13 Assassins - my review

In late Edo period of Japan, a vassal of the Akashi Domain named Tosho Mamiya (Masaaki Uchino ) commits suicide in front of the gate of Roju, the family of Lord Doi (Mikijiro Hira). By his suicide, he accuses the lord of Akashi Domain, Naritsugu Matsudaira (Goro Inagaki), with committing atrocities like murder & rape. Naritsugu Matsudaira, who is the younger brother of the shogun Ieyoshi, is set to become the Roju next year. The Shogun clan becomes disturbed by the case and believes the country's stability & peace is threatened by Naritsugu Matsudaira. Lord Doi then decides to assassinate Naritsugu Matsudaira and orders samurai Shinzaemon Shimada (Koji Yakusho) to carry out the deed.

Shinzaemon Shimada gathers eleven men, including a butcher ronin named Kuzuro Hirayama (Tsuyoshi Ihara) & Shinzaemon Shimada's own nephew Shinrokuro Shimada (Takayuki Yamada), who is a gambler, alcoholic and womanizer. As their plan progresses, Naritsugu Matsudaira's head samurai Hanbei Onigashira (Masachika Ichimura) hears of the assassinaton plan. Years ago, Hanbei Onigashira & Shinzaemon Shimada were fellow pupils of the sword, but ideological differences led them to part ways. Now, a mental battle between Hanbei Onigashira & Shinzaemon Shimada begins.

Shinzaemon Shimada believes the only way to assassinate Naritsugu Matsudaira is to ambush him in the town of Ochlai, while he is returning home from Edo. The assassins are dispatched to Ochlai to fortify the town and lay traps. During this time the assasins pick up a 13th member, a mountain man named Koyata Saga (Yusuke Iseya).

When the 13 assassins' plan is set to begin, they encounter many surprises, none of which is bigger than facing an army of more than 200 samurais ...

The main reason this movie attracted my attention was, not the reviews saying it was a phenomenal movie, but the fact that there is a 45 minutes-battle! And that the director is not other than Takashi Miike, the same that directed CROWS ZERO and CROWS ZERO 2 (the latter which has also a long battle scene). I mean, we are talking about a battle, with swords, 12 ronin and 1, errr, warrior, that fight against 200 samurais! That alone is one big and obvious reason to watch it.

Besides that, I wanted to see "rockstar" (hehehe, when I read that his profession was "rockstar" in a review, I laughed) Inagaki Goro, who was perfect as a sadist dono, since he is always so passive and has a kind face, which makes him a perfect choice to play a villain. His acts were sometimes TOO gruesome, thought. Not a movie for everyone.

There are many familiar actors in the movie, actors that I liked and that are good. Like Uchino Masaki (JIN Sakamoto Ryoma), though his scene is super short -maybe 30 seconds long- and he doesn't talk, but he has a powerful scene where he commits harakiri); or Iseya Yusuke (Joker Game Yuki), though he was not such a comedy relief in spite of what almost all reviews say; or Takaoka Sousuke (CROWS ZERO Izaki) and Ishigaki Yuma (HanaKimi 1st Head Dorm). Unfortunately, there is no character development whatsoever, so the audience cannot connect with almost any of them; cannot tell one from the other (all of them, except 2, have the same hairstyle and dark clothes) and at the end, their bravery is not so poignant since we barely know them.

And Yamada Takayuki... ohh, I think his role could have been a little better. Another undercast character. There are only 2 characters that showed personality, besides the villain, and that were the 2 frenemies: one who is the Lord's personal bodyguard, and the other who is the leader of the 13 assassins.

I could not enjoyed it as much as I wanted to because (and the reasons are totally not related to the movie itself): 1) the quality of the video was super low, and since the movie is a bit dark-ish, it was even worse. And 2) the audio was not synchronized with the video. It was like, 1 second behind, and it annoyed the hell out of me.

Yes, the movie was good for what it was, a battle-field with swords, and explorations, and gore and beheaded people. But I would have loved more character development.

My rating: 7/10

TRICK - The movie

In order to get rid of widespread doomsday fears in a small town, two residents from there asks magician Naoko (Yukie Nakama) to come to their town as a goddess. When Naoko arrives in the town she sees an a handful of other pseudo gods. Mysterious phenomenons occur in sequence.

Naoko and physicist Jiro (Hiroshi Abe) become fooled by those others. In addition, Detective Kenzo (Katsuhisa Namase) and Naoko's mother Satomi (Yoko Nogiwa) become involved. Their situation goes in an unexpected direction.

Plot wise, it was a bit all over the place. It left me with more questions than answers. Why did they hire Yamada? Why was the need to murder Ueda's friend? Why murder all these people? Why sacrificing themselves at the end? Etc, etc.

Ueda remains Yamada's biggest fan. I love how enthusiastic he is every time she performs. He is cute and funny <3 Although at the end of the meeting where he invited her to come and perform, he, like the big coward he is, denies any relationship with her and let the other mock her. Poor Yamada, she was so hurt she cried ^_^

But Ueda redeems himself at the island; he is always supporting Yamada and she lays her safety in his hands. We get the old jokes again, the sexual ones XD. There is a message that Yamada misunderstands, and I loved how at the end Ueda tries to get what could she have possibly read, but she is always interrupting him, since she is very embarrassed <3 I love these two, how they care for each other but that no one is going to give the first step <3

Stresseman Takenata Naoto has a small role, very small, I was impressed. I looked at his list of movies, and oh my! He has done thousands of movies. He is truly every where.

Riko Narumi has a small role as well, but not as Yamada as a child, which was strange. No, she has a role as the hidden daughter of a couple and possible Goddess of the Turtle. Seems like the Director truly liked her, since she is always portraying Yamada as a child, but if she is not, she still has a role in the movie.

It did not feel like a movie, but more like a long episode of the dorama.

My rating: 9/10

Lovely Complex Live Action - My review

Risa (Ema Fujisawa), a tall Japanese girl, gets rejected by a boy because she is taller than him. Otani (Teppei Koike), a short Japanese guy, gets rejected by a girl because he is shorter than her. Obviously these two would make the oddest of couples and would never be a good match for each other right? Well love doesn’t always follow such logic as Love Complex shows. (asianwiki)

If I am correct, this is the first Live Action I watched, around 4-5 years ago. I was so happy, and at the same time, I thought this movie was beyond ridiculous. But I was not disappointed. Perhaps because it was my first Live Action? And I was not expecting too much? Although LoveCom is one of my favorite manga.

Teppei was OK as Otani. Cute and small, and a bit silly, which was fine because that is how Otani is. Ema as Risa, on the other hand... WOW, how miscast! First of all, she was not tall. And it was so obvious the director or whoever, tried to sell us the image that she was, what with that hairstyle and those high shoes. Whenever they were together and/or she was complaining that she was taller, I was thinking "girl, you could take off those shoes and you will be fine". Not suitable at all. And she was very whinny. I know Risa cries over and over again, but never, not once, I felt annoyed with her tears, unlike the girl in the movie. She was not cute, but silly.

They followed the story pretty closely, except for the secondary characters. Their friends were so silly and not at all like in the manga/anime (I absolutely love the gang). And that fake sister they made up for Risa... totally unnecessary. Her personality was gross.

Not a good way to start watching Japanese Live Action. Thank God it did not scare me enough to make me stop watching them. I would not recommend this to any LoveCom fan (of manga and anime) and to anyone who is new to this world. In my case, I found it too silly, too ridiculous and too much overreacting, although I did find it funny and laughed several times.

My rating: 3/10

Kurosagi - My review

Kurosaki, as a boy, loses his family through the works of a swindler and swears revenge. Eventually, Kurosaki himself becomes a Kurosagi (black swindler) - cons other swindlers & returns money to the victims. His life then changes when he meets Tsurara Yoshikawa (Maki Horikita) - a law school student with strong belief in the law. (asianwiki)

Now that I've seen several doramas (not that many, but a decent number) I can honestly say that Kurosagi is the worst dorama I have seen so far. Everything was bad: the acting, the plot, the lack of chemistry...

Let's start with the plot. I've read 3 or 4 volumes of the manga, and it is good, really good. A bit dark, but the plot is catching, and Kurosagi, in spite of being an anti-hero, is interesting and very smart. The dorama, on the other hand... Every single swindle was so poorly executed. I don't remember exactly each one (I watched this a couple of years ago) but I remember thinking "Kurosagi is needed for what precisely? For wearing awful clothing and a horrible wig? Is that his talent? He is smart because of that only?".

Yamapi was Kurosaki... Well, it is true that some born stars, others are born unlucky. His portrayal as Kurosaki.. Yikes. I did not know Kurosagi was supposed to be a robot. He does not show any emotions whatsoever. Is he angry? Is he sad? I had no idea. There is a moment where he weeps, but it was so pathetic, because yeah, I can see his tear, but an emotion? Nu-uh, nothing.

Horikita Maki as her love interest or whatever... Yikes, another robot. Not only is her worst role ever (the girl is meddlesome and annoying... No one asked her to be always there; he did not show any interest in her -or did he? Cuz is Yamapi... you can't tell if he is interested or not, because he can't express nothing in his face-, so why the hell was she always there, trying to help/change Kurosaki?); I swear it seems like this was Horikita Maki's first role or something... she was so stiff! More than usual, I have to say. And no chemistry at all between her and Yamapi. So why the hell is there a Yamaki fandom? It HAS to be because of NwP only, because truly, they made the worst couple in Kurosagi.

The cop or detective that was behind Kurosaki... my, what an awful actor! No, I am being unfair. I have no idea if he is good in other movies/doramas, but in Kurosagi, he was so annoying, with the worst fake laugh I have ever heard. The worst antagonist ever. I could not decide if I was rooting for this cop/detective or for Kurosaki... both of them were so bland and pathetic.

This was the first time -and only, so far- where I could not finish the entire 11 episodes. I could bear for 8 episodes, but it was too much for me, and I had to give up the last 3 episodes.

Worst dorama with the worst cast. The only positive thing is the opening song, "Daite Señorita" but to hear the song I had to bear watching Yamapi and his man-boobs. MEH.

My rating: 1/10