BORDER ボーダー [series]

Bullets in the brain will do strange things to a drama... 

Not so many tears this time though, its not the same bullet in the head story as Sorry I love you, this time not everyone you love dies, and we have the added bonus of ghosts. 

Yup, I thought it might be another Tokyo Dogs style drama when it first started, but then I thought Oguri's character looked pretty subdued and wasn't sure where it was going - I watched it while it was airing so didn't have a clue what it was about. 

After a short while the weird kicks in - I dont mean like Yuusha Yoshihiko weird, I just mean the ghost whisperer format begins. 

It felt unexpected, and I suddenly realised what kind of drama this would be. Everything else is pretty normal real life style, with this thrown in as his personal battle. 

There are some ghosts I really liked, and some moments can get a bit weepy as you might expect but over all not too depressing of a drama. Although anything involving the death of children obviously gets pretty upsetting.

I liked the relationship between the main characters, but I just wanted him to be honest about his ghost whispering with the forensics woman. They were an interesting pair and I think they could have made more of their connection with making them better friends from earlier. 

I like seeing people talking to ghosts and trying to be inconspicuous. Has no-one seriously thought of using hands free ear pieces to make it look like they are just on the phone??? People do indeed think you are mental. I mean, you are, but not for that reason. 

Basically Oguri's character gets shot, has a bullet lodged in his brain and it makes him see ghosts. He has to deal with the choice of whether to remove the bullet and if so when. Its a tricky situation for many reasons and he has a massive dilemma on his hands with that and eventually begins to feel himself pulled into a darker side of morality.

He uncovers underground criminal activity issues even within his own team - I don't think I actually mentioned he was a police detective yet did I? 

Well anyway, as he chases the bad guys who killed his newly formed ill fated friends with clues from the patchy memories of their own deaths, he discovers the intertwining nasties behind the scenes and the story becomes much bigger for him than he expected. 

He wonders if he will retain this power once he has the bullet removed, he wonders if he will even survive it. And he wonders if he can really give up this ability after saving the souls of the victims he encounters. 

Yeah it get s a bit deep and slightly existential but not so much as a Clone Baby style drama would. This has a more mature script and set of actors in the make up, so it is not all rammed down your throat at once with furrows of worry accompanied by a naff sound track of only one melodramatic song. 

But with the more mature take on these matters comes a more serious story line which can get pretty dark at times.

It is mature, but it has many light relief moments, some darker moments for sure but it doesn't really fit into the super intense psychological drama category, at least not until the savage ending. 

I'm not sure where it fits really but it was well received at the time, the ratings were good, and I think the cast had a lot to do with that. Oguri Shun's dramas do tend to be pretty high these days and at least the writing was good enough to keep a steady pace throughout. 

It wasn't the best drama I've ever seen, at times it was a little bit flat; it didn't grip me like more tense dramas of the mid to late 2000's like Maou and Orthros. But I dont think its meant to be that kind of show. To be honest I think it stands in its favour because those overly tense dramas can be a bit too much sometimes. 

It features some really good guest actors as the ghosts and side story characters such as Omori Nao (Hagetaka) who plays a child killer so unbelievably well in the most uncomfortable and disconcerting way, I thought he was fantastic at portraying the distant cold sense of a psychopath. I could watch a whole series of just him and Oguri Shun's character in a mind game battle chase drama.

And also Takito Kenichi (Hanzawa Naoki) as a reporter who sees everything a bit like a stalker would before it all becomes something even out of his remit. 

One of the other guests I noticed was Koyanagi Yuu who played Chiba in Yankii kun to Megane chan, but no-one has really done a proper complete cast list of the guest stars as far as I can see. 

Main cast list:

Oguri Shun - Ishikawa Ango 

Aoki Munetaka - Tachibana Yuma 

Haru - Higa Mika 

Endo Kenichi - Ichikura Takuji 

Furuta Arata - Akai 

Takito Kenichi - Suzuki Nomaguchi 

Haruki - Miyazato

Watanabe Saori - Hashizume

Yamaguchi Yoshiyuki - Kaiko

Toru Nomaguchi- Hacker Garfunkel 

Hamano Kenta - Hacker Simon

Well I think this was a pretty badly written review but as I'm at work right now I cant concentrate too hard on what I'm saying. Shirking with an hour and a half left still to go with nothing to do unless I do all of tomorrow's stuff too.... 

Its nice to try and remember these dramas first before getting screen shots, it makes me realise just how little I remember of some shows, sometimes not long after I've seen them. 

This one I do remember mostly though, so I guess that's a good sign. I liked the final big bastard show down near the end and then the shocking actual ending. 

And even though his character was utterly horrible I love seeing Omori Nao in anything at all these days so that was good for me. I really need to review Hagetaka and get some great shots of him in physio rehab. He was so cool.

But yeah anyway, this particular show I think they could have done a little bit more with, but never the less I don't think it was a loss by far. It certainly didn't feel like anything new but hey if they can make 3 series' of Gokusen with exactly the same stories, characters and even dialogue, then I think we can handle the endless churning out of detective dramas that all feel the same.

~

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. 

