Zíza

Even though we do a nice study of Afro-ken – find out what he's like, what his genealogy is – and even though he was definitely made by a guy who was on something (though it may not seem like it from the interviews in the piece, I'm firmly convinced of it, and I'm also firmly convinced that if I took just half a shot of the same shit the author did, I'd be high for life), I have to admit that the best part of the whole anime was the song. Catchy, catchy, just a hit. :-D Plus the English was understandable (but who knows, maybe an English native worked on it...). It's just that, despite the psychedelia, the softness, and the color, it's really a boring story about a strange Afro-ken and his ilk. And when I say boring, I mean really boring. It was boring even though I watched it after studying vocabulary and grammar. In other words, extremely boring. But the song is really good, just enough for that one star. It's at the beginning, so turn it on and then you can turn it off with no regrets.

Basically the same as every Cinderella story, even the division of people into good and bad was like a fairytale. In the end the good guys were pleased and the bad guys were punished. The only plus of this movie is Kate dressing up as Nate, the voice and gesticulations were perfect. But other than that, the performances... no one's working too hard here. I put it in the category of those Disney-type movies like Cinderella again. It was really lacking sparkle; if it had been paced nicely, I'd add a star. If you want something to fall sleep to, this is perfect because you won't have a compulsive need to know what's going to happen next, nor will you get any wake-up calls.

Maybe it was supposed to be funny, but the voice of the child, voiced by an older man, struck me as rather repulsive. And somehow, overall, I wasn't really into it. It went through exactly the phases that movies like this have to go through by default, nothing surprising, nothing above average that would make me say "yes, you have to check it out because it had XY!". I kind of sat down for it, watched it, wasn't impressed, then turned it off, and in a few minutes I won't even know I saw it. A highly overrated movie.

This is like Hercule Poirot for me – some episodes are brilliant, some are terribly boring. Plus, it also depends a lot on who is Mizutani's second. What appealed to me most about this is that so many familiar faces appear in this series and the Japanese love this series so much, otherwise it certainly wouldn't have been on the air for over 15 years and gotten several films that crowds of exuberant Japanese headed to the theater to see. If you like crime dramas, why not, have an episode here and there during dinner; this is just the ticket. The episodes don't particularly follow each other (there are exceptions, of course), so you can pretty much start anywhere.

This cute series worked out well for my taste. I know when I started watching it, some 7 episodes were already out, and I sucked them down like a raspberry – it was a nice show and I never felt bored with it. Even just that bed scene when they got up “the morning after", awesome, no freaking out. In episode 7 I was very taken with the cart he was pushing her around in like his shopping, it seemed terribly out of place in such a series (the cart reappears full of flowers in episode 13, in case anyone was wondering :-D). There were cute scenes, nothing was particularly insane – well, except maybe her obsession with shoes, unbelievable how much! There were scenes that had me in stitches, laughing; for example, the "Ajusshi, be ambitious" scene in episode 14 was brilliant, or the gay scene in the restaurant in episode 15. I also really liked that the main character was adamant, strict, and didn't whine. Finally, after a long time, I’ve encountered a really strong heroine; that makes me very happy. The doctor who was wooing her got the message right away and she didn't bother him too much, which also impressed me very positively. And the baby's father... such a cutie for the ladies. ;-) When I first heard the theme song I kept wondering what it reminded me of... in the middle of the series I finally remembered – Heartstrings! So the music wasn't anything too original, but who needs that when they like the rest of it? It had its quirks and weaker moments here and there, but it was still a very enjoyable show. A better 4 stars.

