pash
Italy
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Wakui Emi is absolutely PERFECT (no surprise here, LOL), but also most of the remaining supporting cast did a wonderful job, from Matsushige Yutaka to Sato Megumi, from Watase Tsunehiko to Katsura Kichiya, from the lovely Miyajima Mai to Kato Toranosuke, from Kabira Jay to Kimura Yuichi etc. etc. - seriously, it's easier to name the very few exceptions, i.e. the moronic uncle (Kyomoto Masaki is 20 years older than Hara Sachie and the layers of makeup and flashy clothes he wears are supposed to make him look younger, but he ends up giving a strong 50-something-drag-queen vibe; you'll forgive me if I don't find realistic that Natsuko-san falls for him, ne?), the clichè-but-mostly-useless-grandma (I don't like when the elderly are written in scripts as mere ornaments, really; compare this with Churasan's obaa-san and you'll see the difference: now, THAT's an obaa-san, not this ghostly presence!) and the annoying new apprentice, Kososo. Furthermore, rakugo makes for a very interesting and refreshingly original topic (though "Tiger & Dragon" wins hands down there...but that's another story) and throughout the whole dorama, music is an extremely pleasant accompaniment ("Furusato" and the opening credits music most of all!). So why "only" 7/10? Well, sorry if I'm too blunt, but I found both Kanjiya Shihori (whom I also didn't like in the otherwise great movie "Swing Girls") and Aoki Munetaka extremely annoying - and as much as it pains me to write this (me being a Hanshin-fan and whatnot), I have to admit that so was the constant use of Kansai-ben (seriously, now that I've finished watching this, I don't wanna hear another "-hen" nor "-han" for at least six months, LOL!). Anyway, Aoki's character's stage name happens to be perfect for summing up 151-episodes worth of dorama in just two syllables: So-So! :/ Vond je deze recentie nuttig?
Mou Ichido Kimi ni, Propose
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Great premise, ruined by an artsy approach
The true story of the "Phone of the Wind", which this movie is roughly based on, sure is a lovely, extremely moving and interesting one! And the Touhoku Tsunami and all the tragedy and loss that it caused are incredibly touching, of course. Unfortunately, the screenwriter and the director of this "Kaze no Denwa" - Nth victims of what I call "the nefarious influence of 'Cahiers du Cinéma' and Nouvelle Vague" - decided to ruin all that by having the part of the movie about Touhoku and the phonebooth (basically, the last 50', more or less) preceded by almost 90' of mostly useless and painfully boring scenes. Just one example so as not to spoil anything: at the beginning of the movie, the main character takes a ferry; ok, anybody with even just an ounce of respect for the viewers would have simply shot two/three short sequences, and with some editing the scene would have been done (and it would have lasted, like 10 seconds, tops). But here instead they went with an *interminable* sequence shot of her slowly approaching the dock, then waiting for the ferry, then the ferry slowly approaching the dock, then the few people on the dock slowly boarding the ferry, then the ferry finally (and yeah, you guessed it correctly: *SLOWLY*) leaving the dock: 180, *endless* seconds which add *nothing* to the story - quite the opposite, really! >____<Seriously, the first 80+ minutes could be reduced to 10'/15' tops, keeping only the relevant scenes and cutting all the useless, artsy cr*p...=___=
Too bad...if this story had been written and directed by a decent writer/director team, this could've been a true masterpiece!
As is, it's mostly a yawnfest; and it's such a pity, considering that this story - and all the Tsunami victims and their relatives - would've deserved much more than this, imho! /.___.\
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So, where did this series surprise me?
In all fairness, being quite the "supokon" aficionado, while at the same time not caring much (if anything at all!) for company-themed power struggles, I started watching this thinking I was gonna like the sports part and not so much the company one....instead it was basically the other way around, and I enjoyed the intrigues more than the sports.
Where it did match my expectations, instead, was for all regarding rugby. I must confess not being a fan (at all) of this sport, and this was confirmed, sorry but it's way too violent for my taste (I'm a baseball fan, 'nuff said, LOL) - although I know that there's a lot of good things in rugby: I remember they used to describe the two most popular English sports as "football is a game designed for gentlemen but played by thugs, while rugby is a sport designed for thugs but played by gentlemen". There's some truth in there, honestly...^__^
Anyway, the script is okay, the acting pretty good, and the "packaging" definitely above average. So even if you don't like rugby, this still makes for a pleasant watch! 7/10
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I liked this so much, I'd want to give it more than "just" 10/10!!!
