Dear Friends

Dear Friends (ディアフレンズ), a 2007 Japanese film, is a story about friendship and cherishing said friendship. It stars Kitagawa Keiko and Motokariya Yuika. The summary is as follows:

Dear Friends follows a high-school student named Rina (played by Keiko Kitagawa) who believes that friends are not necessary and that they can only be used in times of need. Thus, she is unable to maintain a decent relationship with her friends and classmates. Her family's relationship is also lacking; her father does not care much about his family and her mother is over-protective. Rina eventually discovers that she has a terminal illness and becomes hospitalized for an indefinite amount of time. In the hospital, she is not visited by her family, but by one of her classmates named Maki (played by Yuika Motokariya). Although Maki tells Rina that they were friends in primary school, Rina does not remember her, so Maki takes the opportunity to re-connect with her. A young girl (played by Mao Sasaki) who is also hospitalized tries to become friends with Rina, but she holds fast onto her mantra of friends being unnecessary. Throughout her hospitalization, Rina begins to lose hope as her well-being falls apart, and she decides to jump off the hospital rooftop as she feels that no one no longer cares about her. However, she is stopped by Maki, who stabs herself in the chest with a knife and declares that she will share the same pain as Rina and that she does not want to lose her friend. Rina shows some hope again when she realizes that she can find friendship in Maki.

I like sad films and coupled with the fact that this movie got good reviews on dramacrazy, I decided to try it out. The synopsis does a good job of telling you what the story's about, so I'll refrain from reiterating. However, Maki doesn't technically stab herself in the chest; more like she tries to cut off her left breast. >.> Anyway, it's a sweet story of a rude and callous girl that everyone envies (and hates) who has no true friends, as her idea of a friend is someone that you use and she doesn't think friends are necessary, to someone who realises the value in having friends when she goes through some rough spots. The acting was good and in the beginning, you'll hate her but towards the end, you're more sympathetic. It's also a story full of people getting sick everywhere (sort of) - and remember the disease featured in 1 Litre of Tears? You'll be seeing a bit of it here though not to that extent. :) It is sad, but it ends somewhat positively - at least for Rina.

You can watch it here. It's in 14 parts, which annoyed me, but there you have it.

26 Years Diary

26 Years Diary (Japanese: あなたを忘れない/Anata wo Wasurenai; Korean: 너를 잊지 않을 거야/Neoreul Ijji Anheul Geoya; I Won't Forget You) is a 2007 Japanese film with both Japanese and Korean actors and elements is a film tribute to a 26-year-old South Korean international student in Japan. It stars Lee Tae-sung, Maki Onaga, Seo Jae-kyung, and Hamaguchi Junko. The summary is as follows:

The film details the 26-year-old Korean student's experiences in Japan, including going to school and his developing romance with a Japanese student (Mākii). He died on January 21, 2001, along with a Japanese photographer, Shiro Sekine, while both were trying to save the life of a man who had fallen onto the tracks at the Shin-Ōkubo Station in Tokyo.

I like films that show cultural differences (not to mention linguistic differences). It might be the budding anthropologist within me speaking, but I just like it - and that was why I decided to watch this. Oh, and the plot sounded sweet, touching, and had a good chance of entertaining me. Ah - and I like things that are based on real events, which this is. (Here's a little article on the aftermath of what happened.) Anyway, because it's been made into a film, it may be based on a real person, but what happened may not be. Even so, I enjoyed it anyway. It showed the differences between Tae-hyun and Yuri from family life, culture, and their own different personalities and how they got together anyway. He was more traditional and immersed within Korean culture whereas she came from a more dysfunctional family and has lost most of her traditional Japanese traditional practices. It's pretty interesting, though like the Japanese drama, Smile, it also showcases some of the prejudices against foreigners that may occur within Japan, and for that, I give it props.

All in all, it's a nice bridge between both Korea and Japan, which has had its rocky history, and Japan had used this guy's heroic story for the sake of saving someone in order to bridge the differences that may still be present. For the entertainment and melodramatic factor that is mandatory in Asian cinema, it was a sweet and touching story about a budding romance that was never meant to be and the far-reaching effects he gave to the people around him.

You can watch it here at MySoju.

