My review will be short and sweet with a link to my very extend review at the bottom if you wish to do some extra curricular reading!

The Good:
1) Reaper and Goblin's Bromance
2) Soni and Reaper's Relationship
3) The theme song
4) The cinematography
5) The locations shot in

And that is ALL!

The UGLY:

1) 60% of the episodes are completely plotless.
2) The last 5 or so episodes are completely rushed with about 6 major plot points in each of them
3) The cringey, over-obvious product placement
4) EunDak is the worst character ever. She's so selfish and so stupid and she gets so lazy once the boys take her in.
5) Eun Dak and Goblin's relationship should NOT be romantic. It would've been much better as a Father/Daughter realtionship
6) The editing was rough in a lot of parts
7) Deok Hwa's character was so undeveloped and so underused. he deserved better!
8) The lack of relationship and character development for all of them actually
9) The ending is an absolute mess. Why did the not all die so they could start over again?!
10) So many scenes felt half done. I feel like so much was either not filmed or just simply edited out and I feel like I was missing whole chunks of scenes that were needed.
11) The over the top ridiculousness such as the SnowBoard accident, and the Goblin pushing EunDak and causing massive problems in the car park scene. Those scenes were so stupid. Those scenes were far beyond being able to suspend disbelief.
12) Completely ruining Soni and Reaper's personality and all their charm in their new life in the final episode.
13) Rushing through the final. Those last 15 or so minutes DESERVED and entire episode. Not the rush through that it got.

The excessive overhype this show gets. It's really not that good.
If you really want my Essay-long review of this show, check it out here: http://sambart93.tumblr.com/post/179925136539/dokkaebi-goblin-its-not-bad-but-its-not-good

Leia Mais

OMG this movie was amazing! It's OVER two hours and I still wanted more!! Btw, I've never read the manga so I have nothing to compare to...
The acting is great - Sato and Kamiki have amazing chemistry between them! It helps that I've seen them in loads of interviews together lately xD Of course Sometani and Kiritani and Yamada were perfect too! -, the comedy was so good, the cinematography was spot on - seriously this director has it going on! -, the CGI was amazing, the music - pretty sure the theme song is ONE OK ROCK or someone similar - and sound was great (the sound of the pens drawing made me shiver all the time!), I thoroughly enjoyed this!

The only reason it's lost one point is: I wanted more so MAYBE this would've been better as a dorama but damn, I wanna rewatch it right now and I've only just finished watching it!! xD

I think this is my second favourite movie of the year!

Leia Mais

At first you're like WTF? And was like 'OMG over two hours of this?!' but I totally take back my first impressions of this film. More meets the eye then you expect in this film.
But as it progresses you understand what's going on and why things are going on and why things happen.

It was nice having scenes that had a lack of music, to show realism, for example the long take of them riding the bikes scene; with no soundtrack or music to it, because that's what actually happens in life.

And something's happened that you can't explain but could completely understand and relate to and almost agree with.

The prison scene was so captivating.

The great thing about this movie is that it isn't the normal 'hollywood action packed romance characters are amazing and gorgeous (well to me they were gorgeous xD)' type of movie. It was a movie with depth, although it does not seem like that to begin with, you understand it as the movie progresses.

The movie didn't flow, it wasn't what you would call the 'interesting' and 'eventful' movie that people these days are used to which was a nice change and gave a new life to films.

The characters all had flaws and it was such a sense of realism that you couldn't help not relating to them and you understood them and why things happened.

The actors: Matsuda Shota - AMAZING! But he's always been a solid actor and his acting does not fail in this. His performance was amazing!

Kora Kengo - I definitely want to see him act again. First time I've seen him act and I was impressed with how he portrayed the character and took it on board.

Ando Sakura - You may recognise her from Love Exposure. She acts great in this and may have improved from LE! I like how she took this role and I like how she played her character.

Ending song is beautiful too I think ^^

Turned out to be a pretty damn good film!

Leia Mais

Story: There were stories IN stories in the dorama. There was a love story, sibling story, family story, crime story, death story, mystery story. Twas all interesting and you just wanted to know more and more. BUT the way it all came together kind sucked, so many things at the end were left unsaid in my opinion. And the actual ending OMG IT SUCKED! SO unsatisfactory!

Acting: Apart from the JE boys (Nakayama was the best and the other two did their best ^^), everyone else's acting pretty much sucked. Especially in the last episode where the girls were all cry-ie and huggie and squeally as they spoke - no thanks, go have your annoying moment somewhere else thanks. The main girl, omg her eyes always looked as if she was sleepy and unattentive! -__-

Music: LOVED IT ALL! Loved the opening Theme, loved the interjected songs (even though they were English) totally awesome!

