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. 

~

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. 

~

ai no mukidashi 愛のむきだし [movie]

sion sono   - making the perverse palatable.


ai no mukidashi is the epitome of japanese cinema,
absolutely hysterical but also pushing the boundries of what is moral,
comfortable, and even presentable.



with ai no mukidashi (love exposure) writer/director sion sono (sono shion)
created a four hour long masterpiece of perverse, disturbing, rip roaringly
funny stupidity. making the insanely surreal and dirty completely watchable.



this is not a film i would choose to watch with just anyone, actually there
are very few people i would be comfortable viewing this with, but on
the flip side - this is a piece of art i cannot help but advise people to see.



as it is so long it is more like a mini drama than a movie
and it is split up into chapters. to tell the truth though,
there is no trouble in watching it all in one go.



explaining the premis may be a challenge but i will try...

yu, played by the wonderful nishijima takahiro
(delicious gakuin, ghost friends, and the dance pop group AAA) is the
son of a devout catholic priest, played by watabe atsuro (godhand teru).



in order to please his increasingly messed up father
yu believes he must sin as much as he can
so that he has something to offer in his fathers intense confessionals.



yu befriends some thugs and their gang, winning them over instantly with his
adorable nature twinned with his unshaking desire to sin,
and is taught how to steal, fight, and take covert photographs up girls skirts.
(using full on action stunt man type flips, commando rolls,
team tactics, and swift acrobatics in order to do so)




though at heart he is still pure and innocent
yu is soon dubbed the prince of perverts.



after losing a bet with his friends yu walks through the town in drag and
comes across yoko (mitsushima hikari), whom he doesnt know at this point,
in a fight with a huge gang of guys.



yoko and yu beat the living crap out of them all and they fall for each other...
although yoko thinks yu is a girl.



all this is being watched (and orchestrated) by koike (ando sakura)
a cult leader and underworld crazy person.



her obsession with yu
and gaining his family in her cult drives her to devise twisted plans
involving yoko, her adoptive mother,yu and yu's father.



everyone has some kind of abuse or torment in their past.
it is a little disturbing but it is not lingered on in a horror or thriller type way.



it is a little brutal at times but is always shot with the same surreal light as
the rest of the movie. somehow even with all the humour
the darker scenes dont feel out of place.




this movie is completely nuts. i cant even explain just how crazy i felt
after watching. but i left the film with the same little
scream of laughter with which i entered it.



i should say a little about mitsushima hikari for a moment.
she gave a phenomenal performance and her character was thrown from
one situation to the next in the most taxing of ways.



from her abuse, rebellion, disgust with men,
and her love for miss scorpion (yu in drag),
screaming a whole passage from the bible at her kidknapper,
being brainwashed, and eventually coming to an emotional realisation
that everything she and yu had been through was
completely and utterly screwed up.




that is a lot for a girl to act and she showed her
mature skill through such a young vessel. absolutely flawless.

nishijima takahiro was an absolute star in my eyes from before
ai no mukidashi but boy am i glad i found this movie.
what a performance. i dont think im ever going to look at him in the
same light ever again.



the constant shots of him with a rather large hard on made me
scream with embrassed laughter, and his comic acting throughout
is so natural that it is almost accidental,



but somehow he is completely believable when switching from the
intense smiling masochist calling for his father to hit him again,
to when he is desperately trying to save yoko from the cult
and is screaming and going nuts with a samurai sword.




looking at it now, i cant think of any two people who could have
delivered these roles so innocently. and that is what they needed.
it would not have worked without nishijima's playful smile
and mitsushima's deep eyes.



i felt truly mental for a while after watching it. it is like a void of surreal insanity.
what a piece of art though. ive never seen anything quite like it,
and i think i never will.




this film won an awful lot of awards, and it is not hard to see why.
i almost wish sion sono had been allowed to run with it being its
original 6 hours in length but i darent imagine
what else happened in those two lost hours.



i am just happy that something so perverse was watchable for me,
if it had been too dark or graphic i would not have been able to appreciate it.
i doubt i would have even tried to watch it.



but as it stands it is a completely accessible 
wrong but constantly funny movie
well worth setting aside four hours for.

trailer: