Every now and then, let down by the current trend of J-dramas, more and more "americanized" or "koreanized" imho, it feels good to jump on a time machine and watch some "oldie-but goldie" from the Golden Era of Japanese Drama.
It's been the case with this "Utsukushii Hito", which until the very end I thought I was gonna rate as a perfect 10 and include in my "Top of the Crop" custom list...but then came an ending I really didn't like.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, so jump the next paragraph entirely if you wanna avoid those! ^___-

Now, despite having been an avid J-drama fan for quite a long time (next year it's gonna be twenty years since my first J-drama!), I must confess not liking the way villains are treated by most Japanese scriptwriters. Look, I'm not saying that villains shouldn't be bad - that would be asking the impossible, LOL - but what I'm saying is just that if you have a villain poisoning everybody else's life throughout the whole series, killing, battering, abusing, deceiving, etc.....then I don't want said villain to get away with a metaphorical slap on the hand. I don't want them to be pitied by bleeding hearts, psychanalyzed, understood. And I certainly don't want them to get a completely undeserved happy ending (as was the case here!!!) while the good guys get a bittersweet (more the former than the latter, actually) ending. I want such villains to get punished, to get a gruesome death if possible, or at least a life-long harsh punishment (like, I could have been OK with this villain getting thrown in a cell together with "Bubba, the 7-ft tall, 300-lbs serial gay raper", who would've made his sorry @ss repent day in and day out! I suppose I'm more Chinese than Japanese in that aspect (I'm thinking for example of the classical Chinese detective stories - like those about the überfamous Judge Dee - whose last chapter is alway dedicated to describe in quite gruesome terms the killers' punishments! ^___-). OK, END OF THE SPOILERS. ^___-

Apart from the aforementioned ending, the script is very good. The acting superb. The OST marvelous. This could've been a perfect 10, seriously....but it's still a very solid 8 in my book! ^___-

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A premise: I haven't watched the anime version of this "Karakai Jouzu no Takagi-san" aka "Teasing Master Takagi-san" (I did read a few chapters of the original manga, but didn't find it that interesting, though), so my point of view is perhaps different than that of the anime's fans.
Still, I can say I pretty much enjoyed this drama, thanks to its relaxing, almost-iyashikei overall atmosphere, to its clean script and to the extremely beautiful setting!
As for the leads, they're both very, very young and there's still a lot of room for improvement of course (I did find the FL the better half of the pair, personally).
Looking forward to watching the sequel!!! 8/10

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I had really enjoyed the two seasons plus SP of "Yuru Camp", and I honestly expected this to be, like, the more mature version of that one. But it was quite the let down, as far as I'm concerned.
First things first, what I liked: namely, the settings (that goes without saying!), the OST, the cast (both leads did a good job).
Alas, the script was the weak point of this drama, in my humble opinion.
With this kind of episodic structure, it was to be expected that some episodes were going to be better than others, but it honestly was worse than expected. I think the biggest problem lies with the FL character having been written that way (as a mostly grumpy and not-so-kind person, wary of others - particularly when they're males. I found that quite offensive, sorry).

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If you, like me, love comedy, and even more so *Japanese* comedy (owarai), for its peculiar flavor and its many facets (manzai, konto, oogiri, etc. etc.), then you too might find this "Beshari Gurashi" aka "The Kings of Laughter" particularly interesting.
A word to the wise, though: don't expect this series to be only comedy, there's quite a bit of drama mixed in there (definitely more than I expected, in all fairness - more on that in a jiff), as we could sum this up a glance behind the scene of the geinin/owarai world.
The cast did a pretty good job indeed, the "packaging" / production value and the music are also of quite high quality levels, and the script is very well written, portraying the harsh reality of the comedians' (geinin) lives, and the sweat and tears hidden behind those laughs. I would've honestly given this an even higher grade, weren't it for the fact that I personally found one of the dramatic moments, well...waaay too dramatic - it was honestly like a punch in the stomach!!! >_______<
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SPOILER AHEAD
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(I'm referring to the ending of the fifth episode)