I'm stunned. This is one of the best Taiwanese doramas I've seen lately. Because Taiwanese work can't be original – or so I thought. Then I put on ToGetHer and it proved me wrong. Sure, there's the same kind of stuff here you see everywhere else; and yet this dorama somehow feels more adult, not melodramatic, even authentic. The relationship between Momo and Mars was very nice, they had the start they did, but it only got better and better as they finished. Even Tony Ge wasn't that typical bad mother who strictly forbids relationships. Rainie outdoes the acting that she showed me in Devil Beside You and Why Why Love?. I was finally able to like Jiro (I really hated him in It Started With a Kiss, I didn't even think he was attractive, but things got better here; like I say, I like him a lot more with black hair). I knew the opening song from before, so I was surprised to hear it here :-D I liked it. Another plus. The songs throughout the series are fine, listenable – some more, some less. But I did keep skipping ahead; I wasn't loving the scenes with Momo and her best friend. Then some of the other scenes, it was some here, some there, basically I just kept skipping ahead. So for me, it was really a perfect dorama if only it had been cut down to like six episodes :-) But I can definitely recommend it, because I really don't know if I'll see something so "normal" from Taiwan again. A weaker 4 stars.

And I'll say up front that these are very, very good and a better 3 stars; I debated for a long time how much I'd give, but in the end it ended up how it ended up. And why? Okay, let's start with the flaws – I think the film crew didn't get the audio noises right at times, some of the shots were too long for a series like this, some scenes I would have skipped completely, and even though I was excited at the beginning, there are so many characters and you don’t realize how superficial they are until by the end I was just annoyed at what was going on with them, because after all, the main characters are the main characters, and they were the ones that interested me the most (the same thing happened in pale blue with Goong), and by the end it took on too much gravitas, and I mean a lot of it. I guess that covers the flaws. In the beginning I was fascinated by the dirtiness and the shabbiness of the sets/places where they filmed, I was totally caught off guard by it since I am used to the clean and tidy environments in a lot of similar series, the kind you just don't normally see much of, here it was really "common". Another thing I was excited about was the character of Mike – such a beautifully ordinary boy, with no superfluous airs, money, fame, or looks, who won't give any rest to a single student at his school alone with all the wet dreams he causes her... He was just so beautifully ordinary and normal that it almost made me cry :-D That alone makes it worth watching. And the rest of my comments got deleted, I felt light-headed, almost fainted because it was long and I didn't like it at all... Damn :-D well, maybe I'll finish the rest of it sometime... Now I remember I wrote something to the effect that this series is like a cruise. You're sailing your boat, only encountering waves along the way, now and then a bigger one, but nothing that could threaten your life, nothing that would rock your stomach to the heights of heaven. But then, just when you think you've seen the light of the lighthouse, the wind picks up, a storm comes up out of nowhere and hits – full force. And you just have to hope that you can make it go away. If I had the screenwriter on hand, I'd probably want to rip something off him (ideally his head) for those last two episodes. And then I'm sure I wrote something else, but what was it? ^^

So I watched it again and, as before, I enjoyed it. It's basically a well-worn romantic comedy, with all the typical elements; on the other hand it's also atypical in its own way and I enjoy that. Ivy Chen and Bo-lin Chen are both great actors for me (Ivy is better, no kidding, but Bo-lin is good looking – even though here in particular...). I enjoyed all three phases of the story, I wasn't bored and just enjoyed the unpretentious stuff because it didn't make me look like an idiot. Awesome movie. If you're in the mood for an enjoyable college flick about a geek "trying" to win the heart of the prettiest girl, definitely don't miss this movie.

In my own way I kind of get it, or at least I believe I understood what was going on, sort of peripherally. Still, it has an air of mystery to me. Might want to watch it again. Anyway, I can't give it fewer stars, although it's kind of slow and didn't grab me at all at first – in fact, it was quite boring. It's just that the deep thought – if I haven't picked it out – just says something to me. It tugs at my sleeve and pulls me away. Heaven is not the same as it used to be. :-)

If you're enthralled by Hanzawa Naoki, and Shitamachi Rocket along with it... and you actually like Ikeido Jun's work, you'll like this too. It's his standard work from the banking sector. With a little bit of fatalism. With bubble economics. With Saito and Mukai. But this is his weakest work for me. Still, it's certainly not bad. If you've had enough of romance and action, here are two guys trying to be good guys in an environment that makes millions. Maybe it would be more interesting for a person interested in the era or the banking industry than it is for me.