Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge / ヤマトナデシコ七変化

Perfect Girl Evolution


This is the start of a slew of 5-star reviews.

It was difficult for me to decide which of them I should even showcase first, so don't let that have any affect on your judgment since it wasn't that way for me, either ~ I simply decided it was best to just highlight them in the order that I watched them.

And, you can blame it on aznv.tv for taking this long to upload these shows, too, not me.

Now, with regards to Japan's 2010 Yamato Nadeshiko ...

It was another of them '...taken right from the pages of Manga' dramas filled with overly colorful imagery, out-of-this-world scenery AND characters, and a whole lot of nonsense mixed in to make this what it was ... fun from start to finish.

Four exceedingly handsome boys (one of whom is actually kicked out of his house for being too gorgeous) end up boarding together inside the lavish manse of an eccentric widow with a kindergarten son who declares himself to be head of the household while his mother is jetting about the world in search of another man to love.

They all attend the same high school, where, of course, all the ladies are waiting with banners, streamers, fan cards, and screeching shouts of joy each and every day that they arrive before the bell.

This doesn't occur too often, however, because the gist of this story revolves around a spooky chick who hides herself under the black cloak of doom after being jilted by a boy in middle school.

She asked him out and he said he wouldn't date anyone who was ugly: thus began her downward spiral into goth territory and the macabre.

She ends up visiting her little cousin at the Manse and bumps into 'shiny brightness' in the form of Kamenashi Kazuya as Takano Kyohei - the boy so handsome that his own mother ordered him to leave the house so she could get some peace & quiet from the thousands of admirers who stood outside their apartment to see him, phoned him non-stop, and stalked him in a creepy stalker kind of way.


Even straight men wanted to be gay just to get close enough to touch our unbelievably magnetic Kyohei.

This is Kyohei in the anime version - which makes it seem even creepier than a creepy, stalker-chick if you ask me.


The license they give to pedophiles over in Japan just boggles the mind, I tell you.

Anyway ... Oomasa Aya as Nakahara Sunako is the wrecked boogie man spiriting around in the black cape so she can hide her ugliness from the outside world.

Here, she is relieved to finally have back her beloved Hiroshi-kun (a mannequin with exposed body organs).


and her anime version


Sunako has surrounded herself by all things gloomy, ugly, and Gothic in order to feel comfortable and has completely retreated from reality and society.

The Grande Dame of the house orders the boys to transform her niece into a Japanese High Society swan or risk being kicked out of the 'boarding' house.


She does this via video screen while aboard a lavish jet liner headed for nowhere in particular, and always somewhere exotic in order to meet yet, another candidate for new daddy for her adorably kawaii son.


The other boys are 'dazzling' in their own right with one (Tegoshi Yuya as Toyama Yukinojo) being a baby he/she kind a kawaii thing none of the gals can resist (he's into teddy bears, talking soft, and opposes violence).

Another is a rich snob (Uchi Hiroki as Oda Takenaga) born & bred to take over his authoritative father's flower arranging business (which seems to be a running theme in our manga turned anime genre - and perhaps because I'm not Japanese, I'll never understand why other than it seems a high-brow sort of hobby).

The fourth irresistible gentleman (Miyao Shuntaro as Morii Ranmaru) is a ladies man with all the charm of a viper who flits from one, amorous female to the next - not at all interested in something as passé as ai.


This means there are actually five stories balled up into one, ten-episode drama that had me begging for more so much so that I ended up not waiting for aznv.tv to upload the rest after episode seven, and I risked possessing a massive wipe-out PC virus by opening ANY file at dramacrazy.net ...

well, I didn't, actually ~ I opened the file there, and then pop-ups started attacking my task bar, so I hurried the hell out of there and searched until I finally decided on Youtube ~ you know, ten minute cut-offs and annoying ads at the bottom where the subtitles are?

whatever ... it was worth every, annoying second just to be able to watch this one clean through.

The subtitles weren't too bad, either - but they were in an eye-irritating pink outline that was sometimes blue.

So, Kyohei is sexually harassed all the time, which means he's got one hella bad temper, and it isn't unusual for him to pop someone in the mouth every, few minutes of this drama :)

So, too, does our unlikely heroine, Sunako, who goes absolutely berserk any time she hears the word ...


She's not, too fond of anyone that dazzles, either, and head-butts them if they get close enough to blind her with their brilliant light.


Besides having mad fight skills and a quick temper, Busunako can cook; something that truly pleases our hot-headed Kyohei to no end.

Guy's always hungry for a reason we're supposed to believe is a way for him to suppress his inner emotions about being abandoned by his parents and treated like a sex slave by absolute strangers.

