Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi まほろ駅前番外地 [movie] [series]

Gintama staring Eita as Gintoki and Matsu Ryu as Kagura. I dub thee bangumi "Eitama"

Cast: 

Tada Keisuke - Eita (Last friends, Sunao ni Narenakute, Voice)

Gyoten Haruhiko - Matsuda Ryuhei (Aoi Haru)

Series also includes:

Miura Masaki (Zettai Radio)

Kora Kengo (Gokusen 2)

Yamamoto Maika (Kasuka na Kanojo)

Sakai Maki (Nekoben to Toumei Ningen sp2)

Kawamura Yukie (ROMES)

Ok first off, let me say that this site sucks. 

I cant center any of my images so the formatting issues I'm having are going to make this post completely awful. 

I have not got the energy to re do the whole thing for the forth time just to get the photos in so they are going in whichever way they will. F*ck it.

Grumpy pouting at this stupid site.

The movie comes first, showing how the two main characters meet and

become Tada Benriken - the odd jobs shop baring a striking resemblance to Gintama's yoroza ethos of taking on the most bizarre and seemingly impossible requests of its customers. 

Shall we start the petition for Eita to play Gintoki in a live action Gintama now or later?

Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi まほろ駅前番外地 [movie]

Maybe let's just review this first. 

I just want to finish this review so I can have Eitama on the top of my front page with his beautiful face, 

but I cant rush this review as I have just realised I took over 30 screen shots - from the movie alone. 

I need to somehow write so much that I can fit all of those pictures here. Never going to happen. 

Every single one is too gorgeous not to include but I will have to ramble on about pointless sh*t for a while to get everything in. No change there then.

I watched the movie after the series because I'm an idiot and didn't realise until I was half way through that the movie came first. 

To be fair, the series has that old style look to it and the movie looked new and shiny so what was I supposed to think. 

It worked that way though. I enjoyed the flash back to how they met up and became who they are now in the recent series.

~ Sneezing fit. 

Anyway, we see Eita's character Tada on his missions looking kind of alone but complacent, bump into Gyōten who he knew from school. He picks him up like a stray cat and they begin to embark on their odd road to friendship and contentment through the trials thrown in their way.

~ Seriously stop f*cking sneezing.

This movie sets the scene for the coming ridiculousness of the series. But honestly either one without the other is fine, any which way round is also fine. 

I think the series stands alone just as much as the movie. Both together is a bonus of fully textured lovable characters. 

These guys both have charm leaking out of every word and glance. As they fall for each other's charm, we completely fall for theirs.

I skate between wanting to be Eita with his amazing hair, then wanting to have an adorable stray like Gyōten to knock around with, then daydream about that awesome pile of sh*t place they live in, and then get fixated on Matsu Ryu's warm presence and fantastic acting skill which brings me back into the movie I'm watching.

Leaping away from Aoi Haru and the cold bizarre harshities of that situation, Matsu Ryu has another character who's everything is hiding behind seemingly dead eyes. But charm is the first, last and every other middling word I would use to describe his essence. 

Natural and subtle. Also a bit slap stick and silly. 

The way he runs with his hands flapping by his sides and always in is sandals and pajamas is so cute. 

As I've said, Tada is basically Gintoki from Gintama. 

He is so thoughtful and awesome but also pretty damn useless and buckles to his surrounding loved ones - running to the rescue of everyone he has a fleeting feeling for. Not a negative trait, but a one which conflicts with his personality of wanting to stay out of trouble and keep himself to himself.

In the movie we get the back story to both Tada and Gyōten's previous troubles in life and find out how they wound up where they are. 

We meet quite a few people from the series like the policemen and Hoshi the gangster with the most fetching white waist coat I ever saw not on a boyband member from the 90's.

Gyōten's wife was f*cking hot.

So you might have noticed by now that I've basically got screen shots of nothing but their faces pretty close up. 

This is not just because they are so photogenic and I'm completely happy to smother my front page with them. 

It is mainly because... 

well no it is mainly the reason I just said, 

but it is  because the movie is just lots of quiet scenes with not much talking, looking at their close up faces while they look at stuff or think about stuff. All fine with me. As explained. 

My shots are pretty much all from the movie. The picture quality of my movie file is better than that of the drama so I took a battered old windscreenless truck load of them.

But the series is so good, I will run through a few examples of the stupid sh*t they get up to.

Mahoro Ekimae Bangaichi まほろ駅前番外地 [series]

In the first episode they become Mexican wrestlers - as a requested odd job, not as a hobby. Which is genius. 

