Great premise, ruined by an artsy approach

The true story of the "Phone of the Wind", which this movie is roughly based on, sure is a lovely, extremely moving and interesting one! And the Touhoku Tsunami and all the tragedy and loss that it caused are incredibly touching, of course. Unfortunately, the screenwriter and the director of this "Kaze no Denwa" - Nth victims of what I call "the nefarious influence of 'Cahiers du Cinéma' and Nouvelle Vague" - decided to ruin all that by having the part of the movie about Touhoku and the phonebooth (basically, the last 50', more or less) preceded by almost 90' of mostly useless and painfully boring scenes. Just one example so as not to spoil anything: at the beginning of the movie, the main character takes a ferry; ok, anybody with even just an ounce of respect for the viewers would have simply shot two/three short sequences, and with some editing the scene would have been done (and it would have lasted, like 10 seconds, tops). But here instead they went with an *interminable* sequence shot of her slowly approaching the dock, then waiting for the ferry, then the ferry slowly approaching the dock, then the few people on the dock slowly boarding the ferry, then the ferry finally (and yeah, you guessed it correctly: *SLOWLY*) leaving the dock: 180, *endless* seconds which add *nothing* to the story - quite the opposite, really! >____<
Seriously, the first 80+ minutes could be reduced to 10'/15' tops, keeping only the relevant scenes and cutting all the useless, artsy cr*p...=___=
Too bad...if this story had been written and directed by a decent writer/director team, this could've been a true masterpiece!
As is, it's mostly a yawnfest; and it's such a pity, considering that this story - and all the Tsunami victims and their relatives - would've deserved much more than this, imho! /.___.\

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Please allow me not to mince my words: this "Yudo" is really a freaking M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E!!!
Wow, seriously, I've watched it a coupla weeks ago and I'm still getting goosebumps just by thinking about it, so good it was!
The script is absolutely P-E-R-F-E-C-T, it works like the finest of Swiss clockworks and *every single scene* is a total delight to watch. Even the most minor of side characters feels tridimensional, and the scenes involving them are fabulously deep and brilliant (take for instance the beautiful subplot involving the "haafu" and his mother! Or the fantastically bittersweet one with the old couple!).
The acting is top-notch, as one would expect from such a *stellar* cast!!!
The production value / "packaging" literally reaches Himalayan heights too.
This goes directly in my personal top10 of all times!!!

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Very delicate and nicely original take on the old trope "high school student + teacher love", this "Sensei Sayonara" positively surprised me for its beautiful script, the good to great acting performance by the main cast, and a totally decent production value / "packaging" (direction, photography, music commentary etc.).
Hard to explain the originality of this little drama (and most of all, why you might wanna give it a chance even though you might be turned off by the premise) without spoilers, so here we go, consider yourselves warned and if you don't wanna get any of those, stop reading now!
The afore-mentioned originality lies in the fact that the drama constantly juggles two different storylines: on the one hand, in the past, we get to see the beautiful-yet-tragic love between the ML (then a high schooler himself) and his homeroom teacher (played by Kita Kana who's nothing short of brilliant here, her last scene literally gave me goosebumps!); on the other hand, in the present, we see the sweet (and rest assured, completely chaste) love between the FL and the ML, who's now become a homeroom teacher (and a widow). In both cases it's the student who initiates everything, and it both cases the relationships are portrayed in an absolutely pure, not-in-the-least naughty way.
So why don't I give this a perfect 10? Well, honestly, Kita Kana and Watanabe Shota both did really well, whereas the rest of the cast (even more so in comparison to the Himalayan heights reached by those two) was good but nothing more (most, like Hayashi Meari, are pretty young so there's still a lot of room for improvement of course, ganbatte kudasai!)

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I liked this so much, I'd want to give it more than "just" 10/10!!!

Seriously, there are times when you watch something so tremendously satisfying, that you kinda feel bad for not being able to rate it more than "just" the top grade, and it is precisely the case with this fabulous "River, Nagarenaide yo"!
Hard to explain why it hit me so much without giving anything away (and that'd be a pity 'cause it would deprive you of the pleasure of finding out by yourselves!), I'll just say this: the premise is as interesting as they come; the way they actually made it work was nothing short of a serious stroke of genius; the technical difficulties I can only imagine but must have been something indeed, chapeau for the way they brilliantly overcame them; the cast did *marvelously*, with a special mention for the amazing, lovely, gorgeous (I could go on and on!) Fujitani Riko; the setting is simply F-A-B-U-L-O-U-S; the "packaging" absolutely top-notch (I normally am not really a fan of hand-held cameras, but there was no other way to make this work!).
What are you waiting for? Go watch this *now*! You'll thank me later! ^____-
10/10 and instant top10 of all times, as far as I'm concerned!

