Ryokiteki na Kanojo is the Japanese remake of the Korean drama “My Sassy Girl” which was hugely popular all over Asia back in 2001. The Korean version was extremely well made, easily one of my all time Korean favorite (of course partly because of the extremely pretty actress Jun Jihyun / ???) I didn’t really know that it’s the Japanese version of My Sassy Girl until I finished watching episode 3 or 4 and was trying to search online for more info about this drama - The beginning of the drama really didn’t remind me of anything in the Korean counterpart. Anyway, I downloaded this movie mostly being a fan of Rena Tanaka / ???? since about 10 years ago (still have a huge poster of her that I bought in Hong Kong). I don’t know, she looks like a cat..lol. I like the main guy Kusanagi Tsuyoshi / ??? (from SMAP) a lot too, think he acts really good and is really natural (he actually made me cry in this drama, and I actually haven’t for a couple years…)

Anyway, the story begins with the main guy bumping into this girl in a train. Girl was really sick / drunk and was yelling around and walking in a weird way like a drunkard. Guy tried to save her from falling over into the train platform, and then followed her onto the train. Girl continued to act like a retard, till guy sent her to a hotel to settle her down. Of course, the next morning somehow they bumped into each other again and the girl was accusing him of “doing things” to her the other night…etc. The girl also moved to the unit right next to the guy’s home, later explained in the story that it was the girl’s ex-boyfriend’s ex-home. So yes the girl was dumped by her boyfriend, and he just “disappeared” without leaving anything for her. The main guy therefore somehow gotten really close to the girl, partly due to the fact that the girl was REALLY rude with a violent attitude so guy, while trying to be nice, was getting forced to do a lot for her. She asked him to join her up in the search for her ex-boyfriend.

Needless to say, during the search, they got really close together and fell in love. The story thereafter was all about how they the lover are separated (due to a 3rd person) and how they somehow got back together again …etc. Pretty straightforward storyline in general. Yea the story itself was just so so and pretty predictable, but the thing that really really stood out was the performance. Rena was just so so, being cute all the way (yea she’s too cute even when she was trying to act violent/annoying). On the other hand, Kusanagi’s performance was incredible. I would say he made the whole story came to life. I actually cried in episode 9 or 10 I forgot, when the girl was going to the States with her fiance (marriage arranged by her dad), and the guy rushed to the airport, messed with the people at the information desk and spoke to the microphone which was connected to the airport announcement system, that he didn’t want her to leave. It was really touching In fact, the story actually started glowing past the first half. The first half was okay, kind of funny but it was kind of draggy as well. It became more serious of a story in the second half where the twists and characters emerged which made the story really entertaining.

Overall, it’s an above average drama. It’s not a ground breaking, but it does have a nice storyline and will certainly drive you to tears at some point. I don’t mind watching it again.

finished watching this drama almost 3 weeks ago but I didn’t have time to do a review. I have to do it today since it’s such a good drama I felt bad not doing something for it. Akihabara@Deep / ??????DEEP is a 11-spisode drama that was shown in Japan starting June 19, 06. It wasn’t that popular I believe as I haven’t really heard about it anywhere on the internet. I came across it I believe on some forums where I often visit to see if there are any new movies coming out…etc and I got caught by the interesting name of the drama “Akihabara@Deep” (which didn’t really make any sense) so I Googled it and figured that it’s a really good one to watch.

The story talks about a group of “Otaku” people (refer to people with obsessive interests, particularly anime and manga) in Akihabara (Most popular district in Japan for electronics and anime) that initially are frequent visitors to an online site called “Yui’s Life Guard”. It’s a website / discussion group that helps people out with their difficulties in their lives. These Otakus are all “weirdo” kind of person with weird interests and weird problems with their personalities. Yui, the owner of the website, wanted to help this group of people so she asked them to meet up to form a group. She wants people in the group to help each other out on each of their difficulties they face in their lives. But as soon as they group formed, Yui died due to a drug overdose. Interestingly, one of the members of the group (Izumi, who is really good at computer) had secretly worked with Yui before her death, to create a computer software with artificial intelligence, that would act like Yui, and able to think and speak like Yui. After her death, Izumi presented this system to the group, and the group is able to “communicate” with Yui once again.

