Still Walking

I chose this movie because of Hiroshi Abe.  Up to this movie, I had yet to see him in any drama or movie that was disappointing.  This movie still proves that.  I had read the synopsis of the movie before I got it but by the time I actually sat down to watch it, I'd already forgotten the plot.

Hiroshi Abe is Ryo.  He recently married Yukari, a widow with a 10 year old son, Atsushi.  When the movie starts, they are on their way to Ryo's parent's home.  Ryo has a sister who is already at the parent's home with her husband and their 2 kids.  Dear God...when I heard her voice I was so close to stopping the movie.  She has the most annoying voice I have ever heard.  I don't know if she did it on purpose or if that's the way she speaks...either way, I couldn't stand it.

The movie is basically about how the family comes together to remember Ryo's older brother, Junpei who 15 years prior, saved the life of a 10 year old boy and lost his own life as a result.  The movie doesn't say exactly how he died though I suspect perhaps he may have drowned.  That detail isn't important anyway...

It seems that Junpei was supposed to follow in his father's footsteps and become a doctor so he could take over the clinic that his father was running.  Ryo's relationship with his father is strained and it seems it's because without Junpei, everything the father had hoped for was gone.  Ryo could never be Junpei...

The movie turned out to be pretty good despite that annoying actress' voice.  Hiroshi Abe knows how to pick his roles.  I've found a few more with him in them and I'm hoping I can get a hold of them all.  I'd watch this one again.

Kimi ni Todoke

"Kimi ni Todoke" is originally a manga series (still being printed) that gave life to 2 anime versions.  What I'm watching is, of course, the movie version with Haruma Miura ("Bloody Monday") where he plays the role of Shota Kazehaya, the most popular boy in school.

The lead girl is Sawako Kuronuma (played by some girl I've never seen before). Sawako is actually a nice girl who just wants to be helpful to everyone but since she wears her hair like the girl from the Japanese horror flick "Ringu" ("The Ring") the other kids call her "Sadako".  There are rumors going around about her and some powers she allegedly possesses.  The other students are afraid of her because of this.

Kazehaya is on his way to school one day when Sawako sees he may be lost and guides him the right way to the school.  He gets closer to her to thank her as a breeze blows and you see the sakura leaves falling around them.  Kazehaya smiles and reaches for her hair to pull a leaf out and hands it to Sawako and he comments about what an odd shape it is.  He walks away.  You see the leaf is in the shape of a heart.   They become friends afterwards.

Again, I won't say more cuz I'll give more away.  I took the time to get some Haruma screenshots :) since I can't get enough of him.

Parade

Took me a few days to finish watching this one.  I kept getting detoured to do something else so I scheduled a night where I put everything away so I could finish it.

"Parade" is a 2LDK (2 bedrooms, Living/Dining room, & Kitchen) that belongs to Naoki Ihara, played by Tatsuya Fujiwara.  His name didn't ring a bell but his face sure did.  I had to look him up to find he was Light Yagami from the live action "Death Note" movies.  He was also in "Battle Royale" and "Battle Royale 2".  I saw "Battle Royale" but I honestly wasn't paying much attention to it.  My daughter had seen it and said it was good and unfortunately, I agreed to watch it one night and I ended up falling asleep on and off so I may as well not have seen it at all.  I remember absolutely nothing about it.  Guess I'll have to watch it again. Tatsuya is also from the movie "Kaiji, The Ultimate Gambler".  There are 2 of those movies but I've only seen the first one.

So, the 2LDK is actually rented by Naoki but there are 3 others that live there when the movie starts and eventually they end up with 1 more.  By all appearances, Naoki seems like the only one that is all together.  He has a job working for a film distribution company.  The original 3 each have their issues.

Kotomi is an out of work actress that is dating a J-drama actor.  She sees him when his schedule allows and she seems to be content with that.  Mirai is an illustrator who drinks and smokes a lot.  There's something about her past that she's been holding onto by way of a VHS tape that oddly soothes her when she watches it even though it was something that scared her when she witnessed  it live when she was young.