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I picked up this drama both for the intriguing plot and for my beloved Sun Qian, and I'm happy to say I wasn't let down. Quite the opposite, the series exceeded my expectations, and although perhaps not absolutely perfect, it's still one I can wholeheartedly recommend!
The premise was nicely developed, the setting very nice, and the production value pretty high.
The whole cast did a marvelous job, seriously. My hat goes off to all of them! Honorable mentions for Sun Qian, for Luo Yu Tong (who grew on me so much that by the end of the drama I was liking her even more than the FL - and that's saying quite a lot!!!) and for Tao Hai.
The script was very good and I particularly appreciated how well they accomplished character development and how nicely they managed to convey a wonderfully positive, ethical message.
The only reasons I'm not giving this a perfect 10 are, on the one hand, that I really didn't like how they set things up for a potential second season (I'm talking about the very last scene with the never seen before character - totally unrelated to the rest of the series), and on the other hand, that I found a coupla scenes a bit weak/forced. But then again, perhaps the machine-translated subs (that at times one had to *interpret*, rather than simply *read*) are to blame for that? Whatever, beggars can't be choosers and machine-translated subs are still a whole lot better than no subs at all, of course. 9/10

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I've watched this "Tasogare Yusaku" intrigued by the lead, whose tremendous acting talent I had previously admired in "Mushoboke", and despite the synopsis that didn't make it sound that interesting (but I soon realized that the synopsis was really inaccurate and terribly misleading - BTW, I submitted a new one, hopefully it'll get approved soon).
Anyway, I'm happy to say that this drama has surprised me very positively; it reminded me a lot of "Tokyo Sentimental" and of the various "...no Satsukyu" dramas. It's part slice-of-life, part "iyashikei", part food drama, with a pinch of comedy and a healthy dose of "mono no aware".
The acting is top-notch, the production value very high, the music superb.
The only reason I'm not giving this a "perfect 10" is that, as it's to be expected with most dramas having an episodic formula, a coupla episodes were a bit weaker, imho. Still, it got very close! 9/10

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This "Kaidanshita no Gogh" is yet another dorama that I've watched out of my love for Tanabe Momoko, although the synopsis didn't sound like my cup of tea (I'm no big fan of art, particularly *modern* art, and the fact that I've briefly worked in that field and therefore got to know a lil' bit of the "behind the scenes" of it all surely doesn't help either - but that's another story entirely).
I also didn't really like the first episode(s), that made me think "Oh, boy, here's the Nth series with the *curt male lead*...at least he's no CEO so glass half full I guess".
But I'm happy I didn't drop it there, as the story slowly but surely picked up and became a lot deeper and much nicer than I had expected.
The cast did well (some better than others), the "packaging" was totally OK.
It should be more of a 7.5 but since I don't do decimals (an old habit I kept from jdorama.com where they weren't used!) I'll raise that grade to 8! ^___-

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I'm a sucker for good Japanese mystery dramas, and it was therefore with pretty high expectations that I had started this "Gifted".
The premise was pretty interesting and the episodical structure much to my liking; I must confess not being a big fan of the endless "continuity" of many Western series, and it thusly was with a lot of apprehension that I kept watching when I noticed the underlying "subplot" and most of all when I found out a second season was already in the making. But I'm glad that my fears were not confirmed, as the aforementioned subplot involving Shiki-kun's mom's murder got nicely wrapped up so that the 2nd season can start by opening up a new chapter entirely.
The acting was OK, some of the cast (namely, Masuda and Izumi) were definitely better than the others imho.
Music and "packaging" were also good enough.

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I am a big fan of the typical Japanese "Mys-Com", the Mystery/Investigation dramas filled with various degrees of similarly typical Japanese humor and comedy, but in all fairness the genre has produced many dramas better than this "Shinso wa Mimi no Naka", which was, for me, quite a let down.
The leads are OK, Tsutsui is cute as pie and Ihara pretty funny, but I honestly really disliked the supporting characters played by Nakamura and Morinaga, and that didn't help.
The script was just "meh", the mystery part not particularly interesting, and the comedy part not particularly funny; add that the last episodes switched to a gloomier, darker atmosphere, and you'll understand why this didn't really work. Forgettable.

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I must confess that I started watching this with some caution, expecting it to be the Nth "NTR" ("netorare", affair/cheating) drama with tons of glamorizing and very little substance, but it wasn't anything like that, luckily!
Instead, at least for 3/4 of it (more on that in a jiff!), I had the very pleasant feeling of watching some brilliant, refined comedy from the 60s! (like, for example, the lovely "Adulterio all'italiana" - "Adultery Italian Style" - starring Nino Manfredi and Catherine Spaak).
The cast performed marvelously, with the sole exceptions of Konishi and Toyoda (but then again, I must say I really hated their characters, so there's that too), and with a standing ovation for Yamashita Mizuki (adorable AND talented, chapeau!).
The "packaging" (directing, editing, photography, etc.) is absolutely top-notch, and so is the beautiful music commentary.
So why am I not grading this a "perfect 10"?
(spoilers ahead, so if you don't wanna get any of those, stop reading NOW ^___-)
Well, as briefly mentioned above, 3/4 of this series would indeed deserve the highest grade; but unfortunately, after that little masterpiece that's the 8th episode, they decided to do a terrible U-turn and switch from light, brilliant, überfunny comedy to a more realistic and horribly gloomy approach, royally shooting themselves in the foot, as far as I'm concerned.
Imho, this kind of stuff could only work as a comedy. Cheating ain't something funny at all, IRL, so the way to go (and they had done that exactly, and very well until episodes 9/10!) is to MAKE it funny by exaggerating the details and by AVOIDING realism! Instead the abrupt change of pace was disgraceful and almost ruined the whole thing. The ending didn't help either (again, IMHO!), as I had rooted for Yamashita of course, her character being so much better in any aspect (whereas the wife had been depicted as a sort of monodimensional caricature who spoke the whole time with an ultra-annoying anime-voice - BTW, I referenced that old Italian movie at the beginning of the review: well, if you want the audience to root for the wife, you have to write her character as the better one, as it was the case there!).
A possible explanation of the script's problems is that there were three different writers, and often that is detrimental to the script's consistency. Another reason, as it could be hinted by the very last line (that surprised "Ittekimasu? Tadaima...?!" muttered by the ML seems indeed to hint that the FL hasn't surrendered after all!) is that perhaps they wanted to leave the door open for a potential second season (and that almost invariably produces terrible endings!).
All in all, a pretty nice drama that could have been a masterpiece but missed the opportunity.
Anyway, I don't want to be too harsh so I'm still giving it a decent 8 (but if I ever rewatched this, I'd make sure to stop right after ep. 8 and go on imagining a different ending altogether!).

