gachibaka ガチバカ! [series]

male teacher who was a boxer, mixed gender school, but aside from that it is essentially gokusen.

Tegomass! That should be all I need to say really. Tegoshi has to walk around like someone urinated on his favourite teddy bear, Massu jumps over gates and fences, runs everywhere, and grins a lot, they even have a little scrap with each other at one point, I couldn’t care what else goes on really. I’d be happy with that. To be fair, I could watch Massu running and jumping over gates for days without getting bored. He’d die of exhaustion long before.

For those few who weren’t in gokusen and wouldn’t be in tumbling, we have gachibaka. Just an excuse to have Tegomass scrapping over a girl and getting beaten up quite a lot. All good fun. It actually is a recycling of Gok though, you may think I’m exaggerating. It has pretty much the same story lines and the premise is almost identical apart from the yakuza stuff. But that is ok. It is fine by me. I’m happy any day of the week you wanna put Tegomass in a stupid drama together. I think it’s about time you did it again. who am i talking to here?

There is a bit about teenage pregnancy, sexual harassment, a stabbing, and even a sexual assault attempt in there too, so it is quite harsh compared to Gok in a way. But it is the same old sh*t where his class gets the blame for everything that goes wrong or gets stolen or vandalized etc, then teacher has to save the day by not giving up – always always resulting in lots of running like a mad man down the street. Sounding like Gok yet?

Tegomass’s characters are in love with the same girl, so that is fun. Tegoshi doesn’t crack a smile for practically the whole damn show, and Massu is – well he’s pretty much just Massu, you know how he is. All smiles and hug to deathable.

This guy Takahashi Katsunori who plays the teacher is great. I think it must be hard to cast these main roles because it has to carry the whole show, and on this overly tried and tested premise how do you keep your audience from losing interest if your lead actor is not perfect? Well I rarely see a badly cast drama and this is no exception.

There is a lot more to say about this program I’m sure. When I watch it I do become involved in the story and other characters, but when I think back on it I only end up ranting about Tegomass. But that is my own issue. So, sorry about that. Can’t be helped. If there was a Tegomassaddicts anonymous to help me through then I may make better reviews or at least watch something that doesn’t have at least one member of News in it this month. Let me see, Ashita no joe, Gachibaka again, Zenkai girl, Hanawake, Waraeru koi, Rescue, - seriously that is a lot of News for September. I hate that I have to post these way after I write them too because I have no f*cking internet!!! It is doing my head in. I miss dramawiki. I am having to remember all this sh*t myself without double checking names and stuff. And I have watched a hell of a lot of things this September and they will all be posted in October November now damn it. It shouldn’t bug me but it does.

So more to the point, I wonder how long it will be before I watch Gachibaka again. If Tegomass don’t do something else soon I guess I will end up watching it yet again. I would love to see News in a drama all together but it is pretty damn impossible. Tegomass and Koyashige could do a drama – god that would be brilliant. They could be the heads of rival gangs, or all be in the police force as two rookie cops and two old hand detectives, tracking down evil mastermind baka Sato Jiro heh that would be brilliant.

Hmmm let me see, Koyama could be a guy would has been roped into marrying the crazy scary posh *this fish is not fresh!* lady from the fish market who turns out to some rich banker’s daughter, in order to help his friend (played of course by cheeky Shige) who got into a dai pinchi when he lost all his money to a female sagishi who conned him with a insane story about a dead grandmother, a buried treasure and a roman emperor.  (Cameo flash back to him getting swindled by Bakanishi Jinifer. - Rolling on the floor laughing right now.) Tegoshi could be the eccentric wedding planner employed by the banker’s family to use all means necessary to make sure no-one escapes or backs out, and Massu could be working under Tegoshi and has to carry out his plans to keep poor Koyama stuck in his position, but ultimately Massu tries to help him out of his predicament while also trying to save Shige from his own constant moronic actions. There would be lots of Massu’s worried face (oh how I love that) and as much of stupid Shige faces as he can handle to pull. Tegoshi would of course have to be some kind of evil genius when it comes to keeping things on their terrifying track, and Koyama could run around like a blue assed fly trying to appease posh woman and keep Shige out of trouble. This is sounding epic. In the end I think Tegoshi and scary woman should elope together. They should write this f*cking show.