At some point in the movie, a guy wakes up in their house.  Each roommate is pleasant with Satoru and they all assume that someone else has brought him into the apartment.  Satoru turns out to be a male prostitute that hangs out in a local park waiting to be picked up by men.

A sub-story is happening while we watch these people go about their lives.  There have been a few attacks on women not far from their apartment, that have been publicized on television.  Mirai begins to suspect Satoru since the attacks started more or less when Satoru wandered into their apartment.

That's all I'll say.  At first the movie seemed pretty pointless to me.  There didn't seem to be a plot and it felt like the "story" was going nowhere.  I kept watching because I figured sooner or later it would get better.  The characters grew on me though so watching the rest was bearable.  By the end of the movie, I was sad to see it end.

Overall a good movie.  I'd watch it again.

Love and Honor

Wow.  Of the three movies, this was my favorite.  Yeah, the fact that Takuya Kimura is in it does help; but not by much.  It wasn't exactly the same as the first two movies. There were similarities but the first two were more alike than the third one was to either of them. The more dramas and movies I watch with Takuya in them, the more I can see he's almost as good as Hiroshi Abe.

In "Love and Honor", Takuya is a low level (30 koku) samurai named Shinnojo Mimura.  He's married to Kayo, his loyal and faithful wife.  Shinnojo works as a food sampler for his lordship.  He and about 4 other samurai have the risky task of tasting the lord's food for poison before it is served to the lord.  Takuya has grown tired of his job and he tells Kayo he wants to quit his job at the castle and open a dojo and teach sword fighting to children of all castes.  

One day at work, the samurais taste some Red Tsubugai shellfish.  For about a minute of two, everyone appears to be fine so the cooks are told to go ahead and serve the lord.  While the food is being taken and served to the lord, the samurais start to get up.  Shinnojo begins to cough and gag and eventually keels over.  The servants on their way to the lord are told to not serve the food because it has been poisoned.  The lord is spared but Shinnojo falls ill.  An internal investigation reveals that the Red Tsubaugai was not poisoned; it had turned toxic because it was out of season.

Shinnojo lay sick for a few days before he woke up and quickly realized that he could not see.  The doctor told him to keep taking the medicine he had prescribed and that things would get better.  On his way out, the doctor tells Kayo he will never see again.  Kayo decides to keep this info to herself.

While Kayo is out, Shinnojo asks his servant for the truth about his eyes and the servant tells him everything.  When Kayo comes back, they argue.  If he is to be blind for the rest of his life, how is he supposed to provide for himself and his wife?  A blind samurai?  He's convinced that he will lose his status.

The rest of the family, including Kayo, get together to figure out how they can help Shinnojo.  Suggestions are made but all are shot down.  Then Uncle says he no longer has any high ranking friends at the castle and asks if anyone knows someone who is high ranked and can help them out.  Kayo tells Uncle she knows a high ranking samurai and that he had offered to help if she asked.  Uncle tells Kayo to go and ask him to use his influence to get the lord to help.  Kayo agrees to ask.

Uncle shows up one day to tel Shinnojo that the lord has decided to let him keep his 30 koku status and that because of his service, he is to be taken care of for life.  This is most welcome news for Shinnojo as a weight is lifted off his shoulders.  Then along comes his Auntie...a woman Shinnojo does not like very much because she talks too much and loves to gossip.  She arrives under the pretense of stopping by to see how Shinnojo is.  But she is there to inform him of something her husband had mentioned to her.  It seems her husband saw Kayo at a teahouse with a man that was not her husband.  Enraged, Shinnojo disregards respect for his elders and tells his Aunt exactly what he thinks of her and asks her to leave. 

Shinnojo asks his servant to follow Kayo and the servant does as he is told.  At first he sees nothing suspicious until he sees her walk into a teahouse.  Back at home Kayo starts to talk about what the servant saw.  The servant stops her and tells her he saw nothing and that he intends to tell the master just that; but Kayo tells the servant she will tell Shinnojo everything.

