MW Chapter 0 - Akuma no Game

MW Chapter 0 - Akuma no Game (MW第０章 - 悪魔のゲーム) is the 2009 tanpatsu prequel to a movie, MW (2009). It stars Sato Takeru, Tanimura Mitsuki, Koide Keisuke, and Tamaki Hiroshi. The summary is as follows:

The drama is is set several months before the actual story in Tezuka's manga. The main character is a man named Takashi Morioka, who has lost his job and his home due to a recession. He ends up falling into a trap set by the diabolical Yuki Michio, and in order to protect the things important to him, he is forced to stain his hands in evil.

I admit a reason why I decided to watch this is, well, 'cause Sato Takeru's cute. ...Another reason is because I wanted to know what evil he's "forced to stain his hands in" - and I really wanted a break before I study for my midterm tomorrow. It started off at the beginning and with everything he went though - loss of a job and eviction - it made me forget he's younger than me (by only a year!). Anyway... his acting in this drama was pretty good - it made me think of a young man who was out in the world and really had all these bad things happen to him all at once, until I wiki'ed him and was reminded just how young he was (in order words, he's younger than me).

I liked it quite a bit. It's different than most other dramas/movies where good triumphs over evil. Then again, this is the prequel and since I haven't watched the movie, I can't really say anything and things have to get bad before they can get better. It touches upon what someone would do in order to survive and protect his way of life; the line of kill or be killed, though perhaps a little less extreme. The format of the film switches from "before everything became worse" to "worse" so the readjusting of your mind may be necessary, but it isn't hard to understand at all and in the end, everything comes together.

I just really want to know what effect his sacrifice had on everyone and because of that, I'm going to find the movie online. :)

You can watch it here. You can download it here.

Bloody Monday

I just finished Bloody Monday (ブラッディ・マンデイ ), a Japanese drama of the suspense and action genres encircling the topic of terrorism (especially bio-terrorism) and hacking (obviously). It stars Miura Haruma, Kawashima Umika, Sato Takeru, Fujii Mina, and Tokunaga Eri. The summary is as follows:

After a biological terrorist attack kills off the population of a Russian town; Japan's Public Safety Special Third unit, code name THIRD-i, believes that the terrorist organization responsible plans to unleash the same virus known as Bloody X into Tokyo. Subsequently, THIRD-i recruits the help of genius hacker Takagi Fujimaru to find out what happened in the Russia. However, as Fujimaru becomes involved, he soon finds out that he is in over his head and that the terrorist groups influence reaches not only his school but even the police. Fujimaru must now rely on his skill as a hacker to unravel the organizations sinister plot and find out the truth behind "Bloody Monday."

I have to say that it was pretty suspenseful and it kept me with it the entire way (I finished 10 episodes yesterday and the first thing I did this morning was to watch the last episode -- yes, there is a total of 11 episodes). Like many other action/suspense dramas, new things unfold as it progresses and it keeps you guessing, because the most obvious thing usually turned out to be wrong. This drama has no romance in it (which is a nice change, for once) but it deals with the notion of family and friends.

Even though it's Haruma's first leading role, he did it well and perhaps, we'll be seeing more of him! The last episode didn't really tie everything up with a neat bow, though. In fact, it leaves some room for a sequel of some sort, but it concludes well enough.

You can watch it here.
Picture taken from here.