Niini no Koto wo Wasurenaide

Niini no Koto wo Wasurenaide (にいにのことを忘れないで) is a 2009 tanpatsu starring Nishikido Ryo, Tanaka Rena, Yamada Ryosuke, Kuroki Hitomi, Jinnai Takanori, and Shirakawa Yumi. The summary is as follows:

Kawai Keisuke is a young man who aspired to become a physicist since he was young. His hopeful parents send him to an expensive college prep school, but at the age of 15, during his third year of junior high, he is diagnosed with a brain tumor. Told that he only has one year to live, he falls into despair, giving up on treatment and even lashing out against his own mother. Ultimately, with the support of his family, he struggles with the tumor for eight years before dying at the age of 23.

I seem to be on a roll with watching movie-length 'dramas' based on a tragic story of someone who dies way before his/her time. Anyway, because it's movie length, it doesn't go into great detail like 1 Litre of Tears did, but then again, I mainly watched it because Ryo was in it. :) The acting was pretty good and it does focus on what the family goes through. What made this stand out to me is how the main character actually got angry, threw some things around, and even got around to using physical violence to get his frustrations out instead of the [somewhat] docile acceptance of their fate that is present throughout the other tragic tales of a terminally ill teen.

I suppose because of that, it was more "real" - not that the others weren't but this one showed the denial stage of the whole process as well as the sinking acceptance that was more than just crying and asking the heart-breaking question of "why me?" Other than that though, it was similar to the other dramas of the same genre - but I still watched it for Ryo. ^_^

You can watch it here.

Ryusei no Kizuna

For the Chinese New Years weekend, I decided to start and finish Ryusei no Kizuna (流星の絆), a Japanese drama of the suspense and comedy genres. It stars Ninomiya Kazunari, Erika Toda, Nishikido Ryo, Kaname Jun, and Nakashima Mika. The summary is as follows:

Based on the popular novel of the same name, Ryusei no Kizuna tells the story of three orphans, whose parents were murdered long ago. Together, the three vowed on a shooting star to one day avenge their parents. After many years, the two brothers have found the murderers, and are set to carry out their plan for vengeance when they realize they've made a serious miscalculation; you see, their sister...

I honestly had to say that I didn't really know what to expect - mostly because of the three periods that follow "sister" in the summary. I did give it a try - I mean, I was familiar with the cast and the things that the summary did reveal perked my interest. The interesting thing was how a drama with such a dark background such as murder and the theme of revenge is interspersed with comedy. To me, I actually liked it a lot since, well, my sense of humor isn't very normal and I find many things funny. To others, it may be a bit odd, but it's not like the jokes are banter is made everywhere - the serious parts meant to be serious and the parts meant to be a little light are pretty entertaining. It did give me some good laughs. One thing though - Mika Nakashima's role is rather eccentric, odd, and out-of-nowhere, but it's sort of like a breath of fresh air since it's totally different from everyone else's character within the drama, so I sort of don't agree with some other reviews that mentioned something about her character being pointless or something.

Even though the drama was a short 10 episodes, I liked it a lot. The way things were progressing and all until everything unravels rather surprisingly at the end. I do recommend this drama (and yes, I do realise that I usually do say that for all the dramas I have watched - either that or to 'give it a go').

You can watch it here.
I got the picture from here.

Attention Please

I've finished the drama series, Attention Please (アテンションプリーズ ) for over two weeks, but I've been busy and the Internet here isn't really reliable. It's a comedy starring Ueto Aya, Nishikido Ryo, Maya Miki, Aibu Saki, and Uehara Misa. It basically follows a young lady that was once in a punk band who wishes to become a flight attendent because the guy she likes said that he like girls in uniform (or something like that). The full summary is:

Losing her mother at a young age, Misaki Yoko (Ueto Aya) was raised amongst
three brothers. Yoko is a slightly boyish girl who is bullheaded and hates
dishonesty. Ever since she was young, she enjoyed the company of boys over
girls. She starts a band with four of her boy friends and becomes the lead
singer. Then one day, one of the members of the band, Tsukasa, gets a job at a
bank in Tokyo. Due to Tsukasa leaving town, the band breaks up and though Yoko
finds herself lonely, she puts on a strong act in front of Tsukasa. She can't
tell Tsukasa how she truly feels for him. On the day Tsukasa leaves for Tokyo,
Yoko goes along with the band members to the airport to see him off. The guys
get excited when they see some cabin crew ladies and Yoko has no idea why. She
reminds them that even she can wear a uniform, but the guys only make fun of
her. That's when Tsukasa tells Yoko he wonders what she'd look like dressed in
uniform. This is when Yoko decides she wants to work as a Cabin Attendant.

It's pretty funny (I mean, we've all seen the flight attendents before if you've been in an airplane) and her personality is totally out there whereas she needs to be reserved in that profession. It just follows her through the entire training (and a little afterwards) with a sprinkling of romance (I mean it - it barely goes into it). After watching it, I feel like I know more of what flight attendents have to go through in order to be qualified enough to get in the air. It's rather interesting. I recommend it. :)

I watched it from Veoh and it's 11 episodes long plus a special.