pash

Coming from a country where sometimes you'd think that only one sport exists (call it soccer or football as you wish...or "calcio", as we do), you might understand how difficult it is for me to make people here understand why baseball is my favorite sport!
Well, this drama actually happens to sum that up pretty nicely: because there's so much more to "the old ball game" than most people would actually think!
On the one hand, while other sports as well could act as a metaphor of how life is (for example soccer itself, what with the rich ones having the refs on their side, like, always...and the "divers" rarely being punished for their unsportsmanlike conduct - quite the opposite, often being rewarded with fake penalties and free-kicks!), I honestly can't think of any other sport that so well could act as a metaphor of how life *should* be (quoting from a pretty nice - if a tad too star-spangled propagandistic for my taste and possibly also for its own good, LOL - YouTube clip from PragerU: "Three strikes and you're out, and not even Washington's best lawyers could help you avoid that!"). But all in all, that's just me being partial to my favorite sport, and I'd bet any fan of any sport could probably state the very same thing, LOL.
On the other hand - and this lil' dorama really shines at this! - we could definitely say that baseball can indeed teach us so many precious lessons that we could apply to our daily life, with all its ups and downs: for example, how to be a real leader, or how to accept not being a leader but the best sub we can be, instead; how to make a stand and be respected, or how to know to be humble and listen to those who know more than us; how to accept a failure as long as it means living on to fight another day...etc., etc....
Each episode of this brilliant series shows us exactly that: how much we can all learn and improve, day by day, step by step....because if life is baseball, as long as you love it and give it your all, everything will be alright.
A superb premise masterfully developed in a great script, some wonderful acting by the leads as well as by the weekly guest stars, a great photography...and an endless love for baseball and for life.
What's not to like? Perfect 10! Or, to adopt baseball terminology: a perfect game! ^___-

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Ok, let's start with the things I liked:

The Cast
I've watched this because of Izumi Rika, and she didn't let me down at all: she's the very definition of GORGEOUS, and she did a very good job portraying the schizophrenic FL! But the rest of the cast did well too. with a particular praise for Kanon.

The "Packaging"
Music, photography, directing, editing...in a word, the "packaging", was absolutely OK.

On the other hand, I'm not a big fan of the premise, sorry - way too absurd and even a little disturbing, honestly (I mean the fact that the FL is attracted by a ML who is made to look and behave like a primary school kid - seriously, the only thing missing was the yellow cap, and the illusion would've been complete! With inverted sexes, I could only imagine the sh*tstorm it would've provoked!!! >__<)
But this is not to criticize the writer too much, as at least he took that silly premise and made a decent drama out of it, with a script that, albeit not being perfect, still had its moments (some very funny scenes, and some surprisingly deeper ones).

All in all, not a masterpiece, allright, but definitely an enjoyable watch just the same!

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Makes for a pleasant watch, but could have been better

OK, first things first, what I liked:

- the cast did a pretty decent job, imho;
- I liked both leads, which is something that doesn't happen all the time;
- it had one of the funniest characters *ever*, imho (the crazily hilarious Chef Xue!)
- the music was also nice, particularly the opening credits song;
- the very last message about reading the Classics was a very nice touch.

As a matter of fact, after the first half or so I thought I was gonna give this a much higher grade, but then the second half unfortunately had several things that weren't my cup of tea, namely:

- in what had been, until then, a light, silly comedy, the sudden bouts of violence and tragedy felt totally misplaced; not poorly written nor acted, mind it...they worked very well *per se*, but they just felt horribly out of place (I don't want to spoil too much, but try to imagine going to the movies and, to your utter surprise, being shown something whose 1st half reminds a John Belushi comedy - what with all those toilet jokes, LOL - while the 2nd half has much more in common, say, with Hamlet's 5th Act...weird, huh? >__<);
- when you build up such despicable villains that kill, lie, bully and generally make everybody elses's lives hell all the time, then as a writer you just *have to* give them what they deserve at the end (one of the many things I like about Chinese culture: in their traditional crime stories, at the end there's an entire chapter depicting the culprits' punishment - sometimes including very gruesome details!); letting the afore-mentioned villains get away with some jail time or even a quick, painless death isn't sufficient to appease the viewers' natural need to see them crushed!
- being the history buff I am, seeing the writers sending out the message that the past was hell and the present times basically heaven on earth, well, as unsurprising as that was, still deeply annoyed me.

So, all in all, kind of a missed opportunity.