The group decided to find an office space and establish their own company, named “Akihabara@Deep”, to help anyone that are troubled in Akihabara on anything. The main focal point of the drama is about how the group helped out different people and it’s really interesting to watch - it’s really creative and the content and storyline were very very interesting and sometimes hilarious. It’s fun enough to watch how these Otakus acted weirdly due to their weird personalities - one of the guys “Page” can’t really talk properly and often needs to use a laptop as a medium to communicate with people; guy “Daruma” is a costume maniac who was once a hikikomori (people that always shut themselves in their rooms) but he’s really good at sewing and creating anime costumes; girl “Akira” works at a maid cafe and is really good at combating; guy “Box” had a tendency to clean his hands every 10 minutes but I think he’s the most “normal” person in the group; “Taiko” is a guy that is really good at computer music, but he has a weird sickness that is whenever he sees flashy lights or objects he would “freeze up” (stops moving)…weird enough, but extremely entertaining.

Here’s a synopsis from Wiki:

It all begins when a mysterious online personality named Yui decides to assemble these outcasts to try and form a group dedicated to solving the problems that plague Akiba by forming the “troubleshooting” company, Akihabara@DEEP, often shortened to just @DEEP. One example of this troubleshooting would be that the otaku of Akiba have come under a surge of bullying. @DEEP’s first task was to eliminate this bullying. After getting rid of this problem, @DEEP began taking up other tasks as well. Some of these include clearing the name of a cosplayer in a case that involved the distribution of underground videos depicting other cosplayers getting undressed in dressing rooms, protecting a news anchor from attacks by otaku who were enraged at a story that she had previously worked on that bashed the youth of Akiba, and helping out a maid cafe that the people of Akiba frequent from an opposing maid cafe that was acting extremely hostile to this maid cafe and even provided various prostitution services to the visitors of the opposing maid cafe.

While @DEEP solves these cases, the group unintentionally attracts the attention of a seedy character named Nakagomi Takeshi. The reason behind this is because of a secret past relationship between Nakagomi and Yui. What adds to this is a fully self-reliant AI program that Nakagomi would greatly benefit from if he got his hands on it. This is because he is the president of a very influential electronics company called Digital Capital, often shortened to DigiCap. He will eventually raid @DEEP’s headquarters, steal Yui’s AI, and kidnap Akira.

This drama is VERY HIGHLY recommended. It’s extremely entertaining and each episode has its own theme and guaranteed wouldn’t make anyone bored. I don’t really mind watching it again if I have the time. WATCH IT!

Another medical doctor movie? No. This one talks about emergency doctors that takes helicopters to get to places where accidents occurs needing immediate attentions…cool enough. This 11-episode drama “Code Blue” was shown in Japan from July to Sept 2008, and received an average viewership of 15.6%, which is pretty good (the first episode received 21%!) Well it’s got to be getting this high viewership with the appearance of Yamashita Tomohisa / ????. I really like him he’s not just good looking but he did really well in a couple of previous dramas that I watched, including Kurosagi and Nobuta o Produce. There are two of the hottest actresses in Japan as well, namely Aragaki Yui / ???? and Toda Erika / ?????. Aragki..I’ve seen her in Papa to Musume no Nanokakan (My Review here) where she really shined. In this drama though she is a quite/intelligent/serious kind of girl, and I was a bit surprised. On the other hand Toda Erika is probably one of the prettiest actress in Japan among teenage guys. I haven’t seen much of her performance either but somehow her face looks really familiar, guess she’s been appearing in a lot of Japanese TV shows. I think I last seen her in the drama Liar Game, in which her performance was just so so. She’s pretty good in this one, very natural and just…acting right. The only nurse in the drama, performed by Higa Manami / ????, was a pretty role too. I actually visited her blog, and she’s pretty cool as she’s posted a lot of videos on her blog which none of the other Japanese celebrities have been doing as far as I know.

Anyway, the story is about a group of young trainee doctors that hope to become flight doctors, having to go through some harsh real-life emergency trainings in order to build up their experiences and also to establish their roles in the emergency centre/hospital. Working under guidance of a couple experienced flight doctors, they soon grew to become tough and strong-minded in order to fulfill the needs from the dying patients. The storyline itself wasn’t anything too special, but it’s really refreshing to me to see these otherwise handsome looking actor/actresses all dressed up in uniforms, performing some serious and mission critical tasks. The helicopter looks cool too, and everything that happens around the emergency centre looks very professional and real-life alike - I really like how the Japanese people put so much attention to very small details, which are what made this drama so cool and worth watching. Their immediate “boss” performed extremely well as well, he actually outperformed all the pretty guys/girls and he was one of the actors that I was looking forward to check out every episode.

All in all this is a great drama with lots of medical terms, professionalism, semi gross scenes (during the surgical operations), and a whole lot of pretty faces. It is definitely a highly recommended.