Overall: Good. Very good at parts, loved the love story to begin with, wasn't so bothered about the actual main plot (finding info about the girl) but overall was good ^_^

Leia Mais

Just a quickie, not too spoilery review:

This was an alright movie. I was overall disappointed and had a hard time dispensing disbelief, especially over the whole a 16 year old girl and 26 year old police officer suddenly getting married and moving in together within the first day or two of meeting each other. If the movie and them had actually taken time to actually date and get to know each other and allow the parents months to consider giving their daughter away and such before getting married, then I think a lot of my problems would become irrelevant.

I personally had major problems with and felt very uncomfortable with the age difference between the characters, Kouta’s motives to marry (which aren't really explained),, and even with the parents’ thought process of just allowing their 16 year old daughter to marry and move in with him straight away.

But Kame is very, very pretty in this and the camera gave us some amazing Kame close ups (particularly of his eyes), and he gave a good performance and at one point we got Gokusen feels. Also thanks to Kame’s performance I cried at least twice xD

Also, I am all for Kame and Mahiro doing a Buddy Cop movie together after this movie, especially after that one scene they did together in this movie! Mahiro was very good in this too just as I expected! Tsuchiya herself and her acting didn’t annoy me which is good, BUT unfortunately her character was an immature train wreck.

Seriously, only watch this if you’re a fan of Kame, Mahiro and/or the manga. Otherwise I don’t think you’ll like this.

Leia Mais

Now I understand when people say the old doramas are the best doramas.
There isn't one flaw about this dorama I don't think.

Story: Ice Skating, Sports, Comedy, Romance, Fun, Heart-Warming, Sometimes Teary in both a good and bad way. Such a good story line and plot set up!

Acting: Amazing cast full of the great older actors (obviously at the time were the 'it' actors) Kimura Takuya, Sato Koichi, Sato Ryuta, Tanihara Shousuke - all amazing actors! Just weird seeing them so young! Well they haven't changed much but it weird seeing them when they were like mid-20s early 30s! xD Amazing cast and awesome characters too! =]

Music: IT'S QUEEN!!! You can't go wrong with Queen. The music along with Kimura Takuya and Ice Skating is what made this dorama EPIC for me xD

ReWatch? Highly likely!

Overall: Awesome, fun and easy to watch!

Leia Mais

Amazing! Deserves All Awards!

DO NOT READ THE SYNOPSIS FOR THIS MOVIE!
The long synopsis at the top of this page spoils too much.

All you need to know is: One mute guy and one girl, Japanese romance, maybe sad times ahead.

Honestly, this is one of the best films I've seen in years.
I'd say this is Yamada's best movie since Grasshopper. His performance is always solid but he excels in this; how he conveys and comunicates in this is just amazing. Hamabe, I wasn't familiar with going in but I think she was absolutely perfect too! Her acting was amazing and you could feel her emotions and her journey clearly.
The story itself is just way more than you expect and it's so beautiful and emotional and pure.

If this doesn't win any awards at the end of the year, I'll be shocked and disgusted.




***

Slight Spoilers: I cannot describe how misadvertised this movie is, and I am kinda glad it is. You go in thinking it's just gunna be your typical Japanese romance but it's so much more. I cried the entire time, so definitely prepare tissues!

Leia Mais

Let's get one thing straight: It's not the best dorama out there, it's not amazing but by god was this wholeheartedly entertaining, fun and just what you want from a Summer Drama!!

We follow an out-dated yankee, which is hilarious right away!, and soon a Water Ball (not Water Polo due to him reading the Kanji wrong xD) team is begun at his new High School.

This drama is packed with hilarity (I RARELY laugh at non-British shows) and I laughed so hard many times! I love the friendships and relationships and the words of 'never giving up' are repeated and are very inspiring!! And let us not overlook the fact that we get to see more than 8 guys in nothing but tiny swimwear for 10 episodes!! <3

The reason I give this such a high mark regardless of the fact that it's not what you would class as a masterpiece, is because I love the actors (big fan of them!), I love the themes it brought up, and it was a lot of fun to watch!

The only down I can actually pick out is, I personally felt the romance aspect was unnecessary. The romance (all like 5 of them!) added nothing to the drama and weren't needed. All this dorama needed was a bunch of guys being the best friends ever and some small swimming trunks and that's what I got and I loved it!

Leia Mais

I'm gunna be honest: I have no idea what I've just spent 9 episodes watching.

