[Movie] Ooku

2010

If gender roles were reversed and women ruled the world, what would become of the concubines?

While this movie focuses on more than the 'manly' squabbles of the shogunate concubines, I would very much rather focus on the small picture. It is rather intriguing. We will slowly back out to focus on the big picture, but right now, just right now, we will talk about pretty boy squabbles for position and power.

Many times have we watched a movie, a drama serial about the concubines of Imperial China. The Emperor would be the cock in charge (forgive the uncouth language, for the lack of a better word...) and the women will fight each other in an endless (and often deadly) competition for the man's attention. 

Women, their nature is conniving and possessive. It is only natural that they would fight each other for a man's attention. As reality dictates, a woman would fight another woman for a lesser man, much more can be said if it were the Emperor of China. 

Now, imagine if the concubine grew penises. Imagine the concubines' places taken up by a bunch of pretty boys. There you go. What a wonderful idea, no?

Say, an epidemic stormed the land, infecting the men - and only the men. What is left is a surplus of women and suddenly, the roles reversed. The shogun is a woman and hundreds of men are lining up, pining to be in the good graces of the shogun. 

Such is the world in which our central character, Mizuno lives. Forced to abandon his first name when he entered the inner chambers a.k.a. Ooku when prospects were growing thin for a descendent of a samurai, Mizuno found himself in a bizarre world. Male servants of the shogun were ranked by hierarchy of those who were the favourites of the shogun slowly down to the ones whom are not worthy to be seen by her. 

The good thing about a reverse harem of pretty boys is that they can bed a higher ranking pretty boy to leap up. Handy, no? Not necessarily more peaceful than a harem of psychotic women, this offers a different look into an alternate world where for once, women had to pay for sex and they had to do the chasing. Interesting, no?

A wonderfully entertaining watch! Makes me want to get my hands on the manga.

[M-Sta] Music Station

6 March 2009

Tohoshinki

Tohoshinki got to speak. They got to come out like everyone else. I was hoping for a day like this when they were totally belittled as Koda Kumi's "plus one guest". They didn't get to make a grand entrance, didn't get to camwhore themselves at the seating area. It was a bit WTF for me. I was listening to their songs day and night back then. They were and are my only Korean obsession to date.

If I remain a fan, this would have brought tears to my eyes (to dramatize things a bit.) It has been a long journey and they finally got there. And I, being me, have a thing or two to say. But fans of Korean artists scare me shitless. No, really. I am not kidding. They really do. Yes, I have heard of Korean people killing themselves because they pissed fans off. And I am death-fearing. Very death-fearing. In fact, the idea of death alone scares me shitless. (NOT ALL fans, just SOME. Just to make it clear...)

So, I am keeping it subtle. That doesn't mean I think of them any better than the others. All the good things I say are what I think. All the bad things I say... well, I'll try to filter it a bit. Because their fans scare me shitless.

They're not as WOW to me anymore. Maybe it is the hair. Maybe they're trying the mod thing. Doesn't work. I remember that they used to dance really great. Like they were all very in sync with each other. Not anymore. Is it just me, or does JaeJoong gasp really loud when he sings. Okay, like I have always noticed that, just that... it is starting to bother me. If I have to pick the best singers... JunSu and ChangMin. Defintely. YooChun's hair makes him look like a middle-aged woman. You know, the wife of some rich dude. xD

On to the good things. Their clothes, always nice, always cool, always chic. (Except YooChun's skirt-like thing) But it can get a bit monotonous. If it is not suit, it is army-type clothes with lots of arm bands. When they're trying to look summery, they'll wear white. White, grey, black. BORING. Dance moves, always nice, but at times mixed with a bit awkward-ness. Like that ending pose they have where YunHo is way off as compared to the other members. xD Try and spot it.

The song. Like... FUCKING GOOD. xD I love the song. So very much. I think the song is suitable if you want to move a bit in your shower. xD xD Okay, maybe it is just me...

But do they not look like they were bored sitting there? If it were some other group, I would be a bit harsh and say that perhaps they should show some respect for the other speaking artists but... yeah... their fans scare me. So, I would say that... yeah, I understand. Perhaps they're tired? xD

They would be up against KAT-TUN. And normally, I'll say that Tohoshinki should win but KAT-TUN WILL win. Now... I watched KAT-TUN's PV, I heard their song. There is quite a good match up ahead. No, seriously... even with all the crap dancing that KAT-TUN will probably deliver on stage. (They did it well on the PV because they could re-take it...) And then they're KAT-TUN. It is supposed to mean something, even when they have awful hair and Jin's annoying arrogance. I wish it could have been different, but... life's not always fair.