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Typical "iyashikei" ^__-

Watching this "Pension Metsä", I couldn't help but:

a) compare this with "Pension Koi wa Momoiro", due to the "Pension" in the title, but that's, like, the only thing they share: that one was plainly terrible, while this one is pretty good! ^___-

b) think about Finland ^_^;...Why? Well, not only is "Metsä" a Finnish word (meaning "woods, forest"), but also, this short dorama has the same FL as the movie "Kamome Shokudou" aka "Kamome Diner" (Kobayashi Satomi) and in the cast there's also another actress who was in that movie too (Motai Masako)...oh, and in case you haven't watched that movie, well, it's set and filmed in Helsinki, Finland ^__-

Despite the Finnish reference, this series is as Japanese as they come, being a typical example of the "iyashikei" genre (quoting from Wikipedia: "...a genre specific to Japanese works [...]. It is a sub-genre of slice of life, portraying characters living out peaceful lives in calming environments, and is intended to have a healing effect on the audience...").
If you're in for a soothing, relaxing viewing experience, conveying some simple yet meaningful messages, well, you might like this...I did, and I would've given it a higher grade, hadn't it been for the fact that I found the last two episodes weaker than the rest.
Nice music, particularly the ending credits song.

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Despite the absurd premise and the terrible "shonenjumpesque" flavor, I had appreciated the first season of "Kakegurui"; much less so the second season and the movie, which I had honestly found weaker and weaker (and had rated accordingly). With this spin-off "Kakegurui Twin", though, we're back to where it started, quality-wise, and I therefore gave it a well-deserved "8". Of course I appreciated the fact that my favorite actress, Morikawa Aoi, is the lead...but objectively speaking, Saotome Mary is anyway the most likeable character (or the least dislikeable, as you wish), and particularly so in this "prequel" portraying her rookie moments with a healthy dose of humor, which makes for a thoroughly enjoyable watch.

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Silly but funny

This "Gourmet in Tang Dynasty", as far as I'm concerned, was the very definition of "guilty pleasure"...^_^;
With a quite absurd but funny premise, mostly nicely developed thanks to the histrionic skills of the hilarious FL (Li Zi Xuan), it was at the same time totally silly but also pretty entertaining, filled with anachronisms but also one of the very few (if not the only?) costume drama that had the courage to be honest about the period's beauty standards; incidentally: whereas other productions seem to fit in the occasional "stocky" character just so as to comply to the politically correct "overweight quota" (which imho should actually come off as offensive to overweight people, coming to think about it...but that's another story...), in this drama the overweight character (the FL's sister) not only makes a whole lot of sense, but it's really a well-rounded (pun unintended!) and full-fledged character (I personally found the subplot about the sisters' relation one of the best moments of the drama, so beautifully scripted and acted it was! ^____^)
Why don't I give this a higher grade then?
Well, honestly, I think it got a bit too confused here and there, particularly towards the end: the obscure plots and machinations of a coupla characters weren't really to my liking and felt pretty much out of place in a drama whose strong point had been, until then, that it hadn't taken itself seriously...

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The title says it all...^__^

This is one of those cases where the title says it all, really! ^_^;
Because that's exactly what this dorama is: a "monologue between two people" ("futari"). The concept is simple yet interesting: instead of showing a dialogue between the two leads, they went with a double "interior monologue" that compelled the actresses to act silently (both Fukuhara Haruka and Yanagi Miki passed that "test" with flying colors, BTW!), then using the "voice over" to fully portray their feelings and thoughts! And, believe me, so much is going on in those pretty lil' heads of theirs! ^___^
The experiment was fully successfull, as far as I'm concerned: several scenes ended up being plainly hilarious (just take a look at the first 3 or 4 minutes, you'll get an idea!), the actresses, as already mentioned, did just great, the music is nice (particularly the ED song)...this might not be a full-fledged masterpiece, but it's still pretty original and very entertaining!

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ChuraDORAMA!!! A mere "10" doesn't even come close to defining how superb this lil' gem is (heh..."...lil'..."...with its 156 eps, not that lil', actually ^_^) though it's kinda difficult to describe it without giving away anything (and that'd be a pity, as it'd take away from future viewers the pleasure of discovering it step by step), therefore I'll limit myself to this very short - and if I may say so myself, quite apt - description: "the poetry of life" ^_^ Huge congrats to everyone involved in this production, with honorable mentions for the script (oh, those witty, theatrical dialogues! and then again, it makes you laugh, cry, think, dream...the whole nine yards!) and for these actors/actresses in particular: Kuninaka Ryoko (a wonderful lead!), Sakai Masaaki (a very funny father!), Murata Takehiro (oh, those hilarious monologues!), Kanno Miho (a perfect tsundere!) and Taira Tomi (the überwise Obaa!). M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E!!!

