miercuri, 22 septembrie 2010

Hiro Mizushima quits


Yesterday my Japanese friend told me he heard on the news about Hiro Mizushima leaving his agency and quitting the acting world; I was in shock.

Hiro is one of my favorite actors, not to mention his looks! it was his own decision, or that's what's been said in the press. Apparently he wishes to become an writer and wants to focus on his novel. That's stupid! Why can't he keep his career going and write at the same time? It sounds like a white lie. Mostly now, when he is so popular!

Another reason could be the fact that he married last year Ayaka, the singer, without informing the agency; but this doesn't mean that his popularity went down! I always saw comments on youtube on his videos or Ayaka's from fans who were rooting for their marriage.

His homepage was also closed yesterday, September 21st. Is it just me, or this is strange? Too many secrets and unexplained decisions in this world of Japanese artists.

I hope he will find another agency. It would be a pity not to see him anymore. He can become a writer when he's old an ugly, not now. Come on, Hiro, I will miss you! Come back!

I was waiting so much for his most recent work, live-action movie BECK (starring also Mukai Osamu and Sato Takeru). I had no idea this would be his last movie ever. Hiro, you're making me so sad..

BECK trailer:

marți, 21 septembrie 2010

Kou Kou Kyoushi 2003

Since Hotaru no Hikari, I kinda fell for Fujiki Naohito; in fact, I had already seen him before, but only in minor roles, in Hana Yori Dango Final - he was the guy from the casino, Kaburagi (I remember saying: 'hey, this guy is handsome) and in Proposal Daisakusen, which I never finished.

I was searching for him on youtube and found some episodes of a thing called 'Kou Kou Kyoushi'; I just clicked and watched for a few minutes and then I looked up for the drama on dramawiki and discovered that the plot was, among other things, about the love beetween a teacher and his student.

I've always had a thing for this kind of stuff, especially since last year I was sooo in love with a professor from my university (of course, he never knew), so I said 'yay! I wanna watch this.' And that's what I eventually did.

The twist in episode two was ruined for me, because that was the exact part I had watched on youtube, but nevertheless, it didn't make the drama less interesting. It's my first 'serious' drama ever, 'cause I usually search for comedies to watch, I hate sad movies.

It's also the first one starring Aya Ueto - I saw that she's really popular, she played in a lot of dramas, but I had never heard of her before.

Mostly every character is a bit or more crazy;

the most annoying for me was Fujimura-sensei, the English teacher (I heard that he was also in the 1993 Kou Kou Kyoushi - which I don't intend to watch); I thought he was creepy from the first episode, and it turned out I had a good intuition. Also, this female teacher who's in love with Fujimura annoyed me like hell, with no particular reason tho.



Yuji, the crazy host, played by Nariymia-kun - I think he was kind of exaggerated, but I liked that they portrayed the world of hosts closer to reality, showing the bad sides of it, similar to what I recently saw in a documentary about male host clubs in Japan.

Beniko, Hina's best friend, played by Sonim...I wanted to slap her all the time because, come on, how can a girl be so stupid and trust a guy that much??
The doctor - not that she was terribly ugly (or so she seems to me), but she was also crazy and no morals at all! how could she defend Koga's lie and not tell the truth to Hina?? she was a doctor, for god's sake!
Later edit: I take back my words, just saw that she was born in 1957! so she is just old, not ugly.
The crazy schoolgirl involved in nasty business, who I was afraid would rape Koga before the end
Hina, played by Aya Ueto - I liked her and thought that she delivered a good performance as the innocent high-school girl who falls in love for the first time. But why did she have to wear that yellow scarf throughout the whole movie??
And Koga-sensei, played by Nao was, of course, my favourite character. I never thought a math teacher could be so sexy! there was absolutely nothing disturbing about his relationship with Hina, because they looked so good together and had great chemistry.

I suggest you watch it, but not if you're into fast-paced movies. I think Kou Kou Kyoushi is mostly psychological; I like this genre, but for some people it might seem boring.
Also, I cried in the last episodes, especially in episode 9 I think? yeah, I think 9 it was - they're 11 in total; oh, I wish there was a special - on dramawiki the special is listed, but I couldn't find it anywhere - personally I think It doesn't exist. Too bad...I wanted to know what actually happened in the end. But I'm not gonna spoil the ending here.


Here's the plot:

Hina, a high-school student meets a man named Koga Ikumi in a game arcade. He lies to him that she is 20 and aneds up spending the night at his house. The next day, he turns up as the new math teacher at her school. He doesn't seem to recognize Hina at first but the wheels of fate are slowly moving to reunite them in what is a passionate story of forbidden love.

One of the main underlying themes of this drama is death (Koga is dying because of a brain tumor). Another important theme is the struggle the main characters have in trying to realize the difference between love and dependence.








vineri, 17 septembrie 2010

currently watching Hotaru no Hikari 2

The best part of Hotaru no Hikari is the fact that they have a season two, Hotaru no Hikari 2, which I am currently watching, and it also has Mukai Osamu (another love of mine) in the main cast.
<- Mukai Osamu

I'm on episode 10 now, but can't find anywhere the english subtitles and the only hardsubbs online now are on viikiii or veoh...sadly, none of those work for me.
I guess I'll have to wait :(

duminică, 12 septembrie 2010

Hotaru no Hikari

Ok, so I'm so excited with this new drama I'm watching these days that I can't even study properly for my exams because of it. I also have other dramas which I completed seeing, but I didn't have time for writing reviews. I think I watched by now almost every drama on the first two pages of 'most popular Japanese dramas' on mysoju.com and I have been avoiding this one for a long time, because I didn't know anyone in the cast, which is, by the way, a-do-ra-ble!


Ayase Haruka does a great job and succeeds so naturally to be truly kawaii, while Fujiki Naohito gives the vibe of mature attractiveness and succeeds to portray what I want my husband to be like, lol :) Some of you might like the other love-interest, which is played by Kato Kazuki, but I was rooting for the manager from the very beginning. Actually I remember that I had started watching the series before, watched almost five minutes from the first episode and gave up...stupid me, I had no idea this would become one of favorite J-dramas ever!

Here' the plot, from dramawiki:

Hotaru works for a famous interior design company. It's a glamorous job but Hotaru's private life is totally the opposite of glamorous. She lives alone, and when she isn't working she's mostly lazing about her rented house in training wear. She's not interested in men. In fact, she isn't interested in anything. "I'd rather lay around than fool around," is her motto.

Her landlord is a bar owner, and one day his son, who has just separated from his wife, comes to inspect the rental property, not knowing that someone is living there. He is shocked at the mess, but not as shocked as Hotaru. He turns out to be her boss, Takano.

Please watch it, if you like comedies! This drama slightly reminds me of the The Diary of Bridget Jones, only better and with more chemistry between the lead actors!
I going for the next episode now :)

I'm leaving you with this cute cute fanmade vid, which I hope will make you give Hotaru no Hikari a try!