"ebry time ebry day, ima Tare ka ga surbaiberrr"

Arashi

And... Arashi had to go next. Upbeat songs. There's dancing. But not similar, both the songs and the groups. xD Arashi is totally straying towards comedy. xD Of all the things they can talk about... they were talking about rectal exams. Good going, Arashi. xD

Sho gave us a demonstration of his experience during the rectal exams. He laid on his side without taking his pants off. Then the nurse took his pants off for him. He was probably aiming for that. Sneaky dude. Lucky nurse. xD Yes and as one can imagine, it was all about the asshole from then one. They were talking about their asshole inspection and... Ohno was the only one who did not get an anal probe. xD

Arashi always gets laughs when they speak like that. Maybe they really can do well as comedians. You know, like Down Town. xD xD So Ohno said that he was filming his drama, that was why he couldn't go. But he said that he would probably be the type that gets his pants removed for him instead of him taking the initiative to remove the pants. xD Tamori then asked if Ohno has a thing for being stripped off by others. xD Tamori is a freakin' genius and a psychic. You wonder what he must think of Ohno. Probably thinks he's flaming gay... remember during "Happiness" when they were talking about the famous OhMiya ass-grab?

Nino cut in and said that perhaps they should quit talking about the asshole and start talking about their song... and then time was up and they had to go stand by. xD

Their clothes are okay. I guess Japanese boybands accessorize a bit more. I really don't like that shirt Ohno was wearing. The performance... I remember the first time I watched the clip yesterday... I was very excited. I lost count of the number of times I watched it. xD

Right before GLAY performed, Nino had to show his playing cards. And that came right after a sneak peak of the coming SP episode of M-Sta where they showed Arashi's younger days when they were clad in embarrassingly horrible clothes. Clothes that are so flashy in a bad way that I tear up because they're so fugly.

Shibasaki Kou

... She's doing Tsumabuki Satoshi. We are envious. But what a pretty girl and very polite-looking and humble too. Nice song, btw.

BoA

Is she debuting in the U.S.? Seriously? Even Utada Hikaru didn't sell well there, what makes her think that she can? Pretty girl though. Nice singing voice too. But her body(sans legs and head) is longer than her legs. That's not very proportionate.

Rock'A'Trench

Uh... I think I skipped this part as a whole. Whee.

GLAY

Ah... they performed a great song. A bit more like a rock ballad with Takuro on piano. Gosh this is nostalgic. xD Teru has really aged. And he didn't age well. Sad to say. Jiro used to have a boyish charm about it... not anymore. Hisashi is... well I can't see his face well enough to tell the difference.

It is a nice song. Maybe I should try it a few more times.

AKB48

Teenage girls. Lots of them. Take them away, they scare me.

xD They had to put Nino next to YunHo. The top of Nino's head barely reached his chin. xD And yes, they look very wimpy next to the Korean boys. Do I care? No. xD Cos I like them like that. Short, a bit stupid and very funny.

Although it appears like I have totally ignored Tohoshinki's activities, I haven't. I watched that SMAPxSMAP episode in which they appeared. I don't get their humour. It always seem forced. Like they are trying too hard to be funny. And trying too hard to be funny is just pretty not funny. The only one that seems genuinely funny is JunSu. He has that 'tenren' thing going on. xD He's like the Aiba/Junno/K. Tsuyoshi/Inocchi/DoKo of the group. xD You need one in every group.

[Drama] Sora Kara Furu Ichioku no Hoshi

Spring 2002

Episodes: 11

Starring: Akashiya Sanma, Kimura Takuya, Fukatsu Eri, Igawa Haruka, Shibasaki Kou...

Dojima Kanzo is a detective investigating a case of a university student who was made to appear as if she committed suicide by jumping off the balcony of her apartment. It was later found that the young woman was stabbed beforehand. The police came out with a conclusion that the murderer cleaned up her place to avoid suspicion. After inspecting the crime scene, Kanzo went off in a hurry to attend the birthday party of Nishihara Miwa, the daughter of a rich man. It was revealed at the party that Kanzo's sister - Yuko was Miwa's good friend as she helped Miwa prepare for her big party.

Also heading for the boat on which the party was held was Katase Ryo, a young chef who was delivering ingredients for the dinner party. (Can I add the hot in front of the word chef? It is becoming a habit, really.) Ryo is a mysterious young man who ended up hooking up with the birthday girl after repairing her charmbracelet which was ruined during a fight between Ryo's friend and a man who is after Miwa's money. Miwa was immediately charmed by Ryo and the two started dating.

Miwa later found that her broken charm bracelet had its beads replaced exactly the same way as before it was broken. At the same time, Kanzo compared the crime scene photos with a photo taken of the apartment before the incident and noticed that the DVDs were arranged exactly the same way as before the incident happened. If the murderer had rearranged the crime scene after a struggle which messed up the crime scene, how could be manage to get such details correct?


From the time of the party, the siblings kept running into Ryo. Kanzo cannot shake the eerie feeling of having met Ryo before in the past. His suspicions increase with everytime he met Ryo who gives him an unsettling feeling. As Kanzo tries to protect all the people around Ryo, he neglected his sister who was beginning to form a strange bond with Ryo.


