The Glorious Team Batista Movie Review

Title: The Glorious Team Batista

AKA: Chiimu Bachisuta no Eikou

Genre: Medical, Mystery

Origin: Japan

Release date: February 9, 2008

Cast: Takeuchi Yuko, Abe Hiroshi, Kikkawa Koji, Ikeuchi Hiroyuki, Tamayama Tetsuji and Sano Shiro.

After a little girl is saved by a medical team that focuses on heart-diseases, the team got to stay and started becoming famous. But one day the ‘death in surgery’ patients started to grow, and the lead surgeon Kiryu Kyoichi (Kikkawa Koji) asked for an inquiry as he did not understand what happened so differently in the surgeries that made these people die. When the hospital chief invites a friend of his, the friend sends Taguchi Kimiko (Takeuchi Yuko), a doctor who listens to patients complain. She is asked to investigate the surgeries as an objective third party, and while doing so, she does not find any reason for the deaths.

When the secretariat of the ministry of health and labor Shiratori Keisuke (Abe Hiroshi) comes to her clinic and tells her that he believes its murder, Taguchi joins him in re-investigating and finding out what really is the reason for the deaths..

I was looking forward to this, because I was in the mood for a medical movie, and to tell you the truth, if you are considering this a medical thing, it’s not. It had so much ‘detective’/’figure-out-how-they-did-it’ bull that I was seriously upset half way through. But once I started to focus I started getting more interested and it was fairly good. The ending was surprising and the acting was okay as well. Though I didn’t really get any character development, which ruins a lot, I gotta admit I was fine with it.

Recommendable? Yes, if you like those movies that find out about truths and lies… whatever.

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥ / 3 out of 3 hearts

Dare Yori Mo Mama Wo Aisu Review

Title: Dare Yori mo Mama wo Aisu
AKA: I Love Mama More Than Anyone
Genre: Family, romance, comedy
Episodes: 11
Broadcast period: 2006-Jul to 2006-Sep
Theme song: Wakusei Timer by Fukumimi
Cast: Tamura Masakazu, Uchida Yuki, Tamayama Tetsuji, Nagashima Mitsuki and Ito Ran

This story revolves around a family that is a bit different than the average Japanese family; “Boku“ Kamon Kaoru (Nagashima Mitsuki) is our story teller, he tells us about his family, and how people around him tell him that his parents are weird and siblings unusual. “Papa” Kamon Kazoo (Tamura Masukaza) is the father, he works at home as at-home-dad. “Mama” Kamon Chiyo (Ito Ran) is the mother, she works as a lawyer and is rarely home. “Oneesan” Kamon Yuki (Uchida Yuki) is the oldest sister, she is unable to keep a job, dreams of getting married to a rich man, and is pretty violent by nature. “Oniisan” Kamon Akira, is a hairdresser unable to say no to girls, but is also unable to be mean to anyone.
It follows their everyday life and how this particular family handles them…

This is a sweet and heartfelt story about a family that is different from everyone else; The girlish big brother, the violent big sister, workaholic of a mother and loving at home dada, make it a sweet watch. Even though there isn’t much happening it’s heart-warming, even makes you jealous time to time, of how good this family is.
To be honest I started this drama because of Tamayama Tetsuji, after watching him in Sunao ni Narenakute, wanted to see him in a different drama with different character, but it looks like he only does these kinds of dramas…
I don’t want to spoil anything, if you feel like watching, but I can’t say it’s COMEPLETELY recommendable. It really is not that action packed, and the family is not that different than the usual Danish families in Denmark… Just saying…

☆☆☆ / 3 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3,5 out of 5 hearts

BOSS 2 Review

Title: BOSS Season 2
Genre: Crime, Detective, Comedy
Episodes: 11
Broadcast period: 2011- to 2011-
Cast: Amami Yuki, Toda Erika, Takenouchi Yukata, Hasegawa Kyoko, Mizobata Junpei and Tamayama Tetsuji.

This season continues two years after a terrorist situation, where the team got split up because of an incident that happened shortly after. Osawa Eriko (Amami Yuki) is back, older, louder and much bossier, putting the team back after her friend and boss Nodate Shinjiro (Takenouchi Yutaka) becomes director. As Kimoto Mami (Toda Erika) is blamed for the mishap that happened in their last incident, she is transferred and new members join the team. But the team has trust issues towards Osawa, believing she is the one that threw Kimoto out, making them lag in action.

I love this series. Watched season one and thought it was different; funny and somewhat realistic. To be honest I watched season one because of Toda Erika, but ended up being a big fan of Amami Yuki (the one that plays boss), now waiting eagerly for subs on one of her newer dramas. Different than season 1, season 2 is a bit loose at the beginning, with random cases, but ends up pretty thrilling, was very excited at the last episode. On the other hand, the last scene(s) are a bit disappointing. Was at least expecting a big POW, or something... To sum up, good/great watch, but not too wowing: P

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3,5 out of 5 hearts

Jenji's verdict
Waaah, I really missed this drama, I love how japanese dramas (not saying tht other dont but mostly japanese) make you really excited and looking forward to watching the drama. This one did too, a lot of things happen and its actually a really good drama when talking about quality. It did start out a bit weird, it was confusing because you dont really get to know anything from the end of season 1, but I guess that was because of the ending. Still really great, but I missed a bit that.. they are always successful, you know that at the end of every episode its gonna end good. But again not necessarily a con, just me maybe got a bit tired of it, some times its really complicated and you feel like an idiot watching it but thats mostly typical japanese dramas lol. But if you have watched season one definitely watch this one too, its great.

☆☆☆☆ / 4 out of 5 stars

♥♥♥½ / 3,5 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