ito Hideaki as Senzaki Daisuke
Kato Ai as Izawa Kanna
Nakamura Toru as Ikezawa Masaki
Sato Ryuta as Yoshioka Tetsuya
Sato Hitomi as Komori Chika
Suzuki Kazuma as Fuyushiba Kosuke
Natsuyagi Isao as Katsuda Kotaro
Iida Kisuke as Miike Kenji
Sakamoto Akira as Iwamatsu Daigo
Hirayama Usuke as Yamaji Takumi
Miyake Hiroki as Bessho Kenjiroh
Usuda Asami as Hoshino Rei
Ichiki Ami Ono Yui
Okunuki Kaoru Ono Eriko
Yoshimoto Miyoko as Ikezawa Naoko
Masuoka Toru as Tsuda Shinpei
Ibu Masato as Higo Daisaku
Tokito Saburo as Shimokawa Iwao
Sakamoto Makoto as Nagashima Kenta
Ito Atsushi (ep1)
Karina (ep1)
Aoki Munetaka (ep1)
Namioka Kazuki as Tokunaga Masaya (ep4)
Fuse Hiroshi
Suzuki Honoka
Tanaka Tetsushi
Yashiba Toshihiro
Abe Ryohei

A story of friendship, love and the brutal training of 14 Japan Coast Guard officers becoming rescuer divers. The rescuer divers, on the front line in rescue activities in heavy seas and always one step away from death, are a group of specialists in a profession that only 1% of all Coast Guard officers qualify for. In order to receive that qualification they have to undergo 50 days of grueling training in rescue activities. The young Cost Guard officers, including Daisuke Senzaki, take on the challenge of that hellish training. The story concentrates on the lives of the divers after having passed their examination.

OMG! No....OH MY FREAKIN' GOD! This was the most awesome drama. OMG! This was one spectacular heart-tugger. Just the right amount of comedy to keep it flowing. The action was nice...not the karate type stuff type action but real honest-to-goodness, make you wish you were in the coast guard kind.

Ito Hideaki....mmmm-mmmm-mmmm....deliciously cute. Kawaii!

I really want to see the movies. They are copywrited so their viewing is painstakingly hard. Just when I thought I found them......they were gone. "Poof!" I understand that you need to watch the first movie to understand the drama itself. That's not true. They gave us enough information at the beginning for those of us who haven't seen the movie....to enjoy this freakingly awesome drama. Now I want to see the last movie.......I just want more Umizaru because the drama just wasn't long enough. We need another season people!!!

Most definitely!

Nakamura Toru......Hello! The man.....maybe over 40....but is do damn gorgeous for his own good. And to think.....his character would be the one that had me crying myself to sleep. His last scene was the most unexpected..........

Boys Love The Movie (劇場版 -2007)

Starring:
Kotani Yoshikazu
Kanno Atsumi
Kawakubo Yuki
Ren Kiriyama
Tomoya Nagai
Kazuki Namioka

Aoi Kairu (Kotani Yoshikazu)
teaches at one of the nation's most prestigious boarding schools. One day, after a falling out with his girlfriend, he meets a young guy who provides him comfort and consolation during his time of need. Soon after that, a new student, Sora (Kanno Atsumi),
transfers into his class, and much to Kairu's surprise, it is the same boy he had encountered before. Kairu tries to put the past behind him and keep their relationship a secret, but the brash Sora is not about to let go of love so easily.

Ahhhh! Another yaoi movie. Gotta love those Japanese and their gay movies. I don't know why but their yaoi movies are always so.....so......so loving. I can't explain it.

I was a little dissapointed because Saito Takumi wasn't in this movie this time but his co-star from the first movie, Kotani Yoshikazu. I will start off first with.......OMG!!!!! The very first scene is intensely erotic and Kanno Atsumi is totally hot in this movie. He definitely took this role seriously. The only thing I didn't like is that when he talked, he always seemed out of breath. I don't know if it was nerves or he had a stopped up nose or what.

