Jmovie: Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs Dai-Shocker

Title: Kamen Rider Decade: All Riders vs. Dai-Shocker Release date: 8/8/09 Genre: Tokusatsu Cast: Masahiro Inoue, Kanna Mori, Ryouta Murai, Moe Arai, Ryuichi Oura Plot: The worlds are merging together, destroying each other. Only by killing all of the Riders from all of the various worlds can one world be saved. Or is that the real solution? What is good: Watching the Kamen Riders fight was interesting. What is bad: Gackt's cameo was awful. Letter rating: B- Overall: I've never watched Kamen Rider in any of its forms. As a matter of fact, the only reason I wanted to watch this was for the Gackt cameo. Unfortunately, the Gackt cameo was terrible. Despite not knowing anything about the series, the movie wasn't too bad. I was able to keep up with the plot, for the most part, and it was kinda cool to see all the various incarnations of the Rider. The main downside was that the movie was only 66 minutes so it was more like a special episode then a full-length movie. They probably could have spent a little more time fleshing out some things or let the battles go on a little bit longer. As a whole, I had a decent time watching it.

Jmovie review: Kagen no Tsuki

Title: Kagen no Tsuki Also known as: Last Quarter Release date: 2004 Genre: Supernatural romance Cast: Kuriyama Chiaki, Narimiya Hiroki, Kurokawa Tomoka, Ochiai Motoki, Hyde Plot: As Mizuki (Kuriyama) turns 19, she finds out that her boyfriend, Tomoki (Narimiya), has been cheating on her. Running away from her heartache, she comes upon an abandoned estate. Inside she finds a mysterious guitar player named Adam (Hyde), who claims to know her. During the last quarter of the moon, Adam tells Mizuki that he must leave. Desperate to stay with him, Mizuki races to find him, only to be hit by a car. Two schoolchildren (Kurokawa and Ochiai) soon find the estate with a mysterious girl who cannot leave. What is the connection between the house, Adam, and Mizuki? What is good: Kuriyama is a very good actress. What is bad: The story dragged a lot. Letter rating: C Overall: I mostly rented this movie because Hyde is in it. I didn't realize that both Kuriyama and Narimiya were in it as well. Despite all of the talent in the film, it was still very difficult to watch. The pacing was extremely slow. It takes a long time for the characters to come to relatively easy conclusions and some things that don't need to explained are over explained. If you are a fan of the actors, it's a nice way to spend a couple of hours. Otherwise, feel free to overlook this without a second thought.

JDorama review: Kisarazu Cat's Eye: The Movie

Title: Kisarazu Cat's Eye: The Movie Release date: 11/2003 Genre: Comedy Cast: Okada Junichi, Sakurai Sho, Okada Yoshinori, Sato Ryuta, Tsukamoto Takashi Plot: Bussan (Junichi) is dying. His doctors continually tell him that he has six months left to live. Instead of being depressed, he lives life normally with his friends. What is good: There are some very funny moments. What is bad: The beginning of the movie is rather confusing. Letter rating: C+ Overall: I should start out by confessing that I have not watched the 9-episode drama that goes with the movie. This was just something I plucked off of Netflix without any expectations. As such, I was terribly confused for the first 45 minutes. Perhaps, if I was familiar with the series, I might have understood what was going on. Either way, the movie really picks up in the last half of the film. Once you can piece everything together and see how each event relates to other events, the movie is quite fun! I actually found myself staying up way past my bedtime just to find out how it ends. (I rarely stay up past my bedtime. I like sleep.) Now I need to track down the series so I can see what other adventurous mishaps this gang gets into!

Jmovie review: Lupin III: Strange Psycho-Kinetic Strategy

Lupin
Title: Lupin III: Strange Psycho-Kinetic Strategy Release date: 1974 Genre: Action Comedy Cast: Yuuki Meguro, Hideko Ezaki, Kunio Tanaka, Shirou Itou Plot: Hijinks ensue when Lupin (Meguro), the world's greatest thief, meets Fujiko (Ezaki), a female thief. What is good: Lupin versus Zenigata (Itou) is always funny. What is bad: Too much slapstick. Letter rating: D+ Overall: For some reason, when I added this to my Netflix queue, I thought it was an animated version of Lupin. I was a little surprised when I popped in the disc to see a live action version instead. Regardless, it's still Lupin and I always enjoy Lupin movies. Well, now I can change that line of thought. Where Lupin tends to be silly, he always has a serious side. This version failed to show his serious side. We saw "Funny Lupin," "Horny Lupin," a little tiny bit of "Clever Lupin," but never once was there "Serious Lupin." In my opinion, this is where the movie failed. They relied way too much on "Funny Lupin" to carry the movie. Perhaps this would have been satisfactory in 1974, but it just doesn't stand the test of time.

Jdorama review: Ping Pong

pingpong Title: Ping Pong Release date: 7/20/02 Genre: Sports comedy Cast: Kubozuka Yosuke, Arata, Sam Lee, Nakamura Shido, Okura Koji, Takenaka Naoto, Natsuki Mari Plot: Peco (Kubozuka), a really good table tennis player, meets his match against a player from China (Lee), but there is another talented player Peco must face. Will he meet the challenge or give up his lifelong dream of being the world's best table tennis player? What is good: Kubozuka Yosuke once again pulls off an amazing character. What is bad: I can't think of anything that really detracts from the movie. Letter rating: A Overall: I really love Kubozuka's acting and his skills shine here. The rest of the cast supports him well, even though I did find myself giggling a little bit about all the drama that takes place around ping pong. This is definitely a movie that every jdorama lover should watch at least once.

Jmovie review: Honey & Clover

honeyclover.jpg Title: Honey & Clover Release date: 7/22/06 Genre: Romance, Slice of Life Cast: Sakurai Sho, Aoi Yuu, Seki Megumi, Kase Ryo, Iseya Yusuke Plot: A group of art students try to make sense of life and love. What is good: The acting isn't terrible. What is bad: It takes a long time for the movie to get even vaguely intersting. Letter rating: C- Overall: I haven't read the manga that this movie is based on but I have seen the anime adaptation, which I thought was mind-numbingly boring. The movie is pretty much the same. There were some minor changes from the anime version. I chalk this up to the fact that the movie is only about 2 hours long while the anime ran for 26 half-hour episodes. Either way, I'm guessing the source material is as boring as the two adaptations. We aren't given any real reason to care about these characters or why we should be pulling for them to be successful in their lives. When the characters begin to get interesting, they all stop talking to each other, tossing us back to not caring anymore. This much be fairly popular in Japan since there will be a drama series starting next year. I can only hope that the drama will give a little more oomph to the characters.