Koizora

Starring:
Aragaki Yui as Tahara Mika
Miura Haruma as Sakurai Hiro
Koide Keisuke as Fukuhara Yu
Karina as Minako
Usuda Asami as Saki
Haru as Aya
Nakamura Aoi as Nozomu

Koizora is a very interesting mix of a pure first love story mixed with an over the top soap opera. Aragaki Yui plays an innocent girl-next-door type of girl, Mika, who meets through…interesting circumstances, Hiro (played my Miura Haruma). He’s a bit of a delinquent, as evident with his bleached blonde hair and biker older sister, but the two fall head first into love. They face many trials as a couple including (but not limited to) rape, pregnancy and jealous exes.

The movie was based off a cell phone novel that was later sold as an actual novel that sold millions of copies. The novel was written by first time author Mika, who supposedly based the novel off her own life. I say supposedly because I’m not sure if I quite believe that all these things can happen to just one couple. I enjoyed the movie for the most part, but there were its fair share of faults. Although the movie does span a time of 4 years with another time jump later on, there are so many overly dramatic events crammed next each other that the better part of the film feels like you’re on a roller coaster.

I mainly watched this movie because there’s a drama adaptation coming out for the summer season and wondered what exactly it was about. I read mostly positive responses about it, but very short, things of the ‘really great, I cried!’ variety. And I love a good romance story myself, so I checked it out. I can definitely understand why some people would cry, as it can be quite a tearjerker if you’re prone to crying during dramas or movies (I’m not, though, so I didn’t). After watching the film, I am looking forward to the drama. The drama will (hopefully) better space out these events, so it will less of drama stacked right on top of each other. And provide some side stories of the minor characters, always a plus in a story (for me at least).

I hope the leads in the drama give as good of a performance as the leads in the film did, though. While by no means groundbreaking, the two have a nice chemistry and are very charming in their roles. The film is also quite pretty, with some beautiful scenic shots. It’s set in the countryside or what seems to be like the countryside, which is quite picturesque. It’s a pretty interesting mix, though, of kids from the country, but are still quite hip and very Tokyo-esque.

While I did enjoy Koizora, a lot of things felt very over the top and sometimes like it was just a drama fest. Fans of this genre and of the leads will definitely enjoy this film, though, as it was quite sweet in many moments. Hopefully, the upcoming drama will be able to fix the faults in time-spacing.

Buy this movie: Malaysia DVD (Eng subs) | J Premium Edition

Starring:
Oguri Shun as Iemoto
Santamaria Yusuke as OdaYuuji
Koide Keisuke as Snake
Tsukaji Muga as Yasuo
Kagawa Teruyuki as IchigoMusume
Sakai Kanako as Kisaragi Miki

One year after the suicide of a C-list idol, Kisaragi Miki, five of her fans meet to commemorate her death and celebrate her memory. Although none of them have met in person, they know each all by their aliases on Kisaragi Miki’s fan boards. The party starts off light-hearted enough, but when one of the members brings up his suspicions that Miki didn’t commit suicide, a heated discussions starts. He claims that she was murdered and that the murderer is actually in the room and starts accusing one attendee.

Even though it’s a discussion about a possible murder, the entire thing is very funny and witty. The film takes place all in one room, with exceptions for the few flashbacks. Despite that, the scenes don’t get boring because of the different camera angles. It’s surprising how well the one room set worked out actually. And think of all the money they saved! The colorful cast of characters makes the film worthy watching, especially because of their excellent performance. And it helps that everyone is wearing suits. Man, I love Oguri Shun.

Although it starts off a little slow, once they get into the discussion, it’s hard to tear your eyes or ears away because you just don’t want to miss a moment. Plus, in a way, it’s also a competition of how well each of the fans knows their idol.

This movie can get pretty trippy. With one twist after another, you just wonder, is there anything else that can happen anymore? It’s really hard to summarize this movie without giving anything away, since its enjoyment hinges on all the surprises there are.

I have to admit the ending is a little stupid (and cheesy), but if you ignore that, this is one great movie.

Buy this movie: J Standard Edition

Nodame Cantabile

Starring:
Ueno Juri as Noda Megumi aka Nodame
Tamaki Hiroshi as Chiaki Shinichi
Eita as Mine Ryutaro
Koide Keisuke as Okuyama Masumi
Mizukawa Asami as Miki Kiyora
Saeko as Saku Sakura
Uehara Misa as Tagaya Saiko
Takenaka Naoto as Franz Stresemann
Endo Yuya as Okochi Mamoru
Ibu Masato as Mine Tatsumi
Nishimura Masahiko as Tanioka Hajime
Toyohara Kosuke as Eto Kozo
Kondo Kouen as Tamaki Keiji
Sakamoto Makoto as Hashimoto Yohei
Fukushi Seiji as Kuroki Yasunori
Mukai Osamu as Kikuchi Toru
Hashizume Ryo as Kimura Tomohito

Nodame Cantabile is a Japanese drama that aired in the fall of 2006. It was broadcasted on Monday nights on Fuji TV. Based on the manga of the same name, Nodame Cantabile averaged rating of 18.79%.