Anyone else get the impression that our handsome Kyohei's mother had an affair with some gorgeous guy underneath that tree and THAT'S why she couldn't bear to look at her child anymore?

Of course, Sunako is by no means busunako - in fact, it's quite the opposite!

She's got huge, black eyes, porcelain skin, and great hair along with a nice set of legs, but she remains well hid beneath the cloak and wears her bangs to her chin in order to hide her busunako-ness from the world.

A lot of the comments at aznv.tv were unfavorable with regards to Sunako's inability to fully realize her potential and totally break out of her shell.

Yea, I disagree.

See, what I got out of it was that Kyohei liked her almost immediately because she was not only different from the other girls, but she was also obsessed with looks from the opposite standpoint as he was.

Kyohei hated that he was so gorgeous while Sunako hated that she was so busunako.

Kyohei worked to help her transform, but only so that he wouldn't get kicked out of the boarding house by having to pay an exorbitant amount of rent he couldn't afford because he wasn't able to keep a job long enough due to the sexual harassment that always forced him to use brute force on an overly amorous boss.

Eventually, the two had no choice but to come to terms with their reality, and because Sunako was as much in love with Kyohei as he was with her, it stood to reason that she remain at least slightly in that shell since that was what attracted Kyohei to her in the first place.

DUH

In the nine days since it was uploaded, and still at only seven episodes, more than 20,000 viewers have logged in to watch, and an overwhelming majority of them gave this one 5 thumbs-up, too ~ me included.

I also loved the running theme background music, so in my book, that makes this a winner all around.

Read More

Shutter

2004 Thai movie billed as a thriller/horror flick that ended up being an error-of-his-ways docu-drama about a young couple who, on their way home from the bar, hit a woman standing in the road.

Instead of going back to see if she's alright, the guy orders his girl to take off, and despite her obvious fears, she does as she's told.

But, it's not what you're thinking.

Their relationships is strained now as a result, with her being pissed off, frightened, and plagued by nightmares at first, before the guy ends up suffering the brunt of what this movie had to dish out in the way of punishment for the crime.

He's a photographer by trade, and at a graduation ceremony, he sees someone standing in the crowd who shouldn't be there, and I have to admit, the f/x were slightly astonishing - the sudden flashes a tad on the terrifying side.

But, in an altogether predictable way that made me a little angry.

Turns out she wasn't, some random chick standing in the middle of a dark road late at night but a past fling of the guy, who didn't, really like her as much as he felt sorry for her because she was bullied for being eccentric.

He said that when he realized it wasn't going to work out, he enlisted the help of his buddies as a way to dump her.

Their 'way' was beyond heartless & cruel, and that he ended up being in on it came as quite a surprise as well.

Anyway, for a majority of this 'psychological' thriller we travel through his past to the ultimate present and find out as much as we can stand about the girl, their relationship, and the cruelty that led to her ultimate demise.

I wondered why his neck was bent when they showed the x-rays, and it took til the very end of the movie to understand why it was the way it was.

I didn't NOT like this one, but I was disappointed in the fact that it didn't send me hiding underneath the bed or make me scream, or even jump in my chair every ten minutes.

The storyline was well-developed, though, and the way it was portrayed on screen was worth the effort and your time if you're interested in finding out what happened and why.

Read More

青と白で水色 / Ao to Shiro de Mizuiro

2001 after-school special from Japan that took less than two hours to tell the story of a high-school girl who is bullied by classmates (one of whom used to be her best friend), so she continues day after day to try and open a locked door to the roof, where she, of course, intends to jump to her death.

Meantime, she bumps into a bike thief and fellow classmate: Oguri Shun's Kishida Takumi.

The bullies blame her for the recent thefts and kick her ass for it, but then she stumbles upon Takumi in the act, and a strange but predictable friendship develops.

He knows how to pick a lock, so naturally, she enlists his aid in getting that stupid door opened.

At the same time, we are introduced to a new teacher who walks with the use of a cane, and for a majority of this movie, we are led to think she was another victim of pre-pubescent violence on the part of more asinine delinquents with nothing better to do with their time than to terrorize, belittle, poke fun at, and harass someone because ... well, I don't know why quite frankly, other than they seem to think there is something 'cool' about it when reality would dictate otherwise.

He won't help her open the lock since he's got a good idea about why it is she's so desperate to get the door open, but he does take the time to show her how to use the spokes of an umbrella as a pick.

He also ends up getting caught red-handed trying to steal the bike of one of the male bullies and ends up getting his ass kicked.