Another fangirl made movie. Yeah, I'll admit, I like them. Hot guys that make our estrogen swoon in merriment. Yeah..........can you blame me?

Tokyo Boy (Tokyo Shonen/東京少年 -2008)

Starring:
Maki Horikita
Takuya Ishida
Reiko Kusamura
Mitsuru Hirata

Minato is a young girl who was traumatized at a young age by being abandoned by her parents and left with her senile grandmother. She frequently corresponds with a pen-pal named Night, a boy about the same age as her that she's never actually seen in person. Although Minato and Night are very different - Minato is upbeat while Night is brooding, they get along anyway and she regularly updates him on the happenings in her daily life. Minato is even willing to confide in Night that she's falling in love with a boy she's recently met named Shu. One day she wakes up and finds Shu acting extremely distant and tentative around her. She suspects Night may have something to do with this....



This was a very interesting movie. I wasn't sure how this was going to play out. I've read that Horikata Maki was awesome in this. Well, I guess I was expecting more. She was a great actress in this movie but it wasn't anything exceptional. So she played a "male" and female in the movie. The "male" role was okay. I think any good actress would have came across well. So I guess I help my hopes up higher than what was expected.

I'm not saying this movie was a bomb. NO!!!! It was an excellent movie. Something interesting and a little different. I thought the story was great and flowed well to keep me interested.

A very sad tale about dissassociative disorder. Well, not too sad. The ending was sweet and endearing.

I won't give this movie a Rupert and Ebert "two thumbs up". But it was worth my time and effort to watch and is such a good movie that most fans of Maki will enjoy. B+, yes. Definitely.

White Panic (Fu Rai/ 怖来 -2005)

Starring:
Shugo Oshinari - Ken Goubara
Ayaka Maeda - Yumi Umezawa
Kazuo Yashiro - Sayoon Kim
Fumiaki Mitsuyama - Boo Motokawa

Ken, Yumi, Kim, and Maekawa are locked up in a mysterious room. Despite the fact that their memories are unclear and they do not know each other, they start searching for the reason why they are here. But what is the room with white powder that they are facing… What is the point they have in common? What happens after the powder is gone?

Okay this movie was totally freaky. Off the chart, psychotic. I can't believe I watched it all the way through. In the end, the point was made.

We discover that "natural resources" are depleting....almost nonexistent. Why the four people are left in the room and why they are connected to this one discovery of "natural resources" is soon discovered at the end.

The movie is just a little over an hour long. So you don't end up with a lot of unnecessary parts to the movie. They get to the gist of the story quick and the end will leave you totally stunned. Okay, it did me. I sort of laughed even though it wasn't really funny. It was NOT a happy ending but the way it ended was well......nuclear. LOL!

The Suicide Song (Densen-uta / 伝染歌-2007)

Starring:
Ryuhei Matsuda-Riku
Yusuke Iseya -
Hiroshi Abe
Yoshino Kimura
Sayaka Akimoto
Tomomi Kasai
Haruna Kojima
Atsuko Maeda
Minami Minegishi
Kayo Noro
Erena Ono
Yuko Oshima
Minami Takahashi

Original story by Yasushi AKIMOTO, writer of the mega hit movie One Missed Call (Chakushin Ari) series. As the project was in development with an idea of an "infectious song (Densen-Uta)", one of the staff called out..."There was a real Densen-Uta!" He discovers on the internet of a song back in 1933, Hungary, which caused mysterious deaths of many people.

In "Densen-Uta", high school girls get mixed up in the Japanese version of this infectious song, and with the help of third rate gossip magazine reporter, tries to solve the mystery and horror behind the song. They come to know just how real, an urban legend can become. -- Shochikufilms

This movie. OMG! This movie was the most weirdest movie I have ever seen. I don't even know how to explain it.

It's listed as a horror but there is nothing horrific to it. Thriller? Nah. Weird? Hell yeah.

This movie contains my most favorite movie actor ever.....Ryu-san. So this movie would have to be a little weird. He loves to be in movies that leave you scratching your head. This one, well, had me wondering if I should kill myself. Literally.

