Chichi no Umi, Boku no Sora / 父の海、僕の空

My Father's Ocean, My Sky 2004, hour-and-a-half long movie from Japan that stars Takizawa Hideaki as the son of a retired restaurant owner, and Taki-kun's character is forced to have to give up on his dream of becoming a musician when he learns about his father's terminal illness. The whole thing is about how the estranged pair reunite and then learn from each other, and as good as I thought the movie to be, it didn't receive the same kind of...

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Propose Kyoudai / プロポーズ兄弟

Brother Proposal 2011 JDorama that is short, sweet, and to-the-point for four, brief episodes (approx half-hour each) that tells us about the way in which four sons end up getting married. Personally, I enjoyed the last story best. I also wish they made more dramas like this in Japan AND Kor...

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マンハッタンラブストーリー / Manhattan Love Story

2003 JDorama that won a boatload of awards, and this comes as no surprise after watching, either. It's about an unassuming but passionate man (Matsuoka Masahiro as Tencho) who runs a coffee shop near a television studio, and his patrons pop in regularly to conduct business dealing with affairs of the heart or the occasional business transaction - but to his utter dismay, NO ONE is there to savor his coffee. In fact, a majority of the time these...

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Seigi no Mikata / 正義の味方

Crime Avenger 2008 JDorama about a younger sister being bullied by her older sister, who happens to be drop-dead gorgeous, extremely intelligent, and who has no fear. SHE is a high school dreamer who knows her older sister is annoying, yet in every episode, she lets the beauty push her around, tease her, and even chase away potential boyfriends by telling them secrets to include she can't come out right now because she's going poop, and when she's...

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いいひと。 /. Ii Hito / Good Man

Good Man 1997 JDorama about a guileless man (Kusanagi Tsuyoshi as Yuuji) who dreams of working for the sneaker company he is so fond of, and when that dream eventually comes true, he turns Tokyo upside down as well as shaking things up inside the mega conglomeration where he is relegated to the basement with the rest of the soon-to-be-fired employees the company deems useless. Yuuji was hilarious without trying, his girlfriend was adorable without...

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めだか / Medaka

2004 Japanese drama about a woman slowly but surely going nowhere in life and still thinking that she'll find a man, get married, and settle into the life she was born to live. Instead, she ends up teaching night school at a nearby high school, where she encounters a host of misfits, scholars, and drifters. I figured after the first episode that each, subsequent episode would spotlight one of her students private life while also keeping us updated...

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Anmitsu Hime / あんみつ姫

2008 Fuji TV 'special twice' anime adaptation about a princess from a fake land who runs away from the castle to discover true love and ends up finding it in the form of a commoner with no parents who takes care of other orphans on the street. It was gay, but in a fun, take-me-away kind of way that I didn't, actually feel offended by, so I guess it's up to you what you take away from it if you give it a go. MY guess is the Manga is probably the...

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Que Sera, Sera / 케세라, 세라

Que Sera Sera 2007, 17-episode Korean drama that starred Eric Moon (Shinhwa) as an average guy trying to make it in high-society Korea and thus loses his soul as a result of his efforts. At the start, he's entangled with a rich chick who has given up on true love and uses her money, influence, and appearance to keep men at her side. At the same time, he and the prerequisite mousy chick bump into one another in the hallway of their shared apartment...

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신입사원 / Shin-ip Sa-won

Super Rookie 2005 Korean Drama that starred Eric Moon as Kang ho, the super rookie who lands a job at world-class LK Corporation despite his slacker mentality and the simple but complex fact that he scored a big, fat ZERO on the entrance exam. A computer glitch no one at the prestigious corporation wants to admit to, much less take the blame for or let the secret be told for the whole world to hear forces the big-wigs to take Kang ho in and hide...

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시크릿 가든 / Secret Garden

Secret Garden  #5 (last five-star review) November 13, 2010 to January 16, 2011 KDorama that starred Hyun Bin and Ha Ji won as (here it comes again) star-crossed lovers who met years earlier but had no idea this was the case (at least she didn't, anyway). She is a stunt actor working on a period drama and he (Kim Joo won) is a spoiled rich guy who wanders onto the set looking for a woman and mistakenly (or so it would seem) believes that...

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