I have to interrupt my SPEC reviews again for this drama I just finished. I was expecting a low budget really bad drama full of lame acting and bad effects - which I got, but out of the smoke and fog of cheesy dialogue and terrible mournful furrows of worry ...came a beacon of genuine acting skill... What the f*ck?
Now, I've liked Endo Yuya in a lot of things, he has always been weird and interesting side characters in a range of shows and movies but somehow he stole it away for himself this time. The script and general execution of the series was a bit piss poor, as you would expect from this kind of drama, but Endo was acting like he was in any other mainstream show, with all the subtle looks and perfectly timed lip quivers of a veteran low budget actor like Saito Takumi or Mizushima Hiro.
These guys have moved on to better things with huge budgets but continually come back to lower class movies and dramas just because, I guess, its fun and the stories are so different.
I didn't know Endo would do the same. He has brought back his acting skills from the better shows he has done and not lowered his level at all for the piece of crap melodramatic late night bollocks that is Higanjima.
Don't misunderstand, I liked it. It was easy to watch even without subs - there seem to be none anywhere on the entire internet. I'm not slating it at all, I'm just really impressed that Endo can act like he is in a big budget movie for such a low class idiot drama.
Cast:
Shiraishi Shunya - Akira
Suzuki Ryohei - Atsushi
Endo Yuya - Ken
Yamashita Rio - Yuki
Megumi Sato - Rei
Kurihara Louis - Vampire Miyabi
Nishii Yukito - Bon
I will admit I just wated to see Kurihara Louis as a crazed man-made vampire hell bent on destroying his hated mankind for torturing him. And he delivered his usual scope of overly weird, slightly more weird, and generally creepy weird, as I expected. He wore that wig well.
But I was just completely taken in by Endo's Ken. He really seemed tough and cool and worth rooting for. Never seen Endo with long hair looking a bit stacked either - where did those shoulders come from? Weren't you like, a tiny 12 year old skinny thing a little while ago..? I think someone has started eating their greens.
I wasn't so sold on the rest of the gang, but Suzuki Ryohei (Hentai Kamen, Zenkai Girl, Tokyo Dogs, Majo saiban, Mei chan no shitsuji, Papa doru, Yankii kun to megane chan, Hana Kimi - do I seriously need to go on?) is another good actor that also raises the bar of this cheap late night drama.
The main character Akira is a little bit flat, I like Shiraishi Shunya but I think this character isn't much to work with - there's not really much time to flesh out the characters. I expect the manga is totally different.
The cast definitely made it feel more like an obscure movie rather than a low budget drama. I just imagined if this had been filmed with the cast and directors of Clone Baby... oh god no. Although one of its directors did also do Megane chan so go figure that one out.
The cast definitely made it feel more like an obscure movie rather than a low budget drama. I just imagined if this had been filmed with the cast and directors of Clone Baby... oh god no. Although one of its directors did also do Megane chan so go figure that one out.
Anyway its not Clone Baby. Although it is bad and cheesy and cheap, very short episodes, and no huge climactic ending, there are some nice back stories (as much as you can cover in those super short eps) and I'm wondering now how the movie worked out. It had a much higher budget, Mizukawa Asami is in it for a start, but I'm not sold yet. 
I mentioned my partner in crime before, my own Hanzawa Naoki boy Taka, well he works for the company who did some CGI effects on the movie, so I kind of feel like I should watch the movie now too. At least that one has subs. It doesn't look much better than this drama to be honest, but when I can be bothered I will give it a watch.
Aaagghgh I ranted without saying any plot again.
From what I can gather, Akira's brother went missing when they visited his girlfriend's parents on the Island of red spider lilies (Higanjima) and promptly freed the vampire Miyabi from his boarded up shed thing - as you do. Miyabi was a kind of vampire king on the island so much as he spawned them all after killing the military unit that made him. I missed a bit somewhere because I wasn't paying attention but I think he got locked up by the main military guy but when he got let out by Atsushi he killed everyone and spawned an island full of minions again. I'm not sure about that part I was taking SPEC screen shots at the time.
So Akira never knew what happened to his brother until one day this chick tricks him onto the island - I never got what her back story was apart from needing to rescue her sister. I wasn't listening when that bit was on either. Sh*t I really wasn't paying attention was I.
Anyway, Akira and his brother team up once reunited on the island to finally thwart the vampire Miyabi, but first have to battle a whole island full of hungry vamps and the odd monster here and there.
I really should pay attention instead of finishing off my other posts.
You know when you have a TV show on in the back ground while you are cleaning and suddenly all this stuff is happening that you have n context for? Yeah that.
Well, that is what I got anyway. I thought it was worth watching purely for Kurihara Louis' weird face and I got a side salad of Endo Yuya being f*cking amazing. So yeah. Its a win for this crappy show I think.
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