Just got through watching the incredible j-movie Funuke Domo, Kanashiki No Ai wo Misero, i.e. “SHOW SOME LOVE, YOU LOSERS!” for the second, third, and now FOURTH time, and I just HAVE to say how much I just love, love , LOVE IT!! This movie is an EFFIN' MASTERPIECE!

I've loved actress Eriko Sato ever since her mouth-watering portrayal of Go Nagai’s salacious super-heroine CUTIE HONEY, but after that, I didn’t see a whole lot of her besides a great appearance in the Matsuoka Masahiro drama YASUKO TO KENJI (where she played the Martha-Stewart-ish perfect girlfriend Ai against the harried Ryoko Hirosue in a battle to win Kenji’s heart) …

When I was finally able to acquire a copy of Funuke Domo, Kanashiki ai wo Misero I was PLEASANTLY surprised to not only see Hiromi Nagasaku in it- but ERIKO SATO as the HEADLINING actress as well!!!! Rounded out by actors Masatoshi Nagase and Aimi Satsukawa in an eclectic ensemble cast, I KNEW I was in for a GREAT SHOW!

Think SEIGI NO MIKATA with a decidedly violent and sadistic slant with more sexual innuendoes and you’ve got FUNUKU DOMO- Along with Aimi Satsukawa, Eriko gives one of the most electrifying performances of her career, and by the film’s end I was just WALLOWING in satisfaction-This ROCKING movie is DARK, DARK comedy at its absolute crackling BEST!

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This was a fairly “By The Numbers” tearjerker, but I love Keiko, and as usual, her acting lends to very likeable and believable characters…I was taken with Tsubasa from the moment I saw her. This film was heartbreaking for me not so much for its grand, tragic end, but more for the parts where you see Tsubasa going through her everyday life coping bravely with her handicap (doing her errands in her wheelchair, doing housework with the use of only her right arm), and the footage of her shortly after her accident when she was first going through the arduous and painful task of rehabilitation was harrowing and yet so admirable to watch.

Besides Keiko and Ryo Nishikido, Dakishimetai featured an all-star ensemble cast, including Eriko Sato and Aya Hirayama, albeit in minor roles.

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The courtroom drama Ishiko To Haneo was pretty much my favorite show of the past season, and tonight the final episode wrapped in the same way it has been throughout its run- intriguing and FUN and with a whole lot of HEART!
Everyone in this show was great, from the spazzy Oideyasu Oda, to the “puppy-dog nice guy” Eiji Akaso, and the doddering but kind and thoughtful Masashi Sada, but the duo of Tomoya Nakamura as Haneoka and Kasumi Arimura as Shoko might be the best pairing EVER!
From the beginning it was hilarious watching the two butt heads and bicker about their very different sensibilities, but it was even better as the two grew to respect and look up to each other, as as the show progressed, they became a true “ii combi” who, when partnered up, became a team no one could stop!
A drama that really made me feel good, and I’m sure you will too!

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With my beloved Tetsu Ota Michiko 2man Kiro about to wrap, I needed a new show to fill my “Girl with an Odd Otaku Obsession” appetite, and I found it in the 2019 drama “Nihon Boro Yado Kiko”, about a young girl managing a washed up singer who is obsessed with cheap, run-down “boro” hole in the wall Inns!!
Life on the road can be tough, but it’s all worthwhile for all the run-down lodgings they’ll encounter: From outdated phones, televisions, and light fixtures, dingy and humble washrooms, to well-worn beddings...and OOH! Stained Carpets!!!! ...this is a Boro Yado fan's DELIGHT!!!
Nihon Boro Yado Kiko is a fun and spirited show filled with warmth and sentimentality of  yesteryear, and part of its authenticity is that Takahashi (and even Fukagawa) have real-life idol roots-  Kazuya Takahashi was a Johnny’s entertainment singer in the 80’s (and really exuded that early boy-idol style)-
and of course Mai Fukagawa herself came from the first generation of Nogizaka46!
Maybe that's the magic formula that makes Nihon Boro Yado Kido such a great little ode to the glories of yesterday! Really LOVED it! 

