Omoshiiroi brings you the juicy review and synopsis of Asian Drama and Movies right in front of your screen.

Sunday, February 4, 2007

Umizaru (2004)



Summary
A group of men want to join the Japan Coast guard to become emergency rescuer. They need to go through a strict training. Centering on Senzaki Daisuke, the lead character, having divemaster license he was paired up with a weak trainee, Kudo. While training, he met Kanna and somehow love blooms. Due to some accident, Senzaki lost his spirit but regain it later on. On their final training mission, an accident occured..

Cast

Hideaki Ito, Kaito Ken, Kato Ai, Atsushi Ito

I'm going straightly to what I thought about the movie instead of writing about the story before going to my impression like my previous entry. I am actually a fan of Hideaki Ito and was anticipating to watch this last two years. It is a nice movie. Watching the training they have to face is entertaining. What more is their dorky and funny character which fit to their given nickname of sea 'monkey'. However the last part is not that impressive at least for me... I was anticipating a more emotional and tugging your heartstring kind of ending when it comes to the part they Senzaki waited for his 'buddy' under the vast ocean. I know it wanted to show the value of loyalty but it doesn't bring out a dramatic effect to the screen. I was hoping there is action involved... although just staying with the buddy is relevant to what the movie want to convey (on the loyalty part) but it somehow bore me as I would appreciate action more on the screen especially when I assumed there will be those kind of scenes since we are talking about rescuer, action comes to my mind. Maybe it can be a little better if the director insert some music at the part so it can boost viewer's emotion a bit. Concludingly, it is no way a failure as it brings a good entertainment and a difference in Japanese cinema. It is even box office in Japan. It's just lacking some spice but.. the taste is good still.

Umizaru movie is followed by a drama series and then a sequel movie, Limit of love: Umizaru (international title: Umizaru 2:test of trust) Umizaru 2 is really good and better than the first one in my opinion. If I have the mood I'll write about it.

Saturday, February 3, 2007

Nodame Cantabile Drama ep 01



Summary
Due to some accident, Chiaki Shinichi has to stay in Japan in pursuing his study in music while he is longing to go to Europe. One morning he woke up and realized that he's in someone else's room full of junks and garbage which is Nodame's. He walked away from the room. The next day he learned that he's going to have a duet piano assignment with that messy girl with messy room he just know. A supposedly famous conductor, Franz Streseman arrive at the academy. This is a manga-ish drama with hilarious comical effect.

Chiaki sitting in a corner of a room looks deeply dissapointed at the fact he's in Japan when he really long to go to Prague or Praha whatever. Once living in Europe and having a famous musician as his father Chiaki always got the chance to attend great performances in the world. He admired Viera-sensei, a famous conductor and eventually became his unofficial pupil at a young age. But when his parents divorced he went back to Japan with his mother leaving behind his favourite place and dream. Little do others know that due to some accidents, he can't go oversea and explain the reason while he still stays in Japan despite having great talents in music. In fact he's the top student in Momogaoka Music Academy and was admired by so many students. He took piano under Eto-sensei who is often called as Harisen-sensei because of his habit in bringing a paper fan (harisen) wherever he goes. Harisen-sensei is very strict and Chiaki eventually get tired of him and shout to him at a class. Harisen-sensei then drop his name for Maradona Piano competition and decided not to teach him anymore. Chiaki then learned that Hayakawa, a student from conducting division got the chance to study oversea. This made him down. He then heard someone playing piano sloppily but without mistakeThat night he went to drink with Saeko, his former beau who is the Madonna of the vocal division. Here then revealed that the reason why Chiaki can't go to oversea is because of his phobia to plane and ship because he once experienced emergency plane landing and was also once drown in the sea. Saeko called him weak and left him after saying she hate losers.

Nodame came back to her place singing 'poop poop poop, cat's poops' something like that (how gross. lol) she then saw Chiaki sleeping at the hallway. She immediately fall in love. Chiaki woke up listening to Nodame playing the piano among the many garbage in the room. He remembered it's the exact piece he heard at school before and was impressed until he knocked down a drink can and bunch of flies which has been living inside it flew out. Nodame looked at him and say that she remember already that he's Chiaki-senpai (senior). Upon hearing Nodame asked him whether he remembered what happen last night Chiaki run away from the room. Outside he was shocked to learn that Nodame is his neighbour. He then realized dust on his shirt and feel so grossed when there was also spiderweb on his shirt.

The next day at the academy nodame brought a belt claiming it was Chiaki's but he denied it and told her that she mistaken him for someone else. Chiaki then read that his instructor was changed from Eto-sensei to Tanioka-sensei. Tanioka-sensei also teach Nodame, upon seeing Nodame doing a fart-cheer demostration to Tanioka-sensei, he thought that he must be mistakenly coming to that room until Tanioka sensei assured him that he's in the right place. Chiaki was then asked to perform a piano duet with Nodame which he objected to as he didn't want to play with such a messy person who plays piano messily. Tanioka-sensei then advised him to take the assignment as a way to teach a kouhai(junior). Nodame played sloppily and Chiaki hit her hard in a comical effect. He then learned that nodame doesn't like looking at the score as she always play by ears.

One day Chiaki went out to his balcony to smoke. He then smelled something weird when he looked at the balcony next to him, it was full of mountains of junks. Then disgusting purple liquid flow to his balcony and swarm of ants surrounded it. He feel grossed and he quickly went to Nodame's room and rang the bell. Nodame open the door so quickly that it bangs hardly on Chiaki. Chiaki then forces her to clean her room full of garbages. There was a bowl ful of black thingy that Nodame claimed was cream stew of a year ago, there were also her meal that has grow mushroom all over it, also her underwear with mushroom growing etc to illustrate how messy and dirty Nodame is. After that, Chiaki cooked for her.

Tomorrow at school, Chiaki was jealous to know that Hayakawa will meet none other than viera sensei. At the same time a weird old man was walking around the academy and took picture of seemingly weird and untalented bunch.

Nodame met the old man after school and start making friend with him, he said he is Milch Holstein which translated to cow's milk. She brought him to chiaki's house. Upon knowing Milch's name he knew it's a fake one. Milch's expression changed from stupid-looking to serious when he saw picture of Chiaki and Viera. He brought Nodame to leave Chiaki's room when Chiaki said she'll stay so that he can teach her piano which Milch reply with 'I'll teach you much enjoyable thing in my hotel room'. He asid it got delicious sushi, fluffy bed and pillow. Chiaki then said that he also got fluffy bed and his arm as pillow. Nodame grab onto Chiaki and he kicked Milch out of his room. Knowing that Milch is a pervert old man, Chiaki gave him a brothel's business card that came in his postbox.

Next day, Chiaki heard Nodame playing messily and he went to her room when she hesitated to open the door. Chiaki came in and was shocked to learn that Nodame's room has revert into its original messy state in just a few days. He helped Nodame with the piece they'll play as duet. Nodame played and Chiaki seemed to hold his breath. 'Stinks!'. And Nodame then explained that she had just shampooed her hair three days ago and boast that she like to keep clean. Chiaki startled to listen to that stupid claim, drag her to wash and shampooed her hair and then helped her to dry it. He was wondering why did he do all this thing.

Now comes the day he's going to perform a duet with Nodame. Instead of calling her 'garbage girl' he was calling her 'Nodame for the first time. He told her that she can play it with her style and don't bother much with other thing. He believes that only someone as talented as him can adapt to Nodame's style of playing. After being told to play as she like, Nodame become herself and indulge into her own word, although playing messily Chiaki was actually impressed with her and he also enjoy the duet. It later turn out that the assignment is not just a lesson by him to his junior but also a lesson to himself to enjoy music.

Nodame looked at Chiaki's back under the sun and she told Chiaki that she feels something looking at him..'does this mean... falling in love?". she asked and try to kiss Chiaki which Chiaki avoided. He then said to her that such playing will not be allowed in a competition which Nodame replied that she never want to enter a competition. She just want to be a kindergarten's teacher. Chiaki found that to be amazing. He then decided to change course to take the conducting division.

He brought a letter of transfer the next day and then learned that a famous conductor who is on par with Viera-sensei is in the academy. He feels lucky because it's the right time that he decided to change course. The conductor is none other than Milch, the pervert old guy. He wanted to have his own orchestra of the student he choose. He mistakenly shows the teachers perverted photos he bought in Shibuya before showing them the real one. Eto sensei was shocked at the selection because it's comprised with the-so-not-good student of the academy or what they call as underachiever.

Upon looking that, Chiaki was kind of frustrated. 'This can never be. I can't change course'.

***************

I truly enjoy this episode for the comical effect it had. A good comedy episode filled with good classical music. I had my good share of laugh. The expression of the two main character fit the comical storyline so well. Milch's essence is also entertaining-- japanese words with western's essence. Eventhough he is portrayed by a japanese instead of foreign actor I can't help but love his portrayal as he's very funny and weird character to look at. And ooh-those messy long white hair.


Nodame Cantabile Drama INTRO





Cast
Ueno Juri as Noda Megumi aka Nodame (Piano)
Tamaki Hiroshi as Chiaki Shinichi (Piano/Conducting)
Eita as Mine Ryutaro (Violin)
Koide Keisuke as Okuyama Masumi (Timpani)
Mizukawa Asami as Miki Kiyora (Violin)
Saeko as Saku Sakura (Contrabass)
Uehara Misa as Tagaya Saiko (Vocal)
Endo Yuuya as Ookouchi Mamoru (Conducting)

Story
Based on the hit comic book by Tomoko Ninomiya, this is a fun-filled quirky romantic story of 2 very opposite people.

Megumi Noda, or “Nodame” is a piano student at Momogaoka College of Music. An extremely talented pianist who wants to be a kindergarten teacher, she prefers playing by ear rather than reading the music score. She is messy and disorganized, takes baths several days apart and loves to eat, sometimes stealing her friend’s lunchbox when it is filled with delicacies.

Shinichi Chiaki, is Momogaoka’s top student. Born into a musical family, he is talented in piano and violin and has secret ambitions to become a conductor. An arrogant multi-lingual perfectionist who once lived abroad in the music capitals of the world as a young boy, he feels mired in Japan because of a childhood phobia.

They meet by accident. Nodame quickly falls in love, but it takes much longer for Chiaki to even begin to appreciate Nodame’s unusual qualities. Their relationship causes them both to develop and grow. Because of Nodame, Chiaki transfers into the Conductor Division, leads a student orchestra and begins to have a broader appreciation of people's musical abilities. Because of Chiaki, Nodame faces her fears and enters a piano competition. Opportunities open up as both begin taking risks, stretching themselves far more than they ever thought possible. --- dramawiki

Battle Royale (2000)



Summary
A group of students from Shiroiwa Junior High found their bus hijacked during their school trip only to learn that they were chosen to take part in the 'Battle Royale' program. It is not just a normal program, the program requires the participant to kill each other until one survive. Who will survive...


Cast
Fujiwara Tatsuya, Maeda Aki, Yamamoto Tara, Masanobu Andao, Tsukamoto Takashi, Kuriyama Chiaki, etc.

Nanahara Shuya the main character found himself and his other classmates in a situation he never imagined. A situation where they need to kill each other. Being deserted in an inhabited island, they cannot run away. Even the sea were surrounded by government's army. One might think that they can choose not to kill anyone, or they can choose to just stay hiding in a safe place BUT the program has its own way to avoid that. Around each of everyone's neck was a collar that monitor their pulse and send data back to the headquarters. There must be one survivor in the period of 24 hours or the collars will explode and everyone'll die. There will also be danger zone that will be announced each hour, when it becomes a danger zone every student in that area will die as the collars will explode. In a situation as extreme as this, to no surprise people start being desperate to kill their own friends. In addition of their class is also a transfer student, Kiriyama Kazuo who is a cold person and seemed to be a scary person. He got no feeling and enjoyed killing people which made him the number one person you don't want to cross. Shuya on the other hand believe there will be a way to run from the program that he refuse to bow to the program. Noriko tagged with him and he tried to protect her before meeting another transfer student, Kawada and they teamed up. There is also a group of student which try to destroy the headquarter by making bombs and hacking into the system. There are many other significant character in the movie. The scene in the lighthouse is one of the scene that stay put in my mind for quite a time... it's painful to see how things go wrong when in the beginning there is hope -- that it comes as one of remarkable scene in the movie. The scene shows a group of girl who decided to trust and live with each other due to some misunderstanding light up a spark of defensive nature that lead to all of them killed. Is Shuya, Noriko and Kawada able to find a way to survive? As later revealed Kawada was a former winner of one of the past BR program. They managed to survive at the end. Not one, but three of them.

***************

It's controversial because of it extreme theme, it was banned inMalaysia. Japan was trying to ban the original novel and then the movie but to no success. Despite that, I enjoy watching this because of this controversial theme. Once in a while, a movie like this can be a nice entertainment although in that violence way. I like thriller so when a movie make me thrilled I like it. Battle Royale got some of the moment that can make you go 'oh no! don't!'.., 'what happen'... etc...

There is english translated novel available, I've read it and like it better than the movie so if you get the chance do read it.


Summer Time Machine Blues (2005)



Summary
A group of students from Sci-Fi Club found a time machine, and use it to go back to yesterday just to bring back a remote control that was broken. Along the way, many funny and conflicting thing happen.

Cast
Eita, Ueno Juri, etc.

It starts off with a series of weird and unexplained events that make you go 'question mark(?)'. Viewers will ask what actually happen as the scenes seemed to be chopped here and there leaving room for curiousity. After a baseball shoot, 7 students of the Sci Fi Club went to the public bath. Niimi lost his vidal sassoon which he reacted so strongly about it. After that, the school's caretaker's question to Soga about his work seemed to be coming out of nowhere, Shibata's reaction when coming back to the club room and ask 'wast the baseball shoot today', the club room being locked, a hand coming out of nowhere placing the air-conditioner's remote control on the table etc.. will make viewer's scratch their head. But the fun actually starts here. If you are yet to watch the movie, stop here and go watch it! Don't let this review spoiled your first viewing. This is a movie I greatly recommend. If you insist to continue reading, then what can I do.
Due to a happening, cola spilled on air-cond's remote control making it doesn't work anymore and that the most unlucky part being that it's a summer time! Soga sent it to their advisor, Jose but instead repairing it the useless lecturer smashed it into pieces as he was unable to repair it. One day, a time machine shows up rode by someone they called 'mushroom' due to his hair that resemble the mushroom. They decided to try it and went back to yesterday. Determining to get back a working air-conditioner from yesterday, few of them went back yesterday but ended up tailing their own selves. The rest of them stays bringing 'mushroom' or Tamura to walk around the small town. A discussion about changing the past will actually change the future lead to a more serious lecture by Jose, the relativity lecturer on how a time machine can't actually exist in the real world as it will only cause contradiction. 'time is a lot less forgiving than that' he said in reply to the cinema-booth person's 'history will just paint over itself'. In other meaning, if a time machine ever exist, and we try to change the past.. EVERYTHING will disappear. Hearing this, the students ran back to the club room to stop their friends from changing the past only to learn that they are playing around and tailing their past yesterdays. Now, it's Komoto's and Soga's job to bring back their friend who went to yesterday before they steal the remote control and before the coke actually spilled on it. Funny thing happen along the way, and later on reveal all the weird scenes at the beginning of the story where everything becomes clear and fit together well. What is the end... you better watch it yourselves as it is worth your time. As I'm writing this, I've already watched it for for my fifth time.

***************

This is really an interesting movie. Time travel always a fun movie to watch. But the very strong speciality that distinguish this movie from most of other time travel related story is how it's being directed, discussed and organized. The introduction part at the beginning build your curiousity. Not only that, if you are observant enough you'll see tiny little thing that won't make big importance at the beginning but once the story folds you'll find the slipping in of those tiny things to be greatly entertaining as it related to the later part of the movie. In fact, I'm appreciating those at my second viewing as that's when the introduction part make real sense to you as me as I already know what will happen. The other strong feature is the question posed on the film to the logicality, practicality of the idea of having a time machine. As time travel movie is always a fun movie that don't have the responsibility to be real or make sense, STMB took a different approach. It questioned the contradiction that will arise from the action of changing the past. The camera-girl's quote might be the best explanation for this.
'maybe afterall everything is already decided... by god'

Friday, February 2, 2007

Tegami (2006)


Summary
Living in the prison is very lonely. Takeshima Tsuyoshi always looks forward to receive letter from his brother Naoki. Without realizing how the society treat Naoki differently as a criminal’s brother, Tsuyoshi keep writing until Naoki decide this must come to the end.

Cast
Takayuki Yamada, Sawajiri Erika, Tamayama Tetsuji


Being a criminal’s brother, Naoki had to face something he don’t deserve to which is the different treatment by people around him a.k.a the society. He was laid off from work for few times when people knew about his brother. He lost a career as a comedian and he even lost the woman he love, Asami. He was transferred to warehouse after the management learnt of his background. Naoki felt angry being generalized he wish to run away to someplace where people won’t treat him differently. All this while both Naoki and Tsuyoshi replied to each other letters until a day Naoki felt tired and stop replying. Tsuyoshi was waiting and waiting for letters and always ended up disappointed when there’s no letter for him everytime the prison staffs came with letters. A fellow workmate of Naoki once said.. the prison is a really lonely place. Indeed Tsuyoshi is lonely without a letter from his brother. Yumiko, a girl who was interested with Naoki before he became a comedian always stay besides him. She even write a letter to Naoki’s workplace management about his unfair transfer. A person went to see Naoki and said that don’t ever wish to find a way he won’t be generalized but try to survive here. It is later shown that all this while, Yumiko has been sending mail to Tsuyoshi in behalf of Naoki. Naoki then married Yumiko and got a daughter and he also started replying mail to the brother again. Until one day when he learned that his wife and small daughter is being outcasted by the neighbourhood that he decided to put everything to an end. He wrote a last letter to his brother explaining how he’s being treated all this while, how he lost a woman he loved and now even his family is being treated like that too and he don’t wish Yumiko and their daughter Miki to experience what he always experience all this time. “don’t send me anymore letter and even if you’re being released please don’t find us”. Yuusuke, once Naoki’s comedy partner invited him to assist him doing a skit in his brother’s prison. After being persuaded, he agreed. That day, he performed in front of the prisoners. He couldn’t see Tsuyoshi among the many people. They jokes around and he then see his brother with both of his hand glued together asking for forgiveness, with tears draining continuously of his eyes. The jokes then start centering around brother.
“He really is childish. Bad character, not popular with the girls, anything he does ends up being a failure. He was like a bulky garbage.”
……
……
“But since we are already brothers, it's impossible to treat him like rubbish..he’ll always be my elder brother… forever…forever…”

***************

The movie is really real. It doesn't take the very high moral ground by condemning directly people who generalize others even when they are innocent. Instead, it explain about the nature of human beings who will try their best to put a distance between themselves and bad things. It's just like how people treat people suffering HIV. They know it won't transfer by shaking hands etc but it's human nature to put a distance. It also brought up the value that there is no use to run and find a place where people won't generalize us but we have to try to survive at the place where we are now and someday at someplace there will be person who'll link to us. I was actually sad to see how society can be that mean to a criminal's relative when he's not the one doing it. It's unfair. But the message bear a truth in it... if one keeps running away, keeps condemning the society, would things be solved. the world is indeed full of unfairness but that doesn't mean for us to give up. I cried at the end part of the movie, the tears of Tsuyoshi really shows how he regret putting Naoki in that kind of situation. and how lonely would it be to live in that kind of place and being informed that he's casted away by his only family. It's just too painful.