I can't really say it had a point. Supposedly a song was making people commit suicide when in actuality it was a girl who had a wicked past whose ghost was haunting those around her. Anyway, the song had a meaning near the end but did they really have to have the girl sing it? This was not a musical by anyones imagination so having it in the film just made it stupid.

The end was good. Hehehe! Rhy-san and his weirdness. Hehehe! I liked it. THAT fit well in the movie, I thought.

It was kind of boring through most of the movie. So it's to each his own if they want to watch it. I held on because of my main man. It was interestingly weird throughout. I won't say this was a great movie. Just take this movie with a grain of salt........don't expect a mind altering revelation.

Sweet Rain (死神の精度-2008)

Starring:
Takeshi Kaneshiro
Manami Konishi
Supporting Cast
Takuya Ishida
Ken Mitsuishi
Junko Fuji
Jun Murakami
Mitsuru Fukikoshi
Erika Okuda

Chiba (Takeshi Kaneshiro) appears seven days before a person dies an unexpected death. His job is to observe the person for seven days, and then decide either to ‘execute’ or ‘pass over’. Getting his work quickly out of the way, he goes to the listening booth of a CD shop and indulges in his favorite pastime, listening to ‘humanity’s greatest invention’: music. He is...a Grim Reaper. Today, again, in the rain, he waits. His subject, her death due in seven days, is Kazue Fujiki (Manami Konishi), 27. She works for a manufacturing company, in the complaints department. Exhausted after her day, she emerges from her office. It’s time for the Reaper to go to work.



Okay this movie had me crying at the very beginning. Well, not crying, teary-eyed...yes! The little girl reminded me of my daughter and I couldn't stop comparing the two.

I've read reviews of this movie where it's too slow and didn't make sense. I don't understand that. Okay, yes it was a bit slow but it wasn't boring at all. In actuality, this movie had 3 separate stories that correlated with each other. It's not until the last story that you are like "OMG!"

This movie, at first, has a depressing feel. The rain will get to you. Its really is a mirror image of Chibas emotions. Never having lived a human life, he never really understood what living was like. So not being able to live, he didn't understand what it really meant to die either.

This is a beautiful story of life and death. I think the story was meant to give hope to those that believe hope is lost.

This might be a story for everyone. Only because I think it takes a lot of thought and having lived a life to understand how to appreciate this movie. I think all should sit and think about what the author truly meant.

Ashura-jo no Hitomi (2005)

Starring:
Somegoro Ichikawa - Izumo Wakuraba
Rie Miyazawa - Tsubaki
Kanako Higuchi - Bizan
Atsuro Watabe - Jaku Abe
Fumiyo Kohinata - Nanboku Tsuruya IV
Takashi Naitô - Nobuyuki Kuninari
Yukijiro Hotaru - Magotaro
Hanae Kan - Emishi
Kazuo Kuwabara
Sarutoki Minagawa - Takiji
Koji Ookura - Hyozo
Erika Sawajiri - Yachi
Kumiko Tsuchiya - Oiran

"Prepare to gaze into Hell."

Set in 19th Century Edo, the story begins with demons, led by the beautiful and nefarious Bizan, plotting to wreck havoc in old Edo with the ultimate aim of bringing their queen, Ashura, back to life and taking over the world. Who can stop them?

The government forms the Oni Mikado, an elite government force dedicated to defending the capital from demons.

An original - and most talented - member of the elite, Izumo "Demon Slayer" Wakuraba, has since resigned and become a kabuki actor with a travelling troupe. Meanwhile the Oni Mikado leader, Nobuyuki Kuninari, and his fierce, canny lieutenant Jaku Abe carry on, slaying demons along their way.

However, a troupe of female acrobats is wreaking havoc of another kind by turning thief at night and fighting running battles with the authorities.

One of their number, Tsubaki, stays free with Izumo's help, but as their acquaintance blossoms into love, a painful red scar appears on her shoulder: the mark of Ashura.

She struggles to remember an incident five years earlier that holds the key to her current dilemma and eventual fate.

