3
Toda Erika as Toma Saya was perfect. It felt like the character was made for her. She usually had cutesy or prim-proper roles but here, it was an overhaul of every drama she did. As for her co-actor Kase Ryo (who speaks perfect English with US accent), I haven’t seen him in a starring role and am not too familiar with the guy but his acting here as Sebumi Takeru was in perfect sync with Erika’s. The chemistry between the actors was so smooth there were no dull moments even in silence. There character had this specific peculiarities and that’s what made them really interesting. Like in Toma’s case, she has an IQ of 201 which doesn’t really define her – because in actuality she is already eccentric in the first place. She has this great feature of annoying people because of her mannerism and certain habits that are out of place to any normal person, but this does not make her insane, it only makes her different. As for Sebumi, he is the usual honor police with great fighting skills and a really uptight personality. This type of character is what would seem normal and boring, but what makes his role peculiar? It’s the way he handles situations and most of all that specific thing he always carries with him; a brown paper bag which consists of his things – gun, wallet, etc. It kind of makes me wonder why that paper bag never rips and spills all his stuff. LOL.
The story line was continuous, it reveals enough on every episode to make you seat at the edge of your chair to continue on watching and ask yourself, “What’s going to happen next?” or just plainly say “WTF?!?”, yes this is how this show was for me. There were wtf moments, but those are the times which made the show much more fun.
Another boost for this drama is the fact that the soundtrack was also nice. It was kind of funky-pop-ish-rock themed sang by the band The Ricecookers. For those who are into the jrock genre, the theme song would not disappoint. As for the whole OST – it was very much appropriate for every scene.
If you are into sci-fi and mind boggling suspense things with a twist of weird wackiness on the side-lines, this may suit you as it did to me.
Rating this 8/10 – because though I really loved the characters and story line, there are still limits on this drama, like the fact that there are times when the characters go overboard. I know that’s part of all the drill to make this drama more interesting but still, there’s that point in which how much of that silliness you can take in.
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It shows how a person can change from a simpleton to someone who is respectable. Though the initial pacing of the movie was slow, Ryuhei Matsuda portrayed his character as Mitsuya Majime very well and made the movie enjoyable. I’m also very happy to see Aoi Miyazaki as a supporting actress in this film along with Joe Odagiri. I didn’t even recognize the guy until I looked up the main actors profiles. Despite being a supporting character, Odagiri had a vital role in the whole film and I liked how he was able to add a happy tone to the whole movie.
As for the story, being in a corporate setting and in a world where money runs, I love the concept that the main characters strive hard despite the fact that they are doing something which needs maximum effort but minimal financial back up and takes a LOT of time… more like at least 15 years to be exact. Adding to it is that the start of the movie setting was in the 90’s wherein computers were still deemed as a simple tool for typing and storing devices. These were the setbacks the characters had to go through, but they were people who were looking for modern words and gave meaning to them.
Overall this movie was enjoyable because of the character development and setting. It has its own humor which catches me off guard most of the time because the movie runs in seriousness.
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Setting that aside, I had fun watching it... everything was just perfect for an ending of Hana Yori Dango. The scenery was magnificent, the prestige and money that they were trying to show was very extravagant, as if money was always out of the question. (Sometimes I do get to day dream of living life in luxury like the Doumyouji's) The music was in time with every scene and fits it very well. I could still remember the tones in my head even up to this day.
The actors all seemed natural except for "Kaede's" smile during the wedding ceremony which kind of gave me an eerie feeling. *scratches head*
Story wise, it was sub par. Very fan-fic like and a total spin off from the series... but since I am a biased viewer and a Fan I would have to rate it in a bias of an 8. I loved the twist at the end though, so that makes up for everything. The cast-away feel in the whole movie was a plus point and redeeming factor as well.
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So far, it gave me a huge disappointment. Not even Yamapi nor Horikita Maki could make me raise this this to 10.