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I had actually started watching this "Amachan" many years ago, drawn in by my interest for Tohoku and by my love for the sound of their dialect. I also liked the juxtaposition between the city (which I don't care for much, in all fairness), and the village community. When, halfway through the series, the main character decided to go back to the city to pursue a career as an "idol", I lost interest and dropped it.
After a few years, having myself become a bit of a fan of a coupla idol groups (namely, Keyakizaka and its offsprings Hinatazaka and Sakuraza), I went back and decided to give this "Amachan" another chance, as now I knew I could enjoy more than before its second half.
All in all, there are a few nice scenes here and there in this asadora, but also a lot of "meh" moments, therefore I'd totally say this work doesn't belong, alas, to the better ones originated from Kudo Kankoru's pen, It's my humble opinion that the writer was a bit out of his depth here - but then again, to write an asadora is an herculean task (tantamount to writing 26, yep, TWENTY-SIX movies with the same characters to be aired in a 26 weeks time-span - indeed, not a feat every writer can accomplish!) so I can't actually blame him too much!
The cast also gave mixed performances, with Koizumi Kyoko being the best of the lot imho.
The music was pretty good but also terribly repetitive (basically, one song repeated over and over, plus a coupla sidetracks).
A decent production value completes the package. It would be more of a 6.5, but since I don't use decimals, I'll round that up to 7. An OK watch, but no masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned.

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Unsatisfied with the vast majority of the current season's J-dramas, I decided to go and try one of the many "Golden Age" ones I still hadn't watched, and picked this "Aishiteiru to Itte Kure".
Well, sometimes even older dramas can be a real let down, as it was the case here, alas.

First things first, what I liked: namely, the *marvelous* OST (WOW, seriously, perfect 10 there!), the unmistakable "90's Flavor", and the always good performance by Tokiwa Takako - whereas the rest of the cast, imho, didn't do so well; most were sub-par, but I don't think it's entirely their fault, as the material they had to work with was the real problem.
In a scriptwriter's career (even when we're talking of someone like Kitagawa Eriko who's done some real masterpieces!) there's bound to be the occasional lousy work, and this was precisely such a case.
It started quite well, except for the honestly annoying subplot involving the stepsis; but then in the second half it became more and more trite and poorly written, with the last episode being particularly terrible, to the point it ended up being involuntarily ridiculous. HUGE spoilers ahead so stop reading NOW if you wanna avoid those!

*****SPOILERS*****

Misunderstanding after misunderstanding, the FL convinces herself (and wrongly so) that the ML has cheated on her, so she goes and cheats on him with her childhood friend, the 2nd ML (who took advantage of the situation, ok, but then again she had been taking advantage of his kindness for the whole series, so hard to cast the blame there, imho). Even after the misunderstanding got cleared, FL and ML still break up, she has apparently realized that it's better to be loved than to chase after someone rather cold (which might have been less romantic, but I was still fine with such a development, it would have been mature and adult and realistic and honestly quite a nice change after all). So she's bound to move back to Sendai to marry the 2nd ML and help him run the family inn. All fine and dandy, right?
But then the Nth set of coincidences unleash (seriously, the way the characters keep running into each other by chance, you'd think this series was set in a small village, rather than in the tentacular metropolis, LOL) and she runs into the ML, goes with him to an apartment/villa at the seaside ('cause yeah, what normal Japanese wouldn't have a seaside house with a fireplace, right? Mattaku...), where they open up a bottle of champagne ('cause yeah, the house is uninhabited, but of course there's a fine bottle on hand just in case!), almost have sex but stop midway after he picks up her keys ('cause yeah, what normal dude wouldn't pick up some keys while going at it, right?) and she notices the keychain belonging to the 2nd ML, thusly bursting in tears.
Come dawn, a *ridiculous* scene on the beach ensues, where we discover that deaf people apparently have the superpower of being able to understand what you say if you just put your throat on their shoulder (seriously, Kitagawa-san?!? Or was it Stan Lee who wrote that scene? Who knows, maybe the ML got bitten by a radioactive mosquito? Again, mattaku...)
Then she gets back to the 2nd ML, who's the usual, understanding nitwit and leaves alone, brokenhearted but with a big smile (oh, boy) while she stays in the Big City to pursue her acting career.
Three years later, she's been so "successful" that her single-line scene gets cut, but apparently that pays well enough that she's dressed all in style with Italian/French designer's clothes. And then the leads meet again by chance in front of an apple tree (more like, a completely different plant to which some poor sap of AD has glued half a dozen apples bought in the closest supermarket!!!), and so they can live happily ever after. *BARFS!*
Wasn't it for the OST and for Tokiwa, the grade would be even lower. 4/10