Then Jaku falls under Bizan's erotic spell and goes over to the dark side. She sends him after Tsubaki to bring about the horrific transformation of Tsubaki.

Based on Kazuki Nakashima's famous kabuki play.



This was a fascinating movie. From the get go, excitement. Totally entertaining.

Izumo's jokes and sword play kept me invigorated. I couldn't turn my eyes away. He wasn't the prettiest of men but his presence and charisma made him handsome...extremely.

I can't explain the movie. It wasn't high tech. It didn't have "A" class actors but yet this could be one of my favorite movies. I can't understand it myself.

The story was reminiscent of an old American 80's flick. It kind of reminded me of the movie Legend (the Tom Cruise movie). The story is not even close but yet the effects and acting were about the same.

This movie has gotten a bazillion mixed reviews...some can't stand it. Where as, I totally thought this movie rocked my socks off. So I guess this movie would be for discriminating tastes. You either love it or hate it.

If I were to ever find this movie at the store, I would definitely pick this up and buy it.

Aquarian Age: Juvenile Orion The Movie (アクエリアンエイジ 劇場版 -2008)

Starring:
Dori Sakurada
Rakuto Tochihara
Takuya Uehara
Keita Kimura
Akio Fukuhara
Nao Nagasawa
Gou Ayano
Masami Horiuchi

The story of Aquarian Age revolves around the war between secret organizations who have been fighting each other since the beginning of human society.


Alice Nine-Mirror Ball~~Theme song to the movie..........


Ummm.....this movie was alright. But it wasn't all that either. Too many cuts to different still shots. Slowed the pace of the movie which left some moments left unanswered or it could have had more dialogue. Something just wasn't right and it left a bitter taste in my mouth.

The guys were cute but they couldn't save this movie. The story could have been better written. It's based of a Japanese manga which they could have followed but didn't. The jumping of the movie really ruined the theme. This could have been a really good movie..even great. The idea was there. The guys were cute and ready to act. Somebody in the editing, writing or directing department f***ed this movie up.

The only really good part out of the whole movie was watching Alice Nine perform Mirror Ball. They are an awesome Visual Kei Japanese rock band. So I got atleast something out of this decrepit movie. Oh....and they screwed up the ending or they did it on purpose to leave us to believe there is a second movie. I hope so....or they screwed that up too.

Kids (キッズ-2008)

Starring:
Teppei Koike - Asato
Hiroshi Tamaki - Takeo
Chiaki Kuriyama
Shigeru Izumiya

Asato Teppei Koike is a sensitive young man with the ability to transfer other people's wounds to his own body. His strange healing powers lead to friendship with the troubled Takeo Hiroshi Tamaki.



Woohoo! I've have been going nuts wondering when this movie was going to be subbed and released. Insane craziness for this movie. My first love being Tamaki-kun! *goosebumps* He looked so different in the most absolutely, best wonderful way! LOL! Oooooh, so HOT! I loved the scruffy look. So....mmmm....manly!

At first, I was concerned about the first 20 minutes of the movie. It was slow and nothing was really interesting. *Blah* But I held on because "my man" was in this. Oh, I knew it would get better and it was more terrific than I had hoped for.

This movie was absolutely amazing. Again, I will repeat, this being a Japanese movie, there is a hidden moral to the story. Of course.

Asato has a gift. His mother thinks it's a curse. Evil. The movie revolves around this gift but it's more about the aspects of forgiveness and friendship.

I was really scared about the ending because of Asato's gift....it could have been either/or. But the ending was sweet and suffice it to say.....hopeful. *smiles*

Sleepless Town (Fuyago-1998)

Starring:
Takeshi Kaneshiro
Mirai Yamamoto
San Boon Mei Loi
Eric Tsang Chi-Wai
Sihung Lung
Kathy Chow Hoi-Mei

Kenichi (Kaneshiro) is a half-Japanese, half-Chinese man of the underworld. You can sell him anything except children's organs. His domain is in Kabukicho, a gangland controlled by various Shanghainese gangs intent on taking overall control. Things are calm, however, his former partner-in-crime, Fu-Chun, is rumoured to have returned to Kabukicho, having fled years earlier after killing the number two to gangland boss, Yuan (Tsang). Yuan wants to get even and attempts to do so by using Kenichi. Meanwhile, Fu-chun's girlfriend, Natsumi Sato (Yamamoto) turns up to sell something to Kenichi.