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As expected, a very light, relaxing, soothing dorama

Very often, as (re)viewers, we may end up being taken aback by this or that dorama: some surprise us positively (and we'll reward them with extra points), some really let us down (and then we accordingly put them down). But sometimes it also happens that what we get is *exactly* what we expected, and that's very pleasant and comforting in its own way.
Now, I expected this little dorama to be a very light, relaxing, soothing one...and that's exactly what it is! Although the basically non-existent plot makes it a bit hard to call this a masterpiece, nonetheless the characters are endearing, the acting good (I particularly appreciated Fukuhara Haruka's portrayal of that quirky, lone wolf camping fanatic, Ohara Yuno's rendition of that energetic airhead with the contagious laugh, and Tanabe Momoko's crazy-but-funny outdoor club president), the music is nice (I really liked the ending credits song BTW) and last but not least, the scenery is wonderful. Oh, and it's also a perfect watch for these scorching summer nights, as seeing those girls camping out in winter is enough to send some shivers down your spine, LOL.
p.s.
In case - by some mysterious and unforeseeable circumstance - this review ends up being read by someone working for a Japanese car producer: why don't you guys export here in the West such lovely "Kei SUVs" like the one shown in this dorama? I think many Westerners like me would really love to get one of those and go "yurucamping" with it! ^__^;

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Note: I'm reviewing here both this "Watashi wo Moratte - Koiji Hen" AND its "prequel" aka "Tsuioku Hen", since they're basically the same series divided in two parts (I suppose due to the logistics of Japanese TV "seasons" consisting of 13 weeks each - whereas this series has 16 episodes as a whole, so they couldn't fit it in one season and therefore had to split it?)
Anyway, although romance ain't normally my cup of tea (and I tend to be particularly wary of the "CEO" tag, LOL), I can assure you that this is really, REALLY good! Shoujo at its best, seriously!
The script is very well done, with the perfect mix of romance, suspense and comedy (which helps keep everything lighter and more entertaining, as far as I'm concerned).
The leads are simply GREAT! Kudos to both of them! I must confess I didn't know Kubota-chan (her filmography is HUGE but apparently I had never seen any of it before) while I already knew and appreciated Maeda-kun (being a straight guy I tend to focus much more on actresses, but that doesn't mean I can't recognize acting talent in actors too, when I see it! And Maeda Goki, whom I had already noticed in "Edo-moiselle" and "Iyashi no Otonari-san..." surely has PLENTY of that!).
A pretty neat "packaging" (directing, editing, photography, OST) adds to the viewing pleasure.
So why am I not rating this a "perfect 10"? In short (and without spoilers), I found the ending a bit too fast-paced, and the villains a bit too caricatured for my taste. Anyway a solid 9/10, highly recommended!

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First, a premise: as I've written more than once in other reviews, I'm no particular fan of the "romance" genre, or, as I like to put it, of "what passes for romance these days". Nevertheless, I do happen to watch this or that drama out of my interest in this or that actress, and I'm always open to be positively surprised by any drama that, despite not giving me many expectations in the first place, manages to entertain me.
Alas, it certainly wasn't the case with this "Usokon", which I watched for Nagahama Neru who used to be one of my "oshi" in Keyakizaka46: in a nutshell, the drama is so trite it hurts, all the genre's tropes are (ab)used over and over, and despite some good acting, decent music and better-than-average "packaging", it felt as "plasticky" and fake as a TV commercial.

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Masterpiece from the Golden Era!

I'll start with a standing ovation for Kimura Takuya.
And given how I've never been a big fan of his, I honestly think this carries a lot more weight than otherwise.
He was simply superb here, period. Well done, man! Chapeau!
But then again, the *whole* cast did marvelously. And what a fantastic cast, by the way! Okamoto Aya, Koyuki, Sakai Masato, Izumiya Shigeru...and then again, Ueno Juri, Kaho, Toda Erika, Oohira Natsumi...wow, just wow!
Of course a big role in this overall superb performance was played by the script, which was basically perfect and worked like a clockwork: *every single character* was tridimensional, *every scene* well thought and well written. You'll laugh, you'll cry, you'll think...the whole nine yards, seriously!
Some *great* music and a pretty high production value complete the package.
If you're in for a masterpiece from the "Golden Era" (early 90s to late Aughts) of Japanese Drama, give this title a chance. You might end up *loving* it just as I did! ^___-

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2022 starts (quite literally!) with a BANG!!!

I've just finished watching this superb drama and...WHOA!!! Seriously, guys, WOW, just WOW!!!
I've seen this described as "Groundhog Day meets Speed", and that's true to some extent, but also totally insufficient to correctly define all its innumerable qualities. It's gripping, moving, bittersweetly realistic and at the same time fascinatingly fictional, and ultimately, extremely entertaining without ever being shallow or silly.
The script was very close to being perfect; not a single scene was redundant, and apart from a coupla very minor characters (the headphones-wearing muscular guy and the wig-wearing female police bigshot) who felt a tad too caricatural to this humble reviewer, all the rest were imho very well written and tridimensional; the premise is as interesting as they come, and its intricate, thought-provoking development absolutely rock-solid.
The whole cast (except for the two characters mentioned above, but then again, I'm willing to "blame" the script there ) deserved a standing ovation, period. Even "minor" characters as the older passengers and the younger cop were brilliantly portrayed. But as far as I'm concerned, Captain Zhang really earned himself a special mention! Chapeau!
Direction, photography, editing and music are all top-notch and add greatly to the overall quality.
And the cherry on top is, for me, represented by the deep, humane messages that the drama managed to convey.
Perfect 10!!!

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