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When I first read the synopsis for "Tsuma, Shougakusei ni Naru" with Shinichi Tsutsumi as a Husband whose deceased wife comes back to him in the body of a 4th grade Schoolgirl, I expected a wild and WACKY show in the style of his previous shows like "Super Salaryman Saenai-shi", with zany hijinks and slapstick comedy...Instead, what I got was a sweet, thoughtful, and touching story  which had a lot to say about family, grief, responsibility, and above all, cherishing what you have and using the time you have positively. 
From Tsutsumi Shinichi as the Husband to Aju Makita as the daughter, Ryunosuke Kamiki as the brother and an incredible performance by Nono Maida as the Yuriko Ishida reincarnated Wife Takae (and even Misato Morita and Yo Yoshida as support characters), these were all people you grew to really care about and want to see find happiness, though you are aware that not everyone can get what they want in life.
From the get go, we all felt that this story would have a bittersweet ending but I'm happy to say that it was an entirely satisfying and complete conclusion to a wonderful story…

Who would have ever thought a drama with such a humorous set-up could be so heartfelt and heartbreaking! 

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What a fun, sweet movie! I watched thist as soon as I finished downloading it, and was PLEASANTLY SURPRISED to find that the actress who played the main girl Yuna was none other than a big fave actress of mine, Tomoka Kurokawa! Costarring Hiro Mizushima as the forever befuddled Takeshi, the show even made a cute nod to CAT STREET by having Mitsuki Tanimura in a small but revealing cameo!
This show (Drama? Special?) is the one that really did it for me and pushed Tomoka Kurokawa from a passing fancy to a true "Crush" as I can't get her out of my head! The character of Yuna in Kanojo to no Tadashi Asobikata is such a great one- at first seemingly perfect and conceited, little by little, as she and Takeshi go through the motions at school and outside, you see how awkward and insecure she is about herself- moreover, you see just how much she really loves this guy. MAN! Tomoka really SOLD ME!!!!

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The highly explosive and bloody Why Don’t You Play In Hell (Jigoku de Naze Warui), the supercharged tale of a former child-star mob daughter named Michiko caught between two rival mob families and a troop of amateur filmmakers, all of whom have one thing uniting them: to make the cinematic masterpiece that will stand the test of time! The movie starts out quirky and eccentric,(think Miki Satoshi) but slowly but surely as the film moves along, the movie gets weirder and weirder, til it cumulates in the most absolutely over-the-top looney tunes shoot out for the ages! A truly WTF movie if there ever was one!

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Just finished watching the Hiroshi Abe movie KIRIN NO TSUBASA (The Wings of the Gryphon), a crime drama that I originally grabbed becasue I mistakenly thought it was a Yui Aragaki Movie. Aragaki IS in the movie, but she was more part of an (admittedly stellar) ensemble cast than a starring role, but it didn't even matter because I was captivated thoughout the movie anyway! If there's one thing that's been proven, when times are tough and things seem hopeless, Hiroshi Abe is THE MAN when it comes to cracking the cases and bringing the guilty to justice!

Strangely enough, though I really enjoyed Abe's crime drama SHINZANMONO, I had no IDEA that The Wings Of The Gryphon was a movie featuring the characters from it! I simply thought Hiroshi Abe , Junpei Mizubata, etc, wre playing stereotypical crime drama roles that I've seen them play a hundred times before! You would have thought the characters NAMES would have tipped me off, but honestly, I didn't remember what any of them were! LOL

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OKAY, a full confessional here: when I acquired the 2007 movie DEAR FRIENDS, my MAIN purpose of checking out this flick was to see the ubiquitous Kitagawa Keiko (who has without doubt moved up to become one of my VERY FAVORITE actresses) duked out as a SEXY, SUPER-HOT VIXEN complete with the skimpy outfits and tight, tight shorty-shorts and the attitude to match! Sexily gyrating on the sweaty dance floor and leading on her choice of men, she’s the kind of girl who has friends casually ask, “Could it be you’re pregnant AGAIN?” and have her response be, “Can’t Be…I’m on the Pill, after all!” WHOA!