Seriously, there are times when you watch something so tremendously satisfying, that you kinda feel bad for not being able to rate it more than "just" the top grade, and it is precisely the case with this fabulous "River, Nagarenaide yo"!Hard to explain why it hit me so much without giving anything away (and that'd be a pity 'cause it would deprive you of the pleasure of finding out by yourselves!), I'll just say this: the premise is as interesting as they come; the way they actually made it work was nothing short of a serious stroke of genius; the technical difficulties I can only imagine but must have been something indeed, chapeau for the way they brilliantly overcame them; the cast did *marvelously*, with a special mention for the amazing, lovely, gorgeous (I could go on and on!) Fujitani Riko; the setting is simply F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S; the "packaging" absolutely top-notch (I normally am not really a fan of hand-held cameras, but there was no other way to make this work!).
What are you waiting for? Go watch this *now*! You'll thank me later! ^____-
10/10 and instant top10 of all times, as far as I'm concerned!
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The premise was nicely developed, the setting very nice, and the production value pretty high.
The whole cast did a marvelous job, seriously. My hat goes off to all of them! Honorable mentions for Sun Qian, for Luo Yu Tong (who grew on me so much that by the end of the drama I was liking her even more than the FL - and that's saying quite a lot!!!) and for Tao Hai.
The script was very good and I particularly appreciated how well they accomplished character development and how nicely they managed to convey a wonderfully positive, ethical message.
The only reasons I'm not giving this a perfect 10 are, on the one hand, that I really didn't like how they set things up for a potential second season (I'm talking about the very last scene with the never seen before character - totally unrelated to the rest of the series), and on the other hand, that I found a coupla scenes a bit weak/forced. But then again, perhaps the machine-translated subs (that at times one had to *interpret*, rather than simply *read*) are to blame for that? Whatever, beggars can't be choosers and machine-translated subs are still a whole lot better than no subs at all, of course. 9/10
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Anyway, I'm happy to say that this drama has surprised me very positively; it reminded me a lot of "Tokyo Sentimental" and of the various "...no Satsukyu" dramas. It's part slice-of-life, part "iyashikei", part food drama, with a pinch of comedy and a healthy dose of "mono no aware".
The acting is top-notch, the production value very high, the music superb.
The only reason I'm not giving this a "perfect 10" is that, as it's to be expected with most dramas having an episodic formula, a coupla episodes were a bit weaker, imho. Still, it got very close! 9/10
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I also didn't really like the first episode(s), that made me think "Oh, boy, here's the Nth series with the *curt male lead*...at least he's no CEO so glass half full I guess".
But I'm happy I didn't drop it there, as the story slowly but surely picked up and became a lot deeper and much nicer than I had expected.
The cast did well (some better than others), the "packaging" was totally OK.
It should be more of a 7.5 but since I don't do decimals (an old habit I kept from jdorama.com where they weren't used!) I'll raise that grade to 8! ^___-
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I'm a sucker for good Japanese mystery dramas, and it was therefore with pretty high expectations that I had started this "Gifted".The premise was pretty interesting and the episodical structure much to my liking; I must confess not being a big fan of the endless "continuity" of many Western series, and it thusly was with a lot of apprehension that I kept watching when I noticed the underlying "subplot" and most of all when I found out a second season was already in the making. But I'm glad that my fears were not confirmed, as the aforementioned subplot involving Shiki-kun's mom's murder got nicely wrapped up so that the 2nd season can start by opening up a new chapter entirely.
The acting was OK, some of the cast (namely, Masuda and Izumi) were definitely better than the others imho.
Music and "packaging" were also good enough.
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I am a big fan of the typical Japanese "Mys-Com", the Mystery/Investigation dramas filled with various degrees of similarly typical Japanese humor and comedy, but in all fairness the genre has produced many dramas better than this "Shinso wa Mimi no Naka", which was, for me, quite a let down.The leads are OK, Tsutsui is cute as pie and Ihara pretty funny, but I honestly really disliked the supporting characters played by Nakamura and Morinaga, and that didn't help.
The script was just "meh", the mystery part not particularly interesting, and the comedy part not particularly funny; add that the last episodes switched to a gloomier, darker atmosphere, and you'll understand why this didn't really work. Forgettable.
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