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Wednesday, July 10, 2013 | 9:00 pm | 0 comments
The story goes that Iwase Ken (Yamashita Tomohisa) and Yoshida Rei (Nagasawa Masami) are childhood playmates and the very best of friends. They grew up together, played together, argued together.
But Ken never confessed to Rei, even though he has long fallen in love with her.
Until he has to attend her wedding.
His regret summoned up the elf residing in the church, and together they went back in time to change a little something. All in the hope that Rei will eventually marry Ken instead.
To find out if Ken fully made use of his second chance to win back the girl he loves, you'll have to watch the show to find out. But I assure you, it's full of laughter and comedic moments, as well as those "awww! just missed by a second!" moments. Ken's change was marvellous as you can see for yourself the effort he puts in to change history.
Verdict: 4/5 stars
I like how the emotions portrayed in this show is very real.
The regret, the sorrow, the happiness, the awkwardness.
Every little moment, every little action is a tug on the heartstrings; a reminder of all that we've lost, all those we've loved, and all those who've stuck by us all these years.
Proposal Daisakusen, definitely worth a watch.
Labels: Jap Dramas, July 2013 Tuesday, May 07, 2013 | 10:00 am | 0 comments
Photo Credit HERE
This is another Jdrama with heart.
I like that it has a very distinct theme, and just by watching this drama, you actually gain an insight into the medical world of Japan.
Photo Credit HERE
The story goes that a group of medical interns have come to begin their internship at the hospital. There they will experience competition against each other, learn to deal with hysterical patients and family, handle emergency situations, and most importantly, remember that as a doctor, saving lives will always be their number 1 priority.
Verdict: 5/5
I look forward to more of such dramas, because they remind me of the reason why I love Jdramas.
 Labels: Jap Dramas, May 2013 Thursday, January 31, 2013 | 9:30 am | 0 comments
I heard great reviews about this drama and I HAVE to watch it.
 
Starring Yamashita Tomohisa and Horikita Maki, this drama tells the story of Kurosaki (Tomohisa) who is a swindler who targets other swindlers, and of Tsurara (Horikita) who is a legal student who aspires to be a prosecuter. You can see the contradicting parts in this pairing already, can't you?
 
The above are two of my favourite scenes in this movie.
The humane side of Kurosaki and the playful nature of Tsurara.
Yamashita Tomohisa in his various dramas.
     
So far, I've watched Lunch Queen and Code Blue and that was when I finally noticed Yamapi as a promising young Japanese actor. His acting is not superb, and you can't compare him to Kimura Takuya, but I think Yamapi has talent. There's still space for improvement.
The bimbotic thing is every time I see him on screen, I feel tempted to squeal like an idiot and just go
かっこい！
Irresistable, except Matsuda Shota still beats Yamapi hands down as the better swindler in Liar Game.
But I don't think that's his fault, Liar Game was simply a much better script with more complex swindling schemes. Nevertheless, I enjoyed both dramas tremendously.
Verdict: 4/5
I love the plot, the characters, the relationships and..I like Yamapi.
By the way, don't waste your time on the Kurosagi Movie, that one is a total flop. Just watch the drama, it's thrilling and exciting enough.  Labels: Jan2013, Jap Dramas Wednesday, January 16, 2013 | 9:51 pm | 0 comments
Takeuchi Yuko was fabulous.
不愧是我的女神
Independent, sassy, street-smart, vulnerable, hardworking. I love everything about this character and the way it was portrayed.
Welcome to Kitchen Macaroni!
   
Photo Credit HERE
I like this drama because of the overwhelming food shots.
Also because I am a huge fan of Takeuchi Yuko.
The storyline is well-structured, characters well-defined, and I learnt alot about Japanese food in this drama.
The most outstanding thing about this drama is that the story is centered around this brilliant quote by Johann Wolfgang (who is incidentally my favourite go-to for quotes, most of my favourite quotes are from him), which they translated into Japanese.
涙とともに食べた人でなければ、人生の味はわからない。
“If you've never eaten while crying you don t know what life tastes like.”
Yes, this is one of a better dramas with heart. I can totally relate to this quote.
Thumbs up. Definitely.
Verdict: 4/5
Labels: Jan2013, Jap Dramas Thursday, November 08, 2012 | 4:06 pm | 0 comments
Image taken HERE
Takuya Kimura is back in CHANGE, as a politician.
I know, huge surprise right.
I couldn't believe it too when I first heard about this. I thought Kimura would flunk badly cuz, how many people out there can act convincingly as a Prime Minister?!
