rambles & mumbles...

Couple of things that I got excited about this week...

Criminal Minds starts tomorrow!! Finally back to seeing LJK kicking ass, this time I hope he has more kick ass fight scenes. As more teasers and trailers are upped, the drama looks more promising than I initially thought. I have a feeling it'll be more gruesome than the US version because well, K-drama likes to play up the emotion aspect and if they can make the bad guys excruciatingly evil in makjangs, what the chances are when they have tons of psycho characters at their disposal for this drama. I hope this time the rating is better than the harem drama...



Next, we have a longer trailer for Sensei, and most of the scenes from what I remember is from the first arc of the story, so.. if they're going to cram the whole thing, and I suspect they also try to include the side story too... omg, please don't. The manga did have a long round about on Hibiki's rebellious period, but I really hope they don't cover that because... really I thought those are filler in the manga itself lol. Anyway, Toma looks good as Itou sensei huehehe...



And finally... finally! Waki Yamato's manga Haikarasan ga Tooru gets anime movie adaptation, 2 parts. I love the manga, though my favorite Waki Yamato works is still Yokohama Monogatari, but Haikarasan is still set at the same time period. But again, I wonder how are they going to cram 7 volumes into 2 movie parts? hmmm... nevertheless, still excited about this one!

I ran through my J-movie stash since a friend of mine asked about Kuroshitsuji live action, not sure why she wants to watch this one (the movie where the only main point is HIRO IS SO DAMN KAKKOII, and that's it) while shunned Kenshin live action from the get go (I suggested it and it got shut down right away LOL). And... while running through my stash, I started clicking and I just marathon-ed 2 movies... Tenshi no Koi and Hanamizuki. Clearly these 2 movies are NOT the right movie to watch on a weekday, damn I'm still half sobbing as I'm writing this.

I think I'm going to just rewatching my old stash of movies. They just reminds me why I love J-movies and dramas in the first place, the magic! It gives you that feels, hard to describe, the closest thing that I can think of, is the depth of emotions are conveyed from the movies. Maybe it's the script or just the overall theme of the movie itself, but it's something that's lacking from the current J-movies. Seriously, they really gotta stop with all those live actions, unless they really put real effort in producing them. Else, don't, just stop, you're butchering fantastic manga stories that actually still have that magic and those magical moments that makes you squeel in manga and they just disappear the moment you see it on screen, and that's just SAD T__T.

So here I'm praying hard that Ikuta Toma's Sensei! is not butchered *crossing fingers & toes*



... the whole trailer here translated to just the first 10 chapters only... out of 80plus chapters... gee, I'm really extremely nervous now LOL...

On the seinen live action part, based on the trailers, it looks like Gintama (though I'm not the fan) and Fullmetal Alchemist will be the good ones, and I still have reservation for Ajin & Tokyo Ghoul (not from the acting part, the packaging part).

Having almost to no drama to watch (yes, it's that much drama I've been watching lately) makes me end up with mindless browsing on drama thumbnails, both j-drama and k-drama. Upon browsing those, I realize, there're more and more cross remakes happening between Chinese, Korean and Japanese, whether it's drama converted to drama or movie converted to drama vice versa. First we have the live-action from manga to drama/movie, then on top of that there's these remakes. The remakes has been happening since years ago, and it creates kind of an excitement and curiousity especially if the original is that good, will the remake be as good or even better? But just like its live-action counterpart, seems that I've been hearing remakes more often now, compare to years ago. What happened? Does the industry getting lazzier and just want to get quick ideas and cash in? It's still a gamble despite the original being mega successful (side eyeing a certain drama, you know which one). So below is just some example that I can think of, you know how lazy I am to do extra research to find out ALL remakes across 10 years? Please don't expect me to do this, I still have to use my brain to prepare for workshop & training materials (RL sucks), and this is just for fun and healing therapy for me.

( Here we go.. )

I just marathoned the whole 26 episodes of the anime (Himitsu the Revelation). Not sure how close the anime to the manga, but at least now I know roughly what to expect out of the movie. In short, it'll be about a team of detective called Sector Nine which job is to solve crime cases via analyzing the brain memories, to the point of actually convert those memory to visual and through that there's a hope to identify the true criminal. The subject of pondering from this franchise is everybody has a secret that they don't want to reveal, is it ethical to watch all these secrets for the name of solving crime?