Sleepless Town was a pleasant surprise for me, a well-written and well-executed film, with a gangster storyline containing enough twists to win a dance contest.

I'm a totall Kaneshiro fan. Another actor whose movies have never failed me in their aptitude, drama and action.

The fast paced setting actually started me out quite confused. Mainly, I couldn't read the subs fast enough to save my life. I'll admit I ended up having to pause many times to read what they were saying. So fast the pace....the subs couldn't keep up...so neither could I. But that actually had nothing to do with the movie in itself.....just the viewer who had to read at a 100mph. LOL!

The beginning mainly began with a lot of talking (hence my dilemma). Eventually, once I caught on, the story unfolded so fast but there were sooooo many twist and turns that once you thought you had the movie figured out...*poof*...something else would happen leaving you to scratch your head.

The best part of the movie was the end. OMG! It was a beautiful ending. I sat there gasping. I wouldn't really call this movie a romance but the ending was so moving that it had me wondering all along. I didn't cry but oddly sat there in awe...............

The Prince of Tennis (2006)

Starring:
Kanata Hongo - Ryoma Echizen
Yuu Shirota - Kunimitsu Tezuka
Hiroki Aiba - Syuusuke Fuji
Hiroki Suzuki - Syuuichiro Oishi
Masato Wada - Sengoku Kiyosumi
Osamu Adachi - Eiji Kikumaru
Hirofumi Araki - Sadaharu Inui
Yoshikazu Kotani - Takashi Kawamura
Masaki Kaji - Takeshi Momoshiro
Kousuke Kujirai - Kaoru Kaidoh
Ryuuji Sainei - Keigo Atobe
Rikiya - Egate Mcleod Higaki
Goro Kishitani - Nanjiroh Echizen
Hitomi Shimatani - Sumire Ryuuzaki
Sayuri Iwata - Shion Higaki
Kouji Date - Choutarou Ohtori
Tokio Emoto - Gakuto Mukahi
Genki Ishii - Jirou Akutagawa
Daiki Nakae - Yuushi Oshitari
Junpei Suzuki - Shishido Ryou
Kazutoshi Yamakawa - Munehiro Kabaji
Yasuka Saito - Shinji Ibu
Yuuki Fujiwara - Akira Kamio
Daiki Sano - Aoi Kentarou
Eiji Moriyama - Genichirou Sanada
Juri - Hikaru Amane
Mitsuyoshi Shinoda - Sasabe
Kenta Kamakari - Sasabe's friend #1
Takashi Nagayama - Sasabe's friend #2
Yusuke Ishibashi - Referee
Shun Takagi - Masaya Sakurai
Ruito Aoyagi - Bystander
Ryou Washimi - Bystander
Takumi Saito - Bystander

Kanata Hongo stars as tennis prodigy Echizen Ryoma who, after winning four consecutive victories in the USA, is brought back to Japan by his father and enrolled in the prestigious Seishun Academy Middle School, famous for its tennis team.

Ryoma soon finds himself the only first-year on the school team, playing alongside school captain and national player Tezuka Kunimitsu, cool-headed Oishi Syuichirou and the acrobatic Kikamura Eiji. He also attracts the attentions of Higaki Shioin, a strange and quiet girl who watches him attentively from the bleachers. Can Ryoma successfully juggle sports, school, girls and life in a new country to earn the title Prince Of Tennis?



This is my second time to watch this. I really wanted a refresher course but maybe I should have rewatched the anime's instead since they are more closer to the manga than anything else.

