Yokoso, Wagaya e Review

Title: Yokoso, Wagaya e

AKA: Welcome to my home

Genre: Family, Suspense

Episodes: 10

Broadcast period: 2015-Apr to 2015-Jun

Theme song: Aozora no Shita, Kimi no Tonari by Arashi

Cast: Aiba Masaki, Sawajiri Erika, Arimura Kasumi, Minami Kaho and Terao Akira,

Kurata Kenta (Aiba Masaki) is a coward who avoids confrontation and disputes. Due to his upbringing he never bothers other people or does he trouble people, and uses preferably the sentence “I’m sorry” in any given circumstance. His father is the same way, and his mother is a happy person who never stops smiling. The only one in the family with a serious personality is the daughter, who is the complete opposite of everyone else.

The family is happy and loving family, until one day Kenta finds his courage and tells off a man who bothers people at the train platform. Here he also meets Kandori Asuka (Sawariji Erika) a woman that always speaks her mind without holding back.

After the situation the man runs off in embarrassment - but when Kenta takes the bus home that very man appears in the same bus. Creeped out Kenta gets out of the bus only to be followed by the man and it escalates with the man running after Kenta. Kenta runs around the neighborhood, and manages to lose him. The next morning though the flowerbeds in front of their house are ripped out. Unsure whether or not it is that man, Kenta wants to figure out who he is, and by pure luck meets Asuka again, who introduces herself as a journalist willing to help finding out the stalker.

But as it turns out more and more things start to happen to the family, continuously bothering them. Who can it be, and why the Kurata family?

My reason for watching this was mainly Aiba so I did not really read the summary of the plot. But I think that did kind of the good part here, not know what to expect.

The drama is a mellow family story with a psychological twist to it, as it is very disturbing to know that due to a little confrontation you can become a victim of severe stalking and what I call ‘chain-stalking’.  And to be honest, even though it isn’t all horror, it made my mouth dry quite a few times. Just the thought of ‘what-if-it-had-happened-to-me’ made me shiver. As I said: dirsturbing.

As a general it doesn’t isn’r scary, and the family is so adorable and fun to watch, so you don’t get that bored, but to be honest it is a bit too ‘chain-stalkerish’… you’ll get what I mean when/if you see it. And I wasn’t all that excited to find out the ending. Aiba is great as always, and to be honest everyone was good at acting, even Sawariji whom I never really liked before.

All in all: a good and interesting family drama with a hint of suspense.

☆☆☆½ / 3½ out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Sugar and Spice Movie Review

Title: Sugar and Spice

AKA: What girls are made of

Genre: Romance

Origin: Japan

Release date: September 16, 2006

Cast: Yagira Yuya, Sawajiri Erika, Natsuki Mari and Chen Bolin.

This movie is about a young man’s first love, how he learns about the actual feeling of love, and what he feels about it.

After High School Shiro (Yagira Yuya) decides not to go to college, and thereby disappoints his parents greatly. As he has the support of his 70-year-old grandmother, who likes all American including being called “Granma” instead of the Japanese word for it, he starts working at a gas station where he meets Noriko (Sawajiri Erika). He had seen her before on the street going home after school, whilst she was fighting her much older boyfriend, and seeing her cry all alone, falling for her. But seeing her work at the gas station made him fall for her all over again. When the two start getting to know one another they become very close and even start dating, but life has a different way of treating Shiro, as her ex-boyfriend returns and she can’t seem to forget him…

I don’t know what I was epecting, but most definatly not this. It really didn’t have a climax at all, and was so slow paced. The idea was okay I guess, but so damn half-hearted and I really don’t like Sawajiri’s acting. She just pisses me off. The male actor was okay, I havne’t seen him before, but the grandma was ridiculus, and I have NO IDEA why they would put SO much of her story and basically fill the entire thing with her bull… Boring.

But on the other side, I like serious, and I appreciate that they tried to make me think, which I felt this was all about: try and figure out what the hell this all is about.

