Sayonara, Ozu Sensei Review

Title: Sayonara, Ozu Sensei

AKA: Goodbye Teacher Ozu / Goodbye Ozu Sensei / Farewell Ozu Sensei

Genre: School, Sports, Comedy

Episodes: 11 + SP

Broadcast period: 2001-Oct to 2001-Dec

Cast: Tamura Masakazu, Yusuke Santamaria, Seito Asaka, Moriyama Mirai, Waki Tomohira, Katsuji Ryo, Eita, Oshinari Shugo and Nishida Naomi.

Ozu Nanpei (Tamura Masakazu) is a successful tycoon working at Wall Street, right until he is made scapegoat for a dirty deal and is jailed. When he released he is told he is fired, so he decides to go back in order to get his position back. Arriving in Japan, he is refused his position, and his wife sues him for divorce, ending up in a hotel without job and house. Completely distressed and not having more money to life off, Ozu takes on a teaching position at a High School. Not really interested in the students or able to understand how the kids have become a bunch of rude and unambitious brats. That all changes when he finds out that there is a basketball team in the school. Having loved basketball in his younger age, he decides to coach the group. But they aren’t what you would call “good”: a group of outcasts that have been dismissed from their other schools.

I can’t even explain the joy I felt when I saw that this drama was out there, and I hadn’t watched it. I’m seriously so biased when it comes to school dramas, especially when it’s about a group of outcasts and a passionate/honest teacher. The drama in general is good, though the main actor seriously uses adlib which makes his performance genuine yet kind of different since I have never seen a Japanese actor do that. What that kind of performance does makes you that everyone else is overacting, but then again you do get used to it pretty fast. Overall the story is much more honest than the usual fiction story since the elements of ridiculousness is limited - though the teachers drink just a bit too much for my taste.

All in all an okay watch.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out  of 5 hearts

Lucky Seven Review

Title: Lucky Seven
Genre: Detective, comedy
Episodes: 10
Broadcast period: 2012-Jan-16 to 2012-Mar-19
Cast: Matsumoto Jun, Eita, Naka Riisa, Kadono Takuzo, Tanihara Shosuke, Fukiisho Kazue and Kaneda Akio.

The story revolves around a group of seven detectives in the detective agency “Lucky”. Tokita Shuntaro (Matsumoto Jun) is an unemployed part-timer (freeter) that doesn’t have any interests in work, and he’s a playboy whose M.O is older married women.  When he one day leaves the hotel with his lover a group of detectives try to get a picture of him and her. Sometime later the lover calls Shuntaro and explains to him that she can’t meet him because they go busted. Shuntaro happens to see a man he had met at the hotel at that exact time again, connects dots, starts running after him, and follows him to Lucky Detective Agency. There he finds out that the man he had run after is Nitta Teru (Eita), and that he can’t beat him in fighting. On the other hand, the boss Kirihara Yuki (Fukiishi Kazue) finds an interest in the ‘active’ Shuntaro and decides to scout him.

Okay first things first, this is probably the only drama ever that has such awesome fighting scenes! It beats ALL I’ve ever seen! I was a bit worried if Jun would make weird faces (which usually happens because of his face being, well special), but he looked pretty professional! Eita was just cool, he always is, and he didn’t let me down. The Jun and Eita pair was the best part of the drama, so good together, just a bit sad that they only were together for a few episodes… I loved the way the seven detectives (or should I say six most of the time) were together, really cozy somehow. I have to admit I was disappointed about the Eita part, like I said before, Lucky Six.. And another thing bothered me… The entire sensual tension between the boss and Jun, even though it wasn’t romantic or anything, it felt like they would start to make out the moment the talked to one another. But that was the boss’ character I think, like sensual in her own annoying way.. Didn’t even look or act much like a boss.. Anyway.. A good one, wasn’t that bored, only after episode six, it became ‘loose’, like not following the a real storyline, even though they tried to suspense it with the mentioning of the boss’ father’s case, didn’t really work for me…

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Jenji's verdict  
Really it wasnt bad, but not favorite either. I didnt have a hard time watching it, it was really okay, but only average for me. Even though I'm really fan of Jun and Eita, it wasnt "waaah!!". But thats how I felt, the drama is well-made, but not really anything extraordinary, nothing we havent seen hundreds of times before.  Jun's acting was very fine and Eita is really good ! Off camera he is so awkward I was really surprised to see that so he must be a real good actor. And I actually liked the relationship between him and jun in the drama. It was those people that annoyed one another who became best friends, always fun watching them "fight". The rest of the detectives I felt were too much in the background, but that might just be me. In the end I felt it was becoming a bit hard to finish. I think it was just a bit too weird though I liked the last episode (or second last, I dont remember). Sorry, but..