The live action movie will tone down the brain part as in, instead of having the frozen brain (which means cutting the head to extract the brain at the background - you can't help but imaging that, right?, and this maybe too grotuesque for some live action viewers), we have the whole body and just the head is attached to cables for scanning. Not as convincing as the manga but, OK, I'll accept.

Maki is a very complicated and mysterious character. He doesn't talk much, except for work (analysis and ordering his team members). The manga definitely will explore A LOT of his past, etc etc because he's the main character and also the pretty one. I'm quite curious how the movie turn out with Ikuta Toma as Maki. In general, it'll look like a typical character that Toma would play (after all, some of his movie characters are those mysterious or psychotic ones too), but this time it's kind of borderline.

Akio's character is the very earnest hardworking dude who will more likely to go above and beyond to seek justice and also the very good pair for doujinshi material. Seriously, this franchise is screaming to the doujinshi out there 'make me, make me'.

And, not to mention Matsuzaka Tori is Suzuki. I'm expecting high performance from him, especially after watching him in Library Wars and Nihon no Ichiban Nagai Hi, for major angst and the clash between Suzuki and Maki. Damn he's literally everywhere.

Another tidbits, the director is Keishi Ohtomo, the same director for Kenshin trilogy and Platinum Data. I'd think this movie will be closer to Platinum Data style.

And there you go, we have 1 out so many movies to be anticipated in 2016... it's AUG 2016 release for goodness sake.

Io Sakisaka is probably the only mangaka that I know having 2 of her works turned to movies in such short period gap, not even a 1 year gap! Between Ao Haru Ride and Strobe Edge, I personally prefer Srobe Edge storyline, but I find that Ao Haru Ride has more popularity as they turned it into anime first then movie. Like most of shoujo manga live action, Ao Haru Ride is about high school life and the romance blossoms within it. We call it 青春 (seishun), youth. Like all its counterparts, it has the standard elements of first love, friendship, angst, complication, cute moments, and off course the munekyun moments. With the so many shoujo manga turned to live action these days, what make this one stand out aka worth watching?


( Futaba & Kou... )

Finally get to watch this movie, after all the wait. After watching it, I seriously can imagine how fangirls can go kyaa kyaa watching this, heck, even I went kya on some scenes too (thank God, I watch this at home). I find that the movie is very text book in delivering what are required of Shoujo manga live action, which are ikemen lead, kawai girl lead, munekyun scene, kabedon scene, and lastly beautiful kisu scene.


( Thoughts and caps... )

( Why oh why, you'd wonder? )

So, I was right when I say I watch Lupin because of Oguri. He really saves this movie from being in chaos. This movie has an A+ for effort, but it fails in recognizing things that fans would want to see. Afterall such life action movie is targetted first to fans then to general public, right? Which is again, why Kenshin is so successful.

If Lupin gets another movie, I want to have Lupin vs Detective Conan and with Shun Oguri with double cast. After all, Shun Oguri is Conan way before he's Lupin LOL.

Soon, we'll have all the shoujo manga imaginable turned into live action at the rate they're going now. Almost all manga that I have read or am currently reading have been turned into live action, either in form of a movie or a drama, and this is one of them. The question will be when they convert the current running manga, what will they do with the ending? Some screwed it up, some took the safe route aka ending of neither here nor there, some just followed the series faithfully and hope for the sequel, but every now and then there're who placed the bet and took the risk. Should I say this movie is the last one? Not really, and I don't think there'll be a life action who dare to totally take the challenge with the ending. However, Kanojo Uso Aishisugiteru does their best to interpret what the ending should be, which is acceptable to my book.

Again and again, the downside of having a serial manga turned into a 2 hours movie is that they have to skip lots of details, and often it end up with different portrayal compared to original. You'll feel slightly that aspect if you've read a glimpse of the manga then watch the movie. A lot of things were toned down in the movie, for example, Mari's bitchiness towards Riko, or Aki's digging his own grave by keep on lying, and off course one won't know the reason why Aki ghost write the song for Mari unless you read the manga.

But what makes me feel for the movie is Sato Takeru's portrayal of Aki. He gives lots of humanity to Aki, well, apart from being kakkoii and all. Aki is less of a douche bag in the movie but we still see how he digged his own grave by lying here and there and remedy is a lot harder than prevention, but hey, it's drama, right?

Quick highlights of the movie for me:


The closeness here gives you feel. XD


The lighting here is nice, and again, Aki's expression gives you 'see, this is what happens if you're not honest, at least tell your name properly!' :)


And off course, the angst! What's the point of having Sato Takeru here if we don't have the angst!


And lastly, the beautiful kissing scene! This movie did a fantastic job on it. Especially on the 2nd cap, look at how Aki's finger wrapped over Riko's head, it's the little details that makes the scene so romantic. <3

I'd prefer that the producers wait until the manga ends before they convert it to life action but guess can't be helped if they want to ride on the manga's success. I mean, score it while it's still hot?

So, what's next? 

Am back from Melbourne aka fridge and now back in SG (sauna... damn it's hot here!!! T__T). So, before I start to complain about the heat again, I better get back to the reason why I write this in the first place... Yes, I used to dread the long haul flights... until I took Emirates... Why? Simple, because it has J-movies... so, me being greedy sacrifice my sleep just to watch those that I've been itching to watch. Hence, while there're tons of spam out there on Endless Game (me catching up on 1 week of Arashi), allow me to add on something different LOL:

Strawberry Night Movie ~ I totally sacrificed my sleep for this movie LOL. How to resist when you see it with subs LOL... and I even repeat watching it on the flight back... The story? Off course it's Strawberry Night drama quality with more action aka violence and graphics scenes but this movie adds on some seasoning for us... Kikuta has competition! As much as I love Kikuta.... if the rival is Makita (from drama Jin), whom I totally didn't recognize until I wiki because he's wearing a freaking suit as oppose to yukata and he looks so hot that I couldn't care less if he's a yakuza and just wish him to sweep Himekawa off her feet, I'm on Makita's team (sorry Kikuta). So, with Himekawa's attraction to Makita and Kikuta having his chance slips within his fingers and the face off between Kikuta and Makita (I love this scene btw, Kikuta barged in with confident into Makita's office but unfortunately Makita's confidence is higher, bigger, and much darker and you just have to watch it), yeah, finally, a drama! in a drama!






Kyou, Koi wo Hajimemasu ~ I love the manga, and I still love the manga better after watching this movie. Why? Because manga is longer, more detail and more drama, in which always the case when a manga is converted into a 2 hours movie. But the good thing is that I don't find Takei Emi's voice annoying here. So, the movie is more like the express way of the manga of 15 volume! Plot is compressed, fast, not much details as long as audiences get the point. Acting? I don't see anybody particularly outstanding, and I'd think the main target audience is the manga fans, and suckers for a high school romance movies. Do watch this movie for its light theme and all the cute high school fashions.

PS: I think the guy is too old to be a high shool kid but I like him in Take FIVE as the flirty hate to lose thief!






Ooku ~ Eien ~ And I thought this movie is straight continuation of the drama because Sakai Masato is also staring the movie. But I was way wrong. He's depicting different character for the movie as Emonnosuke, not Arikoto. It's true in the manga that Emonnosuke looks like Arikoto, hence the casting, so I don't have any complaints there. Out of all the Ooku franchise so far, I still love the drama better, just because the drama has the part of the manga that I love the most. This movie has the part of the manga that I dread to read the most because I feel so terribly sorry for the shogun, Tsunayoshi. The way Ooku and even his father perceive her as the tool to conceive an heir is just so sad. A proud shogun is reduced to feel like a whore everyday bedding men just so that she can conceive an heir, is just sad and beyond me. I'd need to re-read the manga to check whether the ending is the same as the manga though, but from memory there're some changes in this movie compared to manga. Acting? I love Arikoto's depiction the best, but Sakai's depiction of Emonnosuke is also quite spot on. Both have the same face but as in manga, both character have totally different personality. What I see being omitted in this movie is how Tsunayoshi swooned over Arikoto hence me being confused at the beginning of the movie. Kanno Miho's Tsunayoshi is quite endearing to me. To see the sad character of shogun Tsunayoshi live is heartbreaking yet there's still strength in her, somehow.

Tenchi Meisatsu ~ Who would skip Okada's movie? Definitely not me and especially you really need to have subs for this one XD. The story may be boring for people who don't like history drama, samurai drama and especially drama about astronomy and historical calendering system. But if you're suckers for Okada like me, you'll watch this movie. In this movie you'll root for Okada's character (if you don't know the history), as in for him to perfect the calendaring system and overcome aka shut up those imperial court's bastards (they're really bastards in this movie, except one).
Off course for Kanjani8 fans, you'll watch this movie too, though Yoko only have his scenes by minutes duration only.
Overall, it's quite a heavy movie actually, lots of angst, lots of brain work too, so if you're looking for something light, definitely not this movie XD.






And tomorrow... Platina Data, YEAH!