Gaichu (Harmful Insect)

Starring:
Miyazaki Aoi as Kita Sachiko
Seiichi Tanabe as Ogata
Sawake Tetsu as Takao
Amamiya Ryo as Tokugawa
Ishikawa as Kyuzo
Aoi Yuu as Natsuko
Ryo as Kita Toshiko

Miyazaki Aoi stars as Sachiko, a trouble middle school student in Gaichu or Harmful Insect. The film starts with the scene of her mother attempting to commit suicide, setting the melancholy tone. And although Sachiko always wears her school uniform, she has stopped going for a long time. Suffering from loneliness, she searches for some kind of peace anywhere and for awhile finds solace with others who don’t confine themselves to society’s rules. Eventually, her only friend at school convinces her to come back to school. But things just don’t get better for her.

Miyazaki Aoi always seems to star in these kinds of film where there is little dialogue. Maybe it’s because she is so effective in expressing feeling solely through body language.

The story is rather serious and quite tragic. The movie basically chronicles her downward spiral and though there is peace for a little while, it just becomes uncontrollable at the end. Even though she is so young (only a 7th grader!), she is forced to mature and become an adult. But even though she is forced to grow up, she is still just a child. Her life is just tragedy after tragedy and so many horrible things happen even though the movie spans less than a year’s worth of time.

Throughout the movie, she corresponds to her former teacher through letters. It breaks up the film with Miyazaki Aoi’s character often asking for advice and because of the nature of letters, his response is too late for her to absorb. Often time, the advice we are seeking comes too late and you just can’t go back and change things.

Overall, Gaichu is an interesting and tragic look at adolescence with a great performance from Miyazaki Aoi.

Buy this movie: J Special Edition

Waters

Starring: Oguri Shun, Hirayama Hirouki, Morimoto Ryoji, Kirishima Yusuke, Matsuo Toshinobu, Suga Takamasa, Katsurayama Shingo, Narumi Riko

Seven guys who need money start working at a host club. When they all get there, they discover that the manager of the club has run off with all their desposits. But the owner is kind and says that they can stay and work as hosts if they also run the entire venue themselves. With nothing left to lose, they decide to accept his offer. Also in the story are five women who are now successful entrepreneurs. Oguri Shun’s character knows the CEO and they had one of those friendly acquaintances/almost-lovers-but-not relationship.

Waters is your basic friendship story of several people who get thrown together randomly. The host club backdrop gives it a little spice, as well as plenty of humor, since they are all amateurs. It’s a lot of fun and Oguri Shun is really good in this one. I absolutely love the ending, though. It’s just too funny. Waters doesn’t have the most compelling storyline, but it is a definitely a fun watch.

Buy this movie: HK DVD | Korea Limited Edition

Backdancers

Starring: Hirayama Aya, hiro, Sonim, Saeko, Tanaka Kei, Hasebe Yu

The story starts out with Miyu (Hirayama Aya) and Yoshika (hiro) as high school students who love to dance. They always sneak into clubs just to dance, but one night are caught by the police and are forced to quit school. After that, they meet Juri (Hasebe Yu) and the three begin dancing as a trio. Juri is eventually scouted and debuts as the next big pop sensation. Miyu and Yoshika are brought in as back-up dancers along with Tomoe (Sonim) and Aiko (Saeko). Together they are known as the Backdancers. But what are they to do when suddenly Juri decides to retire and get married?

Although Backdancers is a friendship story, it also mixes in a bit of romance, family life, and music industry criticism. I’ve watched this movie like three or four times, but for me it doesn’t get old (or at least, it hasn’t yet). The plot is fun and interesting and the cast is great as well. They all come off as very good friends and get along really well. It’s like in romance stories, one of the most important thing is for the two leads to have good on-screen chemistry, well Backdancers has really good on-screen friendship-chemistry and that’s what makes this movie so good.

Buy this movie: HK DVD

Secret

Starring: Jay Chou, Guey Lun Mei, Anthony Wong, Tseng Kai Xuan

Jay Chou stars as Ye Xiang Lun who transfers to a music school where his father (Anthony Wong) is a teacher at. There he meets Xiao Yu (Guey Lun Mei), a mysterious and charming pianist. The two become very good friends, but everytime Xiang Lun asks anything personal about Xiao Yu, she would only say that it is a secret.

I enjoyed this sweet love story and the entire thing was very pretty to watch. Also being set at a music school, the soundtrack was really good (especially since Jay Chou is a great composer). But this movie has a lot of plot holes and unanswered questions, which if you can ignore them all, it will the movie more entertaining. Guey Lun Mei is really charming and a dream to watch and is definitely the star of the movie.

Buy this movie: HK DVD

Ao to Shiro no Mizuiro

Starring: Miyazaki Aoi, Oguri Shun, Aoi Yuu, Konishi Manami

Actually, this isn’t a movie, but a drama special. So it’s like a movie, right? Anyway, Kaede (Miyazaki Aoi) and Kasumi (Aoi Yuu) used to be best friends. But when they entered high school, Kasumi became more popular than Kaede, causing her to start bullying her ex-friend. One day, she meets new student Takumi (Oguri Shun) who is an expert at picking locks. She asks him to open the door to the school roof, but he refuses, saying that he’ll teach her how to pick locks instead.

Maybe this sounds like a friendship story, but it’s more like a bullying story. It’s rather short, clocking in at a mere 45 minutes, but it definitely accomplishes as much plot-wise as a full-length movie. The leads are all very good, you get to see a young Miyazaki Aoi, Oguri Shun, and Aoi Yuu. It’s interesting to note that they are all accomplished actors/actresses now (including Konishi Manami). There aren’t any subtitles available for this special, but it should be mostly okay, because there isn’t very much dialogue and most of the story is conveyed through body language.

Buy this movie: Japan DVD

Starring:
Ueto Aya as Machida Hina
Fujiki Naohito as Koga Ikumi
Kyomoto Masaki as Fujimura Moroki
Sonim as Kudo Beniko
Narimiya Hiroki as Kamiya Yuji
Aoi Yuu as Ezawa Mami

The initial description of this drama is “forbidden love” between a teacher and a student. However it is much more than that. It starts out as Hina (Ueto) skips class with her friend Beniko (Sonim). They later split up and Hina runs into a man at the game arcade. They become somewhat like friends and go back to his apartment. There, Hina freaks out and pushes him away, and the two end up only sleeping side by side the entire night. The next day at school, the man she met last night is her new math teacher - Koga Ikumi (Fujiki). However, he doesn’t seem to recognize her. He’s a genius, fairly young and good-looking, making him extremely popular among the all-girl student population. The real reason he has come to teach at a school is because he is dying of a brain tumor - he left his previous life suddenly and seeks to live out his last days peacefully. No one except his doctor knows that he is dying.

The plot doesn’t truly start until Hina hits her head during gym and later collapses during class - she is rushed to the hospital. When she wakes, she looks for Koga and overhears a conversation with Koga’s doctor. She, the doctor, tells him that he has probably only six months to live, however Hina thinks that the doctor is talking about her. When she asks Koga about this, he lies to her and tells her that she is dying. He calls it his ‘experiment.’ Koga’s doctor doesn’t tell her the truth when she is confronted either. What starts is a relationship based on lies. Hina begins to depend on him and he begins to need her in his life. She is his mirror image - he can see the effects on someone else, the same things and thoughts that happened to him happening to the girl.

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