Keizoku - Unsolved Cases

Graduating at the top of her class, elite detective candidate Jun Shibata is transferred to the section that handles cases deemed "unsolvable" by the department. Her partner, though a well-respected and experienced detective, has grown complacent after unsuccesfully pursuing these cases that many consider an exercise in futility. With her upper class breeding, her colleagues don't expect much from her either, but she suprises them all with her motivation and astounding powers of deduction. (asiawiki-1999)

I thought this was similar to "TRICK" in the first 8 episodes or so. Shibata is the only one that solves all cases, the rest of the detectives are useless. Kind like Yamada. Both girls are a bit weird. Some angles of the camera as strange, there are a lot of close-ups of faces. Also, it is a very dark dorama when it comes to light. And finally, most of the cases happen in a non-fancy place -like a family ryokan- and some of them seem like something supernatural was involved.

Most of the cases were interesting and till Episode 8, the dorama flew by for me. Instead of 45minutes, it felt like it was 25 minutes long.

The last 3 episodes were super dark and the mood changed 100%. At first there were some laughs, Shibata was strange yet endearing and very passionate about her work. Then, treason and murders happen every 5 minutes and wow, turns out this was a super dark dorama. My attention wasn't 100% focused on it anymore, except for the last half hour or so of the last episode. I just wasn't ready for the real drama.

I loved Nakatani Miki as Shibata. And she was sooo pretty, soo young here. To me, one of the most beautiful J-actresses. Her clothes, though, terrible. And her shoes! Awful.

Another awful thing... the chief in an affair with an underage student. Yuck, the perv! He should rot in jail. He could be her father, literally. Yuck.

**My rating: 7.5/10**

Surely Someday

Takumi (Keisuke Koide), Kyohei (Ryo Katsuji), Hideto (Gou Ayano), Kazuo (Ryohei Suzuki), & Yuki (Tsuyoshi Muro) are five friends who form a rock band to perform at an upcoming school festival. When the friends learn that the festival is cancelled, they threaten to blow up the high school unless the school's administration reinstates the festival. The vice principal agrees to their demand, but the friends find themselves unable to stop the timing device on their homemade bomb. The classroom in which they are barricaded then blows up and so does their hopes for a bright future.

Three years later, Takumi & Kyohei walk down a street and witness a blond haired woman hit by an oncoming car. When they run down to the scene of the accident, they see the blond haired woman remove a pistol from the driver of the car and then drive off with his car! To Takumi and Kyohei's further amazement, they realize that the driver of the car is none other than high school pal Kazuo who now works for the yakuza.

Later that day, mob boss Kito (Kotaro Yoshida) walks into Takumi's workplace and looks for Kazuo. Before leaving, Kito threatens to kill Takumi, Kyohei, and their families if they don't return 300 million Yen and a prostitute (Manami Konishi), he believes they may know, by tomorrow. The longtime friends must now frantically search for the prostitute and the 300 million Yen ... (asiawiki-2010)

This movie has SHOUNEN written all over it. A group of childhood friends, an old crush from their childhood days, running, performing in a band, going thru dangerous moments... The pace is fast, things happen all the time, many fun cameos (most of them I didn't know beforehand, so I was pleasantly surprised, saying over again "what! that one too!" Oguri Shin sure does have a lot of friends...

The comedy is minimal but the story was fun. It is more dramatic since the yakuza boss is no joke. But I feel like the actors had a lot of fun filming this movie, they have a lot of chemistry, and I love their friendship. The only one that overacted a little bit was the one playing Kyohei. The other 3 guys are my favorite actors anyway, they are always good. I mean, even I who knows that Ayano Go is NO IKEMEN thought he was pretty awesome here. His "killer glance" was believable, haha. It could be his hair? He looked good here. Suzuki Ryohei looked lovely silly and Koide looked cuter than ever. And Muro playing a student **giggles** All of them, actually. It was hilarious.

The role of the main girl was meaningful, thank God. Usually, in shounen movies, like "CROWS ZERO", seems like they add a female role just to have some pretty girl among so much testosterone. Thankfully, Misa-chan was important to the story. Without her, there wouldn't be any story, more or less.

Mini-reunions: Stresseman, as the father of Masami-chan XD, and Makino with 2 of the F4 (I bet MatsuJun would have loved to be in this movie, if there were any chance), Kai and Maho (from "Orange Days").

If I find a better quality, I sure will watch this again.

**My rating: 8.5/10**

Kamoshirenai, Joyuutachi

Famous actresses Takeuchi Yuko, Maki Yoko, Mizukawa Asami briskly come through the entrance of a studio. Although they have glittering acting careers, when they enter a dressing room, they find themselves in a parallel universe. In this world, Yoko did not pass the audition for a production that would be the turning point for her as an actress, and goes on to work part-time at a bar while she plays minor roles as an extra. She has been keeping a diary because she cannot forget the embarrassment of being left behind by the people around her. Asami lost out on an audition for a production too. She feels insecure and jealous that Nanao, a friend of the same age who also aspires to be an actress, has scored a significant role. On the other hand, Takeuchi Yuko is scouted in Harajuku, but turns down the offer that would have been the turning point for her as an actress. She is now busy with her magazine editorial job at a publishing company, but leads a fulfilling life with her boyfriend. One day, Yuko is instructed by her boss to turn the manga which an acquaintance has drawn into a book. In an unexpected turn of events, the lives of these three women strangely start to have common ground and eventually get intertwined … (mydramalist-2015)

Fun and unpredictable. It was a perfect choice to watch it after a movie full of testosterone. It is a light and short movie, each actress narrates her story, what would have been their successful movies and doramas IF she passed X audition (Maki Yoko and Mizukawa Asumi) or called when some agent scouted her in Harajuku (Takeuchi Yuko). All three of them meet and form some sort of bond, two of them because of being an actress, two of them because of work, two of them because of a guy.

I wouldn't call it a comedy where you would laugh out loud, but it was entertaining, very slice-of-life-ish. I wonder if Maki Yoko can truly draw? Her work was very charming. And I also think she was the best in the trio, which surprised me since I thought she was too stoic in other works I've seen before. And this is unrelated to the movie, but I liked her voice as well.

**My rating: 8/10**