"Woman" is one of those captivating dramas that should be watched with one's full attention because it deserves no less than that. It's a calm and quiet drama, but if I had to describe it in one word, I would probably chose 'intense'. The story is intense, the characters are intense, the entire atmosphere is intense. It's very thoughtprovoking and it'll make you question a lot, it's heavy on the heart, but has an incredibly warm atmosphere to it at the same time. I felt that not a single scene was wasted in this, the dialogues were incredible, so much is said with a delicate subtlety and I've yet to understand just how they managed to make such a "Oh my God, this can't be happening" plot so realistic.

And let me tell you about the acting, it's beyond incredible, you'll basically forget you're watching actors doing a terrific job. Not just Mitsushima Hikari, but everyone involved, especially Suzuki Rio because damn this little girl's acting is so great oooooh man.
The music is fantastic too (if you're waiting for something negative in this review, well I can't think of anything really), there were many moments where I got goosebumps because music and cinematography worked so well together.

I give this a very high rewatch value because due to its high quality I could probably watch this years from now and still be blown away. I'll have to let this one sink in for quite some time, though I feel like this is a drama where I can go back and rewatch and discover so many new things.

But first I have to watch more dramas written by Sakamoto Yuji because oh man ooooh man oh man.

Leia Mais

First off, I'm so jealous of Yonekura Ryoko because at age 37 she just rocks that school uniform OMG. Anyway. I've watched a lot of these "troublesome class, solving one problem per episode!" dramas and while the fact that Baba is a 35 year old high school student is something new (doesn't top a yakuza in high school though, hanya~), the concept really isn't. The problems the class faces aren't exactly a new breeze in dramaland either, BUT I loved the drama anyway.

I really liked the way the problems were dealt with and there were always some nice twists added, to make the drama and the characters less predictable. The first episode is definitely the strongest, but I felt the drama kept a good quality to the end (although the last episode was a bit too draggy at times) and Babas background story as well as the whole school caste system are pretty interesting. I also felt that the drama wasn't as ...preachy? as other dramas of this type tend to be sometimes and most characters acted believable to the end, even though the story was a bit overly dramatic at times.

The acting was pretty good, Ryoko made me really like Baba and Junpei was convincing as the cowardly homeroom teacher, but to me the much younger Yamazaki Kento and Suda Masaki were best. Kento really shined in the last episode and Masaki made me sincerely hate his character up to the last 15 minutes of the final episode.

Overall I really liked this and I'd recommend it without hesitation if someone was looking for a high school drama. And the last 5 minutes or so of the drama are just super adorable :)

Leia Mais

Ok this is such a short-but-I-so-wish-this-was-longer-type-of drama special, that just left me with a really cozy feeling after each episode because it's such a well-balanced, lovely little thing. It's just ultracute, it has a calm and heartwarming atmosphere, it's hilarious, it's sad, the cinematography is beautiful, the characters are lovable and portrayed by a really talented cast, the soundtrack is great, oh I could just go on.
I mean the story isn't even overly spectacular or new/fresh, but you know what, it was good the way it was - it was just the overall package that was great and harmonic. I'm having such a hard time letting go of the characters because they're so likeable and feel so real, which is largely thanks to the really really reaaaaaaaaaaally great acting, seriously. It just felt so natural, it's like I forgot I was watching a drama and could just immerse in the story.

And I absolutely need to write about Kwak Dong Yeon. OMG. If you're not watching this for the story, you'll be watching it for him. It's ridiculous how good his acting is in this considering his age and the fact that this is his first main role as well as his second drama. He gives the character so much personality, he just was Jeong Woo and if he doesn't get a role in another drama sometime soon, I might just end up flying to South Korea to flip some tables.

Definitely giving this a high rewatch value, because it's so short and basically ALL REASONS ABOVE HEART HEART HEART yeah you see, I just really like this special.

Leia Mais

Well, that drama is.. BLAH. Really really blah. It's neither particularly funny, romantic, exciting nor captivating in any kind of way. If you want to watch a good romance or vampire drama, there are certainly way better options.