I'm not saying this is a bad movie. Not at all. It's just hard to fit a year's worth of manga into two hours. They did their best. It was fun to watch but if you have read the manga and watched the animes...well, this would be a disappointment. Luckily, I saw this first before anything else. So I wasn't a wee bit angry. And I'm still not.

I hope they make a PoT 2. They need to finish the manga out....even if we have to have a 3rd movie. They pulled a 3rd Deathnote out of their asses...they can do the same for PoT.

I love the manga/anime series so much! I hated the fact that it ended. I, actually, balled like a baby. I was a blubbering idiot. Yeah, I know you're laughing. *Ha-Ha*

Platonic Sex (Puratonikku sekusu -2001)

Starring:
Saki Kagami - Aoi Kadokura
Joe Odagiri - Toshimi Iwasaki
Maho Nonami - Akemi Yamaguchi
Kenjiro Ishimaru - Yoshio Kadokura
Toshie Negishi - Yukiko Kadokura
Taishu Kase - Makoto Kanai
Hiroshi Abe - Hideyuki Ishikawa

It is Aoi's (Saki Kagami) seventeenth birthday. She has been raped by her friends and deeply shocked. She turns to her family for support and comfort only to be rejected. She decides to do away with herself and is about to jump from the roof of the school building, when she receives an e-mail message on her cell phone. It was a wrong number, but she finds consolation in the message and decides not to kill herself. However, she cannot bring herself to go back home and wanders the streets. She is picked up by Kanai (Taishu Kase) who was scouting around for girls, and begins to work at a bar as a hostess, calling herself "Ai." She starts selling herself and encounters Ishikawa (Hiroshi Abe), a shady character who spends a lot of money in a reckless way. Ai leads a day-to-day existence for money with Akemi (Maho Nonami), the most popular hostess at the bar. Her sole consolation was in exchanging e-mail messages with Toshi (Joe Odagiri), the one who had sent her that e-mail by mistake. Ai does not tell him how she makes a living, but comes to love him, and moves in with him. However, the production of the five pornographic videos, which she had agreed to do in exchange for five million yen, had already begun by then....



This was a surprising movie. Maybe I'm a little hentai but I thought this was like a sex movie. LOL! Okay, it had sex but not what you think. There was only one part in there that left me thinking "Woah!"

Instead this was a thought provoking movie that told a story of innocence lost and parental idiocy. The father beat the crap out of her. Why? She was gang raped but it was her fault? Something wrong with that. Yeah, I would have left home too.

When I realized that my Jo-kun was in this movie, I was all giddy inside. This guy totally rocks my world in TV and film. He didn't let me down in this movie. His portrayal of Toshi was stunning. Rough on the outside but all gooey in the middle. That is Odagiri Joe. His vulnerability always shines through. His kind heart is always on the outside and that is why his vulnerable characters always shine through.

This movie is dark with bits of light that shine through. The beginning and the end are significant...so pay attention because they coincide with the other. The most beautiful moments are those words and sentences they exchange over their cell phones.

Don't expect a happy ending....I was. In the end, I was brought down to my knees spilling more tears............

I should look like a raisin....I don't know how much more water I have left in my body from all these crying moments.

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...............

Alive (2002)

Starring:
Hideo Sakaki - TenshuYashiro
Ryô - Yurika Saegusa
Koyuki - Asuka Saegusa
Shun Sugata - Matsuda
Erika Oda - Misako Hara
Tak Sakaguchi - Zeros
Jun Kunimura - Kojima

Based on a popular Manga by Tsutomu Takahashi ("Sky High"), "Alive" combines the tension of Vincenzo Natali's "Cube" and Kitamura's own "Versus". For the brutal murder of his girlfriend's rapists, Tenshu is sentenced to die in the electric chair. Resigned to his fate and unmoved by his actions, he survives the lethal high voltage punishment. He is then given the choice to burn again, or take part in a vicious experiment pitting him against another prisoner and a mysterious alien life force. Here is where the true punishment begins.

OMG! This movie was totally kick butt. Not what I expected. I was expecting some serious gross out, so that delayed my viewing pleasure.