~

gokusen ごくせん [series] [movie]

duuuh duh nuh nuuuuh! dun dun duh  da duuuuh!
(that was yankumi turning up in your smokey warehouse to beat you down!)

where on earth do i start... how do i review the almighty gok? there is no way to not love gokusen. even if you dont like it you actually do you just dont realise it. this has the potential to be the longest review with the most pictures im not even gonna bother putting all the main characters names in it would take me forever. look it up on dramawiki. 

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Gokusen

ok, we first meet yankumi on her very very first teaching job. she is heir to a yakuza gang but wanted to be a teacher so off she went. hiding her yakuzaryness from eveyone was a little bit hard as she was put in charge of the rowdiest bunch of delinquent yankiis ever seen this side of the second series. kekeke

sawada (matsumoto jun) leads the group he's all moody ass and pouty (though its hard not to pout with that mouth youre never sure what's acting and what's just his face) also featuring in the main group are fantastic actors oguri shun and narimiya hiroki.

one by one the class comes to love yankumi as she sticks her nose (and fists) into their fights and disasterious attempts to stay in school her job becomes to just get them all to graduate without dying or getting expelled first.

yankumi storms into the abandoned warehouses (that apparantly japan has millions of) to save the beaten sh*tless boys when theyre in trouble she beats up any thugs that even sneeze near the tv program and all the guys come to kinda know she's a bit special.

the second series is exactly the same format just a new class. this time with kamenashi kazuya from kat-tun and his bandmate bakanishi jingrish sama akanishi jin. its got a great cast this time round too. the stories are exactly the same - but you just dont care!

they always get mixed up in stuff they shouldnt, nearly get expelled, all hell breaks loose every five minutes and yankumi must lose her job like three times every season.

the third series i have to admit i have a soft spot for. although really its too hard to have a favourite series for me as its all like one big epic movie (i lost a good few weeks just watching series 1 and 2 back to back while waiting for the 3rd one to come out)

this (supposed) final series has miura haruma (samurai high school, bloody monday) and lots of other lovely faces that once again get into the same old sh*t as the other previous classes. but hey - thats what teacher see right? kids go through a lot of the same stuff as their peers. just maybe not some of this sh*t. in reality.

if i say its far fetched, stupid, relentless, repetative, righteous, violent, farsical, unbelievable, corny, predictable, etc etc i may get slapped by the god of brilliant manga adaptation drama but i say it with love! i swear!

its jammed full of moral messages about not being a d*ck and standing up for your friends and all that sorta stuff - but in the nice way japanese tv does it not in the vomit inducing disney type way. yankumi talks the guys down while smacking them in the face. yay!

ok so i should mention yankumi and the other teachers for a minute. she is played by nakama yukie (she really has been in so many things i thought id just put in her dramawiki link http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Nakama_Yukie instead of bother to explain who she is if you dont already know her greatness)

the head teacher she butts heads with constantly in each series sawatari is played by namase katsuhisa. his character gets better and better with each series. the other reoccuring teacher is baba played by azuma mikihisa (he has the hots for yankumi from the moment they met but she only has eyes for unattainable prince on a horse type out of her bumbling clumsy league guys) also yankumi's yakuza family feature in all three series' playing a big part in the story lines. all those guys are great. and also bumbling clumsy idiots.

ok, so on to the movie.

this was supposed to finish off the lot. but im still hoping they do a final series and bring back sawada from the very first series to marry yankumi - lots of gok fans really wish for this.

the movie features a new class and also many of the guys from the third series as main characters in the film. it also has countless short appearances from past characters from all of the series'. (even nakamura yuichi is in there - yes i noticed that one you little scamp! - he was in series 2 if you didnt notice him)

                                                                    there he is ^

and like the three previous series kuma (waki tomohiro) is also around to be generally great and smiley. i really like that he comes back each time we get a new gok.

the best thing about this film? well along side yankumi who should come to work in this school but kamenashi kazuya! i mean his character from series two. aish he couldnt have been more cool. that jacket and the trousers tucked into his boots (^_^) the ever moody pout and quiet mumbling sarcastic remarks and getting beaten up all over again! just like old times right?

for me it works so well as i feel that out of all the students  he got to know yankumi the most somehow. having him there to remind her of what an idiot she is is just genius.

and for the hardcore fans of the drama (and there are almost as many as fans of the manga) we have gokathons where we just watch it all over again over a short period of time and walk around for the few weeks afterwards picking fights with randomers in the street who looked like they might shake us down for small change or pick on our comrade

but we dont back down from any fights do we?!

for this is the blood, sweat and tears of youth!

its also called psychosis caused by the over exposure to gokusen righteous violence.

it doesnt help when you have yankumi's big entrance theme as your ringtone.

if it goes off when you walk into a room... minutes later you realise youve just trashed the place by throwing everyone around and beaten the living sh*t out of them with steel poles that just happened to be laying there all around you.

and god forbid you go anywhere near the beach or a park or a long street you'll end up running or fighting or running and fighting. aish it never ends.

yeah thats right. gokusen psychosis.

there was a helpline.

but the 'on hold' music was yankumi's theme.

there were riots.

those dockyard warehouses never fully recovered.

...

kattun gok skit:

becky doing yankumi impressions on cartoon kattun:

i really want a clip of the bit right after when nakamaru does the impression too

its the funniest thing in the universe. aish nakamaru rocks.