Kayo confesses to Shinnojo that she went to ask the high ranked samurai for help.  She tells him she's known him since she was a little girl and that he had asked about Shinnojo after hearing of his misfortune.  He offered her his help if she ever needed it.  She told Shinnojo that it was Uncle's idea for her to go see him.  She tells him that the samurai was understanding and told her he would do everything in his power to help.  His help however, was not free and he forced himself on Kayo.  He threatened Kayo that he would tell Shinnojo if she did not give herself to him again so he takes her again.  And then again with the same threat.  Shinnojo becomes livid when he realizes that the lord's "kindness" was because the high ranked samurai intervened on his behalf after having been with his wife.  He tells her she's not the Kayo he knows and then he calls the servant and tells him he's divoreced Kayo and tells him to help her get her things and send her away.  The servant tries to reason with Shinnojo but he won't hear it.  Kayo takes a few things and, in the rain, she goes away.

Later, he finds out that though the high ranked samurai had offered to go to the lord for Shinnojo, he never really did and that the lord's decision to help Shinnojo for life was his own.  The lord realized if Shinnojo had not fallen ill, then he may have been the one to have gotten sick or he could have died.  Learning this, Shinnojo realizes that the samurai deceived Kayo and he decides to avenge Kayo's honor.

Shinnojo sends the servant to the samurai's home with a message to meet with him and not to underestimate him because he is blind.  

I'll only say now that Shinnojo and the samurai meet for a sword fight.  Shinnojo is prepared to die for his family's honor...how will he do as a blind samurai fighting perhaps the best fighting samurai he knows?

I wasn't planning on writing a summary for this movie; but I couldn't help myself once I started.  I was only going to say a few words about it and well...I got carried away.  I also wasn't planning on putting any screenshots in here but...I'll make an exception this time because they're both of Takuya...he's so amazingly hot.  Well, not so much as a samurai but in the dramas. 

The Hidden Blade

I thought these movies were going to be related in some way; but after watching the end of "The Twilight Samurai", I realized I was wrong.  Each movie is pretty much its own movie.  The only thing in common is that they're all about samurais.  I just watched a few minutes of "The Hidden Blade" and it seems to be along the same lines as "The Twilight Samurai".  It's "light"...by light I mean it's not heavy full of battling samurais and it's not full of just drama.  There are a few moments that are..."chuckleable".

"The Twilight Samurai" was a great movie and I'd certainly watch it again.  So far "The Hidden Blade" is good (keep in mind I only saw a few minutes of it).  There's still a chance too, that the last movie might be related to this movie.  I don't think it is but you never know.

Yoji Yamada's Samurai Trilogy

So, while I was looking for a new movie to watch, I found one with Kimura Takuya in it.  It was a great find after watching "I Come With the Rain" since I was planning on looking up what other films he had done.  After I acquired the film "Love and Honor" I found out it is the third movie of a Samurai Trilogy by director, Yoji Yamada.  Of course I had to look up the first two (thinking Kimura would be in all of them) and I started to watch it.

At first I thought it was going to be one of those usual samurai movies that I can never really get into (sorry, Akira Kurosawa).  But this one was different.  It's set in mid 19th century Japan and tells the story of a low ranking samurai named Seibei Iguchi.  I've watched about an hour of it so far and I think it's great.  It's a light movie with a few parts that make u laugh a little.  I can't wait to watch the rest and eventually the other two.

That being said, "Parade" will have to wait.

New Update

I just finished watching 2 more movies so I think it's time to go ahead and revive this blog.  In the next few days I will be moving things around here and starting to watch new movies in between dramas.  In about a week or two, I should be done fixing this blog and will start to post once or twice a week depending on how many movies I can fit it between work and my Facebook games :P

WILL BE BACK SOON

Catching up on my J-Dramas but I will be back here with a new improved and updated J-Movie blog :D