I must confess I had such great expectations for this "Kioku ni Gozaimasen!" aka "Hit Me, Anyone, One More Time!", given the stellar cast and particularly the presence of Koike Eiko and Nakai Kiichi (two of my all-time faves, who were BTW both as great as always!). Unfortunately it wasn't such a brilliant, fast-paced comedy as, say, "The Uchoten Hotel", but just a (too) light comedy. It had its moments, but I ended up laughing a lot less than I had expected I would.
It's still an enjoyable movie that will provide a coupla hours of relax, only not the masterpiece I had expected.

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Great acting - as usual! - by the always superb Wakui Emi. Unfortunately, there's little else here. The plot is annoyingly trite (the Nth retelling of Cinderella's tale - which I don't care for at all, btw; I'll never understand how anyone can actually consider even remotely romantic a story which could be summed up as "she's poor, he's loaded". Materialistic much?!?!?). The dialogues aren't memorable, and neither is the rest of the cast (actually, Tsuruta Mayu is good; Kishitani Goro's clownish antics are somehow funny, but seem out of place 90% of the time here; as for Karasawa Toshiaki, he's as expressive as...a fish!!!). Forgettable.

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Recipe for a perfect dorama: take two great leads (Wakui Emi is simply to die for, here...and I guess Fukikoshi Mitsuru will have the same effect on the female audience), add some very good supporting actors (Amami Yuki and Ono Takehiko most of all, but everyone else also does a good job), mix everything with a nice, light and entertaining plot and most of all with lots and lots of witty and überfunny dialogues, give everything that unmistakable, unbeatable 90's flavor, and finally serve: the viewers will appreciate. Now, I can't speak for everyone else, of course, but believe me, THIS viewer was delighted from the very first minute to the very last! Perfect 10/10! :)

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I'm sorry, but honestly, I found this bad. And I don't mean "well, a bit bad"; not even "hmm, quite bad"...I mean REAL bad, bad bad...Walker-Texas-Rangers-kind-of-bad... =__= I can't help thinking that to make Shinohara Ryoko play a role that seems like it's been written for Dolph Lundgren (hell, seems like it's been written BY Dolph Lundgren!) it's such a tremendous waste of talent... T__T I noticed that not only this dorama has been quite popular, but basically everybody else here gives it a good vote...so I dunno what to say, it seems as if I've watched a different dorama, but what can I say? Imho half of it is too damn predictable (like a bad mix of all the worst Hollywood cop-movies), and the other half is either ridiculous or plain absurd...

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Abe Hiroshi's performance is simply excellent: at the same time funny, convincing and even moving, here and there. The same can be said about the absolutely gorgeous Natsukawa Yui. Kuninaka Ryoko is also good, though her character lacks depth....as a matter of fact, I don't give this a full 10/10 right 'cause I feel the whole thing could have been better developed. But anyway, it's still a very good dorama! 9/10 p.s. Kuwano-san has a great taste in music (it reminded me of Nodame Cantabile, LOL), as Hayasaka-sensei in manga (Tezuka, Golgo13, etc.)! Oh, and of course the Great Kaneda (that guy's just too funny, ROFL) has an impeccable taste in cars! 1970s Opel GT, one of my all-time faves! ^___^

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"Supokon" at its best!!!

As I've already confessed in a previous review, my favorite sport is baseball.
Of all different sorts of baseball, Japanese "yakyuu" is my favorite (in a nutshell: no doping - or at least much much less than in the MLB; less muscles and more brains; nobody munching tobacco and spitting it on the field, etc. etc.).
And of all different types of Japanese "yakyuu", my favorite is precisely high school baseball.
Why? Because it's poetic, pure, epic...it's Sport with a capital "s", sport as it *should* be.
Now, the Japanese have a whole genre dedicated to sports-related stories, called "supokon", and since baseball is (one of) the national sport(s), you can guess that the vast majority of "supokon" are about baseball, and particularly about high school baseball, 'cause Japanese *love* it and the Koushien's final game is basically the Japanese equivalent of the Superbowl in the States!
So does all that mean that there's nothing really new in this story? Could be, yeah.
Does that make it any less fabulous? Hell no!
A good recipe doesn't necessarily need any fancy ingredients to make for a delicious dish; more often than not, it's precisely the simple, good old ones that are the best of the lot!
As is the case with this "Gekokujo Kyuji": all the tropes of the genre are there, but still, you can't help but enjoying *every single minute* of it! Marvelously written, acted, directed. Production value reached Himalayan heights. The message conveyed was simply beautiful.
Jeez, I finished watching it before Christmas, but I'm still getting goosebumps thinking about it now, so good it was!!! ^______^;;;
Highly and wholeheartedly recommended! Perfect 10 all the way!!!

