Mop Girl Review

Title: Mop Girl

Genre: Comedy, Fantasy

Episodes: 10

Broadcast period: 2007-Oct to 2007-Dec

Cast: Kitagawa Keiko, Tanihara Shosuke, Asami Rein and Takaoka Sousuke.

“The day someone dies... the moment I touch their things; I go back in time. It's happened ever since I went into the special cleaning service. I have to do something, or else the person in front of me will die. That's the truth. I was able to go into the past and save the people who shouldn't have died. When time goes backwards, I get a ringing in my ears. I think back to the time when that woman died in front of me. Now, I'm always wondering what's happening? Why am I able to go back in time?” (intro of drama)

Hasegawa Momoko (Kitagawa Keiko) is a staff member at a wedding preparation company, but due to a mishap from her side, she is demoted and transferred to sub branch of the company called Little Angels. As it turns out the sub branch is a funeral home which specializes in cleaning. Being the hardworking girl as she is, Momoko decides to give it her all, but when she by accident touches an item that belonged to a deceased, she is sent back in time, a few hours before the incidence of the death. Will she save him?

One of my very favorite themes in ‘drama world’ and the general TV world is time travel. SO when I saw what this drama was about I had to watch it – no matter the age or background story. And now that I have watched it, I really didn’t mind the age nor the fact that rule no in the time-travel stories is: don’t change history. When I think about it, she isn’t really time traveling – only going back a day. So the future she came from never really happened. Which is, I guess why I didn’t mind the altering of the past.

Kitagawa is a favorite actress of mine, I don’t remember from when, but she is one of the few versatile and genuine actresses I know. SO this one was nice to watch as a fan. Even though the drama doesn’t really have a ‘mysterious’ feel as it tried to make it in the beginning, it was not all time of waste. But what happens when you don’t have a story throughout is that the climax just loses at the end. Nonetheless I enjoyed it.

So all in all, a funny and nice drama.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts

Koshonin 2 Review

Title: Koshonin 2

AKA: The Negotiator Season 2

Genre:  Detective

Episodes: 9

Broadcast period: 2009-Oct to 2009-Dec

Cast: Yonekura Ryoko, Kakei Toshio, Sasano Takashi, Takaoka Sousuke and Shirota Yu.

The story continues with Usagi Reiko (Yonekura Ryoko) in the SIT (Special Investigation Team) as a negotiator. After the entire Mariya Kyosuke (Shirota Yu) situation, Usagi has finally become a real part of the team. Amari Yusuke (Takaoka Souske) on the other hand, has become doubtful in whether he is suited to be in the SIT, and has found him liking the Juvenile District, even starting to counsel a teen who has locked himself in a room due to bullying.

When a series of cases occur involving the same type of gun, they find out that a certain ‘Summer Claus’ has been delivering guns by mail, to regular people - from families with children to old people’s houses. Though attaining 14 guns, they discover that there are 27 guns distributed all over Tokyo, and now it’s up to the team to recover the rest, before any more victims appear..

I’ve been seriously waiting 2½ years for this to be subbed, and somehow not really worth the while. I mean I remember season one to be brilliant and it’s not like the second season is bad, just okay if you ask me.

I really wasn’t that caught, and I was partially bored watching this. I don’t know what to think of it, I mean it really didn’t shock me or surpised me. Like I kind of knew what was going to happen most of the time - EXCEPT the deaths.. That took me by surprised, and what made me really confused was that even if they happened. No one really seemed affected? Lol. I don’t know. I rather just remember season 1.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 5 hearts

Bokura Ga Ita Kohen (part 2) Movie Review

Title: Bokura Ga Ita Kohen

AKA: We Were There, Part 2

Genre: Romance

Origin: Japan

Release date: April 21, 2012

Cast: Ikuta Toma, Yoshitaka Yuriko and Takaoka Sousuke

This movie continues 5 years after the departure of Yano.

Takahasi Nanami (Yoshitaka Yuriko) fresh from the university, is in search for a job, but for some reason isn’t able to land one. Takeuchi Masafumi (Takaoka Sousuke) finally gets a job and the two celebrate it, but the conversation mainly is about the school reunion that same week. It’s been 5 years since Yano Motoharu (Ikuta Toma) left and 3 years since he last wrote to Nanami, but Namami firmly believes that Yano will return, and can’t seem to let go, or rather refuses to do so.

Takeuchi destroys the dream of Yano ever returning by telling her a secret he’s been caring around: that Yano had returned a couple of years ago in secret, telling Takeuchi to take care of Nanami and that he is never coming back, which breaks Nanami’s heart.

Nanami, trying to forget Yano by focusing on work, getting more out and dating, starts to love life again, but that all changes when she one finds out about his whereabouts…

Compared to the first part the second part is a bit more grown up and serious, which I think is on purpose. The magic is that it is able to keep you entertained for another 2 hours after what happened in part 1. I think it was a really good idea parting this story in two, even though I was quite annoyed  at it at first because of it, I believe that it was a smart move, due to the growth that happens - which would’ve been little too sudden to be if it happened immediately.

