Sep. 5th, 2012

walkwithheroes: [My Lucky Star] (First Date)
Iki mo Dekinai Natsu is a currently airing Japanese drama that tells the story of nineteen year old Tanizaki Rei, a girl without a family registry. Having no family registry basically means she doesn't exist: she has no health insurance, no way of getting a passport, cannot marry, and cannot get a full-time job. She's a non citizen in her own country.

Rei (Takei Emi)spent her whole life not knowing she wasn't own the family registry, then she was offered a full time position at her part-time job. That's when the drama begins. It turns out Mom/Yoko (Kimura Yoshino) ran away from home and married when she was eighteen. She divorced her first husband after some physical abuse and remarried Mr. Tanizaki. Because she had been divorced less than a year when Rei was born, Yoko would have had to put the baby on her ex-husband's registry; fearing for their safety, Yoko didn't put Rei on the registry. Yoko always planned to fix it (there are legal ways to move Rei to the Tanizaki family registry), but she never did.


Upon the discovery, Rei goes to the local ward office for help and meets forty-one year old Kiyama Ryuichiro, a former newspaper reporter. Ryuichiro has a dark pass and was forced to leave the newspaper business. Now he works nights at the ward office. Rei and Ryuichiro meet and form a bond.

The story goes from there, and while it's stated to be a romance, it's really more of a family/human drama.

Spoilery thoughts for the first half of the drama )




More info on the family registry laws )


Iki mo Dekinai Natsu airs on Tuesdays in Japan. Based on ratings and the last few dramas to air in that time slot, it will probably have eleven episodes. Subtitles are available (usually within the next three days) at dramacrazy.net.

If you like family/human dramas or slow-buring romances, I would rec it.




Rich Man, Poor Woman is a currently airing Japanese drama that is a loose remake of the American film Pretty Woman. And when I say loose, I mean loose. Really all the two have in common is that the lead male is a rich, but lonely man and the lead woman is poor, but hard working. He doesn't "buy" her, he just hires her as an intern to help out with the making of a new government system.

The official summary: Oguri Shun plays Hyuga Toru, an affluent man whose personality is on the contrary, speckled with flaws. A CEO of an IT firm who is published on Forbes as a billionaire, Toru attained his fortune through chance and pure luck. A woman who meets Toru and eventually becomes attracted to him is Sawaki Chihiro, played by Ishihara Satomi. Chihiro is a hardworking college student at Tokyo University who has prepared for her future as much as she possibly could through studies and obtaining licenses. Despite her efforts, she has yet to land a job. Upon meeting Toru, she begins to unravel a genuine pureness inside him and solitude resulting from such pureness, which eventually draws her closer to him. The two repeatedly conflict each other, but little by little learn about one another to grow and develop together.

A Cinderella story of the real world. Will the two be able to compromise their values and lifestyles to become a happy couple.



Spoiler thoughts for the first five episodes )

Overall, I'm really enjoying this drama. It's bright and fun and addictive. It's everything that was great about the old-school Japanese rom-coms of the mid-90s-early 2000s, without feeling like a redo. I'm a little bit in love with it.
walkwithheroes: [Tangled] (Healing Hair)
Title: Summertime Sadness
Song: Summertime Sadness by Lana Del Rey
Disclaimer: I do not own the song or the clips used. I just edited the clips.
Details: 1:30 minutes. wmv.
Theme: A look at the film.
WARNING: SPOILERS!
Vidder's Note: Chilling Romance/Spellbound is a Korean film that is a romantic horror comedy. It tells the story of Yeo-Ri (Son Ye-Jin) a young woman who sees ghosts and is haunted by her high school classmate. Because of this, unexpected things occur to people around her. If she becomes close to anyone, they are targeted by the classmate and put in danger. Yeo-Ri's family has moved to Norway and she only speaks to her two friends on the phone. One day she meets a street magician named Jo-Goo (Lee Min-Ki). Joo-Goo believes she would be perfect for his act and the two form a team; but, Yeo-Ri still distances herself from her co-workers. Feeling frustrated and drawn to Yeo-Ri, Jo-Goo spends more and more with her. He soon learns about the difficult world that Yeo-Ri lives in.

This movie was a delight! The chemistry between SYJ and LMK was brilliant; they sparkled in their roles. This was a must-watch film. (And it's coming to Region One DVD this October!) The video is short and I think BAM ruined the timing a bit, but I hope you enjoy it.




Hours to make. Moments to comment.

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