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Voice Review

Title: Voice
Genre: Medical, mystery
Episode: 11
Broadcast period: 2009-Jan-12 to 2009-Mar-23
Cast: Eita, Ikuta Toma, Ishihara Satomi, Endo Yuya, Sato Tomohito, Izumiya Shigeru, Yada Akiko, Tokito Saburo aso.

A group of 5 young medical students take a seminar on forensic pathology. Not many students pick forensic pathology and those who do pick it dont last very long, working with dead people isnt something anyone can do. Ryosuke, Kanako, Teppei, Akira and Daiki, who is somehow accepted for the seminar even though he didnt apply, are faced with the task to listen to the voices of the dead, to find out their story and their last words to their family and friends. These 5 students with very different personalities bond, grow and work together and even try to gather clues outside school, they become immersed in solving the mysteries.

I didnt expect to like this drama at all. At first i thought it wouldnt be interesting but it sure was. I think japanese dramas got this thing, they're special because they show a different side of things or go into depth with a subject and make you think about things. I really liked the characters especially Daiki and his "Naaandee!?" all the time. We usually (or at least i ) dont think about things that are part of our daily routines, we dont think why we do as we do and why some things happen, so it was a really nice twist to the drama. Also of course Ikuta Toma, who i always enjoy watching. It also had a lot of humor (most japanese do) so it wasnt all serious.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½/ 3.5 out of 5 hearts

Bunji's Verdict
OMG, another good one.
When I watched this drama some time back, I fell in love with Eita (didn‘t like him in Last Friends), and made me watch most of his drama after it. Even though I watched Voice because of Toma, I was head over heels with Eita.
This drama is a very “Japanese Medical” drama, meaning: few people, completely different personalities, finding themselves in the work they get.
It’s recommendable, even recommended it to Jenji, so if you haven’t watched it, GO! It’s a nice drama.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Sunao Ni Narenakute Review

Titel: Sunao Ni Narenakute
Tagline: Hard to say I love you
Genre: Romance, Friendship
Episodes: 11
Broadcast period: 2010-Apr to 2010-Jun
Theme song: Hard to say I love you ~Ii Dasenakute~ by WEAVER
Cast: Eita, Ueno Juri, Tamayama Tetsuji, Hero JaeJoong and Seki Megumi.

This drama is about five people; “Nakaji” - Nakajima Keisuke (Eita), “Haru” - Mizuno Tsukiko (Ueno Juri), “Linda” - Ichihara Kaoru (Tamayama Tetsuji), “Doctor” – Park Seon Su (Kim Jae Joong) and “Peach” – Nishimuri Hikari (Seki Megumi), who happen to meet over Twitter. The five of them have each different issue to deal with but one thing in common; none of them have real friends. Nakaji is a photographer who does his work half-assed and has an affair with a married woman, Haru is a substitute teacher, who simply can’t seem to achieve her dream, Linda is a magazine editor who has a relationship with his boss, Doctor is a salary man who sells medical supplies, and Peach is lonely girl who becomes pregnant with a married man.
The story follows their lives after they meet and become friends...

I can’t really decide on this one. I loved the theme and the beginning of this drama, the confusion, the loneliness and not to mention the different characters, but the drama becomes dragged after a couple of episodes. I think it’s around episode 8, everything becomes... Well, ridiculous.
I adore the main couple, it’s like superb, but if you don’t make any romantic scenes with them, the chemistry fails. I mean if you put super-couple(Last Friends giants) such as Ueno Juri and Eita in the lead, you would expect some more, and having Hero JaeJoong as the supporting actor couldn’t be better, but his character just becomes unnecessary. And the final long awaited scene comes, it just looses credibility, to be honest I didn’t even believe the lead actress liked the lead actor in the end.
The storyline is okay, I mean the whole twitter thing; like my brother says, “The-wish-of-Mr.Lonely”. But it’s true; I mean all five have lonely lives, until they meet.
Then again, I’m not fond of these dramas, these real life dramas. But if you liked Akai Ito and Last Friends, this would be a good watch.

☆☆☆☆/ 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts