bad luck party

Gokujou!! Mecha Mote Iinchou - WHAT. THE. FUCK.

New OP/ED credits for episode 28. I fucking lost my shit over this. You think the theme of the credits is going to be “MM3 at home” because it starts with a casual shot of Nishizaki looking cool reading a science book (Hanazawa Rui style) (P.S. the book actually says SCIENCE on the front), then cuts to Nami at home on the couch hugging a stuffed animal with a cake on the table in front of him. So I’m waiting for the final shot wondering “what are they going to show Toujou-kun doing in HIS spare time?” and the answer is THIS. Nishizaki reads books, Nami eats cake, Toujou runs around half-naked in fucking caves on fire.

Awesome. This show never fails to completely blow my mind.

(P.S. What’s the deal with all the live-action business in the credits? They actually have real dudes playing the MM3 guys now? Are they doing anything with that? I would totally watch a Gokujou dorama, lulz.)

Boys Este (2007)

Ridiculous. I was shopping for dramas with Linda at our favourite DVD stand a few weeks ago, and she picked out Boys Este (because OMG HOT GUYZ ON THE COVER). Little did we know what she was getting us into - we were totally unprepared for how shockingly retarded and addictive it would be.

The goofy love story revolves around Shizuka, a girl who is self-conscious about having a “sandanbara” (literally “three layer flesh”, meaning rolls of fat around her midsection) and Hibiki, a boy from a poor family who is suffering from a “cock illness” (foreskin problem also known as phimosis). In addition to his, uh, problem, Hibiki has a magical gift for massage that causes his hands to glow cheesily and women he massages to lose weight - a miracle known to everyone in the show as GOD HAND, I shit you not.

Hibiki-kun the God Hand boy goes to work in an all-male staffed spa called Boys Este to make money for a foreskin operation. It is here at the spa that he meets Shizuka and tries to help her lose weight and overcome her lazy and gluttonous sandanbara complex. Obvz, they fall in love, and obvz, there are many trials along the way before a surprisingly satisfying romantic resolution. If it sounds like the worst idea for a drama ever, that’s because it IS. But the antics of the Boys Este staff (above, with Hibiki played by cutie Nakamura Aoi - BORN IN 1991 - on the right) are hilarious and the romance is legit. Also, Ikeuchi Hiroyuki (Murai from GTO, wha???) is in it and that guy’s a babe! Good times.

僕の彼女はサイボーグ (“My Girlfriend Is A Cyborg” - 2008)

Honestly I’ve had this DVD since last year but we only just got around to watching it on a lazy Sunday afternoon over some steak and beers. It was pretty adorable though and I don’t know why we never watched it earlier.

The premise centres on your usual hapless, somewhat perverted 20 year old boy. His name is Jirou and he’s spending his 20th birthday alone since he has no family, no friends and no girlfriend. Eating spaghetti alone at a restaurant, he’s approached by a kind of crazy but incredibly cute girl who tells him it’s her birthday as well and then takes him on a rampage around the city before disappearing “back to the future”. One year later on his birthday, our boy Jirou waits in hopes of meeting the girl again. To his surprise, a woman who looks exactly like the girl from the past year shows up and reveals that she’s a cyborg sent by his future self to save him from a huge tragedy.

Things get a bit complicated, Terminator style, with looping back and forth between alternate futures, the past and the present. In fact, the whole thing is very much a cheesey homage to the Terminator movies since the cute cyborg girl is ridiculously strong and humourless. Linda thought some of the more emotional moments got milked a bit far, but I felt like the film did everything I love about Japanese pop cinema really well.

It’s a light slapstick comedy half the time as Jirou struggles to go about his daily routine at college and working at Mos Burger or something with a ball-busting robot chick following him everywhere. It’s also a heart-wrenching romance as he finds himself falling deeply in love with a woman who can never return his feelings. There are some touching dramatic moments as we explore Jirou’s family background, and there are some seriously kick ass violent action sequences courtesy of the Terminator. (It actually gets pretty freaking brutal…) And most fascinatingly on top of all of this genre-whoring, the film turns into kind of a superhero thriller disaster movie as the cyborg girl tries to save innocent people and Jirou himself from a variety of horrific events from fires to school stabbings to a major earthquake that completely levels Tokyo.

Reading over that, I realize I’ve made the movie sound like a complete piece. And by no means is it top-quality artistic cinema. There’s a badly tacked on happy ending which is totally unneccessary and confusing but pleased me nonetheless. I’d say on the whole however that it actually pulls off most of the things it tries to do. In an overly earnest, slickly produced and often sickeningly heart-warming Japanese way of course. I laughed, I cried, and I yelled “FUCK YEAH!” at one point - isn’t that enough?

Kimi wa Petto (2003)

This is a slightly older drama, based on the classic josei manga of the same name in which a beautiful career woman takes in an injured young man she finds in a cardboard box outside her apartment building and lets him live with her as her “pet”. This awkward, gimmicky premise kept me from watching it for a long time but my attraction to dramas about single career women with younger love interests (Sapuri, Around 40 etc.) and Jun Matsumoto - who I like to refer to as “fugly-hot” - won out in the end. I’m glad I watched it because the “pet” stuff wasn’t nearly as annoyingly situational as I thought and actually served as an interesting catalyst to examine the nature of relationships between men and women in contemporary Japanese society.

Main protagonist Sumire is an elite Tokyo University graduate who has studied abroad, speaks several languages and has a promising career in the foreign affairs department of a major newspaper. However, as a woman Sumire’s success alienates her, making her a subject of scorn by both her male peers - who find her threatening, humourless and unfeminine - and other women in the company who are jealous of her. The same problems occur in her love-life, as men with lower salaries and social statuses feel too insecure to date her. It is right after Sumire gets dumped by a boyfriend with an inferiority complex and harrassed into a demotion at work that she finds “Momo” outside her apartment and starts to develop the “pet/master” relationship with him - a role in which she is allowed to be superior but is nevertheless loved and accepted unconditionally.

It’s really kind of a depressing look at the prejudices career women face in a country like Japan where traditional hierarchies and old-boys clubs still carry a lot of clout in the corporate world. It reminded me very much of Around 40 in the way marriage for a woman is recognized as more of a sacrifice than a happy ending. Later in the drama, Sumire has the option to marry her college sweetheart, an elite who fits all her dating criteria (higher salary, higher education and higher height than herself) but to do so would mean moving to South America with him, sacrificing her career, her lifestyle, her female friends and crucially, her pet Momo. All the things that Sumire likes to do with Momo, like vegging out on the couch in sweatpants, chain-smoking while watching shounen anime and pro-wrestling, she cannot do with her boyfriend Hasumi because she is required to be an attentive girlfriend (and potentially, wife).

Kimi wa Petto reminded me of a lot that I’ve read about the rise of “wagamama” or “selfish” culture in 21st century Japan. The key to Sumire and Momo’s relationship is that they can be completely selfish with one another without being punished for it - they both serve each other’s needs and accept each other without condition. In a culture where the traditional ideal of femininity - the Yamato Nadeshiko in other words - is utterly selfless and servile to her family’s needs, such selfishness is radically liberating.

I felt that the way the drama ended, with Momo and Sumire in an intimate codependent but non-sexual relationship, was an interesting spin on the wagamama idea. Though there is definite sexual tension between the two, it almost fits the theme of Sumire’s liberation better to allow her a life where she is free of the pressure to sexually please her mate. Of course the possibility is left open that they may become lovers eventually. But Sumire also states that their relationship may “become a new kind of relationship entirely” - indicating a resistance to conventional heteronormative relationships and to the incitement to happiness that is so ubiqitous in both Japanese and Western cultures. Happily ever after is always presumed as the goal - but when the main character’s relationship to traditional romantic tropes of marriage, family and happily-ever-after is disrupted by her status as career woman, tacking on an ending where Sumire becomes Momo’s girlfriend/wife would be a bit of a cop-out. The romantic in me was fuming over what felt like a cheap resolution to Momo and Sumire’s love story, but the academic (or feminist?) in me cheered at the creative potential of “a new kind of relationship” developing between this man and woman that allows them both to realize their authentic selves.

Around 40 (2008)

Just rewatched this drama with Linda and was reminded how good it was. I originally watched it last summer (it had just finished airing in Japan, popularizing the term “Arafo”) during my parasite single phase - I was watching my parents’ house for a month while they were in Europe, working long hours on a software engineering internship and really selfishly digging my lifestyle. It may be embarrassing to admit but I was fucking stoked on staying late at work coding all the time, vegging out with dinner for one in front of Japanese dramas when I got home, and going out for expensive meals with my girlfriends. Actually I still am.

But that’s why I was particularly drawn to the main character Satoko (pictured on the left), a “39-year-old, highly capable psychiatrist who is single” and quite happy to be on her own. Her hobbies are going to hot springs by herself, eating delicious food and staying up all night watching stand-up comedy videos. Hmm. Sounds familiar…

Anyway it’s easy to draw a comparison to Sex and the City since this is a drama about career women in their late thirties, and contains a fair amount of lifestyle porn (from Satoko’s gorgeous apartment - she has a massage chair! - to the restaurant owned by childhood friend Ma-kun where the group hangs out eating fancy Western meals and drinking wine… Not to mention the super-enviable outfits worn by 35-year-old magazine editor Nao - pictured on the right in this screenshot.) There’s also a lot of bitching and a wicked sense of humour.

But Around 40 is much less about sex and materialism than it is about family, career (these women actually spend a lot of time at their *gasp* JOBS - working!) and the social pressures that are unique to women both married and unmarried. As a result, I really preferred this drama to its American counterpart - oh, and I still wanna be Satoko when I grow up.

貧乏男子 (2008)

I guess I took a whole week off tumblrrring? Watched this Shun Oguri drama with Linda during my hiatus in the days leading up to Christmas. 貧乏男子 aired in Japan from Jan-March of 2008 and it’s a cute winter slapstick comedy about debt.

Shun plays Koyama Kazumi, a dirt-poor “idiot with a heart of gold” type who gets mixed up with a loan-shark and an odd pair of other debtors - a nerdy policeman nicknamed “Megane” who’s been cheated out of a huge amount of money by his ex-fiancee; and “Nancy”, a serious shopaholic who works at the Japanese version of Money Mart. Of course, despite repeatedly running up his own debt (to a max of 100 million yen at one point), Kazumi ends up helping everyone he meets pay off their debts, and teaching them all that friendship is more valuable than money. D’awwww. ^___^

Classic feel-good Japanese fluff about the importance of friends, family and hard work totally fit the bill to watch all day on Christmas Eve. It was actually FUNNY as hell too! We were excited to see Shun playing something other than his trademark kakko ii loner with bangs over one eye (see Rui from HYD, Sano from HanaKimi, etc.) His hair was frizzy, he dressed entirely in bright, clashing primary coloured sweats, and he was a ball of hyperactive emotion yelling “Adrian!!!” and “VICTORY!” every 5 minutes. Fucking amazing.

Also nice work from pretty-boy Haruma Miura as Kazumi’s shy neighbour Shiraichi. That kid is CUTE. Looking forward to seeing him in more stuff - I know Linda is, hehe.

Atsuhime (2008 NHK Taiga Drama)

Disclaimer: This post is mainly only for Linda.

Every January since 1963 the Japanese public tv station NHK broadcasts a new, big-budget, year-long historical drama. Imagine if those BBC Jane Austen mini-series’ that Dad loves were 50 episodes long and there was a different one made every year! Now imagine next year’s was costarring Shun Oguri (Rui) as a samurai - which would be awkward, in a Jane Austen novel - but you get the point, man.

Anyway it’s called the Taiga (Big River) Drama, and Atsuhime which just ended this weekend was 2008’s offering. Starring Aoi Miyazaki (Hachi/”Small Loose” from the first NANA movie) as the princess Atsu, a young woman who became the wife of a shogun in the 1800s and ascended to the highest rank of the inner palace in Edo castle, it was apparently pretty righteous. I don’t honestly think I’m going to get around to watching it but Eita (Mine from Nodame! That other guy Misaki Itoh likes in Sapuri!) looks so bloody brilliant in the bald wig that I needed to post this image. Also, Shun Oguri next year what what. Are you into it?

NANA 2 (2006)

I’ve been putting off watching this for years because I heard it was so bad. But now that I’m trying to put off studying for my discrete math final on Tuesday, watching it with my mom seemed like a good idea.

