Jmovie review: My Darling is a Foreigner

Title: My Darling is a Foreigner Release date: 4/10/10 Genre: Slice of Life Cast: Inoue Mao, Jonathan Sherr Plot: Saori (Inoue) strives to be a manga artist. She has fallen in love with an American man, Tony (Sherr). This is the story of their relationship. What is good: Inoue Mao is still adorable. What is bad: There isn't a lot of substance. Letter rating: C

I was really looking forward to seeing this movie. I love Inoue Mao and I thought the plot seemed cute. Unfortunately, at the end, I realized that there wasn't a whole lot there. What the movie claims as cultural differences are sometimes just the differences between men and women. At one point, Saori laments that she does all of the housework while Tony does nothing. So, being the nice man that he is, Tony starts washing the dishes and doing the laundry. However, he doesn't really know how to do these things properly. Instead of taking him aside to show him how to do the chores, she just kinda grumbles through it. I don't see this is a cultural difference. I think men all over the world don't know how to wash dishes.

As a matter of fact, there are only a few cultural differences shown. When Saori introduces Tony to her family at her sister's wedding, Tony doesn't understand how the family communicates. The parents jokingly put down their children but Tony doesn't get the joke. It isn't until the end of the movie that he understands her family dynamic.

Despite wanting to enjoy the movie, I found it somewhat boring. It's basically the story of their day-to-day life. If you have nothing better to do, it's not an awful movie to sit through. At least there's the adorable Inoue Mao to save it!

JDorama review: Chance!

Title: Chance! Broadcast dates: 3/7/09 - 3/14/09 Number of episodes: 2 Genre: Slice of Life Cast: Horikita Maki, Kuroki Meisa, Gekidan Hitori, Muro Tsuyoshi Plot: After receiving rejection letters from every job she's applied for, Kawamura Tamaki (Horikita) finally lands a low-level job at a travel agency. She finds her chance at becoming a success through a series of mistakes. What is good: Gekidan Hitori! What is bad: The side story with Tamaki's brother, Taizou (Muro), is dull. Letter rating: B+

Kawamura Tamaki gets rejected from every job except one. A customer service representative for a travel agency. Basically, she answers the phones and hands out complimentary tissues to passers-by. When her boss tells her that, as a new hire, she needs to learn everything, she mistakenly takes a task as a tour guide. Kawamura receives rave reviews from the customers and, as a result, gets a promotion. One of the perks of her new job is a company cell phone. Shortly after receiving her phone, she bumps into the company's number one employee, Tamaki Saori, and accidentally ends up switching phones with the woman. The company president thinks he is calling Saori to present a tour to an important foreign company when he is actually talking to Tamaki. Tamaki, thinking that he really is calling her, takes on the task.

Saori, on her wedding day, sees an old boyfriend, Kusaba Fumiya (Okada Yoshinori), and spends a majority of the day in her bridal gown running after him. Okada, as a representative for the foreign company, thinks he is supposed to have a business meeting with Saori instead of Tamaki. It all comes to a head when Saori arrives, still in her wedding dress, at the agency and the president rushes her off to the conference room to hold the presentation. Tamaki, knowing that the foreigners will be bored with the current presentation, shows up with a brand new one featuring photos from tour guide, Inoue (Gekidan). Saori hands the reins over to Tamaki, whose presentation is a smashing success. In the end, Saori gets married to her fiance and is about to have a baby, while Tamaki takes over many of Saori's tasks in the company.

With only two episodes, I figured Chance! would either be amazingly awesome or completely awful. Luckily, it is not awful. Horikita Maki plays the clumsy newbie very well. There wasn't a single moment where I didn't believe her circumstances, no matter how unlikely they were. Kuroki Meisa's character, Tamaki Saori, is very important to the story but she spends most of it running around in a wedding dress. Though, I suppose, we don't really need to know a lot about her since the story is all about Kawamura Tamaki. Fortunately, comic genius Gekidan Hitori is along for the ride as tour guide Inoue. Despite being a very short show, I found it extremely enjoyable. This is definitely something you should watch.