The ending theme song “Hanabi” (fireworks) was really really good, sung by Mr. Childrean. The lyric fits the story perfectly…I wonder who wrote them. Here it is:

Original MTV:

Galileo was a 10-episode drama on-air in Japan last year in October (2007). The story talks about the encounter of the genius physicist slash university professor Yukawa Manabu / ??? (Starred by the #1 ranked handsome guy in Japan Masaharu Fukuyama / ????) and the junior detective slash police officier Utsumi Kaoru / ??? (Starred by Kou Kabusaki / ????). Yukawa has a really strange personality and talks weirdly even though he is one of the smartest person around the university where he does his research - often being called “Galileo”. Most of the time he tries not to get involved with anything police-related and focuses on his studies and students. However when he met Kaoru, who was a really hot-blooded/eager-to-learn young detective, he was gradually influenced and became more interested in solving these mysterious murder cases that were presented to him by Kaoru.

The storyline is pretty simple, each episode presents a murder case which is left for Yukawa and Kaoru to solve. What makes this story really worthwhile watching is Yukawa’s extremely weird personality (which actually makes things 10x funnier sometimes, like how he uses physics terms to define “love”…etc), and how Kaoru sort of transform him into a character that has more “human” thoughts rather than his otherwise extremely theoretical personality. I really like how Yukawa (Masaharu) dressed it really makes him look pro. Actually I didn’t really think Masaharu could perform that well in dramas since the first time I saw him in a drama was in Hitotsu Yane no Shita / ?????? (a 1997 drama I think) and his performance was just so-so. In this drama he looks really good and the way he acts is perfect for the character. Kaoru (Kou) is really pretty and professional looking. I like how she acts in a really natural way which is rather different from most of the other Japanese actresses. Haven’t seen a lot of her shows, but then I actually learnt that she’s actually a singer that had debuted quite a few years ago. She sings just okay but she’s got a pretty face so who cares.

Another thing I like about the drama are the special guests for each episodes. There were a couple guests that were actors/actresses I really like - Katori Shingo / ???? (funniest guy in SMAP), Kyoko Fukada / ???? (really surprised that she showed up, haven’t seen her performance for soooo long since the 1999 drama Oni no Sumika / ???? ), Maki Horikita / ???? (one of the hottest actresses in Japan, love her performance in Nobuta o Produce). I didn’t really like Ryoko Hirosue though, who appeared in one of the episodes (sorry Ryoko fans). I think she looks really weird…lol.. anyway, love the guests.

Here’s an excerpt from drama Wki:

Kaoru Utsumi, a rookie detective who has just been reassigned to the criminal division, finds her investigation of her first murder case stalled by the seemingly supernatural phenomenons surrounding the event. She seeks help from Shunpei Kusanagi, a senior detective at the police headquarter, who introduces her to his college buddy and an associate professor at Teito University, Manabu Yukawa. Yukawa is a tall, handsome, and brilliant man who is interested in nothing but physical science, while Utsumi is a hot-blooded girl with a strong sense of justice. Together, the odd pair solves many difficult and seemingly impossible crimes with their individual talents.

This is a highly recommended detective drama, coupled with really funny comedy style monologues and performances (plus handsome guys and girls!) It has a really nice ending theme song sung by KOH+ too, which is a group formed by the two main characters Masaharu and Kou. Here’s the music video of the song “Kiss Shite / KISS??”:

Last Friends/???????? is a 2008 drama that was shown in April. I wanted to watch more of Ueno Juri(????)’s dramas after watching her phenomenal performance in Nodame Cantabile. I then watched the movie Swing Girls which was one of her earlier movies, in which she acted pretty good. So I downloaded this latest movie of hers (Last Friends) and was in high hopes. She acted pretty good in fact, even though I didn’t like her boy-ish look in the drama (she is a lesbian in the drama and she is the “guy” side of it) One thing though, it proves that she CAN act - a really cute and talkative/outgoing girl in Swing Girls, then a really idiotic/messy/weird piano genius in Nodame Cantabile, now this really mature/quiet/thoughtful role in Last Friends….she can basically play any role without a problem. Nagasawa Manami(?????)’s role as the protagonist was pretty good, even though she is really young (I think she’s 21), she played the character really well being an innocent/weak/helpless girl that gets beaten up by boyfriend…and all that, but nevertheless, Ueno Juri’s performace is way above her’s. The other actors/actresses are okay, pretty average performance. I don’t like the main guy though, which is performed by Eita(??). The way he smiles was so fake, kinda gay… he acted okay in Nodame Cantabile thouh. The other (bad) guy that is acted by Ryo Nishikido(???) was pretty good good though. He looked kinda too young for the role (even though he’s not) but anyway I like his performance in the drama. I first saw him in the drama “One Litre of Tears / ???????“, he was pretty good in it… apparently he has improved a lot since then.