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Unoriginal and uninspiring

A short premise: I consider myself quite a romantic person, but I'm not a big fan of the "romance" genre, or rather, as I'm used to calling it, "what passes for romance these days"...^__^;
So, to give you an example, I think Kumada Rinka's "Marry Me" was a marvelous and truly romantic drama, whereas this "Manatsu no Cinderella" is just the Nth Déjà Vu Fair, (ab)using all the genre's clichés and then some (seriously, 5' into the last episode I thought to myself "The only thing missing is someone running desperately"...and bang! few minutes later, check! we got to see that one as well...), with the last straw being the ultra-lame dialogues (now, not every writer can be Michel Audiard, all right...but still, there's all kinds of shades between that and this....and this is just abysmally uninspiring).
Mixed performances from the cast (though if you're gonna watch it for Mori Nana, she won't let you down, I promise), a catchy-but-nothing-more-than-that OST and a pretty decent production value complete a package that doesn't get the passing grade.

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The plot is ridiculously poor. Quoting from an old review of mine: "...seems like it's been written for Dolph Lundgren.....heck, seems like it's been written BY Dolph Lundgren!".
The script is bad. And I mean really BAD. Walker-Texas-Ranger kind of bad. Random silly lines thrown together just as a fill-in inbetween random fighting scenes. Shallow as a poodle.
The acting is simply ABYSMAL. The only reason I've watched this is because Watanabe Miho is the FL. But to think that she's left Hinatazaka46 to act in....this...sorry, I can't find any polite word to describe this waste of bytes. And the acting level (except for Mihotan, of course) makes one wonder how the auditions have worked in this case...like, did they pick the WORST ones or what?!? >______________<
1/10 and only 'cause we can't use negative numbers.

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M-A-S-T-E-R-P-I-E-C-E !!!

If you, like me, are big fans of the typically Japanese "iyashikei" genre, chances are you'll totally *love* this "Izakaya Bottakuri", just as I did!
I must confess having become a bit tired of the whole "food drama" subgenre, as it has an unfortunate tendency to be terribly repetitive (in a nutshell: you show some food, the main characters stuff their faces with it, rinse&repeat), of course bar a few exceptions. But what we have here is much, much more than just a food drama! Sure, there's that aspect as well, but masterfully mixed with an incredible amount of humaneness, a relaxing atmosphere, beautifully written characters, some lovely music and a perfect "packaging". Fabulously written, directed, acted (they're all very good, but let me just name Katayama Moemi who's the very definition of "gorgeous" here!)...a true gem, highly recommended, folks!
Just to give you an idea of how much I've liked this: from now on, I'll have to add this small izakaya to the short list of fictional soothing places I'd really love to visit, alongside the adorable "Café Alpha" from "Yokohama Kaidashi Kikou" and the whole "Neo Venezia" from Amano Kozue's "Aqua/Aria" masterpiece! ^___-

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Third installment of the "...no Satsukyu" franchise, after "Arimura Kasumi no Satsukyu" and "Takeuchi Ryoma no Satsukyu", this "Kamiki Ryunosuke no Satsukyu" is, very simply put, just as good as its predecessors. It has the same (many!) strengths (a nice script that combines many elements, part dream, part quirkiness, part humor, etc. etc., to obtain an original mix; a truly artistic, never pretentiously artsy, approach; a great lead - needless to say!) and also the same weakness, namely, the varied quality of the episodes: alongside little masterpieces with really memorable scenes (I'll name but two: Narumi Riko's hilarious reference to "Toki wo Kakeru Shoujo" and the "Chinese" restaurant with the giant panda mascot!), there are also a coupla much weaker episodes, as it's alas inevitable in dramas like this one.
Add some nice music and a pretty good "packaging" and you get a recommended watch! ^___-
p.s. Can't wait to watch also the next installment starring Sugisaki Hana!

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