JDorama review: Kamikaze Girls

Title: Shimotsuma Monogatari Also known as: Kamikaze Girls Release date: 2004 Genre: Slice of life Cast: Fukada Kyoko, Anna Tsuchiya Plot: Momoko (Fukada) is a Lolita girl. Ichiko (Tsuchiya) is a delinquent. This is the story of their friendship. What is good: The cinematography is beautiful. What is bad: Tsuchicya's acting seems very forced and fake. Letter rating: C Overall: As a general rule, I'm excited to see live action Japanese movies get licensed in the United States. Unfortunately, for every Death Note, there's a Kamikaze Girls. The movie isn't completely awful. I did manage to get through it entirely. However, it is dragged out and dull. While you would like the characters to better themselves, you don't really care about them and, for the most part, you'd prefer if they just left each other alone for once. The ending is very sweet...it just seems to take forever to get there.

Jmovie review: Honey & Clover

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.

Jmovie review: Nana 2

Title: Nana 2 Release date: 12/9/06 Genre: Romance, Slice of Life Cast: Nakashima Mika, Ichikawa Yui, Kyo Nobuo, Tamayama Tetsuji, Narimiya Hiroki, Hongo Kanata, Maruyama Tomomi Plot: Komatsu Nana/Hachiko (Ichikawa Yui) finds herself trapped in a love triangle with Trapnest's Takumi (Tamayama Tetsuji) and Black Stones' Nobu (Narimiya Hiroki). When she finds out she is pregnant, it devastates her best friend and roommate, Osaki Nana (Nakashima Mika). Can any of them find happiness in their lives after this? What is good: Nakashima Mika is still the perfect choice to play Osaki Nana. What is bad: The actors for Hachi, Shin and Ren were all replaced. Letter rating: B- Overall: I was really looking forward to seeing how the movie would handle a lot of the issues in this part of the storyline. The script seemed to be very good but the change in casting was a big distraction. In my opinion, Miyazaki Aoi was perfect as Hachi. Ichikawa Yui wasn't able to bring the same naviete and innocence to the character. I understand that Miyazaki Aoi didn't want to tarnish her image with the delicate issues dealt with in the second movie. However, she should have read through the manga to see what the future of her character was before accepting the role in the first movie. Considering how popular the NANA franchise is, I don't understand why she would have thought that the story would have stopped with the first movie. I also understand that the change in Shin's actor was due to Matsuyama Ken'ichi being too old for the role. While this is more understandable, since Shin has a larger role in this movie, it was difficult to accept the new actor as Shin.

While this wasn't a terrible movie by any means, it wasn't nearly as good as the first one. You're left expecting more from the actors, more from the two bands and more from the characters. If you watched the first movie, you'll probably want to watch the second movie to finish the experience. Just don't expect a whole lot from it.

Jmovie review: Nana

Title: Nana Release date: 9/3/05 Genre: Romance, Slice of Life Cast: Nakashima Mika, Miyazaki Aoi, Matsuda Ryuhei, Matsuyama Ken'ichi, Narimiya Hiroki, Maruyama Tomomi Plot: The story of the lives and loves of two Nanas. Osaki Nana (Nakashima Mika) is a punk princess determined to make her way to the top of the Tokyo rock scene. Komatsu Nana (Miyazaki Aoi) is a naive girl following her boyfriend to Tokyo in the hopes of marriage. The girls meet on a train in the middle of a snowstorm. Little did they know how intertwined their lives would become from that one fateful meeting. What is good: The emotional rollercoaster that is the girls' lives. What is bad: Since this movie only takes us about halfway through the Nana storyline, the ending seems a little abrupt. Letter rating: A Overall: I adore the Nana franchise. On one hand, I wish I could rock like Osaki Nana but on the other hand, I wish I knew how to be the "perfect" housewife like Komatsu Nana. I watched the movie before watching the entire anime series so it really was this version of the story that I fell in love with. Nakashima Mika was the perfect choice to play singer Osaki Nana and I thought that Miyazaki Aoi did a really good job bringing the innocence and puppy-dog characterization that is Komatsu Nana. While I didn't like the Trapnest songs very much, I did enjoy GLAMOROUS SKY, the movie's theme song which was written by Hyde of L'arc~en~Ciel fame. This is definitely a girly movie but I think any girl who has ever loved a boy before would love this movie.