Oh dear lord I’ve not said anything about gachibaka. Well, it is Gokusen with Tegomass. Ok? That is pretty much it.

Wow I totally fell of track with that one didn’t I.

 

good god, massu's face just couldnt get any better really could it? what a sh*t review this was.

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ashita no joe 明日のジョー [movie]

restraining myself with the screenshots here might be asking the impossible

For some reason I always sort of forget just how stunningly beautiful Yamapi is. Until I come to my senses after losing consciousness following a random picture of bit of TV footage escaping out from the depths onto my screen and punching me in the face with a great big *this guy cant be human* realisation (this happens time and time again)

I am aware that, as he is the most sort after idol in Japan right now, it is becoming almost uncool to like him – now come on, what the f*ck? Don’t get all anti-fan on me now people. That is just stupid. No amount of that is really going to counter the immense insurmountable greatness that is that crazy little cracker we call Yamapigeon. *ahem* I mean Yamapi. No, actually I so mean Yamapigeon.

 

 Ok, so I’m not going to spend this whole thing ranting about Yamapi’s godlike genius because if you have more than half a brain cell it should be f*cking obvious. I will rant about the movie though, as that it what I am supposedly here to do.

Well, maybe I’m going to rant a bit more about Yamapigeon – I just never know how much of a fan girl mood I’m in until I get going. Usually the screen shots set me off. I’ll try to restrain.

Ashita no Joe has been awaited with much hope, expectation, and excitement. A really popular manga, this movie was talked about constantly all over the internet while it was being filmed due to the anticipation of fans of the manga, the film makers, and the main stars alike.

 

These guys worked f*cking hard on this film. It paid off in buckets of brilliance and a resulted in a beautiful movie.

 

 

Joe (Yamapi) lives in a poor town with little to his name but his character and ability to fight. He is a bit of a street rat and winds up in jail after a brawl. In a haphazard way he begins to learn to box and while in prison he meets Rikishi (Iseya Yuseke), a pro boxer, who becomes his rival and motivation. For Rikishi also, the influence of his new challenger is a destined important meeting which begins and ultimately ends a chapter of life for the both of them.

It’s pretty sad, I warn you that. But it is as moving and purposeful as it was intended to be. It is also a quietly funny, pretty film, and although it looks to be bleak and hard it is actually easier on the eyes and heart than you might think.

Yes, it definitely helps that Yamapi has so much charisma that it is hard to fit it all on screen – sometimes when he plays more subdued roles like this I half expect him to just explode with some random oddness, just to get it out of his system, that would usually be too precious to cut out if it weren’t for the more sombre nature of the movie. He is, as ever, his natural self; easy to watch, easy to believe.

 

 

Ashita no Joe is over two hours long but it doesn’t feel like a drag – the only reason we kept checking the time on the video was that we couldn’t work out what was going to happen as there was so much time left for things to go wrong. Well, yeah, they do kinda go wrong and we should just not ask. But never mind. The tears are very much there but not constant.

I’m glad we like Rikishi’s character, and I’m also glad of the choice of actor. Actually, no-one bugged me in this whole movie. Lots of familiar faces and not a moment of ----- umm, I just have to stop and tangent for a moment. Someone totally drove passed my window blaring whitney houston’s version of I will always love you, like, fully loud and it completely threw me off course.

God, where the hell was I? Oh yeah, Ashita no Joe. Worth watching. Don’t listen to people being tw*ts about it. If you want I can lay it all out fan girl style: Yamapi covered in blood a lot, getting pummelled, beating the sh*t out of other people, running about all over the show with that brilliant little arrogant smirk of his, cropped trousers (^_^) and that f*cking adorable train driver hat – god, has it got it’s own name in the credits? Cos it should.