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Weaker than the first season

This second season of "Yuru Camp" was in my humble opinion much weaker than both the first season and the in-between special episode. Fukuhara Haruka's screentime was drastically shrinked here, while most of the focus went to the supporting actresses - but that per se wouldn't have been such a big problem, as they're all decent actresses (even though not as good as Fukuhara - anyway, thumbs up to Ohara Yuno for her always contagious chuckle ^__^). The real problem is that the focus was also mostly switched from actual "yurucamping" to silly comedy, alas without much success. As a consequence, also the scenery, which had been an important detail previously, got a bit neglected here (don't expect loads of spectacular views, but rather just the occasional glimpse).
I have no idea how much covid-related restrictions could have been the cause of these changes for the worse, though...therefore my not-too-low grade.

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This "Kamisan no Waruguchi" is imvho the *perfect* example ("a contrario", as the old Romans would have said) of how PC (Politically Correct) has mostly ruined storytelling (and not only that...).
Back in the Golden Age of J-dramas it was possible to make a drama with such a politically incorrect title (it roughly translates as "Badmouthing the Wives" - but don't get it wrong, at least 80% of the times - if not more - the badmouthing husbands aren't portrayed as being right at all in doing so!) and with such tridimensional characters, so full of faults and yet - or rather, precisely because of that! - so tremendously humane.
The script doesn't take sides "a priori" (OK, today it's Latin Day, bear with me, please), but rather shows two main characters who are right or wrong depending on the situation. They argue, they fight, they yell, but at the end of the day - and that's the lovely message conveyed by this old comedy - both are made better people by being together and learning from each other and from their mistakes, day in and day out. There are no *perfect* couples, but rather *functioning* ones, that are so exactly because they know that they're not perfect and *accept* it! (compare that with the current trend of demanding nothing short of *perfection* from your partner, and any failure to comply to that impossibly unrealistic demand leading to a divorce...>_____<).
Back to the drama: the script is wonderful, managing to be at the same time hilarious and thought-provoking. The acting is top-notch, with virtual standing ovations for both leads. The "packaging" might feel dated to younger viewers, but those who appreciate "oldiesbutgoldies" won't have any problem with that.
No surprise it was so successful it got a second season (alas, not yet subbed, if I'm not mistaken...?), not really a common occurrence for comedies.
Oh, a last side-note for my countrymates - who'll get the reference: this is basically the Japanese version of "Casa Vianello", LOL! ^_^;;;

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For once, I'll jump to the conclusion: this is a M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E !!!
First of all, the message is so deep that it simply humbles at least 90% of other dramas (and basically every Western series ever - but well, that's easier).
The script works like a Swiss clockwork, seriously; and seeing how this drama consists of 40 episodes of around 45' each, that alone is quite a feat! You laugh, you cry, you learn, etc....the whole nine yards! Or rather, Yin & Yang and all 24 solar terms!
The characters are so well-written and tridimensional that when you finish watching the series, you feel like you're saying goodbye to a group of friends!
The acting is simply superb. At this point I usually give three "honorable mentions" but here it's hard to name just three, one would want to praise *all* of them with a virtual standing ovation! Anyway, traditions must be kept, so let's say I'll stand a little longer for Jiang Shan, Zhao Lu Si and my beloved Dai Lu Wa.
The music is just lovely and adds greatly to the viewing pleasure.
As for the "packaging" (direction, editing, photography, etc.), that's top-notch too.
What's not to like? Perfect 10! Goes instantly into my top-5 of all times! ^_____^