She comes along and helps him with his injuries, and they spend some time alone on the baseball field talking about her reasons for wanting to end it all.

Then, we find out the truth about the new teacher who walks with a limp.

The lock is suddenly opened, and the girl steps out, onto a pigeon-poop laden blacktop, where she slowly makes her way to the edge of the rooftop.

YEAH, RIGHT!

It was way before this part in the 'message' movie that I had rolled my eyes, groaned with disgust, and hemmed my way through on account of our charismatic Shun-kun.

Reality is, no matter how often you tell someone they're an idiot, they're bound to think otherwise - and that goes for all idiots, including the ones who want to end it all on school grounds as a way of, oh, I don't know, ... wanting to 'show them all' or something?

Give me a frickin' break.

Like they who have persecuted you all this time are actually going to finally care?

I give them a full week to totally forget your lame ass before moving on.

I also care less what the Japanese have to say about it: there is nothing more cowardly in this world than suicide, and to make it look honorable (outside the battle field) or even glamorous is the height of ignorance, plain & simple.

Bullies suck and deserve the electric chair, I agree.

People who are too timid and afraid of their own, stupid shadow need the help of someone stronger than they are in order to overcome their difficulties, of course!

Asshole educators who turn a blind eye to the problem deserve to be fired and then shunned by society on the same level as a pedophile.

In America, we load our daddy's magnum, stuff it in our backpack, and go on a rampage in the lunchroom.

In Asia, I guess we toss our lame ass off the roof of the school with the mistaken belief that we'll return as a ghost to haunt the perpetrators of the crime.

No such luck in either case, I'm afraid.

They're both horribly wrong, and the bottom line is there is no adult guidance to make everyone understand the error of their ways.

Bullies are made, by the way, and by the parents who bred them.

This is a rant, and I shouldn't go there ... but, this movie evoked a lot more than just anger - it brought back horrid memories of days I'd much, rather forget.

Watch it for a young, curly-hair Oguri Shun at least. :-)

Read More

Antique / アンティーク

Despite the fact this had such a great (somewhat anyway) cast, I can't go any farther than 3 fairies for this one.

This is the original, live-action version of the Korean hit movie that started out as Manga, turned Anime, and then became this ... an eleven-episode drama from back in 2001.

The storyline was somewhat the same as that of the Korean version, but they did not play up the fact of Naohito-kun's gayness, Taki-boy's over-enthusiasm, nor the unsolved mystery surrounding the leading rich man's kidnapping.

I'll hazard a guess it was a sign of the times and leave it at that.

Still, this version managed to drag me in and keep me watching for the duration, and about half-way through, I totally forgot about the Korean version to enjoy what the Japanese had to offer.

I was just grateful this was finally uploaded at aznv.tv (a mere twelve days ago).

Here are some screen captures for your enjoyment:

Read More

Hatachi no Kekkon / ２０歳の結婚

Married At 20


2000 JDorama that I watched because of Sakaguchi Kenji, and then when Oshio Manabu made the scene, I was like ... dayum!

Course, this was back in the day, when Japanese men were hunkdafied and grass-grazing wasn't the thing to do just yet.

Other than that, though, this was a rapid-paced, LOUD drama filled with eleven episodes of shouting, fighting, chasing, hating, head-bashing, and name calling I could have done without tyvm.

There was even a Gyaru chick in this one, and I think that must be how the helium voice thang made its debut over there, I can't be too sure.

Anyway, Yuka played the leading lady - a funny-face chick with an annoying voice, annoying habits, a hatred for her wayward father, and self-appointed holier-than-thou mannerisms that went above and beyond the irritating spectrum of things.

Again, I get the impression from posts and blogs that she's 'all that', but to me, she was unattractive and had a strange mouth.


She's being a bitch on her twentieth birthday while her girlfriends are having fun at a carnival, and she ends up riding that Yokahama ferris wheel with omo, OMO Manabu's character.

Turns out her gardener father has brought the guy back from Southeast Asia and wants him to work on their landscaping farm.

That's when Kenji-kun's character appears, and disappointment #2 is when he sports a disgusting goatee.

He's got an unrequited thing going for our leading lady's older sister; a slut who flits from wrong man to wrong man while stringing along our robust yet patient Kenji-san's character.

Their younger brother plays the guitar and wants to be a rock star - which was annoyance #3 for me in that I was under the misguided assumption that this was going to be about kids starting up a band and making it big when NO such thing even occurred.

All this was was a bunch of heated debate about who loves whom, who is loyal to whom, and what is right versus what is wrong, and if it wasn't for Manabu-kun, I would not have wasted my time.