I will admit the movie is terribly slow. So how come I think the movie rocked? I can't explain it. It was wicked. It sort of reminded me, visually, of Miike Takashi's Big Bang Love, Juvenile A. It was dark. The colors were black, grey, smokey, some white and red and that was it.

A few flashbacks of Tenshu's life as to why he was sent to prison for murder. I got a little confused because they said he killed his girlfriend but yet I got the impression she killed herself. Not sure about that part but the rest of the story was ironically stunning.

You will, at first, feel sorry for Tenshu but the feeling never goes a way. The story won't let you. You catch yourself routing for Tenshu.........

The end had some nice sequenced action scenes with an ending that leaves you blinking.........

Sakaki Hideo

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!

Backdancers! (バックダンサーズ！-2006)

Starring:
Hiroko Shimabukuro - Yoshika
Aya Hirayama - Mihu
Sonim - Tomoe
Saeko - Aiko
Yu Hasebe - Juri
Takanori Jinnai - Jotaro Suzuki
Yoshino Kimura - Reiko Mihama
Masahiro Komoto - Takahashi
Kuroudo Maki - Teru
Kei Tanaka - Akira
Hiro Tsunoda - Rota
Kazuma Suzuki - Seiji
Yukiya Kitamura - DJ Kem
Zen Kajiwara - Isobe
Kosuke Toyohara - Takikawa
Mako Ishino - Naomi Saeki

When their star singer, Juli, suddenly decides to abandon her career for marriage, her four back-up dancers are at a complete loss. Miu is passionate and serious about dancing, while Yoshika is the most talented, and a natural leader. Tomoe is slightly older than the others, and wants to get married, but Aiko hopes to achieve her own stardom. They expect Juli's eventual return, but meanwhile their agency assigns them to a young manager, Chano. However, he cannot obtain sufficient work to prevent them from breaking up. But then he comes up with the idea of teaming them with a washed-up rock band called Steel Crazy (another burden on the company), which to everyone's surprise turns out to work quite well! As Chano starts to look for a bigger chance for them, the agency decides to disband the group for a newcomer, Mayu Kisaragi, with Super Tigers. Ultimately, the four are fired after having an on-stage fight with Mayu's group. In the hopes of reuniting them, and because of his love for Miu, Chano struggles to land a big-time stage for the Backdancers!



This was a pretty good movie. Not the best but it was a nice boredom buster.

An average movie with the main characters who are supposed to be great dancers. In my opinion, they weren't all that. The competitors were waaaaaay better than they could ever be.

Not overly dramatic with bits and pieces of the characters over acting.

A nice surprise was seeing Tanaka Kei protraying Chano, the girls' manager. Cute, sweet, and innocent....the best part of the movie.

The old man playing Jotaru...well, they could have found someone else for his character. He just gave me the eebie-jeebies. Kind of perverted or something. He just didn't fit well in that character.

But the fun factor was there in the movie. The typical movie with a group of wayward, not understood teens who want to make it big...........

Tripping (Gen yu den / Shen you qing ren-2006)

Starring:
Bo-lin Chen
Jimmy Hung
Lichun Lee
Tzu-chieh Miao
Ren Osugi
Rena Tanaka

Shaodea is a Japanese girl, living in Taipei with her father. He moved to Taiwan with his wife to start a Chinese herbal medicine shop. Ever since her mother died, Shaodea wants to return to Japan, but her father refuses to give up his dream. One day, after an argument with him, Shaodea goes out with her friends. While breaking in into a museum, the girl is transported back in time to feudal Taiwan. Thinking she’s on a movie set, the girl gets involved in a bank robbery and soon has to run from the authorities. She teams up with Haishon, an attractive young man who became a thief to save the economic crisis of his hometown. Together with a Tao-master, who is transporting 2 zombies back to their ancestral lands, they set off on a fantastic adventure.
Tripping is an exciting cross-cultural collaboration, combining talent from China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan. There’s something for everyone : a sci-fi love story, hopping corpses, costume drama, evil sorcery and exhilarating kung fu battles. Rena Tanaka (Nin x Nin: Ninja Hattori-kun, the Movie, Summer of Ubume) pulls off an engaging performance as Shaodea. Veteran actor Ren Osugi (Sonatine, Loft, Nightmare Detective) plays her father. And Bo-lin Chen (The Huadu Chronicles : Blade of the Rose, A Chinese Tall Story, Silk) shows off his martial arts skills as Haishon.