The story is incredibly simple, boring, forgetable, not to mention kind of all over the place. It's as if the writer had a few ideas, but didn't bother working out the details at all. You never really learn much on the background story (but what you do learn is --snooooooooooooooore) and the "bad guy" and his little helpers are a joke and just randomly thrown in as if the writers were like "Oh yeah, totally forgot about the count, ha, well here have 2 seconds of screen time, now onto some more ZZZzzzzZZZzz!".

The worst part is the romance though, which is so forced (especially on the guy's side, it's like he suddenly switches personality after a few episodes) and ridiculously told, not to mention there's no chemistry whatsoever. Chemistry is what the characters lacked in general because the entire interaction is just so awkward and the funny scenes are mostly really cringeworthy. The dialogues are plain and empty, and not even the sad scenes were really moving. The acting is mediocre at best, none of the actors really seemed into it, but I can't blame them with the dialogues given. The low budget isn't even the problem as this could have been an okay-watch if it had been written and planned out better, but all potential basically went to waste.

Not rewatching ever, nope. Satoshi Tomiura was adorable as always though (I just felt like saying something positive).

Leia Mais

Let's put it like that: when the movie started out I would have given it 8 points, towards the end it went down to 6, so well, how about a score of 7 overall?
It's not a bad movie at all, just what went wrong is that, although the story itself has the potential to be interesting (and it really is in the beginning, unless well.. you don't like creepy mobile boyfriends I suppose), it's kind of poorly told. Especially towards the middle the movie completely loses the creepy atmosphere it started out with, and the last 15 minutes are just so blah, draggy and kind of ridiculous even.

During the first third of the movie I was really creeped out by the mobile boyfriends and because of how the story progresses. But after that the only creepy thing about the movie was the fact that the main girl had the face of a 12 year old, but was often dressed fairly.. risky (it was just kind of weird, eh). The plot became increasingly predictable - to me "Keitai Kareshi" became one of those movies where I got a bit frustrated because I figured everything out long before the characters did. Unfortunately the backstory for the mobile boyfriends is barely touched, I would have liked it if they showed more of that / explained it better because it would have given the movie a lot more depth!

The acting, well eeeesh, it wasn't the worst I've ever seen, but it could have been better, I wasn't really put off by it though. The music I don't even remember to be honest, heh.

Surprisingly enough I would watch it again though because I liked the general plot idea (I'd like a Riku for my phone too please~) (without the intentions to kill though) and well it's a neat watch if you look for something mildly creepy, but not very thought-provoking.

Leia Mais

I'll be honest, I only planned to watch this for Kim Woo Bin - he has less than 5 minutes of screentime in this, but hnnnnngh every second counts.
Haaa.. so. Ahem.
Cupid Factory.
This turned out to be suprisingly cute! The 2 leads have a good chemistry, although their story is a bit clumsily told, due to the fact that the special is so short. It sometimes felt as if there was important information left out, but the story isn't too complicated so it's not hard to follow. This would have definitely worked out better if it had been a short drama (3 episodes like "Ma Boy" for instance) rather than a special because the whole hypnosis concept was barely touched although it would have had the potential to provide some hilarious scenes (but the credits and the vaccuum cleaner scenes make up for it). This drama actually strictly focuses on the relationship between the 2 main characters, really, but I enjoyed it due to them being so likeable. So if someone needs a light and relatively short (~60 minutes) romance thingy to watch, why not Cupid Factory.

The acting was good, I've never seen Lee Hee Joon in anything before, but his character was really lovable and he had a good chemistry with Park Soo Jin, I thought. Kim Woo Bins character is kind of useless, BUT that ending scene awww. The music was alright, due to this being set in the music industry there's a ballad which was okay, but nothing special (I forgot it already to be honest ahaha).

Can't say that I'm dying to rewatch this, but it was a pretty nice watch overall!

Leia Mais