But if I thought this movie was gonna be all fun and games, I was SORELY MISINFORMED! ‘Cause though there WAS an awful lot of that in the first half of the movie, at one point, Dear Friends becomes quite somber and turns into a serious and introspective film. Where I thought I would be spending my time drooling and pandering after Keiko, I suddenly found myself weeping like a girlyman instead!

Keiko plays Rina, a sexy girl-about town who has the world of the nightlife in the palm of her hand. She is brash, spoiled and manipulating, but when she finds herself suddenly hospitalized, she is brought crashing back to earth, her partygoing life and thrillseeking friends taking a back seat as Rina is forced to see what really matters in life.

Stellar acting from all the lead actors, especially Keiko and actress Yuika Motokariya, who plays Maki, another sick girl who gives Rina the inner strength to go on with her life when fate has dealt her a bitter hand. Also of merit is the CUTE little girl Mao Sasaki who played Kanae, a tiny shut-in patient who befriends Rina during her initial stay at the hospital. Oh, and a holler out to Hatsume Matsushima who played Rina’s partygoing friend Emi who looked HELLA like Ueto Aya in those opening scenes!

This is my second movie in recent weeks dealing with hospitalization and cancer after seeing equally terrific HEAVEN’S DOOR, the movie that starred Nagase Tomoya as the cancer patient and Mayuko Fukuda as the shut-in hospitalized girl. Though the two movies couldn’t be any more different, they both had heart at its center and guaranteed that I’d be using up all my Kleenex as it took me through its emotional ups and downs!! Sob, Sob!

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ICHI puts a feminine twist on the “Zatoichi / Blind Swordsman” legend with Ayase as a blind girl who uses her hyper sense of hearing to perceive her surroundings and destroy opponents. Along for the ride is love interest Takao Osawa as Toma, he himself a gifted swordsman but unable (for psychological reasons) to draw his sword.
This movie was interesting and quick-paced, the fight scenes quick and stylized, and Ayase Haruka, besides being as pretty as ever (even dressed in rags!), is entirely convincing as the cold and ruthless Ichi. I loved every scene she was in, and especially liked the scenes with her and the little boy who shows her around the village and lovingly follows her around as she shuffles through town.

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As someone who’s only seen a handful of NHK Asadoras (10 by my count, and a couple of those I only watched a portion of), I’m hardly in the position to state such lofty declarations, but having just wrapped up the Mitsuki Takahata-led show, I have to say that TOTO NEE-CHAN is one of the BEST asadoras I've EVER SEEN! I’m serious. I haven’t been SO INVOLVED and MOVED by a drama since my early golden days of J-drama watching! Not only is Toto Nee one of the best asadoras, it's seriously one of the best DRAMAS I've seen, period!

I’ve thought about what makes an asadora like Toto Nee-chan so strong compared to some others, and it’s easy to see what it is: A CLEAR ADHERENCE TO A SINGULAR STORYLINE. From its very first scene (where you see the main characters already grown and succesful as magazine publishers), the stage is set: you are going to hear a tale of a family of three sisters who strive through wars and hardships to one day become publishing giants, and the asadora never wavered. Every arc and challenge the family met became a stone in the foundation of what they would become and what their fortunes and fates would be. From Tsuneko going to school as a child, all the way to success, you follow her through every step of her life, crying and cheering along the way with her.

Usually a show’s best parts are in the first half of the drama and there is some faltering at the second half, but Toto Nee-chan kept you interested with each new development, and I remember being at week 20 and STILL feeling as excited as I was in its first few chapters! And by the time of the show’s last great arc, I couldn’t stop watching, burning through the episodes to see what happened next, I was SO INVESTED and had to force myself to slow down! SUCH a great STORY!

Watching Tsuneko grow up and rise to the challenges to create her dreams in both work and family was a joy to watch and you felt sadness with every tragedy that befell her and warmth in your heart every time she successfully completed her one of her dream goals. 

 In asadoras, they tended to show the heroine’s entire life, from beginning, middle, and (sometimes) all the way to the end...in that same way, I’m impressed at how well Toto Nee-chan gives you the sense of time moving. People growing up, moving away, etc....