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What piqued my interest is how they showcased a weird story line, (aside that I also checked this movie because of Aoi Miyazaki) It may sound a bit sci-fi-ish but there were no aliens involved only the made-up disease as the main problem. The film may seem to have no direction at first and I was also getting too frustrated with all the silence and sullen looks until I realized how important those actions were for this film. Those scenes with the focus on seemingly random things were actually vital in these movie so as to make sense of everything in the end. Cinematography was grainy, maybe because it was an old film? But still... it gave a rather bland feeling to a supposedly modern and colorful world.
The actors did somehow try their best to portray a depressive state, not just in actions but in the mind as well. However, the acting didn't really feel all that satisfying because I felt like something was still missing. It was trying to give a message about human connections and empathy but it's hard to internalize that sort of meaning because of the lack conversation between the characters.
Setting those complains aside, I was still able to enjoy something really weird. It's not refreshing, but it's something new to watch. It's not everyday I pick a movie genre like this, so basically it gave me a wider perspective on indie kind of films. Music wise, it was eerie and yet it was another key point for the whole thing, without it, there would be no story at all. The tones are really out of this world and completely weird, so don't expect something melodious, because it's not.
Surely this film is not for everyone. If you're the type who likes to sit down and analyze what is happening in an almost silent film for the whole 60+ minutes... this was made for you.
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Ahhh… Hyun Bin, why are you so damn good looking?!?
This is a romantic comedy that would strike all women in every age level because… it is Kim Sam Soon.
No need for further explanation.
Though I would just like to add up that the soundtrack of this drama is quite catchy, and this is also the first drama I caught Daniel Henney in. Yep, Hyun Bin isn’t the only eye candy in this drama. I’m throwing in a towel for Daniel too!
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This review may contain spoilers
Ouroboros may sound like a simple story about 2 boys who met in the orphanage and set off to get revenge when their foster mother was killed right in front of them, however don’t be fooled by the simplicity of the summary because there’s more that this drama could offer. It has a dark humor hovering around the dialogues, violence, secrets within a secret and the never ending conspiracies from one another. It’s a twisty piece of work that would keep you on your toes, even though at times it is easy to guess who the culprit is, it still does not deter the mysterious death of some characters due to an underlying circumstances in every episode.I knew what I was getting myself into when I started this drama and yet I still watched it until the very end. Though there were a lot of things in this series which I didn't like, there were MORE things which I found likable that it made up for the lack luster of what I was expecting. Another thing about the story line is the ending, it was great that the writers were not afraid to go into that kind of direction for the finale episode. It made me smile and cry at the same time.
The bonus point for me in this drama is the fact that Ikuta Toma and Oguri Shun are my Japanese Actor biases. Then add up Ueno Juri into the tandem, that makes it a perfect cast for me. They are a bunch of veterans and I felt the vibe of the whole drama along with the cast's chemistry. It was really something that these actors can pull off. One minute they are being all funny, then the next they're mad and then all of the sudden they're crying. It's like watching a whirl wind of emotions set to trap me in all those feels.
There were times though when they are set up in a ridiculous situation and have to give an over the top acting style (which is sometimes annoying) but they eventually redeem themselves with the dialogues and the funny inserts. But mostly, this drama is full of seriousness and has a heavy feel. It shows that every action has consequences and choices made whether it's right or wrong has its own ramifications. In the end Karma wins everything. I love how they explained what Ouroborus meant, it is actually an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. The name originates from within Greek language; (oura) meaning "tail" and (boros) meaning "eating", thus "he who eats the tail" (excerpted from Crystalinks), in the drama they explained that it also meant life and death, the cycle of humans who lived then died and lived again.
Music wise, this OST really caught my attention. Hearing the sound track felt really familiar, it was as if I heard them before on several dramas. When I researched, Arashi's name came out. That' when I realized the music score felt like listening to Maou's OST which was also sang by Arashi. It was a really good music score which was attractive enough to fit the drama's tone.
Another thing that made this enjoyable was the political battles inside the police government and each department. It's fun seeing who's side would win and who along the way would be affected. Usually though due to these political strife the innocent becomes not so innocent due to grudges held. I want to say more but I'm holding myself off since I don't want to give spoiler alerts to anyone.
