Paradise Kiss

Centering around a girl name Yukari Hayasaka (played by Keiko Kitagawa) who dutifully studies for her college entrance exams everyday at her mother’s insistence, but found no joy in the act (who can blame her?) She chances upon a group of student from a fashion design school and they insist she become their run-way model for their fashion show. Whose insistence will she follow? Or not follow anyone’s at all?

Kaasan, Mom’s Life

You’d think a movie about a manga-ka, or comic book artist in Japan, who writes about motherhood in a very humorous tone will have an equally humorous life. That’s where life is strange and the people in it are stranger. Rieko Saibara (played by Kyoko Koizumi)  juggles motherhood, the hectic deadlines of a manga-ka, and her alcoholic husband. Her life is never boring, nor is it ever normal. Will it ever be?

Both reviews will be on Yonasu.com in the coming weeks!

Origata is the traditional Japanese way of gift wrapping. The premise is to show part of the gift or hint at what’s inside since it’s considered rude to open a gift right after you receive it, but who can resist?! So showing the gift partly solves that problem! Read the rest of my entry here.

Released in: 2003
Directed by: Kim Ji-woon

Actor/Actress as Characters
Im Soo Jung as Su-mi
Moon Geun Young as Su-yeon
Yeom Jeong-ah as Eun-joo
Kim Kap-su as Moo-hyeon

Do you have someone that you’re really close to? You want to protect this person with all your being and when you fail to, the hurt lingers and damages you. Su-mi and Su-yeon are sisters and are very close. They live with their father, Mu-hyeon, and their step-mother, Eun-joo. The movie starts with Su-mi in a presumably psychiatry ward. She is unresponsive to all questions asked by the doctor and only picks up her head when a family photo is shown. When she gets better, Su-mi goes back home with Su-yeon hand in hand as they enter the house. Their abode is old, large, and dark: a perfect place of residence for evil and the supernatural. On the first night, Su-yeon senses someone enter her room and runs to her sister’s room for protection. From there, this mysterious presence continues to make itself known and only shows itself to Su-mi.  To make matters worst, their step-mother takes all her anger out on Su-yeon by locking her in the closet and their father doesn’t believe a word Su-mi says. When Su-yeon has bruises all over her arms, Su-mi finally confronts her father only to receive a most terrible answer. 

Overall, the movie wasn’t exactly what I called scary, but what it was is poignant. Su-mi feels incredible guilt for not being able to protect her sister against their step-mother. This sense of regret makes her mad in every sense of the word. Her mind is jumbled. She doesn’t know who she is at times. Whose feelings she’s feeling. Whose actions she’s imitating. She wants to lash out at the person who laid the foundation for such a feeling: her step-mother Eun-joo. Su-yeon, on the other hand, is always quiet and is the ground whenever Su-mi feels groundless. She speaks when needed, but never too much. The acting is superbly done by all in the cast. Subtleties are key in this movie and viewers are warned to watch for every detail to fully understand the movie as the credits roll. The only drawback to the movie is the slow start. However, once the climax kicks in, what seems like 2 more climaxes come right after. The film has a huge twist and the characterization at the beginning helps the viewers completely understand Su-mi’s anguish.

Human emotions are  complicated things. It causes people to do things. Sometimes wonderful things come from it. Sometimes, unfortunately, it brings about sadness and consequences than can’t be undone. A Tale of Two Sisters fully illustrates one of human’s most enigmatic emotion: regret. Something that has no face like sadness or happiness, but exist only as a complicated psyche. It’s a whirlpool sort of feeling that continues to turn inside your soul until it generates enough power to launch something great, or something gruesome. When someone so close to you is just within your grasp and you can’t do a thing to protect him/her, nothing remains but this sinking feeling of why and how. A Tale of Two Sisters won’t make you watch your back as the movie ends, but instead it will make you questions what you’re doing to not be another Su-mi. A horror flick that packed with emotions more complicated than fear. It’s one not to be missed, even if you’re not the scary-movie type.

Overall Rating: A

Thoughts on the Asian Stage has gone through a lot of evolutions as I tried to figure out my purpose for this blog. I first posted in September of 2007 and haven’t stopped since. It was initially an emotional dumbing ground for all my thoughts after I watched a really good or really bad Asian movie. As my thoughts became more coherent after a couple of posts, I began posting reviews on the drama/movies I’ve seen instead to make it more concise. My reviews soon caught the eyes of other Asian entertainment bloggers and I was asked to blog for their blogs. From there, I split my posting schedule between this blog and other blogs. When things became really hectic, I took a short hiatus in August of 2011. Now I’m back and have turned this blog into a collection pot directing readers to my posts on other blogs. Occasionally, I’ll also post reviews just like the old days.