This dorama started off with SO much potential. It really felt like it was gunna fight for 'pro-working-women' like Mother Game did last season but oh boy, oh boy, it fell completely flat.

In the whole 9 episodes I feel:
- Nothing changed within the work force
- There was no character development
- All the characters start and end exactly in the same place
- I'm not sure what message this drama was trying to give us

It just... I seriously cannot say anything good about this... I even feel the actors weren't doing their best!

Did I miss something that made this drama amazing, or am I right in my experience with this?

Leia Mais

This dorama is absolutely amazing. I was hooked from the moment it started to the moment it ended.
The story is so tense and so mysterious I had no idea who it would be or what would happen.
The acting was out of this world, especially Ichihara Hayato he had at least 3 scenes where I just couldn't look away from him, he was absolutely amazing in this! The others were great too! I like they were all flawed and corrupted characters too pretty much!
The music again was absolutely amazing, such good songs, yes they were English but were hella good ones! The soundtrack too was good.
A little film studies here but I loved the crispness of the camera shots and the colouring was awesome and the angels were great too!
Only down side? I felt the last episode was weak and rushed. Besides that I actually have NO complaints about this dorama! Dying to read the book now too!

Leia Mais

I have a very strong, positive view about this!

Story: Great story! About firefighters, about life and death, about passion for the job, about friends and being there for each other and never giving up!

Acting: Nakamaru's acting sometimes made me laugh because you could tell he was acting and I'm used to seeing him rather than his character but he did a great job and everyone else did amazing! ^_^

Cast: Amazing cast, strong actors, strong roles!

Music: Well it's KAT-TUN, I'm a big fan, I got no complaints xD Although it kinda doesn't fit this dorama in terms of this rhythm haha but nevertheless RESCUE! xD

ReWatch? Yes definitely! Just so I can see them all topless for starters! haha

Only negative? Some part seemed VERY unrealistic for example wasting time talking when they know there's like a 5minute time limit (I know it's to make everything emotional and dramatic but can't they be realistic at least?), stop talking and get your work done! Or going down into places without masks, surely that's bad for them to be inhaling smoke? Or in Episode 6 Katsuragi is somehow outta breath when all he's done is go down to a platform in a station, run a little, carried and child and is now stumbling back in the station, you can't be that unfit! but besides that I freaking loved watching it! ^_^

Overall: Thoroughly happy with this and wish I'd seen it sooner!

Leia Mais

Rushed Story and Time Wasted on Unimportant Characters

What a step down this second season was.
The first 1 -3 and a half episodes are stella. They're really good! It was great to get back into the nitty-gritty of a game or two.

But then episodes 4 to 6 were a conbination of montaging and rushing through multiple games and wasting time showing random one episode characters' backstories (they weren't even backstories for our three to four main characters who're actually interesting??!!).

They wasted so much time when we could've been getting more build up of our main characters' backstories and developments such as more about Arisu's relationship with his dad, or Chishiya's backstory - he is LITERALLY the best and most mysterious part of season one and the writers BARELY had him in this season. He has nowhere near enough screentime! Where was our Chishiya time and development?!?!?.
Episodes 7 and 8 is similar to episodes 1 tp 3 and definitely improves on sticking to the story and actually spending time on the people we actually care about in this show but...

At 1hr05mins in man. What a stupid reveal. If your show is 99% absolutely BONKERS, please don't give it a realistic reveal. I wanted an absolute BONKERS reveal (my own theory is similar to what is explained about 15 mins into episode 8).

Luckily the very very very final shot somewhat redeems it, but not by much.

Leia Mais

I watched the movie yesterday and I am so thoroughly disappointed!

The trailer and even the tags on this page advertise it as ‘a suspenseful mystery that seems kind of messed up’. The trailer makes it look like a mysterious suspense movie, maybe even a little scary, and maybe even some crazy person among them might try and kill them all. But... It’s not. It’s really not.

This is more like a One Litre of Tears type story: a slow, character discussion story where the ask do people deserve to die? Should we and can we choose when to die? Should we be allowed to commit suicide? It’s more THAT. A slow, questioning life and death story.

It’s advertised completely wrong.

There’s no mystery at all about the dead boy in terms of there’s nothing that makes you want to know about him; the whole story is predictable, and, as said; there’s nothing psychological or suspenseful about it. AT ALL.

It’s utterly boring. I almost walked out of the theatre because this is not what I was expecting nor what I wanted nor what was advertised!

If this had been properly advertised I probably would’ve enjoyed it! So I say to you:
Please watch this expecting something like a slow, questioning life and death movie because that’s exactly what you get.

Leia Mais