Tokyo Dogs 東京DOGS [series]

after watching arakawa... this was weird

i say after arakawa - which is truly very strange, but i dont mean that this show was weird exactly. it is just that Oguri Shun plays such a normal character here that it is quite a leap from Soncho.

im currently watching rich man poor woman so i thought it might be a good time to review tokyo dogs. 

Oguri Shun has recently got married and is still getting great roles, i always enjoy watching him, ever since Binbo Danshi. (when he met his wife, squeeeee!)

now, im going to get confused as to which series im reviewing here. im not doing arakawa, im going to wait until after the movie (yatta!) and im not doing rich man poor woman, just yet.time to focus on tokyo dogs. if i can remember anything about it. 

ah yes, Mizushima Hiro and Yoshitaka Yuriko feature along side Oguri Shun in this drama. Mizushima and Oguri are unlikely partners in the police force (paired together despite their complete dislike for each other) and Yoshitaka plays yuki, who is not only the love interest but the most important piece of their puzzling police case.

Marou (Mizushima) is a bit bizarre. he was kind of a yankii in his younger days and now he is a detective who doesnt really know how to do much but fight and shout a bit too much, he is obsessed with pretty girls (until he meets yuki) and offers the majority of the comedy to the show, the character allows Mizushima to let out his quirky weird tendencies at every given moment.

Takakura (Oguri) saw his dad get shot when he was just a little kid, he trained in the US and became an elite New York City cop determined to catch his father's killer. He is stern and hard, with only that purpose in mind. 

The two policemen get paired up to finally try and bring this killer to justice and in comes Yuki, all memory-buggered and watery eyed, not knowing what the hell is going on or how she is involved, but tangled in it all the same.

They all look f*cking fabulous in this drama, as you can tell from the screen shots. gorgeous, the lot of them. all the characters are good, their banter is hilario, that was meant to be hilarious but spell checker suggested hilario so im keeping it as that. :) 

i thought it would be a bit boring, like a grown up version of shibatora without the premonitions, but it turned out to be really really good. i raced through the whole series in two days and totally enjoyed it - i think even without any sort of premise i could just watch those two idiots bickering with each other for hours.

there is a long question of who did what and bla bla bla - as you get in this sort of story, youre not sure whose side some people are on, there is danger and death on every corner, and lots of Takakura being a total dick to Yuki and making her cry - which is great because Yoshitaka is beautiful when she has tears in her eyes. and she basically looks that way the entire show.

I love how Oguri Shun can be so funny when he is playing such a straight character. it was an inspired choice to cast these two together. It was a bit like hana yori dango pairing him and trout mouth Jun together - but with a better story to show chemistry between good actors. 

It is worth mentioning some other side characters, or rather, their actors; Katsuji Ryou from shouni kyumei, atsu-hime, sore wa totsuzen arashi no you ni, etc etc. i like him a lot, i think his role was adequately stupid and odd. this drama also had wonky jaw woman Tomosaka Rie from samurai pastry chef movie chonmage purin. Mikami Kensei from deka wanko, beck, hanawake, bloody monday, and yamapi is an undertaker - i mean - saikou no jinsei no owarikata. and playing detective Majima, the wonderful Otsuka Nene from tumbling, saigo no yakusoku, iryu, tokyo tower, kurosagi, hero, and a million other things. Majima was a great character with a nice little story arc of her own. 

Yeah this wasnt really the most interesting review ive ever done but blogspot keeps deleting big chunks of stuff i write for no reason so im simplifying my life by cracking this out in a few minutes. 

the series is better than i make it sound. i fail at my job. but im too busy enjoying Oguri Shun's new drama to give a sh*t. 

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Bloody Monday ブラッディ・マンデイ [series]

doll faced terrorists and computer hackers, guns, back stabbing, an awesome sound track, AND a mother f*cking second series. 

most of my screen shots are from the second season because SILVER HAIR and thats all you need to know.

Narimiya Hiroki, Miura Haruma, Kawashima Umika, Sato Takeru, Fujii Mina, Takashima Masahiro... you know what? i cant even be bothered, there are so many characters and amazing actors in this - i just cant even - with this - here is the link to the drama wiki, look them up if you want to know who else is in it. absolutely f*ck doing a cast listing. 

this chick is so hot. my god. seriously.

first off, this will be a utterly pants review. im telling you now. i watched it a long time ago, so i dont have any details fresh to mind to spoil for you - so thats good, but also i cant remember sh*t about it so it might not make much sense. 

also, i just so love this show. that sometimes doesnt help my reviews be particularly coherent. but nevermind! shoganai ne.

It is cheesy. yeah, i cant deny that one. but of course it is a bit over the top. proper tense computer hacker stuff always is - you know the plot - young kid hacker genius called in by police to help against terrorist, gets caught up in a load of stuff he shouldnt have to deal with, but does it brilliantly because he is Miura Haruma and awesome. 

fantastic cast - you just couldnt ask for much better than these two, then along come the rest and it just spirals off into a whirlwind of - oh god its everyone i love from everything ive ever seen all at once in the same drama.

Sato Takeru plays his friend, Narimiya Hiroki plays a mastermind terrorist, the wonderful Kichise Michiko from liar game, hanawake, boss, pandora, nodame, bla bla bla... uh how did i start this sentence? well, her anyway, she plays a - uh - sort of -    ...  i dont really know. she's just badass.

Mitsushima Hikari comes into the second season *swoon* oh god i love that girl. christ i just want her a Narimiya to make a swarm of the most charismatic babies that ever lived. 




aside from all the fan girl fodder, it has a really solid story and is shot really well. yeah its cheesy but you know that sort of panic stricken story line kind of has to be. 

its always a race against time to stop the world from blowing up in an insane fight with code name: puff the magic dragon on crack, while the whole of the world watch, and only one small boy and his dog - i mean - laptop can save humanity... 

there are lots of camera shots close up of staring eyes and weird angles, dramatic music to accompany the countdown to explosions and death and such...

and of course the obligatory changing of sides from baddie to goodie and goodie to badass mother trucker that you never expected or you kind of did but then thought it was someone else but then the music made you think it might be them again and then - bam! yep, they screwed everyone over and no-one ever saw it coming. 

the second series is awesome. i watched it in about 4 days. it is too good to just say, oh i'll watch it later, seriously guys, if you havent watched it already make this your next one. if only for the silver hair. oh god. the silver hair. i died over and over again. 

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Hear Me 听说 Ting Shuo [movie]

sounds in the silence

ok, its been a really long time since i wrote anything here and it seems ive forgotten everything about how this place works. so forgive the terrible attempt this will be. Im super busy these days and i am just doing this review to try and kick start my self into doing all this again.

This Taiwanese movie staring Ivy Chen and Yanxi Chen as sisters Yang Yang and Xiao Peng, and Eddie Peng as Tian Kuo, is a very quiet sweet film i found on youtube here and watched when i really should have just been going to sleep. I havent watched many Taiwanese movies but the more i watch the more i like them. There is something very particular, that i cant place, which draws me in. 

Ting Shuo (hear me) is a story centered around two sisters and a boy who befriends one of them. hmm, its actually hard to say much about this film, i dont want to spoil it by spilling out any of the details that shouldnt be revealed... 

it is not a massive twist in the tale kind of film but its hard to explain anything without totally ruining the gentle surprise of having the story unfold as you watch. its a very sweet film, following two struggling sisters dealing with poverty, self sacrifice, hearing disabilities, and all the other normal stuff like love and friendship etc. 

most of the time the characters are using sign language to speak, but it is not void of vocals as we meet Tian Kuo's parents who create a lively caring family for him, who also become respectful of the deaf community with their actions towards their son's new friend. 

The sisters are having their own struggles in their individual lives and also with each other, Tian Kuo gets slightly entangled but ultimately has to stand aside and wait in ignorant confusion until he can finally confess his love for his new but treasured friend.

there are some very sweet misunderstandings between these three characters, and we basically follow their motions of coming to terms with their situations. its not a coming of age story exactly, but a small snippit of their lives at a pivotal moment of change for them all.

the relationships between all the characters are sweet and interesting, everyone is likable and you hope for the best throughout. i did like Tian turning up on the girl's door step dressed as a tree. that was class. 

he had a real geeky sense to him but it was underplayed beautifully by Eddie Peng. he added a lot of humour to the role but not so much to become a comic relief character. 

The dejected Tian sat at his computer trying to work out how to confess, while wrapped up in his own christmas lights, talking to his screen and acting like a total paranoid prune - i just think his subtle but quirky manner added a myriad of layers to the film that would have been flat without it. not that i really noticed it too much at the time, but thinking on it afterwards i realised just how much his character added to the adorable story.

i say this because most of the time we are focused on the younger sister Yang Yang. She is very textured - troubled by heavy responsibilities but always energetic and hard working. 

her manner is gentle and caring but she is also very funny and a little tomboyish. Yang Yang and Tian strike up a god friendship built on odd little things that connect the pair. 

it just deleted the whole last part of my review and i cant be bothered to re-write it now. so this will have to do. im not writing it again. i hate this f*cking editor now. they changed it all and its sh*t. just go watch the movie.

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