Yamapi trained like a mental for this role so give him the damn time to see this film. There is a reason he is so popular. He wasn’t even born – he just popped out into existence made out of pure genius so don’t bugger about umming and ahhing whether or not you like Ashita no Joe, you do. It is just a f*cking movie. And a good one. So get over it.

I don’t really want to do a long review of this one as I feel it is turning into crazy ranting time, it deserves to be watched so go do that. And look at all these lovely pictures. Yamapigeon, prettiest bird in the whole coup.

a quick note to yamapigeon, i heard this movie was so hard that it has kinda put you off acting. if you stop acting i will track you down and beat you with a big fat stick. ...made of really bad stuff. ...that smells. ...and stains your clothes. ...and makes a really annoying sound when it hits you.    you have been warned.

damn it i wish i ruled the world.

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Welcome to the quiet room クワエットルームにようこそ [movie]

Touching your bum makes me feel calm. How about you?

Not really. My legs ache.

Cast:

Asuka - uchida yuki

Tetsu – kudo kankuro 

Miki - aoi yu

Nurse Eguchi – ryo

Komono – tsumabuki satoshi

Nishino – otake shinobu

Sae – Takahashi Mai 

Nurse Yamagishi – Hiraiwa Kami 

I had only seen Uchida Yuki in kami no shizuku and maybe one other thing with a similarly reserved and elegant role, so when I first got this film I didn’t realise it was her for a while. When I finally sat down to watch it I was exited to see how she would play a wayward comedy writer, committed into a psychiatric ward for a suicide attempt, knowing that her character was to be not only troubled but also very textured and quite off the wall.

It is a very colourful film with a disjointed timeline and unique pace with some hallucinatory scenes and flashbacks.

Asuka is admitted to a secure psych ward with a place of isolation they call the quiet room. She wakes up to find herself bound to a bed with restraints, with an oxygen mask and on a drip. We follow her memories as she tries to trace them back to the incident that led her to the hospital but there are missing fragments uncovered much later in the film. Most of our time is spent with Asuka in the present (in the main ward) with the other patients, battling demons she was not even aware she had.

Most of the characters we meet are quirky, obviously you expect the psych ward to host a few interesting personalities but also Asuka’s circle of friends is full of idiotic comedy writers, she surrounds herself with idiots – as she puts it.

A few other really good familiar faces cropped up in this movie.

Ryo (Alive, code blue, casshern, zeni geba, suppli),
Tsumabuki Satoshi (IWGP, long love letter, sabu, waterboys, orange days),

Takahashi Mai  (Boku to Kanojo no XXX, sky high2),

Hiraiwa Kami  (Love my life, otakus in love)

And a liked Aoi yu’s character Miki a lot. She is one of the friends Asuka makes in the ward. I was kind of shocked to see Takahashi Mai, she plays a girl with an eating disorder, who has very rich parents who pay for her to have her own room and Lolita dresses. Having just watched the very stupid Boku To Kimi No XXX where she plays a wimpy boy who is trapped in the body of the tomboyish girl he loves, I was happy to come across her again. And man did she look beautiful. God she’s cute.

Visually, it is an interesting film, but also I think it has a really good gentle unfurling of the story – if that makes sense. It does leap backwards and forwards as she regains the odd piece of her memory from the week before her overdose, and we have the story pieced together along with her progression through her stay in hospital.

Well I thought Uchida Yuki was great, I loved to see her dressed with colourful tights and short hair, being scatty and unkempt. It is a far cry from her role in kami no shizuku for sure and I think it shows her off as an actor really well. She’s damn cute as well.

It isn’t a huge tear jerker, it isn’t very difficult to watch and it is surreal and funny in places (where it is supposed to be) but it does convey enough sadness and loneliness necessary to accurately describe the situation even in amongst the odd humour and twitchingly peculiar characters.

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