Zíza

Actually a completely classic Korean series, a mixture of what fans want from it. The main duo is beautiful and sparkles. There's also trauma. We laugh. We cringe until our teeth hurt at how the main duo chatters at each other. It's a romance, basically, and it probably doesn't want to be anything else. Love it, enjoy it, gnash your teeth in satisfaction at the cuteness of the main couple. Forget about reality. That's what this show is good for. Unfortunately, it is often the case that Korean series run out of juice towards the end. They always either fail to bring things to a proper climax or climax too soon and then just flounder. They're just like a sexually immature individual. Good for them, they still have somewhere to grow.

One has at least peeked into Indonesian drama and can admit that it's not a bad thing, because they portray and perform their dramas in a very similar way to the west, so there's no need to avoid their films. Moreover, the language isn't a terrible thing to listen to either; not to mention the fact that they try to speak Czech here. A very intimate film with intimate performances, I'd say. The soundtrack was a bit like a Korean drama. Basically a pleasant melancholy nothing that nonetheless showed me something interesting from the time of the regime change from Sukarno to Suharto, which even had ties to the Czech Republic. Slow, light, and with reconciliation.

Action-packed, stylish, fast. Though there wasn't much racing, there were plenty of cars. It's a bit of a shame they wanted to tell us so much, because this way some things didn't get as much space as they might have deserved; still, it was good. It was good to watch, it was fun, it was fast and furious. And most importantly, no romance! With a half-naked Arata, who is one of the very few Japanese who has a ripped body, so a bonus in that regard as well. And I'd almost forgotten that despite their pretty faces, both of them (Higashide, Arata) can act. Just a load of fun with brotherly conflict on top.

Guilt. Remorse. Despair. Lots of characters, so many you wonder why they're there. Fortunately, by the end, it might make sense to some. I see a contrast. How someone struggles with their own guilt, shame, and condemnation. Unfortunately, you can see quite clearly in this film that Ikuta is not that good an actor (certainly not for serious roles) because of Eita standing by his side, who was something far more excellent. He was different than usual and he was great. Basically, it's worth watching for that alone. Quite a heavy film, but easy to digest. A better 3 stars.

It had a bit of a Hanzawa Naoki feel to it, so if you liked him, don't throw this one away either. You could say it's about nothing really. With painstaking slowness we arrive at something that everyone has already known since the beginning. But it's interesting, because it's a beautiful way to see how something that for some people is just a message on paper can affect many lives. One stupid accident, one stupid glitch, one stupid mishap, and everybody's in on it. On the other hand, you get a behind-the-scenes look at Japanese companies big and small. And then there's the whole thing about it being full of interesting facial expressions. Even the small roles have great expressions! :-) It's simply not a bad chatty film.

This is a poetic film depicting the married life of a "monster", the writer Otani, and the beautiful young Sachi. Just when you think the film is going to lull you into lethargy, it manages to hit you with a powerful scene. Moreover, the lead actors playing the Otani couple, Asano Tadanobu and Matsu Takako, really tackle their roles with grace showing that they are no ordinary actors. Asano in particular proved to me once again that he really is a great actor. He was able to play a complex character like Otani very convincingly, and didn't even seem to break a sweat doing it...

I enjoyed it. And I saw myself in it (by which I don't mean because of Narumi and Hanako's favorite genre). I also watched it with my now-ex-otaku husband. That made it all the more fun. I like the Noitamina network because they really try to air series aimed at an older audience, and this anime is one such case. The whole thing made sense. The characters stuck to their roles and didn't deviate – most of all they were not over the top, even though they were otaku. It may not be as entertaining for someone who knows nothing about the otaku subculture (who are just a bit out of touch like Naoya, Hirotaku's younger brother) but they may still find enjoyment in the cuteness of some of the characters, the comedy, and the two adult relationships, apologies to Yaoists, between a man and a woman. I hope there will be another series. A weaker 4 stars.

I kind of disliked the actors (but maybe that was just because their characters were written the way they were written), and I couldn't root for them in their troubles and therefore didn't enjoy it at all. In fact, I found it rather boring. And the ending was not for me at all. Seen a million times and it doesn't matter if Doctor Strangelove loves women, men, or trees. If you want a movie with a coming out, try something else, I doubt you will have to look long if you check out what others here recommend.

Episodic, focusing on a different issue each time, but always portraying Minato as a very nice person. The Korean version goes more in depth in terms of social obstruction, bullying, and hospital politics. Basically, the Korean version is more complicated; the Japanese one is more gentle, more of a feel-good version that you can be moved by. One big plus is Yamazaki, who has proven to me time and again that he's not just a pretty face, but that there really is some talent in him. This autistic man is backed by experienced actors (Ueno, Fujiki, Emoto), so have no fear of bad performances. An unexciting series about a lovable autistic doctor. A better 3 stars.

Kind of the classic formula. A hotel is failing, so an extravagant character steps in to show them all how to run it, the hotel rises, and of course the extravagant character is no longer necessary because everyone is now on the right track. The various characters scattered around the hotel make the series more digestible because you just get a little bit of everything – the quirky one, the quiet one, the tough one, the scared one, the stone-faced one, the enthusiastic one... plus every episode starts with great music and a good memory. I guess it doesn't bring anything new to the genre; the only interesting thing might be that it somehow manages to keep a really large number of characters in play, we don't focus exclusively on the two or three main ones. And of course every episode has an extra story. A weaker 3 stars.