*****

I love it from the beginning. Ah another good one by KimuTaku. He never disappoints, does he? I like these type of thrilling dramas. It makes you more willing to sit through more than ten hours of it without having the urge to skip anything at all. Up to episode 3, I really didn't know what to expect. The more you don't know, the more you want to know. They have a murder case that is not progressing an inch and a man who acts fishy no matter how you look at him.

This drama makes me think a lot about who is this Katase Ryo and why is he so fishy. And I am having a fever. It is NOT good to make sick people think! It is a bit tiring, watching such a drama. You are still finding its direction as half of the drama is over, you still don't exactly know what is the theme or main plot. You feel that the first few episodes are building up to a climax which WILL be big. There is not much character introduction. The characters are not served to you on a platter, you have to explore it slowly. I like that a lot.

Kimura wowed me again with his intense and convincing performance as Ryo, a man who is mentally fucked up. It is in his eyes. They have this... almost maniacal look to them when he turns the crazy on. This is a rather dark suspense drama. No gore, but a lot of guessing and doubting. Something that you know you have to watch until the end to truly appreciate it. I have heard and read a lot about how great the drama is and how amazing the ending will be. So I was very much anticipating it from the beginning. Though the drama seems to be progressing at a slow pace, it did not bore me but made me even more curious as to how this drama will climax. I also hoped very much for it to not disappoint, which I have very little doubt that it will.

It was very time consuming for me to watch this drama. It was quite tiring because... I always skip boring parts but there are few to skip. But so many questions are raised in my mind from the beginning to the end and I cannot skip it for fear of missing a hint for the answer. Unlike "Nemureru Mori", there are NO answers given as the story progressed. So I thought that they will all be answered in the end. But still, I couldn't take chances. xD

Akashiya Sanma's Kanzo was a bit annoying for me. Even if he turned out to be NOT a useless cop but rather a determined, persistant and detailed detective, he just gets on my nerve at times. Never liked cops though. xD But he'll grow on me, I am sure. A self-sacrificing 'brother' who puts his 'sister' before himself at all times. The fact that he's so adamant on protecting them all... pisses me off a bit. But I guess the person who bears all the truth has a great burden placed upon him.

It is a drama about a devil who would hurt everyone on earth save one. But when the truth is revealed, I guess the connection is not that transparent. Fukatsu Eri was adorable. Her voice was... childlike. LOL. But she was playing the good ol' lively leading woman until the very end.

FAT SPOILERS... in sorta hidden text.

HAH! I knew it! The moment Kanzo and that annoying cop woman was discussing how Yuko and Kanzo were not related and when Yuko was the only one who was able to be truly important to Ryo, I knew that an incestuous relationship was forthcoming. The moment revelation came upon was testament to my extremely great totally rockin' predicting skills. xD But my theory was confirmed and it was confirmed with a BAM! Itt wasn't apparent right from the start though. But you slowly piece it together because hints were thrown at you. In a way, it is similar to Nemureru Mori yet... it has a different... flavour to it. xD

It was tragic, what befell the main characters of the drama. And Kanzo caused it. He tried to repent his deeds but... indirectly causing more damage to those involved. Overall a great watch. I was growing impatient in the end and quickly skipped the boring parts. It had a shock effect at the end, but it is not like you didn't anticipate it. But there should be doubt... the confirmation came and then BAM, you get everything. The last scene was heartbreaking. A man who regrets deeply his deeds but could no longer be able to do anything to improve the situation.

Reitings: 4.5/5

[Scans] Kanebo 2008 Spring Coffret D'or

I went to Singapore recently. Actually, just two weeks ago. It was fun, lots of J-pop and J-rock stuff. I was in Kuala Lumpur too. They had the Johnny's Calendars. From Tackey and Tsubasa, to NewS to Kanjani8 to KAT-TUN and Arashi. I had the Arashi one in my hands. But... T_T

See, I was saving for shopping in Bangkok later.

And its already May anyways and yes, I am making excuses for myself.

Its just printed on paper anyways.

Its so totally fine that I didn't get it.

It is.

I really like this advertising campaign that Kanebo did with the five actresses. I got this brochure thingie in Singapore. I was happy walking into every shopping mall on Orchard Road and yes, I harvested some stuff. xD Not Japanese Entertainment related stuff though. xD I am not that obsessed.

There's Nakatani Miki, Tokiwa Takako, Shibasaki Kou, Sawajiri Erika and Kitagawa Keiko in this ad. I made my guy friends choose the one they think is the prettiest. All of them chose Shibasaki Kou. I was shocked, cos I so totally think that it would be Erika or Keiko. But Kou looks good in here I guess.

I love these ads with lots of famous people. Kanebo has lots of spokespersons eh? There's Mika for the KATE section and then there's Yamada Yu...



Ah bad scanning for the first one. I faced some resizing problems.

Rawr this. xD Its okay, its not like its Arashi.

xD What?

Oh recently I find myself thinking about watching Dong Bang Shin Ki again. I like their Korean stuff better.

Sigh, why the hell are they not releasing a Korean album yet?