Kimi ni Shika Kikoenai

Kimi ni Shika Kikoenai (aka Only You Can Hear Me and Calling You/きみにしか聞こえない) is a 2006 supernatural/romance Japanese movie starring Narumi Riko and Koide Keisuke. The summary is as follows:

Shy, quiet, and unsure of herself, Aihara Ryo (Narumi Riko) doesn't quite fit in anywhere. Though she wants to make friends, she has trouble speaking up and holding a normal conversation like everyone else. It seems that whenever she talks, the words just don't come out correctly. Gradually, Ryo has gotten used to living life in silence as a lonely and introverted student. With no one to talk to, Ryo also has no need for a cell phone. Longing for friends to talk to, she creates a cell phone in her mind for imaginary phone conversations, and much to her surprise, one day Shinya (Koide Keisuke) picks up on the other side. For the first time in her life, Ryo has found someone she can talk to

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I decided it's been a while since I've watch a movie or drama, mainly because I was working full-time for the past two weeks, so I decided to break the monotony today and randomly browsed DramaCrazy and picked this. I didn't know what to think of this but it had potential to be really cute, so I decided to give it a go. Plus I like supernatural/fantasy things. ^^ I also admit the lead girl looked really familiar and I finally figured it out: she plays Aya's little sister in 1 Litre of Tears. Anyway, at first, the plot seemed pretty tame - an interesting friendship between an outcast and a guy who, although wasn't an outcast, wasn't exactly in the in crowd either. And honestly, you don't know his deaf-and-mute status until the very end - but I knew it because I like spoiling myself before watching something, not to mention the summary in DramaCrazy tells you - but it doesn't really mean anything since you don't need a voice to use telepathy.

Towards the middle, it grew on me and towards the end, I loved it. :) Their friendship starts to hint at something more - though it really doesn't go anywhere - and one more person is included within the whole mental telephone deal, though accidentally. This new person comes in from time to time, but there's a small secret/surprise within her role in the movie. And it all leads up to the growth and change of all the characters and how they all influence each other for the better (though we don't really see it until the very end) and the main climax is when the two finally meets one another. I will also say that something really big happens here. ^^ All in all, I enjoyed it, even though most of the dialogue was "all in their minds" but you soon get over it. Or at least it didn't bother me.

You can watch it here.

Secret

I just finished watching Secret (aka 不能說的秘密/The Secret that Cannot Be Told) starring Jay Chou, Gui Lun Mei, Anthony Wong, and Alice Tzeng. I actually decided to do so because it was mentioned in passing how Jay Chou's piano skills were nicely shown in it, so I was curious. It's basically a story of love surpassing even time. :) The synopsis:

Ye Xianglun transfers to Tamkang (Danjiang) Secondary School, a school famous for its students' performance in playing piano. On the first day of school, while wandering through the piano building, a mysterious piano solo draws his attention played by a fellow female student, Lu Xiaoyu. As he seeks to know more about the melody she has played earlier, she tells him that it is a secret that cannot be told.

It's really sweet and I really liked it. It made me want to pick up the piano again. :) Even though it'll be a long time until I get that good. One of my most favorite scenes was at the piano dueling part. Jay's hands were literally a blur! Anywho... there's a nice twist in the middle and though the ending was pretty much a happy one, it's still somewhat sad for a certain someone. Either way, Jay's way of describing his movie as a ' "simple but very beautiful" love story' pretty much hit it on the dot. :)

I watched it on CrunchyRoll. The trailer can be found here.

Out With the Old, In With the New

The past year has been a blur of sorts. Hard to think that a mere six months before, I was just getting acquainted with the idea of getting out of High School and finally turning "legal" while having the time of my life at Disney World. I got through my last semester of high school with a bang and I ended my first semester of college with a splat. haha... college has been, and still is an eye-opener. Truth be told, it still hasn't occured to me that I'm in college and practically an adult, something I don't like thinking about much. I like the independence of college, but I hate the fact that my guessing skills are worth nothing there.

Throughout my high school career, I never really tried academically. Yes, I did my homework, but like everything else, I didn't retain much of anything important. Yes, I passed and did well on my tests, but did I really ever study - truly study? Yes, I did do well enough in school to be a handful of people away from being in the top five percent, but did my effort show it? I was a laidback student and I never stressed until the day of a test or the last minute. No, I'd have to say that even with my grades, I was far from ready for college - and it showed. I exited the first semester of college with a B, two C's, and an F. -pause- Yes, that is an "F" you see and it is in chemistry (I told you it hated me). Then again, I can't blame it in full as I did my fair bit of hating as well. After receiving my grades, my mind remembered a theory I kept on telling my mom. If I hate something, there is no way on earth I'm going to learn it no matter how good (or cool) the teacher is. With the closing of the first semester, this theory seems to be proven true as I barely passed two of my science classes and failed one while doing fairly well in anthropology which could have been better if I wasn't bogged down with my other classes in which I was not very enthusiastic in.

-shrug- There's always time for learning and this is one of the things I tend to remember - something non-academic. So with an ending note, I'll end with my new years' resolutions and hope for the best for 2007.

• make better grades
  
• learn to study (weird, huh?)
• go to the gym consecutively to lose some squish
• eat healthier for a college student (no midnight snacks)
  
• try to get out more
• try to cut down on the fanfiction (this is one thing I have little hope of achieving)
• try to cut down on the procrastinating, or at least as much as I can, being the Mistress of Procrastinating
• learn how to cook (I threw this one in for fun, haha!)