So stick around. If you’re a fan of my writing, there will be more not less. They just happen to be posted somewhere else most of the time. To be up to date on new posts, you can now subscribe to this blog via Feedburner

I'll be back soon! ; _ ;

Dear Awesome Readers,

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to read my thoughts and rambles about the joy of Asian cinema these past few years. I never expected to find so many fellow enthusiasts like myself who are in love with Asian cinema and all its subtle charms that slowly but surely wiggle itself into your hearts. This blog has brought along lots of new friendship and opportunities, and I will always cherish and be thankful of it. Unfortunately, I’m now at a point where I won’t be able to keep up with the maintenance of this blog anymore. Meaning, I don’t have any time for reviews (or rather, I don’t have any reviews to post due to reasons below).

As some of you might know, I am a contributing writer for yonasu.com on all things drama and movies in Japan. Since it would be really redundant if I post the same review for Yonasu there and here, I usually have a link to the review on Yonasu from this blog. Thus, all my Japanese related posts now goes to Yonasu and all other posts would still remain on this blog. However, I was recently asked to be another contributing writer for another popular review site: JapanCinema.net focusing on all things Asia and Anime. I know it’s my own fault for saying “yes” but I’m now left with little remaining materials to blog about.

Therefore, I am taking this hiatus to figure out what to do with this blog in the coming future. It has brought me more things than I could’ve ever asked for so I definitely won’t ever delete it or the likes. The reviews that I’ve done here will still be here, and feel free to comment. I receive an email notifications on all comments so I will still get to read everything you guys posted. In the meantime, be sure to check out my new playground at yonasu.com and japancinema.net! I’ll still be active in promoting Asian Cinema, just not here and on a larger scale. I hope you all understand my plight and I vow to return soon once I figure out what to do.

Take care,

Rokku

Directed by: Mamoru Hosoda
Animated by: Madhouse
Released in:  2009

Overall Rating: B+

I saw this movie a few weeks ago and was planning on writing a review for it when the magnitude (now rounded up to) 9.0 earthquake hit Japan on March 11th. Coincidentally, I find a warm connection between what happened in the movie and the disaster that actually happened in Japan.

Told through the life of Kenji Koiso, an 11th grader gifted in math, Summer Wars tells a story of a modern Japan where the country and the rest of the world is linked to an online network known as OZ. People can access the network through their electronic devices that range from portable gaming devices like the Nintendo DS to cellphones. OZ is more or less the equivalent of the internet but more advanced. Not only is it a place to meet people and find information, it also provides the data backbone of hospitals, traffic system, and other important systems for the real world. Once inside, your security is assured thanks to the most advance encryption system known to mankind protecting each and everyone’s information.

Of course that’s a big lie and there’s a crack in everything. When Kenji  solved a math equation sent to his phone, it opens to door for a powerful AI called Love Machine to invade OZ and takes control of everyone’s account. These accounts, unfortunately, include those that could influence real life such as the ones said above and other high profile account like a satellite system that can be programed to crash into a nuclear power plant and let’s not forget all the nuclear weapons of the world as well. When OZ breaks down and along with it the orderliness of the real world, can a nerdy math geek save the day? Read more at yonasu.com.

The 29th Annual SF International Asian American Film Festival just finished up recently on the 10th-20th of March. Asian American films are something I’m starting to look into recently. I feel a more personal connection to them than say a story-line about a man in Japan. Culturally, I could feel a connection to all the films I’ve seen and talked about on this blog, but with Asian-American films I feel a social connection as well. Films made for film festivals like this tend to have such story-lines and I am interested to find some good films to watch! If you are too, read on!

Their website lists the following categories for films. I am posting the titles that appeal to me (like always ) but I suggest you visit the site to check out the other films as well.

Featured Films: Summer Pasture

A documentary about a young couple from Tibet whose nomadic lifestyle is being questioned by themselves, their peers, and their society as Tibet becomes increasingly modernized. “Nomads depend on animals but they’re selling them off for cash…and cash turns to ashes…and ashes just blow away.”

Special Presentation: Nang Nak

A horror film from Thailand originally released in 1999 about a wife whose devotion to her family binds her spirit to the land of the living even after death. When her husband returns home from war to find his wife and child, alive and well, he is overjoyed. However, people around them suddenly begin to die off in horrible ways.

Cinema Asia: The Break Up Club

I’m pretty sure this is a play on The Breakfast Club somehow, just haven’t thought of it yet. The movie is shot in what appears to be like a reality TV show about a website that allow you to reunite with a past lover. In exchange, you must enter the names of another couple whose relationship will end for your happiness to begin.