Last note: this drama has a minimal or almost none-existent romance along the story line so I would suggest for people to check out this drama if they are in the mood for the things I have mentioned above except for the romance part.
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The story line was quite simple - a girl who loved dancing and is trying to live her life in a school with high standards but meets a lot of trials along the way. The plot is not really my cup of tea, but knowing that Jung Eun Ji is the main actress, I decided to watch it despite the bland summary. When I watched the pilot episode, it still wasn't enough to make me excited about the following episodes so I've put the drama on my least of priority to watch however after the 3rd and 4th episodes, the drama started to pick up its phase and finally became interesting for me. Then when the love triangle was finally revealed through the later part of the drama, I was wrenched into a second lead syndrome again. Arrrgh! *slaps face to go back to reality* I knew what I was setting myself up to a complete heart break again... or so I thought. The drama's ending was really constructed well and it left no room for any loop holes to think about. Even the love triangle was resolved in a simple yet satisfying way. It was heartfelt with a breath of fresh air compared to those high school themed melodramas I've been watching lately.
What makes this drama endearing for me is how the story did not focus on the dancing and cheering side going to the ultimate goal of participating in the Cheering Squad for specs purposes but instead, they focused on the characters themselves. The story revolved on the conflicts with family, school, friends and even romantic aspect in life. A plus factor that made this drama appealing was how they dealt into the issue of teenage suicide. It may be rampant in Asian countries these days as most of the culture is about persevering and keeping problems to themselves until they actually break and decide to end their lives. This drama shows the importance of having support systems like family, friends or even teachers being around to help suicidal kids deal with their inner turmoil.
My favorite character would be Kang Yeon Doo, despite being aggravated by Kwon Soo Ah, I can't really fathom how much she could still be nice and forgiving. Although it's not realistic anymore in this day and age, it made me trace myself back to my own goodness. It made me wonder how far I would go to tolerate such b*tchiness from anyone. If it was me, I might have walked out that door or would have probably cared less whatever happens to my nemesis. But that's part of the spark of this whole drama... Yeon Doo keeps everyone together including the boys she's very much close with. Another character I love is Seo Ha Joon, acted by Ji Soo. I love watching him interact with the main lead and how they had that great chemistry together. This is my first time seeing him in a drama and he totally gives me that whole Woo Bin aura while he was with Park Shin Hye in "Heirs". Ji Soo had that same feels around him and I think this guy may have a great potential as an actor. I really wish he can chose his roles wisely in the near future. I would like to insert Kim Yeol portrayed by Lee Won Gun, he may be cute and kissable but man, his chemistry with Eun Ji is sub par to Ji Soo's.
Oh let's not forget the other side characters that I am much in favor of:
Teacher Yang Tae Beom played by Kim Ji Suk, it amazes me how much a teacher roles suits him well. It's nice to watch him again in the same role after seeing him in School 2015. Then there's the coach acted by Lee Mi Do, notably she looked like Sandra Oh. I loved Sandra Oh in Grey's Anatomy, so seeing her look alike here in this drama brings nostalgia, but Mi Do is great in her acting. I loved her strong character and the way she prances around to cover for the students and fights her way so as not to be bullied by other teachers. Then lastly, there's Yeon Doo's mom played by Kim Yeo Jin, I personally think this woman is lovely. I've seen her in several dramas and enjoy looking at her. I think her beauty is one that will not easily fade as she ages.
Music wise, it wasn't something that was able to stick with me but I enjoyed listening to it while the characters were in their own moments.
Overall I would recommend this series to people who are in the mood to watch a high school drama about friendship, first love and a feel good after taste full of drama goodness.
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I was already having fun watching it for all the humor and what-not’s until episode 12 came about. That’s when the story line drastically changed, it began to spin around senselessly aiming nowhere and it was plainly a disaster. I realized that the writers never really thought of giving proper closure to each of the character's problem, specially on the main ones due to the cut episodes. This drama was supposed to air 16 episodes, instead they decided to make do with 14, ending up with a rubbish ending.