Other jobs included disposal of a life size wax woman 

(fully detailed and... less clothed), 

finding a teenage fugitive on the run from the police after killing her abusive father, helping a man track down a woman from a karaoke video, stealing a ring from a girl who stole a boyfriend, and normal sh*t like walking a dog. 

Each job came with a tattered truck load of other problems to fix, usually a drastic measure previously uncalled for of a handyman. And his stray cat. 

But their sense of justice, or inability to refuse seems to always land them in it somehow. Deep in the midst of everyone else's problems and conflicts.

Watching them ironing out Mahoro's idiocy one person at a time is nice. But watching them come to terms with their own is even nicer. It is quite serious at times, almost dark in places, but moving and lovely as a whole. 

I'm feeling pretty fuzzy right now as I have a ranging cold and bit of a fever - I want to stop it here so I guess cramming all these shots in is going to be a tight squeeze. 

Reading that when the pictures are all in and the post is finished is pretty weird. Damn I didn't feed the dog. I don't want to get up again. 

The formatting keeps messing up tonight and I don't have the energy to fight against this crappy site and the lack of sense it makes. Damn it I'm going to bed.

~

battlefield baseball 地獄甲子園 [movie]

yeah its not funky forest but its still pretty weird. 

ok, this movie... what can i say. 

im putting in some quotes here and there just to try and give you a sense of how random this movie is.

i just dont think i can do it justice.

also, i think a *spoiler alert* is needed. but this movie makes less sense the more you know so it wont ruin anything. 

dear god, aside from this guy's face, where to start...

Jube is a highschool delinquent, he moves to a school who's team is about to play an insanely violent team who usually leave all the opposing players in a bloody dismembered mess on the pitch and sail through their victories straight to the cup. 

Jube is suffering at the memory of killing his father with a baseball pitch on the beach one day - which we are loving told through the medium of song ballad and purple camera filter. reminded me of the stock videos that accompany japanese karaoke songs.

*#father died, the pitch was too fast...
and thats the story of a boy and baseball#




eventually after some fights, persuasion, and a round of applause from the suddenly appearing entire school, Jube joins the team in the hopes to defeat the violent Gedo zombie-inmate-psychopath-mutant-whateverthefucktheyare baseball team in the coming match.

there is a guy that is played by 3 different actors because he dies so many times - actually pretty much all of the characters die at one or more times throughout and come back again in various states of alive-ness. 





this particular pitch that everything is riding on doesnt actually ever really rear its head in the match! 
they just beat the crap out of each other for a while, shaolin soccer style, and with a team of re-encarnated robotised half assed cobbled togther left overs of teachers, students, and Jube's mum, we get the final showdown with the big chinned blue skinned cowboy coach of the Gedo team, and i have no idea what the sh*t is going on.

*but Jube-kun, can we win?
*yes! with the deadly bullet pitch we can definitely win! the ball... the deadly bullet that killed my dad...
*you were hiding a pitch like that?
*no i dont actually remember how to do it, but when i was dead ten minutes ago my dead father told me to throw it.



i was surprised how funny this movie was. its weird enough to be totally crackers, but its not so stupid that it just leaves you thinking you just wasted 2 hours. and it is 2 long hours of nonsense. 


All, we come to find, is really something to do with that old drunk guy in his long johns with his dog watching on the side lines. 

and there's always an old drunk guy in his long johns with his dog watching on the side lines isnt there?

*who are you? who stopped my super tornado?

i watched this thinking "man this movie feels familiar" then found out it was a Kitamura Ryuhei film. 

I watched the whole thing thinking "Jube looks really familiar too" then i realised it was Sakaguchi Taku from alive and versus etc. 

man, he was super pretty in this.

*indeed, i died, but ive been reborn, of course, my face changed too.
*youve been reborn?
*i heard everything while i was dead, its time to get even with Gedo!
*ok, weve both died once, lets do it!

and if you think these quotes might make more sense when you watch the movie, youre wrong. they wont. im more confused now than before i saw it. i read a review before watching, it looked interesting and suitably stupid enough for my want at the time, but it was funnier than i expected it to be. those stupid but subtle nods of earnest agreement, the furrows of worry, Tak had me in fits. and yes, even though it was bonkers, i think the humour in it was more subtle than the outset would have you think.

*thanks to advanced technology, im mega gorilla!

maybe not.

i cant be arsed to do a cast list, look it up. by the way the title means Koshien Hell, not battlefield baseball, in case you get stuck. looking through the screen shots it actually looks pretty tame, i mean, its no funky forest but its still up there in the top leagues of weird ass japanese movies. its one for a group of people to enjoy. wish i had found this while i was still living back at the flat and the gang could have come over to watch this. damn funny.

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.

~