1. Athena: Goddess of War

Athena is an organization that controls the world’s energy supply (secretly). South Korea, in the plot of the drama, is attempting to utilize nuclear energy as their main power supply. It’s a powerful form of energy and if it can be harnessed will make South Korea a major player in the energy market. Thus, meddling into the affairs of Athena and “she” does not like it one bit. The show entails secret agents, double-agents, high-tech weaponry (I presume), and of course some one-sided love for a double-crosser. The show stars Soo Ae from 9 Ends 2 Outs and…other people I don’t know.

2. My Princess

This show stars two of Korea’s biggest melodramatic stars: Song Seung Hun (Autumn Tale) as Park Hae Young and Kim Tae Hee (Stairway to Heaven) as Lee Seol. This time, instead of being all sappy and dramatic at every moment, they are in a romantic comedy! Lee Seol is an ordinary student working part-time gigs like wearing royal princess costumes for tourist pictures. Then one day, the country decides to reinstate the monarchy and goes about finding the royal blood line. Lee Seol happens to be the real princess. Hae Young is put in charge as her bodyguard and teach her royal etiquette. However, he  is part of a competing political party against the monarchy and helping Lee Seol could mean disaster for him. What to do?

3. Secret Garden

My friends keep telling me about this show, but I haven’t seen any of it at all. It seems to be about the acting industry and the awesome power of body switching. Here’s a synopsis from DramaWiki.

The drama tells the story of Kim Joo Won (Hyun Bin), an arrogant and eccentric CEO who maintains the image of seeming perfection, and Gil Ra Im (Ha Ji Won), a poor and humble stuntwoman whose beauty and body are the object of envy amongst top actresses. Their accidental meeting, when Joo Won mistakes Ra Im for actress Park Chae Rin, marks the beginning of a tense, bickering relationship, through which Joo Won tries to hide a growing attraction to Ra Im that both confuses and disturbs him. To complicate matters further, a strange sequence of events results in them swapping bodies.

After watching and learning about the Japanese culture via their dramas and movies, I hope that if you can, please help out the people whose lives inspired said dramas and movies. To learn more about the earthquake and how to help, visit this website for all the information you need.

"Tribute to Japan" by Jacob Cass

UPDATE: Flutterscape, an online shopping site for Japanese items, is offering to MATCH YOUR DONATIONS to help victims of the earthquake and tsunami. Please go here for more details.

It usually tries to depict the everyday life of ordinary people, sometimes but rarely, with fantasy or science fiction elements involved.

Basically, like the definition above states, it’s a story about the everyday things in life. The story tends to focus on a specific set of characters instead of a variety of them and show the ongoing events in their lives. This might sounds like something extremely boring to you like watching someone eat an apple or painting the house, BUT in drama form it’s a lot more interesting!

When slice-of-life (henceforth SOL) is applied to drama, you get to see events like contemplating the meaning of love, finding ways to burrow into someone’s heart, the awkward meetings between people, and of course the seemingly everyday thing that makes you laugh nonetheless. SOL drama/movies are also a breath of fresh air to me because their’s hardly any villains in the show. It’s the circumstances in life that sometimes bring people down, and you get to see how someone pick him/herself up and move forward. It’s much more realistic. Although there might be an evil step-sister out there, I hope and pray that it’s not really a common thing.

A show I’m currently watching is straight out of the SOL section: Alone in Love starring Kam Woo Sung as Lee Dong Jin and Son Ye Jin as Yoo Eun Ho. They are a divorced couple, but routinely meet up with each other whenever the other person is feeling down or in need of a pep-talk. The dialogue between the two is always like alcohol on wound. There’s a sharp and sometimes extricating pain to what’s being said, but in the end it’s always true and for the better good. It’s actually really witty and endearing at the same time.

Eun Ho and Dong Jin were once a happy couple, but something happened between the two and they filed for divorce. (I can’t tell you what it is else ruin the surprise.) However, they still have feelings for one another and their constant meetings proved that. It’s like the red string that connects their hearts are still there and is only jumbled up in the middle (as displayed in the title sequence). The SOL qualities of this drama include seeing the ex-couple’s daily lives, their attempts at new love, jealousy toward said new loves, and a quest for the answers to the ultimate question in their lives: Did they do the right thing by divorcing?

The drama shows two people who are clearly still in love with one another, but chose to be alone instead. Viewers are invited into their lives to see their journey in discovering whether the red string between their hearts will be untied or becomes stronger.