Recommendable? Not really, unless you like this kind of serious…

☆☆½ / 2½ out of 5 stars

♥ ♥ / 2 out of 5 hearts

1 litre of tears Review

Title: 1 litre of tears
AKA: 1 litre no namida / Ichi Rittoru no Namida / A Diary with Tears
Genre: Human, family, romance, school
Episodes:11
Broadcast period: 2005-Oct-11 to 2005-Dec-20
Cast: Sawajiri Erika, Yakushimaru Hiroko, Nishikido Ryo, Jinnai Takanori, Narumi Riko, Fujiki Naohito, Koide Saori, Sanada Yuma, Miyoshi Ai, Matsuyama Kenichi ...

The 15-year-old Ikeuchi Aya (Sawajiri Erika) has just been accepted to High School and is living her life fully, always being positive and having an active life. But then destiny strikes. She notices that her body slowly doesnt function right. Her body often doesnt register the moves she wants to make. She finds out that she has a disease called spinocerebellar degeneration. A disease that has no cure. She will slowly not be able to walk, speak, write and even eat. But Ikeuchi stays positive and is determined to never give up and fight till the last breath. And so she continues to go to school but will face a lot of difficulties as even her friends at some point cannot offer more of themselves in order to help her. But she has one great support. Which is her friend Asou Haruto (Nishikido Ryo), he is there for her and makes her forget that she has a disease.

I watched the movie a long time ago and i got one thing to say : Watch the drama! , haha the drama was so much better than the movie. You cannot not cry while watching it. I definitely recommend it. I like the whole story, the plot and also the actor i think were suited for it. Nishikido Ryo, at start it was kinda awkward, weird. But he is actually quiet good. The whole drama is really like inspiration for other people and kicks ur conscience hahah. Okay its really short. I dont know what to say. But its just a great drama with a great message !

☆☆☆☆½ / 4.5 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥♥ / 5 out of 5 hearts

Bunji's Verdict
This drama is one of my first. I got it recommended, so I gave it a shot, and I have to admit it was worth my time. It's well written, emotional and somewhat relatable. The actors are perfect for their roles and their chemistry is great, though it's a little to sudden(I think if they knew each other earlier on, it would have been more interesting), but heck. There isn't much negative here, so there isn't much to say about it :)
All in all, great watch ^^

☆☆☆☆½ / 4.5 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥½ / 4½ out of 5 hearts

Aikurushii Review

Title: Aikurushii
AKA: Sweet
Genre: Family, romance
Episodes: 11
Broadcast period: 2005-Apr to 2005-Jun
Cast:Takenaka Naoto, Harada Mieko, Ichihara Hayato, Ayase Haruka, Kamiki Ryunosuke, Matsumoto Rina, Sugiura Naoki, Shiho, Hongo Kanata, Oguri Shun and Sawajiri Erika

This drama revolves around the Mashiba family of 7: Tetsuo, the loud father (Takenaka Naoto), Meiji, the free-spirited grandfather (Suginara Naoki), Yumi, the sick mother (Harada Mieko), Michiru, the clumsy oldest sister (Ayase Haruka), Go, the ‘almost’ yankee brother (Ichihara Hayato), Horo, the strong kid (our narrator)(Kamiki Ryunsuke), and Uta, the cry-baby youngest little sister (Matsumoto Rina). Horo has never cried before, or to say he doesn’t know how to, so as his mother becomes sick, and everyone starts to cry, he finds himself in a situation where he doesn’t know what to do. He befriends ‘the weird kid’ Nagumo Shu (Hongo Kanata), who lives with his single mother, and Sakamaki Nana (Shiho), who tries to make her guardian angry by doing stupid things.
The story focuses on how the family copes with the mothers hospitalization, and how there are big problems in different families, even though they live on the country side.

Omg! Like this star cast is UNBELIEVABLE! I guess this is how they became famous? :P
I loved the drama, though I have to say some parts of the love story kind of made me annoyed, mostly the Ayase-Oguri love story. It was sweet and all, but damn that girl had a fast change of heart. But otherwise, I found everything brilliant, from the fights at the dining table; to the search for “Rainbow-Soldiers” (if you watch it you’ll understand). And I finally realised what it means when actors shine through the screen. When there are a lot of actors, it’s hard to make all of them look good, which sort of failed for Ayase (though her performance was decent – don’t get me wrong I’m a fan!). Ichihara Hayato, Oguri Shun and Kamiki Ryunsuke shined trough, and made me like them even more.
This drama is TOTALLY a family drama, and it’s REAAAAAAALLY heartfelt, so if you want to watch something like that, this is a GO!

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars.

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts