700 Days of Battle: Us vs. the Police ぼくたちと駐在さんの７００日戦争 [movie]

No poodle hair!! Oh my gok, Ichihara!

Set in the late 70’s (glorious clothes I tell ya) this movie is quite simply about some bored teenagers reeking havoc on a policeman. It is very funny (Ichihara at his most juttery – which isn’t even a word. I love his stupid laugh.) it is also really sweet and totally worth watching.

In my total Ichihara-obsession week this was session number two I believe. Watching this alongside trying to finally finish Yankii Bokou which I started two years ago and for some reason never finished.

So Yes, I found this movie to add to my week of Ichihara which so far has included happy chainsaw, 700 days, yankii bokou, saru lock, and box – im so looking forward to hearing him Osaka-ben all over the place (did I just make that a verb?) but I have no subs, so I may not be able to understand it very well – but then I managed to follow Quick and I don’t speak much Korean at all so I’m sure I will be ok with a bit of Osaka-ben. Anyway, that has nothing to do with this movie, what the hell am I doing.

700 days has some of my favourite people

Ichihara  Hayato (yankii bokou, saru lock, rookies)

Sasaki  Kuranosuke (zettai kareshi, orthros, warareu koi)

Tomiura Satoshi (being insanely camp as usual tumbling, hana yori dango)

Waki Tomohiro (gok,cameo in everything else ever)

Kaku Kento (tumbling, samurai highschool)

(and even a short appearance from Takenaka Naoto)

It also stars

Aso Kumiko

Ishino Mako

Toyoya Ellie

Ishida Takuya

Kaji Masaki

And Koyanagi Yu

Bored teenagers prank their local policeman (Sasaki) and things escalate when Mamachari (Ichihara) realises the beautiful woman from the coffee shop is his wife, and then also when Inoue the Great (Kaku) falls for her sister. Running past the speed camera with a brass band trying to trigger the speedometer, planting pornographic manga around the police station, and stealing fireworks, all pretty petty stupid stuff but it makes for a funny movie. And I can’t help but mention Ichihara’s ridiculous laugh again for I love it so. Plus I hadn’t yet seen Tomiura Satoshi in drag and this needed to happen to make everything right with the world.

There isn’t much to say about a movie like this. It really relies mostly on the chemistry between Sasaki and Ichihara, their comic expressions and other inexplicable stuff. It is just a very silly but sweet film with lots of great comedy moments and odd quirky fun. And really terrible clothes.

it is kind of weird to see ichihara not sporting his usual permed boof of a hair adventure though. his hair was surprisingly normal...

Sasaki as always was wonderfully evil and brilliant, i do love it when he has such characters. i always feel a show will be worth watching if i see he is in it. On watching this a second time round with friends and seeing everyone else collapsing with laughter i am assured that it is not merely my bias towards the few actors in the movie i have a soft spot for.



i cant help loving ichihara - he looks like my dog. it makes me want to marry him and cook him cakes and stuff. that didnt sound so weird before i actually said that... 

ok it appears to be time for an almighty tonikaku... just watch the movie its funny. and have tomiura in drag to brighten your day:

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Negative Happy Chainsaw Edge ネガティブハッピー・チェーンソーエッヂ [movie]

Stupidest movie title since Turtles Swim Faster Than Expected

Cast:

Seki Megumi - Eri

Ichihara Hayato - Yosuke (poodle hair alert!)

Asari Yosuke – Watanabe

Miura Haruma - Noto

This review might be kind of short as lately I haven’t got as much time as I usually do, this month I want to get a few things blogged but seem to watch stuff so much quicker than I can review them. This movie is by no means worth a short review but to be fair it hardly needs an epic rant either.

I love this movie. There are countless half assed opinions of this film online, most people just didn’t really understand it. I thought the point was clearly outlined from the very beginning with Ichihara’s phenomenal narrator voice (lord the boy can smooth out a piece of dialogue) this film is all about fighting demons. Most likely inner demons. In Eri’s case, dressed up in the form of an immortal chainsaw wielding mentalist from the sky.

Yosuke’s demons seem to be dressed up as his disregard for his own life, maybe not quite as fatal as Eri’s chainsaw wielding dude, but then again maybe so.

We first meet yosuke, being an idiot. Never feeling he could live up to the immortal presence of his dead friend Noto, Yosuke has lost his place and just acts out in a restless attempt to fill a void left open by Noto’s immense personality. He meets Eri one night who is battling her own demon in the form of said chainsaw wielding weirdo from the moon of planet mental. Her demon dude is also caused by grief and she has no choice but to battle him every single night in an attempt to keep her despair at bay.

The two haphazardly join forces and become unlikely friends and there is not much more to it than that. Until stuff goes wrong and, y’know, the rest of the story happens.

Ichihara narrates this movie (NEVER a bad thing to have his lush Shige-twin voice drawl on for ages about nothing. Never gets old.) and obviously plays the main character troubled by the loss of his friend – who I should point out, is played by Miura Haruma AND we get to hear him sing in the movie AND the song is great AND his character is awesome which we see through lots of flash backs AND I know I’m biased but who cares we love Miura any day of the week.

Seki Megumi has huge watery eyes, I swear I’ve never seen her in a happy role but she can do sad and tormented like no-one else so who cares. And should i mention Ichihara's poddle afro...? it kind of speaks for itself. That boy's hair seriously... how... i mean... 

It isn’t meant to really be a big epic film, it is like a small section of the lives of the two main characters from a time when they were both grieving and feeling warped by their instability. Finding out who you are through hardships that happen, how you deal with your troubles, and who you cling to along the way, is the inevitable ebb and flow of life. That is kind of what this movie is about, though it doesn’t profess to be the most serious take on the whole thing. It is more like a wandering absent minded thought, than a meditation on a problem.

Well I’ve run out of time so that will have to do. Hopefully the screen shots help sum up whatever I couldn’t find the words to say. Don’t try to take the movie to seriously and read a whole bunch into it – you won’t get it if you do that. It really isn’t so complicated. It’s just a sweet film. And buy Miura Haruma’s single for this movie. (^_^)

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boys of tomorrow 우리에게 내일은 없다 [movie]

quiet lonely movie.

well for a start the blurb on the media wiki is not really the best thing to describe this movie. it makes it sound more coherent than it is, and that there is more story to it. It is a very quiet film, kind of sad all the way through, and ultimately bittersweet in its ending.

Nothing much happens for a good long while so describing the story without ruining it is a little hard. The outline is that we follow two friends who have grown up almost as close as brothers but lead very different lives and have a different outlook on life. KiSu (Kim ByeongSeok) is quiet, reserved and lacks confidence to push forward in his life concerning his dreams of being a musician. JongDae (Yoo AhIn) is reckless and aggitated, filled with inadequacies fuelling his desire to own a gun and become stronger than other people.

The issues JongDae holds in him were caused by an incident in childhood where KiSu kicked him in the crotch resulting in JongDae having to have a testicle removed (can that happen?) and KiSu's issues appear to stem from the same incident. inadequacy and guilt seem to be the pair's respective crutches and we watch how the two deal with living their lives coloured by their past.

JongDae's recklessness comes round to bite him when he does eventually get hold of a gun, and KiSu's need to try and protect JongDae also comes into play when things start to go wrong. But as this is such an uneventful movie, to explain any more than that would render it meaningless to watch.

The friendship is not exactly sweet, on the surface you may think so but actually their obligation to each other doesnt feel all that healthy. but never the less their bond is somehow the kind that makes you drawn to them, even though it feels almost sordid - not in a perverted sense, but in that kind of way where you know it is built on a masochistic emotion like guilt - the real love and adoration is burried under the layers of complex issues they suffer from.

JongDae falls in love with a prostitute, which is a sweet part of the story - and feels somehow appropriate considering his impotence and raging inadequacies brought about by his imasculating childhood incident. but this love is the turning point which brings all JongDae's anger and pent up volitility to the surface, and it doesn't end well. Having said that, it doesn't all end in tears either. it is not a film devoid of hope, but it is still the sun in a gloomy grey sky. Not so depressing that you should avoid - but it is a little dingey. Yoo AhIn (sungkyunkwan scandal, antique bakery) who plays JongDae is really interesting though, he seems to pull the whole movie along with his smile and difficult energy. worth watching for his performance alone. He really has got something.

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long love letter ロング・ラブレター[series]

not the usual premise for a japanese series

it has been a while since i saw this so forgive any vagueness i might have. the wiki description doesn't really tell you anything or do it justice so i will try to explain what it is about without giving too much away.

looking like an adorable poodle, kubozuka yosuke plays Asami a teacher at a high school, Tokiwa takako plays Misaki a girl who works in her father's flower shop. The two had met a year before and taken a liking to each other but when Asami's phone was stolen after they had met he could no longer contact her.

The pair meet up again at the school when Misaki has to deliver some flowers and as they start to have a bit of an argument the ground opens up and the school disappears into a crater formed by a huge earthquake. If the earth moves even when you argue i guess it is ment to be (^_^)

The people left behind can only see the massive hole, but inside the school the pupils, Asami, and Misaki are still alive but thrown into a different time. The school materialsed on an endless sea of black sand and as they struggle to survive they begin to realise where they are. Finding wreckages of their old city they understand that they have been thrown into a bleak future where the world appeared to be dessimated by human destruction.

A few people left behind hear the echoes of the lost school and are determined to believe that they are still alive somewhere but are helpless to do anything about it. Back at the school the group are concerned with keeping themselves alive with no water or food, and trying to understand their situation. 

It is a really hectic, sad series, lots of people die, it is a hopeless situation after all. it ends with as much unexplained confusion as it begins which is just glorious fun - leaving you totally lost as to how to feel about the whole thing. I love it when japanese tv steps into sci-fi. they really should do it more. it does not end how you think it will, it spirals off into madness but then does offer a unexpected resolution. im not sure that it is really all that happy of an ending - but more of a mixed bag of feelings. like when you wake up from a bad dream, you a relieved to know it was only a dream but the feelings are still there all the same. it was that kind of sense. (and no it wasnt all just a dream)

Yamapi plays one of the class (who i really liked actually) and he is still at his fluffy gold hair stage - always hillarious. Yamada Takoyaki (i should stop calling him that - i forget his name is atcually takayuki sometimes) and Mizukawa Asami are also good. The class stuck in the school is quite large so there are a nice amount of students we get to know thoughout the hardships. And of course, we watch a good fair few of them die. It is not the happiest of dramas. I was actually shocked at some of the characters they picked off. So sad.

Interesting drama though. really quite different to anything else i have seen. Love kubozuka yosuke and will happily watch him in anything. He will always be The King to me. I would totally be in his gang. When i eventually review IWGP im sure it will just be countless pictures of that man's crazy hair. Seaking of which, he totally looks like a poodle in LLL, it is so cute. Between his poodle-boof and Yamapi's gold fluff there is more fuwa fuwa than a boy love film.

 the king

 

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