Episode 13-14 was produced in a haste. Maybe its the production management but I have a hunch they couldn’t extend the drama up to 16 episodes due to the bad ratings. The story, the characters and the over all production had so much potential if only they have been developed properly.
Yes, everything has been all fun and cute in the middle of the series but the ending plainly sucked. There was a lot of loopholes and never ending problems. Episode 14 had this sort of time snap where everything was cut and then here comes out the protagonist saying “everything is going to be okay” just to resolve the very main conflict in the story which is: The female protagonist pretending to be a boy in an all male K-pop idol group.
How the heck do you resolve that in one freaking episode?
Episode 14 was clearly telling the audience that the conflict was resolved, but in reality… they just don’t have the time to resolve it. Period.
There… I finally got that out of my system. I don’t even like K-pop music, or am I a fan of K-pop Idols in general. I only wanted to watch this because of the story line: A girl pretending to be a boy for some important self-inflicted reason.
Sigh.
I need a better drama to watch or a movie. Rating this drama 5/10 for the sole reason that I enjoyed the middle part of the series but at the same time want to forget that I even dared watching it.
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As for my verdict after finishing the movie, the first part was pretty much shady to watch and I noticed that some scenes were even rushed. The situations weren't explained well enough to understand what really happened in the past, up until everything was revealed at the latter part which is kind of awkward because it felt like there was an information overload when the movie could have explained it in the first hour or so to build up the story much better.
What exactly made me like this movie? It was actually near the ending part when everything FINALLY made sense, which by the way, I still felt that it was rushed. Setting that aside, I like the ending because it made me cry a bit. I liked the thought that they made this into a melodramatic movie with very touching scenes full of serendipity moments. Add up the back drop music, it could have been almost good enough to re-watch, if not for the story line.
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The movie moved back and forth from the bands past, namely the Bras Knuckle Kids. It showed how the band members evolved to the kind of person they are today. Watching this film made me think what punk really is about. Like in Sex Pistols' era along with their bassist Sid Vicious who are known as the Punk rock gods during the 80's, I feel that their music are cleaner and more turbulent than what we have of punk today. Today's punk is more on what most people call emo side. Songs made out of love and heartbreak instead of about controversies, internal affairs and other issues of real life.
Back to the movie… it also had its broken plots and what nots in between when Kana's character goes out of hand but the ending surely got me smiling then staring blankly after. Music wise… as I have already mentioned above it was terribly noisy. Horrible if they include the shouting, I am not a fan of too much violence. So for a supposedly music endowed comedy movie with lots of sub plots, this almost made me stop watching. Still, it was an OKAY film at the end.
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The actors played their characters well, it was surprising to find Kim Soo Hyun going back to his character as a dorky love stricken guy. Then there is IU, who I may say I have taken a keen interest with and a biased liking due to her "Dream High" character. As for Gong Hyo-Jin and Cha Tae-Hyun... these guys are veterans. What more can I say about them except that they have superb skills in acting? All these combined, I was still left hanging all throughout the drama. I have this nagging thought, "This is it? After all those 12 episodes, this is it? Where are the accomplishments?", I was left unsatisfied and that was a bit sad. It was rather short, they could have added at least 4 or 5 more episodes to give fulfillment to each of the main characters, to their career and over all life.
Setting the above mentioned aside - I did liked the ending, although it felt a bit rushed, at least there was closure for the characters, but then again I still wish there were more episodes to elaborate on what happened after. I seriously wanted to see snippets of "2 days and 1 night" but sadly they didn't show us anything more than what they wanted to.
However, over all it was a fun series, nothing dramatic or too funny. It's all light and entertaining, though it's not something that would entirely leave a mark for your drama watching career. I would recommend it to pass the time but if you are a fan of any of the main characters, then I highly suggest this - to indulge.
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Though the ratings do not agree with my opinion, I’m still giving it my two thumbs up and recommending it.
