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: Blood: The Last Vampire

Title: Blood: The Last Vampire Also known as: Last Blood Release date: 5/29/09 Genre: Supernatural action Cast: Jun Ji-hyun (Gianna Jun), Allison Miller, Koyuki Plot: Saya (Jun) is a half-human-half-vampire that hunts and kills other vampires while searching for Onigen (Koyuki), the head vampire. What is good: Koyuki is gorgeous as Onigen. What is bad: The cinematography was weird. Letter rating: C+ Overall: I enjoyed the Blood: The Last Vampire anime, so I was intrigued to see how it would be translated into a live action movie. For the most part, the movie was entertaining. However, the fight scenes (and there are a lot of them) seemed tired. Even when Saya was fighting a huge mob of vampires, the entire fight was pretty predictable. It was a decent movie to watch. Just don't expect anything overly impressive from it and you should be fine.

JDorama review: L: Change the WorLd

Title: L: Change the WorLd Release date: 2/9/08 Genre: Supernatural, Detective Cast: Matsuyama Kenichi, Fukuda Narushi, Fukuda Mayuko, Kudoh Youki Plot: During the final 23 days of his life, L takes the time to solve one more case. This one involves a bio-terrorist group intent on killing most of the Earth's population with a virus. What is good: Matsuyama is as good as ever! What is bad: Well...I fell asleep...that can't be a good thing, right? Letter rating: C Overall: I really wanted to like this sort-of sequel to Death Note. Like many others, L is one of my favorite characters. Unfortunately, this case seems to be a pretty big waste of his talents. The only reason L seems to be involved in this case is because people just randomly send things (and people) to him. As much as I wanted to watch the movie, I did fall asleep because it was so dull. L deserved a better ending than this.