But let's not jump the gun.
Read the sypnopsis first.
To keep the long story short:
Keita (Kimura) was an elementary school teacher in Nagano and his hobby was star gazing. His father and elder brother were politicians, but they passed away in a tragic plane crash. Keita was roped in to run for elections, which he did but his original intention wasn't to win.
But he did.
Thereafter there are plenty of unseen political powers at work to make Keita the Prime Minister instead. Primarily, the mastermind of all these is Kanbayashi - the House secretary of the ruling party. Keita was to become the puppet of the more experienced politicians, specifically Kanyabashi.
However, the sincerity and hard work of Keita soon won over every sceptic and as Kanbayashi found out, he was not a puppet on his strings. Kanbayashi had to come up with another scheme to destroy Keita. How far would he go to realize his ambition? Could he succeed?
I think...
This show definitely has all the makings of a great drama series and should be on the top of all Kimura fans' To Watch lists. Even if you're not a fan, you'll love this drama too.
It's full of suspense, humour and heart.
It tugs at your heartstrings and it makes you believe that anything is possible with lots of hard work and heartfelt sincerity. The only drawback is the pace is a little too slow at the beginning. Once it reaches episode 3 and 4, it is then when things start to heat up.
Kimura didn't disappoint afterall, he's portrayed the character in an admirable manner.
What does this say haha, he's still the king of Jap dramas.
Verdict: 4/5
Labels: Jap Dramas, Nov2012 Thursday, August 16, 2012 | 4:30 pm | 0 comments
 To be honest, I watched this because I'm a huge fan of Matsuda Shota and as usual he didn't disappoint. But I find this whole storyline a little lacking in something. I like the whole night club hostess and Japan yakuza plot though, really gives an insight to the Japan night scene businesses. Except the ending is a little too reminiscent of sappy Korean dramas where the male or female lead dies and leaves the other half with a baby or young child. Too typical. My 3 cents worth of rating, definitely only 3 stars. Rating: 3/5 It's good, but it isn't all that awe-inspiring or mind blowing.  Labels: Aug2012, Jap Dramas Wednesday, July 25, 2012 | 2:25 pm | 0 comments
 Ryusei no Kizuna, Galileo and Meitante no Okite. All written by the same author and then filmed into dramas. All equally fantastic, following similar concepts regarding murder and mystery, but presented in three utterly different ways. The fantastic thing is they are all equally heartwarming and memorable.  Yes it's in Japanese hahaha! I can explain to you but I think that would giveaway too much of the plot. Let's just do an overview.  14 years ago, the Ariake siblings - Koichi, Taisuke, Shizuna, lost their parents in a ruthless murder. The Ariake siblings survived only because they sneaked out at midnight to watch the Leo shooting stars, and missed the murderer. They were sent to an orphanage and depended on each other for survival. The case of their parents' murder was unsolved.  The orphanage director looked after the siblings like they were his own children, even when they were grown up. The two brothers Koichi and Taisuke worked in his shops.  It so happened that Shizuna got cheated of her money once, and in order to get her money back, Koichi devised a plan for revenge. However this turned into a semi-addiction and they went about cheating people. Koichi is the mastermind and scriptwriter, while Taisuke and Shizuna executed the plans. Along the way, they discovered their parents' murderer and the reason behind it.  14 years ago, the Ariake siblings lost their parents in a ruthless murder, and they vowed to kill the murderer together when they grow up. 14 years later, they found the murderer. Now they had to make the choice whether to kill him or forgive him. What will Koichi, Taisuke and Shizuna do? Watch it to find out! The verdict:  5/5 stars! Definitely worth a watch. If you missed this, you are definitely missing out on a fantastic and heartwarming story of kinship, friendship and love. Labels: Jap Dramas, July2012 Monday, July 16, 2012 | 4:54 pm | 0 comments
 A Korean and Japanese collaboration, featuring a heartwarming love story between a beautiful actress and a lowly bodyguard. Honestly, I watched this for Nishijima Hidetoshi because I loved his character as Kikuta in Strawberry Night. Even though the scenery was gorgeous, the characters lively and the punchlines fantastic; I find the whole story kinda lacklustre. However heartwarming, one must admit that it is not a very refreshing storyline. In fact, this kinda plot is reminiscent of another Taiwanese drama about falling in love with an actress. I even recall another Korean drama about falling in love with a famous tennis player. All of them were similar in plot. Not refreshing. So, this is entirely watchable if you really had nothing better to do or if you adore these kinda plots. If not, there's no loss in giving this drama a pass. I assure you, there are better ones out there more worth your precious time. The verdict: 3/5 stars  Labels: Jap Dramas, July2012 Saturday, June 16, 2012 | 5:23 pm | 0 comments
  Welcome to Love Shuffle! The story goes that the 4 main characters (refer to above cast chart top row) - Usami Kei, Aizawa Airu, Sera Ojiro and Kikuta Masato bonded during a lift breakdown, and realized they were all neighbours who stayed on the same top level mansion. Again, refer to the above cast chart, the characters on the bottom row - Mai, Yukichi, Reiko and Kairi are the respective partners/ friends of the top row characters. Mai is engaged to Usami, but she wanted time out of their relationship. Airu wants to break up with Yukichi but Yukichi is in refusal and denial. Reiko is just Ojiro's friends with benefits. Lastly, in Kairi's case, she is Kikuta's patient.  Because I'm more than a little obsessed with Matsuda Shota right now, I am spamming all his dramas. I must say though, I pretty enjoyed this character. Modern, cool, caring, serious.  So begins their Love Shuffle.  Kikuta came up with this idea called Love Shuffle, whereby they will switch their partners and try dating for a week. It will either open them up to new partners, or make them see how awesome their old partners were. In the process, they made new friends and discovered new things about themselves.  I love how they used their lift foyer as their unofficial living room. They gather here almost every night for a pajama party where they drink, have dinner, and talk. Very heartwarming.  Sera Ojiro portrays a classic bad boy image, bad-ass free-lance photographer who specialises in shooting female potraits. The interesting thing is he's a very shy and sensitive person, but he chooses to hide them all underneath his tough boy, cool photographer image. He understands women very well, which might explain why his photos are always so real, so honest.  Ojiro's love shuffle of the week is Airu and I must confess, I was rooting for this couple! I really loved their chemistry together, and there were sparks that makes a viewer believe strongly this couple should be together!! When Ojiro shot photos for Airu, I thought that was the coolest and sexiest scene ever. Okay maybe it lost a little to the cooking scene below.  Airu looked amazingggggg in the studio, and I really loved her character. It shed some light on her background, and explained why she behaved the way she is. There is something very intriguing, and real about her character that the majority viewers can identify with.  This is my favourite shot from the entire drama season. Mai, Reiko and Kairi's shots though equally good, can't compare to the intensity and beauty of this photo. There is something very raw, exposed and honest about this shot that endears to me.  Cooking scene!! Ojiro is one hell of a chef, which makes this character all the more hotter. I stand by my opinions, Ojiro and Airu are a good pair.  Except he ended up with Kairi in the end, who is simply a weird character with a fetish for pandas.  See what I mean about the panda? She talks damn little in the drama, has minimal expression and is bent on suicide. Apparently Ojiro is the reason why she's not busy trying to kill herself. So I guess they're good for each other. Though I am still rooting for Airu. lol.  Usami and Mai For some reason, I didn't really like Mai. I found her character immature, self-centered and her love was kinda superficial. But all of that was packaged nicely so it wasn't an immediate turn-off. The curious thing about this character is that it makes you think about your own life. To me, Mai is just a rich girl who has led too pampered a life and has not been through hardships at all. She is incapable of grasping the happiness in front of her because she's unsatisfied. Her life has been too perfect. She's the classic character who goes seeking some troubles so she can mess up her perfect little life and meanwhile, see if she can be more mature in future. Usami, on the other hand, is someone who haven't found a niche. He isn't passionate about his job, and in Mai's eyes, that diminishes him in her eyes. It kinda makes sense in a way. Usami lives one day at a time, and doesn't give much thought to the future. Not that he's irresponsible, just that he didn't want to live life worrying about things that haven't happened yet. At the same time, he has also given in the harsh reality that passion and work do not coexist, which explains why he's slowing losing his "shine". Mai wanted Usami to find his niche and continue shining, because she knows that is where he truly belonged.  Tara Team This pair is damn hilarious. Tamaki Hiroshi is one comedian, I couldn't stop laughing at him even back in Nodame Cantabile. All in all, I rate this show  I enjoyed the plot, and the characters really made me think and reflect on life. Favourite character would be Aizawa Airu! Surprise surprise! Haha, bet you expected Sera Ojiro because I'm too obsessed with Matsuda Shota recently. ;) 4/5 stars Definitely worth a watch! Labels: Jap Dramas, June2012
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