It’s silly how much I miss a full blown romantic comedy in a skin-deep-only sense, but I like the drama because it doesn’t make me think too much. There was this certain flow of easiness and lightness within the story line, though not without bits of draggy parts but the good line delivery by the main characters made up for that loss. The story line was simple, there wasn’t much twist and turns that would make you pull out your hair in frustration and because of that simplicity, it became a wonderful drama.
The sound track was cute, I now have it as my ringtone and is also part of my play list. Heh.
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Over all it was such a wonderful film. The fact that this was based in real life, that information made it more interesting to watch and it added a spark to the story line. It also made me curious as to what really happened behind the scenes during the 1991 World Table Tennis Championships in Chiba. The way the script writers and producers set motion to the whole thought of uniting two conflicting countries in this movie for a game of ping-pong was simply incredible. They were able to put emphasis on the hardships of each character, their triumphs on over coming differences and going beyond their own boundaries.
It is given that Ha Jiwon and Bae Doo Na are expected to have a great on screen chemistry as veteran actresses, but then add up the rest of the supporting actors into the mix, it certainly became a superb performance. The whole thing made me laugh, cry and laugh again. It was such an entertaining piece of work. Although the music wasn't that memorable, the story and acting made up for everything else that was missed out.
What I loved most about this movie is the warm moments shown throughout the entire duration of the film. The fact that this moments happened in real life is a plus point too! Another thing is that they added clips of the real people to show that this indeed happened in real life, that was such a nice touch to a very well done movie.
I am highly recommending this to those people who are into watching sports and real life themed movies. I'm sure it won't disappoint.
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Listening to the sound of orchestra and classical music was refreshing to the ear. As if I cleaned my ears after a long time of listening to the same type of music again and again. Ok, that was a side track comment... now back to the story.
Part one of the movie left me this feeling of wanting to watch the second part instantly but I had to squirm at home and wait for it to be subbed.
There was this hanging feeling when the movie ended, which by the way is what everyone is supposed to feel since the producers intend the viewers to watch the sequel. As much as I enjoyed this first part, it is still a cliff hanger. We all know what cliff hangers do to our brain. Adding more, the movie was also redundant. Unlike Nodame’s arc, Chiaki’s story always... always starts with a problematic orchestra, fails on the first try then ends up with a fantastic cantabile on the later part thus making the story line so predictable when it comes to Chiaki's arc. Whereas Nodame’s arc is the distorted one since her main goal in life is only about Chiaki but not herself thus leaving the character UNSURE of herself with no exact future laid out for her. Yet this type of character leaves a great impression and a big blank for the writers to fill in for the next movie sequel.
Nodame’s character is simple yet complex at the same time. Not to forget the wacky part on how she clings on Chiaki as much as she could and yet kills herself with insecurity every time Chiaki does something marvelous and out of her league but that’s the part that makes Nodame Cantabile fun... the Nodame/Chiaki saga that could never be understood in terms of simplicity.
Watching this film was an introduction for the next one or a teaser as most would say because it didn’t contain what most of the watchers were probably waiting for and that is Nodame’s success.
For the story plot, it was really tiring to watch the flashbacks but at the same time enjoyable because I could once again enjoy Mozzart and Bach through Chiaki’s point of view. As I have previously mentioned, it gave me a sense of nostalgia and for that I am thankful.
Character wise, there weren’t any major characters involved unlike in the special maybe they are going to add someone in the sequel. I still enjoyed the main cast’s acting and it gave me so much joy that Ueno Juri still haven’t changed after all those years when she first started as Nodame!
Cinematography, the setting is in Paris! What more can I ask for? No matter what angle they use for the video, they just capture that feeling of being in the city where art and music lived for centuries. I have nothing more to comment on it because it is simply loved.
Soundtrack, need I say more about this? IT IS CLASSICAL! And the background music for certain scenes brought more hilarity into it than intended to. So yes... the soundtrack added more for the enjoyment of the viewer.
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