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(Over)simplifying it, all Japanese movies could be divided into four categories:

1) The GREAT ones, stuff like the "Kazoku wa Tsurai yo!" trilogy, or "Umimachi Diary", or many many others, all magnificent examples of what makes Japanese culture so unique and fascinating

2) The SILLY ones, titles like "The World Sinks Except Japan" or "Oppai Volleyball" and many others; in a decent portion of these, the silliness is actually pretty funny, making such movies still enjoyable

3) The YAWNFESTS, or what I tend to refer to as "Victims of the nefarious influence of French 'Nouvelle Vague' and 'Cahiers du Cinéma'..."; pompous and artsy, painfully slow, with horribly thin (or even non-existing!) plots, unappealing dialogues etc.

4) All those which cannot fit in any of the previous (hey, I did warn you I was oversimplifying it! ^___^;;;.....)

Unfortunately, this "Bread & Bus Etc." fits in the third category. It took me FOUR DAYS to finish it, because I literally couldn't stand watching more than half an hour of it in one go (and usually my eyelids would start feeling horribly heavy already after ten or fifteen minutes...>____<).
The whole plot could fit on the back of a postage stamp, and if it had been done as a short movie (like, five minutes, tops) it might have been okay. But at close to two hours, it's almost unbearable.
Too bad, because Fukagawa Mai (the reason why I've watched it!) possesses a pretty nice acting talent. But it just couldn't shine in this yawnfest, alas.

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After the first episodes I thought I was gonna give this "Shimobee" a pretty high grade, 'cause it started very well, managed to be really hilarious here and there, and was altogether very entertaining.
The second half of the series, though, was more or less the fair of déjà vu (the "terminal illness" trope can produce gems like "1 lt. no Namida" or "Neko", but it can also result annoyingly trite and cheesy, as it was the case here, imho) and that made me lower the rating considerably.
Still, both Shiraishi Sei and Yasuda Ken deserve a standing ovation: the former is not only a gorgeous woman, but also a marvelous actress; and the latter is simply amazing, I honestly don't know many actors who would've been able to pull this off!
The music was also really nice.
Overall, and despite the not-so-great script, a pleasant watch.

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I really disliked it, sorry...>___<

I should've trusted my guts and dropped this immediately, after all....>__<
It had some (few, waaaay too few) good moments, but those were literally drowned in a plethora of frustratingly terrible, poorly written scenes.
I've sometimes used food metaphors while praising some drama (writing stuff like "it masterfully manages to mix so many different ingredients and ends up creating an original, delicious flavor" or something like that), but here it's just the opposite: the clueless screenwriter (whom I'm adding immediately to my personal blacklist!) came up with a painfully uncohesive story, filling it with idiotic characters and mixing up genres and styles in an obnoxiously chaotic, incoherent way (back to food metaphors: mixing something sweet with something sour is perfectly fine if you come up with, say, a delicious plate of Sweet&Sour Chicken...but here it's as if she'd dropped a spoonful of strawberry jam on a tomato, and then covered the whole thing with mayonnaise, cocoa powder and wasabi...sorry, but I'll pass! >____<)
All this imvho, of course.

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There's an old italian saying (based on a real historical anecdote) which goes like this: "Paganini non ripete" (Paganini - a very famous violinist - doesn't repeat, doesn't play an "encore"), and one of the meanings of that saying is that perfection, once attained, cannot be repeated nor copied. Perfection may happen, but you can't expect perfection to repeat itself over and over again. That's why, while thinking about how to comment on "Churasan 2", that old italian saying came to my mind: "Paganini non ripete"! The original "asadora" was pretty much perfect; there shouldn't have been any "encore". This sequel sports the same writer (although this script is surprisingly bad!) and the same cast, but the magic isn't repeated, and it ends up being nothing but a faint copy...:/

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