Read More

僕だけのマドンナ / Boku Dake no Madonna

You Are My Only Madonna


2004 JDorama that stars Hideaki Takizawa as Suzuki Kyouichi, a college-age boy anxious to leave his home & family and set out on his own.

To Kyouichi, his father is a wimp who lets his wife and oldest daughter run the show; leaving our poor, defenseless Kyouichi to have to pick up the slack.

The first day he moves into his own apartment, however, the strange but interesting neighbors come out of the woodwork to pester him as much as his family did back home.

On campus, he discovers to his utter dismay that the pretty girl he's been running with since the beginning of the semester actually doesn't want anything to do with him anymore because ... as she put it bluntly and right to his face, "You're boring."

Taki-boy as Suzuki Kyouichi

I suppose he could be considered boring; but mainly on the quiet/thought side and not because he isn't an interesting character.

He's a wannabe Architect with dreams of building homes, not houses - which oddly enough is what his father does for a living - designs homes.

At about the same time our hapless Kyouichi lands a to-die-for summer intern position with a prestigious architect firm, he comes home to find a beautiful stranger in his room.

She makes no bones about her having broken in, and she even explains how she is there to spy on an ex-lover who happens to live across the alley, and that his apartment is directly in line with Kyouichi's window.

She mooches off him, drinks all his beer, and helps herself to the 7-11 meals he buys for himself while our defenseless Kyouichi can only 'think' of the right things to say & do but not, actually come right out with it the way she can.

He's also been instantly taken by her beauty and therefore has no guts.

She's older than he is, she isn't college educated, and she doesn't have a family background that is oh, so important to an Asian man in the market for a wife.

We also discover that the man she's spying on is the same man Kyouichi is working for that summer, and with each promise she makes him keep, the helpless soul sinks deeper and deeper into a depression of sorts; not knowing which way for his heart or his shattered mind to turn.

Naturally, because he is suddenly seen alongside someone so attractive, the snooty college chick decides Kyouichi isn't as bad as she first made him out to be, and now she wants him back - which, of course, only adds to the utter confusion our handsome Kyouichi is already suffering through.

Despite all this, the neighbors sharing the same, small apartment as him are always there to lend a helping hand (which never seems quite as helpful as they'd like Kyouichi to think) - but with each episode, he gains more in the way of self-awareness in order to get a better grip on his confusing emotions.

Should he forsake the beautiful woman in order to remain trustworthy to his boss?

Can he dump the idea of getting it on with the beautiful woman in order to appease his flippant, ex-girlfriend?

Will he follow the heart he's just discovered and ignore the societal wishes about finding someone more in line with his station in life?

Was being repressed at home by a domineering mother and pushy sister better or worse than the life he is currently forced to have to live?

WERE his parents and siblings the type of people he had always assumed them to be?

I think you'll enjoy Doku Dake no Madonna as much as I did, so if you haven't already, give it a go and see if you don't have an interesting, if not charmed time.

Read More

무림여대생 / Murim yeodaesaeng

My Mighty Princess

2008 Korean movie that stars Shin Min a (So hwi), On Ju wan (Il young), and Yu geon (Jun mo) in a sort a sci/fi, fantasy type story about the daughter of highly gifted and quite secret-society martial arts parents.

So hwi is as talented as her parents and has learned from her father the secrets of her late mother's sword-play.

Her super-human strength turns off the boys her age, which depresses her so she decides to give up being unlike all the other girls and tries acting like everyone else so she can win the heart of a new boy on campus (who happens to have a mother-complex crush on an older woman).

Meanwhile, something in the secret martial arts world is afoot, and her father's friends are being defeated one by one by the evil Heuk bong, who is determined to become master of the martial arts society.

An old acquaintance of So hwi appears for whatever reason,

On Ju wan as Il young

and though Il young is adorable in a sexy-boyish kind of way, she shows no interest and continues to try winning the attention of the hot hockey player, Jun mo, who thinks she is as strange as everyone else does.

Il young's skills are on par with So hwi's, but she has a special talent that no one aside from her late mother can possess.

When her father ends up getting seriously hurt by the bad guy, So hwi reluctantly but inevitably discards her personal emotions for hockey hotty in order to avenge her father.

There is a lot of wire-fu and nonsense involved, along with some pretty hilarious scenes, but there is also a latent love story that kind of took me by surprise and made me realize how silly I'd behaved at the beginning of this good movie.

I recommend this to anyone in need of a chance to escape the ordinary and get lost for a few hours in attractive fantasy with slightly dark undertones.

Read More