Last Post of 2008

Wow, New Year is but a mere…10 hours away for me here in the States. As for everyone on the other side of the planet, I hope you had a Happy New Year!

I was hoping to post about the top JDrama post for 2008 like last year, but none of my sources had compiled or even have it yet. So instead I’ll post my top 5 favorite show/movie that I’ve seen this year. The following are all shows that I seen after January of 2008. Strangely, all of them are from Japan. I swear I’m not being biased.

Starting from the bottom….

NUMBER 5
1 Litre of Tears

A touching story based on the real-life endeavors of a young girl name Aya Kitou who was diagnosed with spinocerebellar ataxia or spinocerebellar degeneration. This is a rare disease which the person’s cerebellum, the part of the brain which control movement, slowly dissolves away. The cure and the cause are both unknown. Despite so, she strives to be herself and do the best she can in everything. Truly a touching story with a great cast too. It literally makes me cry on every episode so be sure to watch it in the comfort of your home. Though soak in sadness, the story is also inspirational and tells you to never give up.

Click below for the rest, it got a little long…

Ryuusei no Kizuna – R

So I was fooled by DramaWiki into thinking this drama only has 6 episodes (because that was how much they said there would be). In the end, this show has 10 episodes! I suppose that’s a good thing because I was worried how they’re going to end everything with only 6 episodes. Well, the show was great and end just as it should — with a twist!

Broadcast in 2008
10 episodes total
Overall Rating: A

Main Cast: Actors / Characters

Ninomiya Kazunari as Koichi Ariake
Ryo Nikishido as Taisuke Ariake
Erika Toda as Shizuna Ariake
Jun Kaname as Togami Yukinari
Miura Tomokazu as Yasutaka Kashiwabara
Shitara Osamu as Shinji Hagimura
Mika Nakashima as Sagi

The title means “the bonds of the meteor” and the mystery of the show centers around a rare meteor showers. On a rainy night, the night of the meteor, the 3 Ariake siblings decided to sneak out of the house to see the meteor showers. At their star gazing spot after the rain finally disappeared, the 3 pleasantly admired the starry sky above . Unbeknown to them, their parents had been murdered while they were out star-gazing. When the 3 finally returned home, they discovered their parent’s demise. Their parent’s sudden death forced the children to live in an orphanage. However, without their parents they still had each other. The 3 Ariake siblings (Ariake3 for short), Koichi, Taisuke, and Shizuna, vowed then that they would find the killer and kill him themselves. The show starts off with this backdrop and goes on to show the Ariake3’s current life. Koichi went to a culinary school and now works as a chef at a local Hayashi rice restaurant. Taisuke works at a video store and Shizuna works is an office worker. Simply 3 normal teens on the outside, but all the while  still looking for the killer. To make matter worst, Japan has a statute of limitation which means if the killer is not found within a specific time frame — he’ll be free of charge. And the deadline is coming ever closer. Can they find the killer in time?

Merry Christmas!

It’s that time of year again. This will be my second time getting to wish all of my readers a Merry Christmas and hopefully I’ll continue to have this opportunity. Who knew sharing my thoughts on Asian Cinema would allow me to get in touch with so many people around the world. It’s a really great feeling. Likewise, I hope the spirit of Christmas will also be able to reach every person on Earth this year. Time to stop fighting, sit down, and exchange some presents. Don’t you think?

Snow scene from the movie "Animatrix" screen captured by yours truly.

Hinokio – R

Christmas break is HERE! I’m so happy. I hope everyone is also enjoying their break (if you have one ^^;) To start things off again, this is a review for a fairly old movie I watched awhile ago. It’s sci-fi movie starring two actor and actress who I have already featured on this blog: Kanata Hongo from Himitsu no Hanazono and Maki Horikita from Hana Kimi (Maki only has a minor role in this movie though)!

Directed by Takahiko Akiyama
Released in 2005
Overall Rating: B

Main Cast: Actors / Characters

Kanata Hongo as Satoru Iwamoto
Matatoshi Nakamura as Kaoru Iwamoto
Mikako Tabe as Jun Kudo
Maki Horikita as Eriko Akishima

Satoru is the only son of Mr. Iwamoto (Kaoru) – a scientist who specializes in robotic. At the beginning of the movie, Satoru has been in a car accident where his mom died and he too was seriously injured leaving his legs partly paralyzed. To compensate, Mr. Iwamoto created a robotic boy for Satoru to use. Satoru would hook up his mind/brain to a device which would carry his thoughts to the robot. Thus, whenever in usage, Satoru is living inside the robot. With this, Satoru can attend school and be like any other normal kid (or so his father thinks). Though the concept is a bit skeptical at first, in the end the movie’s theme is fairly clear. A person’s emotion, no matter what he or she might look it, can be understood by others through his or her actions. The robot in the movie conveys Satoru’s feelings very well despite his eyes being the only thing that move. A very interesting movie with its own plus and minus.

Minor Updates and Ramblings

It’s that time of the year again, everyone! That’s right, Christmas! It’s one of my favorite holiday because of so many things. There’s food, break (from school and work), present, and now…drama! (Woh, 3 exclamations in a row…I am too excited.) Before I get to the drama part, let me run through some minor updates of mine.

First, I created a “blogavatar” for my blog. It’s one of wordpress new features. It’s basically a small image next to the url on the address bar. If you are reading my blog via RSS feeder or something similar, just go to my homepage and you can see what I’m talking about. The image is an icon in Asian cinema to me. It’s the tree where Cha Tae Hyun’s character waited for his “sassy girl” to return to.

Second, the snow is back! Again, you’ll have to visit my blog directly to see this. WordPress has a special holiday feature of falling snow around the holidays. So don’t be alarm, your computer is not going crazy or infected. =P

Also, the poll is coming along pretty nicely. There’s already a clear winner among you all. However, just to make it more interesting, I’m going to leave it for a few more weeks. If you haven’t voted yet, please do. It’s just for fun. The topic is which Asian country has the FUNNIEST drama?

As for the dramas, I am still very much hooked on Ryuusei no Kizuna. There are 2 more episodes to go and the climax is coming at any moment. I was watching a couple of Korean dramas but I don’t think I have much interest in them anymore. Though, for some random news-bite, the Korean production of their own Hana Yori Dango has started. All the characters are chosen including Domyoji’s evil mother. I’m excited to see how it turns out. Though I am a bit disappointed in the Tsukino character aka female lead.

Well I hope everyone will have a great winter break. I’ll be back soon when my own winter break starts. If you are not in the US, winter break is the usually the last 3 weeks of December when students are off from school. At the moment, I must get back to my studies as final exams are coming. See you soon!