 As each arc ends and the children grow older, you really feel like you’re witnessing a whole life’s work. In the latter chapters with the sisters running the publishing house, thinking back on the early episodes where she and her sisters were still living with Grandmother Takiko in Tokyo, it seemed a million years ago, it seemed like a completely different drama! It truly gave you the feeling of history, like those were the "olden days"...

I began watching this because of my love for Mitsuki Takahata, and I’m so glad I did, this asadora has been a tour-de-force for her and has absolutely become my favorite Mitsuki Takahata role and drama!  Since picking up Toto Nee-chan, I’ve put her latest show “Muchaburi” on hold so as to not distract from immersing in the asadora, but now it’s done I can finally go back and catch up. Hope it measures up, because Toto Nee-chan has become the Mitsuki Takahata drama ALL others must compare to!

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A drama starring Elaiza Ikeda as a fashion-conscious girl working for a Fashion Magazine who gets abruptly moved to another of the publishers’ departments, the Dictionary section!
When I read the synopsis for Fune wo Amu, it was SO similar to the premise of  the Satomi Ishihara drama Jimi Ni Sugoi, that I initially wrote it off as a copy and made no real plans to watch it. But I do love actress Elaiza a lot and felt I should at LEAST check it out once!
Well, sure enough, there are identical elements that are hard to deny- the “fish out of water” element of the stylish gal suddenly thrown into the stark and rigid department of editing, the stern but compassionate guidance of the elders in the section, the slow realization of the importance of the job, and the inevitable use of the skills in her own life, etc. 
With a dictionary-themed show centered primarily around words and their meanings rather than a real “story” per se, this drama probably would have been better suited as 20 minute slices than full blown 45 minute episodes, nonetheless, this was a very sweet and heartfelt show that uses words to touch people's hearts and mend wounds. A nice, relaxing vibe to the show, and Elaiza Ikeda shines as the sincere newbie Midori.

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A drama that took me completely unaware! When I initially began watching Hayabusa Shobodan, I expected a traditional story of the "harried city man who comes to small town and recharges himself", and at first, that was what we got, with main character Taro Mima (Tomoya Nakamura), a struggling writer, coming to the small village of Hayabusa, connecting with the locals, joining the fire brigade and even finding a love interest of sorts in Aya Takichi (Haruna Kawaguchi).
But at the halfway mark of Hayabusa Shobodan, the show slowly began shifting into an entirely different, SURREAL drama, one involving Fanatical Religious Cults, Supernatural Encounters, and Spiritual Prophet Reincarnation! WHAAA!
While on one hand thinking  "What the HECK is happening to this drama?", the OTHER hand was transfixed and couldn't WAIT to see what would happen NEXT! This had all the makings of a David Lynch Series a la TWIN PEAKS, and I was ALL on BOARD!
 I've said many times how much I appreciate an unpredictable show where you're on your toes with one surprise after another and I GOTTA SAY, I had NO IDEA where ANY of it was going to GO! Had me guessing ALL the WAY to the END!
Sadly, it ended ALL TOO SOON, and I  really wished it could have been even 15 minutes longer just so we could have a nicer "wrap up" between the romantic leads. STILL, a fine show and one I'm satisfied with, something I can't say for most of the shows lately... 

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Uchi no Musume wa Kareshi ga Dekinai was SHEER DELIGHT to watch from the very first minute and never let go til the last episode’s final beat!!
Featuring a fine little cast, this was an ensemble-led drama where everyone shone, and yet, the heart and soul of the show was the love between this eccentric Mother and Daughter as they go about life and romance!
I cannot tell you how many times I was just sitting there crying my eyes out with how wonderfully touching the scenes with Mom Aoi and daughter Sora, their each and every moment showing you how much these two loved each other. 
And the writing…There were so many zippy, fun and witty scenarios as well as incredible, wonderful lines of dialog that warmed me, inspired me and just flat out BROKE MY HEART!(sadly most of them I can’t quote without giving away important story points!)
This is one drama I will really have to sit on and decide where I want to place it in my list of all-time faves, because, oh boy, this was a HUGE one!!! One of the most satisfying dramas I’ve seen, and DEFINITELY one to go alongside all of writer Eriko Kitagawa’s other amazing dramas!

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