I was pleasantly surprised that this movie was as good as it was. I'm not usually fond of Taiwan or Chinese movies. This wasn't the best of movies but it was fun to watch.

Wilson (Bo-lin) Chen isn't gorgeous or extremely handsome. His cinematic charm though makes him something worthwhile to see. His kind face with the athletic body make him more than enough for most teenage girls to fawn over. Okay, I'm waaaaaay passed the teenage years but my heart says different. So I'm fawning over him.

This movie started out well. No skipping in story lines or idiotic ploys to keep you hooked. Some funny moments but not so overly obnoxious that you turn your head out of embarrassment. The follow through of this movie never left me hanging and the sweetest moment at the end tugged my heart. Let's just say that I, for one, really felt the longing of Butterfly's heart for her sweet "thief." The moments between the two were very poignant and sad because we knew she would have to go back to her real time in the end. *I can actually feel my heart getting heavy just thinking about it............*

Heaven's Bookstore (Tengoku no honya - koib / 戀火 -2004)

Starring:
Yuko Takeuchi ... Shoko/Natsuko
Tetsuji Tamayama ... Kenta
Karina ... Yui
Hirofumi Arai ... Satoshi
Teruyuki Kagawa ... Takimoto
Yoshio Harada ... Yamaki
Akashi Takei


KENTA (Tetsuji Tamayama), a young pianist who has just lost his job, is drowning his woes at a bar, when he meets a man in a Hawaiian shirt named YAMAKI (Yoshio Harada). He invites Kenta to work with him, and the next thing he knows, Kenta wakes up to find himself in a room he has never been in before. It is a strange room that seems to have no connection to life. He descends a staircase to find many shelves of books. Yamaki appears once again, and tells him that this is Heaven's Book Service and Kenta is going to start working a short-term part-time job here. In addition to selling books, this bookstore, owned by Yamaki, provides a service of reading aloud to customers. Although he is unsure of his new surroundings, Kenta follows their actions and starts to work in his new part-time job.

One day, Kenta meets SHOKO (Yuko Takeuchi) who had been the pianist that was the inspiration for him to first to start playing the piano. She was a gifted pianist whose promising future was destroyed when an accident caused her to have trouble in hearing.

Meanwhile, back on Earth, KANAKO (also by Yuko Takeuchi), the daughter of a Japanese patisserie store, is planning to bring back the fireworks show, which used to be held until 14 years ago. Everyone who watched the fireworks would look forward to the last piece, the "Loving Fireworks." It was told that couples that watch it together would be forever united in true love. However, the fireworks shows were discontinued when TAKIMOTO (Teruyuki Kagawa), a young fireworks technician had an accident that caused his fiancee to lose her hearing, and the tragedy lead him to disappear. The pianist, as it turns out, is Shoko, Kanako's aunt.



Okay, this was my second try at this movie. I watched maybe 15 minutes of the first time and was bored. I came across it again and realized that "Dang it!", Tetsuji-kun (my love) was in this and that I needed to finish it. Just because it bored me at the beginning didn't me it wouldn't pick up, right?

Wrong.

It was still slow...not as boring...but it wasn't heart-poundingly exciting either. There were a few moments of "ahh"ness to it. Yui and the realization of why she was in Heaven. Satoshi falling in love with her. *so sweet!* And then when Yui got to "meet" her brother. *sniff, sniff*

The ending was actually quite predictable so it wasn't like I melted or had to wipe away tears. Nope. It was nice but not awe inspiring. But it was nice to see "watashi no koibito". *sigh* That man has never, ever, ever, ever looked bad....EVER!