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I feel like I need to make a short premise: in my humble opinion, if you have a certain amount of interest in the idols phenomenon (you don't have to be a die-hard "wota", just not someone who can't stand it, LOL), then you're most probably gonna appreciate this "Idol Shikkaku" more than otherwise - just like humble me appreciated it.
I really liked the production value / "packaging" and the script (with the sole, partial exception of the ending; more on that in a jiff). Oh, BTW, in case you don't know, the story is based on a novel written by an active member of NMB48 (hence a colleague of the four girls acting as members of the fictitious group "Tetra").
The acting was good as a whole, with some doing better than others as it is to be expected.
And now on to the ending and why I didn't like it too much (spoilers ahead, so stop reading if you don't want them!!!):
I honestly found it way too unresolved, on the one hand realistic, ok, but on the other hand a bit bland/bitter and uninspiring. It would have sufficed to have the ML's phone ring in the last scene where he's looking at the sun to make it right, imho!!!
Still, a totally solid 8/10 in my book.

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I must confess I started this "Miwa-san Narisumasu" without really having high expectations about it. On the one hand, it's a "yorudora" (similarly to the "asadora", many short episodes of 15' each, credits included) which made me wary it could've been aimed (as somehow more typical of the yorudora, in fact) at a much younger audience than poor old me; on the other hand, as you might already know if you've read my other reviews, romance ain't really my favorite genre.
I'm happy to be able to say that this drama totally exceeded my expectations!
First of all, romance isn't really such a big part of it, but rather a side ingredient (just like the pinch of sugar we Italians like to add to our tomato-based pasta sauces, if you get what I mean, LOL). Secondly, it felt more mature and a little deeper than the usual yorudora, which was also a very nice surprise. Last but certainly not least, the whole cast did really well and contributed highly to the viewing pleasure.
So did the pretty high production value and the generally very nice script, although this latter wasn't absolutely perfect imho. In all fairness, I felt a few parts here and there were a bit weak, and most of all, the ending was way too rushed and left some things way too open (but then again, I've watched this RAW so chances are some details, and even more than that, escaped me...?)
I can still wholeheartedly recommend it though. 9/10

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I've had this "Date - Koi to wa Donna Mono Kashira" sitting, so as to speak, on my bedside table for almost a decade (I'm always keeping aside a few works with my faves - Wakui Emi in this case - so that I know there's still something with them I haven't watched, ready for when the nostalgia for them reaches unbearable levels, LOL).
I'm really happy I finally decided to pick it up, as it really exceeded my expectations!!!
If you, like me, appreciate when writers manage to accomplish a well-done character development, then chances are you'll like this series too!
The leads slowly-but-surely develop, in fact, from the almost unbearable characters they are at the beginning (LOL, you'll need some patience, believe me!) to the more open, warmer, kinder and more humane persons they'll get to be in the end, all thanks to the help from those sorrounding them and to the fact that, as imperfect as they are, they can still become a little less imperfect just by staying together - and to this humble reviewer, that alone is a gazillion times more romantic than the usual "Cold male CEO x buck-eyed, eyelashes-batting Cinderella"!
(Too bad they kinda ruined it with the useless SP episode...but that's another story...)

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I've picked up this "Koukan Uso Nikki" aka "Our Secret Diary" because I had been so impressed (and completely wooed!) by Sakurada Hiyori's remarkable beauty and acting talent in her latest drama "Atari no Kitchen!" that I really wanted to see more of her in another main role.
Although the genre (high school romance) isn't really my favorite (on the one hand, I'm probably too old for it, LOL; and on the other hand, my favorite genres are rather comedy, iyashikei, horror, mystery, etc.), nevertheless I actually liked this lil' movie that definitely managed to exceed my expectations: the story is clean, straight-forward and nice, the leads are both very good and so is the "packaging" (directing, editing, photography, music,...).
Totally solid 8/10!

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Although this "Droste no hate de bokura" aka "Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes" predates "River, Nagarenaide yo" by three whole years, I actually watched them in reverse chronological order and at the end I couldn't help but think that this one must have been, like, the director's "rehearsal" before he could finally come up with that masterpiece that is "River,...".
Both works, in fact, share the same fascination with time loops and the technical prowess required to portray them through sequence shots. And of course they are from the same director and share a relevant part of the cast.
I personally think that the story here is just a lil' bit weaker, and the setting a lot less fascinating (let's be honest: beautiful ryokan in the hills around Kyoto beats small family restaurant/café in an anonymous city side street any day of the week!!! ^_^;;;....), hence my grade.
It's still another wonderful movie I can wholeheartedly recommend, though! 9/10

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This "Otonari ni Ginga" is a "yorudora" (similarly to an "asadora", many episodes - albeit not as many! - of fifteen minutes each, credits included) which, incidentally, also means that its target are the younger viewers (whereas an asadora would normally cater to a more general audience).
This was clearly visible in the story, which might result a bit (heck, even more than just a bit) too naive and simple for the older audience, as it's been the case of yours truly. Indeed, although I deeply appreciated the innocence and purity of it all - something one would actually expect from NHK, but nevertheless is always a nice "surprise" when compared to the ever-surging wave of "hollywoodian" dramas made in Japan - on the other hand, though, I'll confess the story was not really that interesting to poor old me, sorry...^_^;
Still, the acting was very good (Koyama Sae is so talented it's scary, seriously - how can she act so well at that age? >____<), the "packaging" totally ok, and the music decent enough.