Toma and Yuriko are a good couple, and great actors, and to be honest they fit their characters well. The thing that amazes me is how good the storyline is written, like these people actually react as normal people would - at least most of the time. Not that perfect human-being-mightiness that happens most of the time in either drama or movies.

To sum up, both movies, worth a watch - if you are into love stories.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Bokura Ga Ita Zenpen (part 1) Movie Review

Title: Bokura Ga Ita Zenpen

AKA: We Were There, Part 1

Genre: Romance

Origin: Japan

Release date: March 17, 2012

Cast: Ikuta Toma, Yoshitaka Yuriko and Takaoka Sousuke

This movie is based on the manga by the same name.

Takahashi Nanami (Yoshitaka Yuriko) is a high school freshman, known to be completely honest in everything she says. When the classmates talk about boys, she isn’t really interested, until she meets the favorite topic Motoharu Yano (Ikuta Toma) on the school rooftop, sitting alone. She is immediately infatuated by Yano, and when he asks her to sit with him she can’t say no. While conversing, she notices how he seems sad and without will to live, so she begins to worry about him. Later that day, she and her classmates happen to talk about him, and he speaks rudely to her, she gets angry and leaves after calling him ‘the worst’. Being told that for the first time in his life, Yano is stunned, so he tries to make up for it, by helping her with her class duties. Slowly Nanami falls for Yano, but finds out about his past scars of his dead ex-girlfriend, whom he cannot forget. While sitting with him in class, she accidently confesses to him. Yano, not really loving her, tells her to date him, but for the honest and proud Nanami dating someone without genuine feelings is just cruel, so she refuses him. After a while, they start dating, but due to Yano’s past, he starts to ignore her, until Yano’s best friend Takeuchi Masafumi (Takaoka Sousuke) threatens to take Nanami away from Yano, because he is in love with her himself.

So he decides to take care of her, but can Yano forget his past love, and start loving Nanami, who loves him more than anything?

(Sorry about the lousy review, not my finest moment)

The one thing that hit me while watching this movie, was how typical of a manga storyline it is - with the entire honest and innocent girl meeting popular and complex boy - fall in love and get obstacles involving their pasts. And I never really expected it to be good, because the clichés and the storyline isn’t easy to live up to - but it surprised me how good it actually is. It is a real Shojo manga type, but yet manages to keep me interested, which isn’t that easy - since I’m not in that category, or prefer not to be due to the typical clichés. 

But Yoshitaka and Toma do great jobs, and make it seem genuine; also manage to entertain me most of the time. The negative is that everything seems so sudden, and sometimes I became confused, which is common in Shojo, but not that great for movies. 

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥♥ / 4 out of 5 hearts

Koshonin Review

Title: Koshonin
AKA: The Negotiator
Genre: Police, Crime
Episodes: 8
Broadcast period: 2008-Jan to 2008-Feb
Theme song: Ogon Soul by Shonen no Kaze
Cast: Yonekura Ryoko, Jinnai Takanori, Takahashi Katsumi, Takaoka Sousuke and Shirota Yu.

Usagi Reiko (Yonekura Ryoko) is a tough police woman: she is strong, wilful, smart, and not to mention stubborn. When she finally enters the SIT (Special Investigation Team) who works as a negotiating team, she is faced with opposition from not only the criminals, but the rest of the male dominant team, being the only woman there. Kirisawa Keigo (Jinnai Takanori) the head of the department sees her as a huge burden and can’t see why a woman is to be let on the team. Together with her there is another newbie, Amari Yusuke (Takaoka Sousuke), who is treated differently because of his gender, but has less of a brain than Usagi. Besides having to deal with the men in SIT, she occasionally visits the mentally disturbed convict, Mariya Kyosuke (Shirota Yu) who was the main suspect in a case involving her father’s death, 5 years ago...

To be honest I started this drama because I missed Japanese dramas, and what other to watch than a drama that’s about a woman’s fight in a man dominant world? And as I was watching it I thought it was pretty dull for a police/action drama. But I ended up liking it. When I started watching this, I was annoyed, because I thought I didn’t have ‘the red thread’, meaning something linking the story together. I was wrong. I should’ve gotten used to Japanese drama already; they all have one MAIN story, followed by small ones. Though not all succeed, this one does it remarkebly well.
The actress Yonekura Ryoko I’ve never seen or heard of before, but I’ve become a fan (though I find her staring odd, creeps me a bit). The performance I was blown away by, was by Shirota Yu, like can you say AMAZING?! Now I’ve seen him as a bully, geek and a mental person. I put very high standards on crazy people, because you need skill and you need to give that “chill feeling “, in order to make it believable, which he scores pretty high on. To sum up, GREAT watch!

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3½ out of 5 hearts