Tsuki no Koibito 月の恋人 [series]

Yeah yeah yeah you hate the Chinese girl, we know we know.

I know everyone hates this one, everyone hates everything Kimu Taku has done since 2010 onwards but if you don't compare it with before, you might actually like this drama. 

His character is the bastard, not the actor. Just because he is not playing some smooth or funny or quirky likable guy, or love to hateable guy even, you cant blame him for this drama being boring. 

And actually I dont think it is, I think it is mature and slow paced and ...actually a little bit odd, like two dramas in one, but its not what I would call boring. 

I've read so many bad reviews of this show, and heard so many people say they dont like anything of Kimu Taku's work post CHANGE, which I loved too or MR BRAIN which I also adored with all the bananas in my heart. But why does those dramas being so good mean this one is automatically bad?

I don't really care, I'm not going to beat this drama down like everyone else, Im not going to sing high praises either but I liked it at the time, I don't want to be swayed by other people's weird opinions of Lin Chi Ling, and Kitagawa Keiko with her brilliant gyaru bitch whining. 

So many comments from Japanese viewers saying they were annoyed by Ling's broken Japanese language skills... when that was how the character was meant to be like.... I dont really understand how she was annoying but whatever. 

I thought she was a pretty strong character so I can only assume it was due to either racism or just rooting for Shinohara's character to steal her man. 

I cant really outline the plot too well because this was, what, 4 years ago now? Yeah 4 years ago this month in fact. I cant remember all that much but I will scrape together what I can from my withered old memory. 

Whatever way you look at it Hazuki Rensuke is a bastard you don't really want to be around, let a lone work for. Certainly not one you want to fall for. 

He is the president of Regolith, a furnishings company. 

He started off by making his own pieces by hand, building his cared for designs with attention to detail and always thinking of their function and users. 

The warm touch he once had is long gone and he only wishes to increase his market share in the world and expand as much as possible. 

To add to his unlikable traits he ends up finding himself a Chinese trophy wife who he took away from a bad situation and turned into a model - and isn't he oh so proud of himself for doing so. 

She rebels against him as much as she can eventually when he begins to treat her like less than a person, but its a long road out of the box she becomes trapped in. Throw in a transvestite brother in heaps of debt and you have yourself a sh*te situation nipping at your heals. 

I think one of the main reasons viewers did not Xiu Mei is that they didn't realise she was meant to be such a pivotal character as they started watching. She became highly important and not just a side story to Rensuke and Ninomiya's relationship. 

Ninomiya had known him since forever and watched him grow into the unlikable guy we meet at the beginning of this drama. We know she loves him, he is obviously oblivious and uses the friendship to his own ends. She is feisty though and doesn't take is crap like everyone else, well she takes it but she isn't quiet about it. 

We have a whole bunch of interesting characters come in and out... I just looked on drama wiki and it said there were only 8 episodes. I cant believe that. There's no way! So much happens; it really travels through time from one crazy situation and another. It cant be 8 episodes long... Apparently it is though. 

I like his ultimate downfall, but I think the journey to that point is also interesting. He becomes a much more likable person when it has all fallen to pieces ...but still a bit of a moron. 

Shinohara wins the whole show really, I thought at the time how she stole every scene. 

I think if you havent seen it already you should give it a fair chance. Its a great cast and a slightly unusual story, I don't think it deserves the slating it received. If nothing else but for Shinohara's frustrated face. 

I will end with a cast list as the cast was all anyone seemed to care about when this drama aired.

Main cast:

Kimura Takuya - Hazuki Rensuke 

Shinohara Ryoko - Ninomiya Maemi 

Lin Chi Ling - Liu Xiu Mei 

Matsuda Shota - Sai Kazami/Cai Feng Jian 

Kitagawa Keiko - Onuki Yuzuki 

Watanabe Ikkei - Kijihata Togo 

Hamada Gaku - Maehara Tsuguo 

Mikami Kensei - Koizumi Keiichi 

Nishiyama Maki - Eruka 

Mitsushima Hikari - Anzai Rina 

Nakamura Yuri - Kasahara Yuki 

Abe Tsuyoshi - Min 

Nagatsuka Kyozo - Onuki Shogen 

Nukumizu Youichi - Tokita Ikuzo 

Takenaka Naoto - Maruyama Tetsuji 

Kabira Jay - Mineoka Yasuyuki

I'm pretty sure that one set was the same place they shot some of Sailor moon. I noticed once when I was watching Kitagawa Keigo doing cartwheels to kill rubber suity bad guys. 

I like the settings and different areas they shot in for this series. Almost as gorgeous as Shinohara. Nothing quite beats Matsuda Shota's horrible hair style though - oh my god that was bad.

Just watching it back to get some screen shots I remembered the banter between Rensuke and Ninomiya, it was really bickery like siblings, I enjoyed that. It was different to other relationships in dramas I guess because he stayed a po faced moody git until the very end and didn't really change all that much. I still wanted them to end up together though. I think they worked well together but I think maybe people just didn't like Rensuke enough. He is hard to love lets face it. 

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Liar Game ライアーゲーム [series] [movie]

Warning: full if my Toda Erika ureshii squees

Somehow I now have to start the massive undertaking that is reviewing Liar Game. This is a two series and one movie drama starring Matsuda Shota and Toda Erika full of twists and turns, psychological nasties and larger than life characters.

This is not a difficult drama to watch considering the mathematics and underhand schemes are a little challenging to keep up with at times, I remember was so upset to find I only had the two series and there was a whole other part I didn’t have – I spent ages trying to find the movie in a panic to gain some closure to the whole thing.

I will definitely watch this again – maybe soon – it has been a long long time since I saw this and I could watch Toda Erika be little miss cute worried face all day long.

In fact, I think she and Massu should get together and make adorable worried faced babies. Man, they would have some seriously cute children.

How can I make this happen…

Kanzai Nao is scouted by the Liar Game due to her unshakable honesty and pure personality. A game to force people into debt and make them swindle each other out of everything, limits are tested and a fortune is set to be made from naïve victims.

A swindler newly released from jail also joins the game after Nao asks him for help. Akiyama has the quick mind of a genius gambler and through their polar opposing actions attempt to save the whole group of players from this evil game.

I love Toda Erika. I just love her. This was the series that really solidified it, but I had already fallen for her way before. This was actually a really long time ago, thinking about it, I watched it all from the beginning of season 1 as the movie was coming out in early 2010. It was one big epic chunk of Liar Game.

Some characters feature in both series and even on to the movie – the awesome Fukanaga (Suzuki kosuke) and Tanimura & Eri from the Liar Game team (Watanabe Ikkei and Kichise Michiko)

My favourite character doesn’t come in until season two, Katsuragi Ryo played by Kikuchi Rinko (Norwegian wood) turns up as a nemesis to Akiyama and god I loved her and her cool theme tune that played every time she came on screen.

At this point, seen as I have brought it up, I should mention that capsule カプセル do the soundtracks to both series’ and the film, and my god they are awesome. So I would suggest getting them even if you don’t plan on watching Liar game, or you don’t listen to capsule. Maybe do though. It’s worth it.

I always find it hard doing reviews on longer series as I don’t want to give anything away from later down the line and I end up not explaining anything.

The sets are really cool, the tricks are very clever, the characters are off the wall at best, the plot is up and down more than premenstrual mood swings, and Toda Erika is just plain adorable, I love her I love her I love her.

Normally, sickly sweet characters don’t resonate with me, and I can usually never find their substance, but I just can’t help but like Kanzaki Nao. Matsuda Shota taught me the ~te form of the verb oshiemasu as he repeates it god knows how many times as his character Akiyama struts around like some psycho-genius wanting to show off his great big brain at any opportunity. I now cannot hear anyone oshieteiruyo without thinking of him. Well, never mind.

I actually should not be doing these reviews; I have been doing this all day instead of getting on with uni work so I’m going to stop here. I can’t even be bothered to end this properly so I’m just going to chuck in a load of promo stuff from the show.

 

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hana yori dango 花より男子 [series] [movie]

how can you like a series where one of the lead characters is such a total pr*ck...


main cast:
inoue mao - makino tsukushi
matsumoto jun - domyoji tsukasa
oguri shun - hanazawa rui
matsuda shota as nishikado sojiro
abe tsuyoshi as mimasaka Akira

there isnt much to say on the 2 series and 1 movie
ball of frustration that is hana yori dango.

it p*ssed me off. it basically consists of domyoji being an absolute d*ck constantly makino shout and scream every five minutes, hanazawa being bored of everything and looking totally unimpressed, makino getting on the wrong side of everyone then everyone gettin on the wrong side of makino, no-one getting their act together and it all ending in tears.

all the time

its one of those series that gets refered to in other things as the manga was so popular. there are also korean, taiwanese and chinese live action series adaptations (kgotboda namja, meteor garden, lui xing yu)

hana yori dango is pretty over the top, its frustrating and ridiculous but thats not to say it is bad, it just wound me up. 

matsumoto jun seems to be a genius when it comes to making the viewer absolutely hate his characters and then just when he's wound you up so much you cant be bothered to watch anymore he starts showing some personality and then damn it before you realise you kinda dont want to admit it but oh f*ck when did that happen... you suddenly start rooting for him.

bear with it though, it takes half a series.

the real star of hana yori dango really is inoue mao. she was very funny and completely lovable. 

makino is so strong and hardworking that her respectable determination keeps the story worth following. 

inoue teamed up pretty well with matsumoto for this i think, both of their characters had such strong personalities that the show was never boring. infact it was an unbelievable farse in places.

i like the second series more than the first, and the film is just plain weird.

in the first series its really harsh to begin with. makino is the only poor girl in the whole school surrounded by snobs and the elite. makino, being the tough little monkey that she is, stands up for a bullied student and p*sses of F4 (led by domyoji); the elite group that rule over the school. 

But for f*ck sake - he paid some goons to trap her in a room and assualt her. I am i missing something here? How could she ever love someone that did that? It's disgraceful. But then i realise, two series and a movie later that I too had forgotten about that. 

...I'm not sure how that happened. 

its obvious where its all going, F4 declare war on her but makino in turn declares war on them. eventually they all in turn fall for her strength and personality and she begins to turn them all into proper humans with feelings and the such.

domyoji develops feelings for makino after she punches him in a kind of 'no-one but my sister stands up to me' type way but makino likes hanazawa due to the countless times he has had to save her from various rediculous problematic situations (usually caused by domyoji)

it gets all tangled and proposterous but its easy viewing if you dont let it wind you up

if you want to put in for the long haul of both series and the movie then go for it, but if you think you might give up then dont watch it. i really believe it got better with the second series and i did actually start to like domyoji enough to want it all to work out. i really dont know how matsumoto jun did it to be honest.

domyoji is a d*ck.

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