The drama talks about lesbian love (one-sided love), how the lesbian Ruka (by Juri Ueno) was in love with Michiru (Nagasawa Manami), how she is unable to express her love or it’ll scare Michiru off, how she tries to protect Michiru from being abused by her boyfriend, risking her life. There’s also the 3rd person Takeru (by Eita) involved in this love triangle, who loves Ruka but is unable to be with her since she is a lesbian. There is a similarity of the way how Ruka protects Michiru, and how Takeru protects Ruka, while both of them aren’t able to be with their love ones.

Here is a synopsis from Wiki:

Last Friends tackles issues that afflict the current generation. Michiru’s mother has brought a man back to their home and she is bullied at her workplace where she works as a beauty parlour assistant. She starts cohabiting with her boyfriend, a good young man who works at the Child Welfare Division and the only person who can give her emotional support, but ends up the victim of domestic violence and becomes fearful of love. The boyishly charming Ruka was a classmate of Michiru’s in junior high school. She has performed brilliantly as a motocross racer and aims to win the national championship, but as the story progresses, a deep worry that she can neither confide in her parents or close friends grows evident. Takeru is a hair and makeup artist acquainted with Ruka. He is a good confidant to females due to his kindness and perceptiveness, and finds himself attracted to Ruka but has a phobia of sex as a result of a past trauma. The three of them become house mates and through their associations with others, gain the capacity to be positive about life.

I like this drama, but it’s not a highly recommend. I like its suspense, the great performance of some actors like Juri and Ryo, and the topic (lesbian love, which is a rare find in Japanese drama). However the storyline wasn’t developed perfectly and I had trouble understanding some of the plot, like I’m still not sure about the problem between Takeru and his sister, what made him scared of women’s bodies. Also some episodes was boring kind of like space fillers, although some of the other ones were really suspenseful that would keep you on the edge. Overall a not bad drama, consider the social issue that it’s trying to address, but I don’t think it’s a must watch unless you’re a fan of any of the actors.

Last but not least, I LOVE the theme song “Prisoner of Love” sung by Utada Hikaru(??? ???) (I love all of her songs anyway).

Sakuran is a 2007 movie about oiran (Japanese prostitute) in the Edo period. One word to describe the movie would be, colorful! As a color lover, my attention was immediately caught by the vivid colors used throughout the film, and the extravagant kimonos that are worn by all the characters throughout the story. The plot itself is so-so, talks about a little girl Kiyoha (performed by Tsuchiya Anna / ?????) that got her body sold to this Akasen district (red-light district) in Edo, present-day Tokyo, Japan. She got trained ever since she is young to become a high class prostitute. Story also talks about how this guy has made a promise to bring her out out the “scene” since she is young, and at the end of the story he fulfilled it and brought her out to see the world.

It’s the first time seeing Tsuchiya Anna’s performance. I looked her up online and figured that she was actually a model / singer and she hasn’t been performed in a lot of movies. She wasn’t the prettiest out there but she does look unique, having the kind of style that Namie Amuro has, but more rebellious kind of looking. Overall I think her performance in this movie was great and the make up she had really suited her and her kimonos.

Here is an excerpt about the movie from wiki:

A young kamuro (maid in a brothel) is sold into the red-light district Yoshiwara and is put under the care of the oiran of the Tamakiku house, Shouhi, who names her Tomeki. The girl is very rebellious, does not cry when punished, is foul-mouthed and bad-mannered, and talks back and even hits the other kamuro. It is because of this that the more experienced people in the household begin to think that she will be one day a great oiran, since an oiran needs not only beauty and talent, but she should also have the tenacity to maintain the position.

After that, Tomeki becomes O-Rin, a hikkomi (or prostitute-in-training), and later Kiyoha, the most beautiful girl in the Tamakiku household. Her popularity threatens the position of Tamakiku’s oiran Mikumo, which creates great tension and jealousy between the two.

But rivalry is not the main problem to overcome for young Kiyoha, but rather the appearance of young Soujiro and the impossibility of love in these quarters.

Another thing that worth mentioning is the director for the film, Ninagawa Mika / ????. I looked her up as well and realized she is the “most famous photographer in Japan”, pretty awesome. I figured that whoever directed the art for the film must be someone special, and there you go. I really like the colors and patterns used on the cinematic and the costumes. Looks like there is an art book for this film that went on sale, guess I’ll try download it off the net somewhere, might give me some inspirations on my next art work

Overall I think if you are an art person, this is a must watch. Otherwise, it’s still fun to watch for example the lives that these prostitutes had in the old days, even though the storyline is just an average.