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As I've already said a few times, I'm a sucker for time-travel related stories, and it was therefore with pretty high expectations that I started watching this "Toki wo Kakeru Bando" - the title reminiscing of the überfamous "Girl who Leapt through Time" also had something to do with that, as well as the presence in the cast of two of my faves from the current generation of J-actresses, Ohara Yuno and Shiraishi Sei.
The script had its good moments but also some not-so-good ones. As far as I'm concerned, too little focus on the time-slip part and too much on the music - note that this "light music" (in the Japanese sense - "K-On", short for "keiongaku") ain't really my cup of tea, so there's that too (had this been about classical music, or jazz, or blues, or tango, or bossanova, or any of the dozens of musical genres I like better than pop, I think I would've like this series a lot more).
Anyway, the acting was pretty good, particularly from Ohara & Shiraishi but also from Miura.
The production value was OK, and the music objectively catchy.
All in all, not a masterpiece but still a decent series imho. 7/10

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I had this "Koibumi" sitting, so as to say, on my "virtual nightstand" for almost two decades. Why? Well, on the one hand, one of my all-time faves, Wakui Emi, is in the cast; but on the other hand, I expected this to be a deep and tough emotional journey like "1 lt. no Namida" - that dorama had been absolutely *great* but at the same time really painful to watch (one of those cases where the title says it all!).
But this "Koibumi" was nothing of sorts: I could find no deep, universal messages in it, no cathartic tears nor any heartwarming feeling at the end...only a quite disturbing story of unreasonable people doing unreasonable things and therefore hurting each other in the process.
I guess Okada (the writer) is one of those who either make masterpieces (the likes of "Churasan", "Saigo kara Nibanme no Koi", "Beach Boys", "Space Travelers" and others), or else really awfully bad works (like "Iguana no Musume" or "Ai no Uta" or "Kanojotachi no Jidai"...or this one...).
The acting was OK but nothing worth calling home about (even my beloved Wakui-san was sub-par, due to the lousy material she had to work with).
The production value is pretty decent and the setting (hard to beat Kamakura, seriously) simply great - incidentally, the only reason I raised the grade a little bit in the end! Man, I want a house like the leads'!!!
One last note about the OST: if you belong to the billions of people who just adore the Beatles, you're gonna love it; but if you belong instead, like me, to the select minority who just can't freaking stand them and wish you had a time machine to go back in time and make sure, one way or another, that they never happen (I'm exaggerating a bit there, but I seriously believe that they were, together with their "rivals" the Rolling Stoned - pun intended! - the beginning of what has ruined popular music entirely over the last seven decades and counting; what can I say, I'm team Doors - and CCR, and ABB, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eagles, etc. - real music with meaningful lyrics, in a nutshell), back to what I was I saying, if you, like me, don't like those Cockroaches, err, those Beatles, this OST is gonna be like a freaking *torture*, really. Those five damned notes repeated *over and over again* until you'll just have to run and "clean" your poor ears with some good music before they start to freaking bleed...>____<

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I had really loved the first season of "Jikou Keisatsu", so it was with pretty high expectations that I watched the second season, aka "Kaette Kita Jikou Keisatsu", which ended up being, alas, a little weaker, at least in my humble opinion.
The cast did very well, once again (and I really appreciated that they added Saori, as I've always had a soft spot for her - too bad she doesn't have many main roles in her filmography! But that's another story...).
The music was as adorable as it was in the first installment, of course - as it was the same, LOL - and the "packaging" was also on par with the previous season (nothing worth calling home about, but at the same time nothing terrible).
Imho what's changed for the worst, even though only slightly, was the script. Some episodes were better than others, and that's to be expected; but I got the feeling that the comedy was not as funny, some scenes tried too hard with mixed results.
Still, it's pretty enjoyable if you don't mind the quirkiness typical of many dramas starring Odagiri! 7/10

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