Nodame Cantabile is the drama for all of us orchestra dorks (or more generally, music dorks). It takes places at Momogaoka Music Academy, focusing on the life of Chiaki Shinichi and his strange relationship with Noda Megumi, nicknamed Nodame. Chiaki is the top piano student at the Academy, as well as a talented violinist, but secretly dreams of conducting. He longs to return to Prague, where he spent his childhood, but feeling trapped in Japan because of his phobia of flying and sailing. He wonders what his future in music will be like, since one must study abroad in Europe to truly have a career as a conductor. Soon after, he transfers to the conducting division of the school.

He and Nodame meet coincidentally and she falls head over heels in love. Chiaki, however, is repulsed by Nodame since she is everything he is not - messy, dirty, and very eccentric. She is also a piano student. Though she cannot even read a piano score correctly, she is ridiculously talented and chooses to play by ear.

One day the famous conductor, Franz Stresesmann, comes to Momogaoka and requests to start a new orchestra. The students are surprised to see that the new orchestra is not made up of all the top students, but all the underachievers! Stresesmann takes Chiaki as his one and only pupil and as Chiaki begins to conduct, he realizes that this orchestra is made up of people like Nodame; talented and into the music, but cannot follow a score or the conductor. It’s the story of an up-and-coming conductor and an eccentric but talented girl who loves him.

Nodame Cantibile is one of the most hilarious dramas I’ve watched. All the characters are so full of life and totally exaggerated. A lot of the manga-actions are also translated into live-action. Like when Chiaki hits Nodame, she goes flying across the room, rolling around and everything. At first, it’s weird, but after a few of them, it becomes much more fun and it sticks out less (especially since everything is so wild).

A huge strength in this story in the uniqueness of each character…they are all very different, so there is no getting people mixed up (which is sad but happens to me sometimes). And since they’re all so different, there should be at least one character you will like. The most entertaining part of the show is the interaction between all the characters; it is so fun and energetic…sometimes I can’t understand how the actors and actresses didn’t just break out laughing with all the extremities of the script.

Even though there is a lot of slap stick comedy, there is also a huge amount of character development and two plot arcs included. I thought the cast was excellent; they all fit and looked the part.

There’s almost no reason to not watch Nodame Cantibile. Well, that’s not true. If you don’t like music, Nodame will be hard to watch (and listen!). If you don’t like comedy, there’s way too much in this story to overlook it. But that’s probably it. It’s a super fun drama with an interesting plot and relatively fast pace.

Buy the boxset: Japan Version

Starring
Miyazaki Aoi as Satonaka Shizuru
Tamaki Hiroshi as Segawa Makoto
Kuroki Meisa as Toyama Miyuki
Aoki Munetaka as Shirohama Ryo
Koide Keisuke as Sekiguchi Kyohei
Oonishi Asae as Yaguchi Yuka
Uehara Misa as Inoue Saki

I watched Miyazaki Aoi in NANA; she was great and I was interested in her other works. And I do love Ai Otsuka’s ballads (the movie’s theme is Renai Shashin), so when I found subs for Tada, Kimi wo Ashiteru, I had to watch it.

It starts out at the end of the story where Makoto flies to New York to meet his good friend Shizuru. He then recounts the story of their unusual friendship. Makoto is somewhat autistic and has a difficult time socializing with others, so he often keeps to himself. Shizuru is an eccentric young woman who acts and dresses many years younger than she actually is. The two meet on the first day of university when Shizuru is attempting to cross a busy intersection and Makoto points out to her that it would be better to cross at an intersection with a light. He leaves and she still stands at the intersection waiting to cross. Makoto is taken by this and pulls out his camera and snaps a photograph. He later notices her in a class and sometime later, she joins him in the school cafeteria. This is where their tentative friendship starts.

Shizuru follows Makoto to a gated forest. He enjoys photography and sneaks in there to take pictures. Together they discover different parts of the forest and it kind of becomes “their place,” somewhere where it is only the two of them. Eventually Shizuru also takes up photography.

Miyuki is a beautiful girl who befriends Makoto, who incidentally likes Miyuki. Makoto becoming friends with Miyuki and her group create a little rift between Shizuru and Makoto, since Shizuru is known as the strange girl, and his new friends poke fun at her. Makoto makes things right with Shizuru and they once again start taking pictures together again. He takes her back to his house to use his darkroom to teach her how to develop photos. Soon Shizuru and Miyuki also become friends. However, Shizuru knows that Makoto is in love with Miyuki. And in turn tells him that she just want to like the person that she likes like.

Shizuru and Makoto decide to enter an amateur photography competition near the end of their university years. Shizuru wants to take a picture of the two of them kissing in the forest. She says that she wants that for her birthday present; Makoto agrees. After that day, however, Shizuru disappears without a trace.

Tada, Kimi wo Ashiteru is a beautifully crafted film. The pace is fairly slow compared to American films, but that is one thing that I enjoyed about it. There’s a simplicity in the story that is just very charming.

Miyazaki Aoi is great as a cute, innocent university student; the character she creates is really very lovable. She has some lines that you just think, “what was that?!” to, but I think that it just adds to her character’s emphasis on not being mature yet.

I also liked Tamaki Hiroshi’s character a lot, though a bit too shy and non-confrontational at times. Kuroki Meisa’s character is so seemingly perfect that you almost doubt that someone like her really exists. I mean, who really know anyone like Miyuki?

This movie is definitely worth seeing if you enjoy slice-of-life or romance stories. If you’re a fan of the three actors/actresses listed above, it won’t disappoint either.

Buy this movie: HK DVD | J Special Edition