I disagree with the majority opinion that this sequel made bad casting changes - the different actors playing Ren and Shin weren’t half as fug as the ones in the first NANA movie. Ryuhei Matsuda, who played Trapnest’s guitar player Ren in the first NANA, was tall but his face was too fat and round to make a believable Ren! He’s supposed to look like Sid Vicious! It was one of the main things that prevented me from enjoying that film, which centred on the relationship between Ren and Nana herself. This Ren is more rugged, but we hardly see him. NANA 2 spends much less time with Nana and Ren to focus on the dramas of Nana’s roommate Hachi instead.

I didn’t feel that that Yui Ichikawa as Hachi was significantly worse than Aoi Miyazaki from the first movie. I mean, she’s a crap actress but so is almost everybody else in this movie, in the first movie and in the vast majority of J-doramas I watch. No big deal.

NANA 2 is mostly eye-candy anyway, and it functions nicely as such since the actors playing Nobu and Takumi are both GORGEOUS. Srsly, Nobu’s hair. And his guitar solo shots. Srsly just Nobu anyway. But it’s not quite fair to say all of the acting was garbage, since there were a few moving scenes - notably those between Nobu and Hachi, and the scene where Takumi locks Hachi out of her room and uses her cellphone to inform Nobu and Nana of her pregnancy, leaving Hachi crying on the other side of the door.

(Did I mention this movie is also devastatingly sad? Why do I keep watching such upsetting movies lately, it’s not like I don’t know the plots of NANA or Clannad. I like happy endings. Need to stop torturing myself. /digression)

The music in NANA 2 really pales in comparison to the anime - which is a bummer since this is a story about rock musicians. Honestly, Olivia and Anna Tsuchiya did much stronger takes with their Trapnest and BLAST songs from the anime, in my opinion. My mom even commented that Miki Nakashima’s voice as Nana was a little thin for a punk rock vocalist.

A final, random note: the English subs on our dvd copy from the Chinese video stand at Metrotown were total nonsense. Clearly run through some shitty translation tool from the Chinese subs, so I had to translate half of what was happening on the fly for my mom. Kind of lessened our enjoyment, but also kind of didn’t because all of the names were ridiculously mangled - in my mom’s eyes “Nobu” will always be known as “Stretch the Man”; “Takumi” = “Solid Matter” and “Hachi” = “Small Loose”. WTF, Chinese dvd.

CJ7

I love this film!!! Okay so it’s Chinese not Japanese and therefore doesn’t fit under the J-dorama heading -  but since CJ7 has ousted all the Sanrio, San-X and even the Korean characters to take top place as my favourite cute character, I’m blogging his movie.

Stephen Chow, the writer/director, plays a poor but honest construction worker trying to raise his son Dicky. Because Chow insists on sending Dicky to a private school so he can have a good future, the two subsist on almost nothing - living in a half-demolished house with whatever food, clothing and belongings Chow can scrounge from the junkyard (this part reminds me of Wall-E). Because of this, Dicky is always dirty and dressed in rags so he gets bullied by both students and teachers at his fancy school. However, as his father likes to tell him repeatedly - “we may be poor, but we don’t bullshit, don’t fight, and don’t steal!”

One night, after Dicky throws a tantrum in a department store because his dad can’t buy him a new robotic toy named CJ1 that all the kids at his school have, Chow goes hunting for some new gym shoes for Dicky in the junkyard. Instead of shoes he finds a glowing green ball dropped by a UFO, which he brings home to their hovel, passing it off to Dicky as a much cooler toy than CJ1. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the plot but the ball evolves into CJ7 - the magical “alien toy dog” - and total awesomeness ensues, as CJ7 both helps and hinders Dicky at school, and ends up playing a crucial role in saving Dicky and his dad’s small family.

It’s quite a simple, predictable story, but it’s really touching - and surprisingly hilarious. I watched it by myself on my computer and ended up laughing out loud a bunch and actually crying at some points. Dicky and the kids at his school are almost too adorable to be real, and of course CJ7 is the raddest guy ever. Dicky and CJ7, pictured above, both have such great expressions! I was in stitches half the time just from the looks on their faces. You’ve gotta love Chinese humour, ultra-heavy on the cheesy computer animation and ridiculous characters, from the screaming foreman at the construction yard to Johnny the slick 7-year-old mob-boss at Dicky’s school.

The movie has kind of crappy reviews on Metacritic and Rotten Tomatoes, probably because it’s a bit of a cliched story and heavy on the slapstick humour - but it was so cleverly done that it just put a huge grin on my face. I want to go to the mall and buy myself a CJ7, stat!