Youth is not just that.
This movie it’s a slap in the face of the pretty rotten system called “mental health clinics”.
When you ask someone what “depression” or “mental diseases” are they just tell you “crazy people who are mad as hell.”
This movie portray all of this stereotypes and clean them up at the same time.
The two main characters are basically opposed to each other.
Lee Ming Ki play a pretty easy going boy who can be described as “eccentric” by society but, when it comes to a mental health institute, he’s portray as “a crazy arsonist”.
He was sent to a clinic just because he had some issues going on with his father’s inheritance so his brothers locked him there just to get all the money for themselves.
Jingoo character is a nice boy who suffers from a big trauma and now he can’t face a normal life. Not because he can’t but because he doesn’t want to.
The movie’s peace is really catching. You are tangled up with all the minor characters stories.
The main cast is superb.
Amazing actors with amazing acting skills, JinGoo is so young yet he’s basically the most talented young actor in Korea.
MingKi never fails to impress me.
He can act all different kind of roles and he never get boring.
Usually I think that Korean movies force you to cry even when the plot doesn’t need it.
They just make up some teary scenes just to make you sympathize with the characters and the story.
In this case it doesn’t happen.
When you cry you do it because the scenes are really touching and not exaggerated.
It might be a pretty simple plot but at the end it makes you realize that maybe we are all like JinGoo’s character.
Just young people afraid of built up something with our own straight because we fear adult life and the world itself.
Amazing movie, I would recommend it to everyone who like touching and simple stories.
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That’s the question that this drama want you to answer.
I watched this drama just because Kyungsoo was in there. And, I’m afraid to say, it was the only reason why I didn’t drop it after two episodes.
The plot is quite interesting. A family is crashed by a young and clever serial killer. That handsome serial killer takes away the little kid of the family, making the older one crave for revenge.
The plot itself isn’t the real reason why I gave this drama 6 out of 10.
It had a great potential : an epic battle between two brothers and the man who teared their family apart. BUT, as we all know when it comes to korean drama, the only thing that spoiled it all was the romance that the screenwriters tried so hard to gave us.
Two completely opposite characters : the dumb, nagging and useless female cop, who didn’t act once as a heroine. And the clever criminologist, who’s character was pretty good but got ruined by the female lead toward the end of the story.
The little brother, Lee Min, was the sugar to pour in this bitter tea.
He was educated by a serial killer, so in the end he became one himself. His personality, his appearance and his morals were fascinating. Yet, he was a huge attention seeker, he forgot really quickly about his revenge toward his brother, making the plot lacking some good concepts.
Lee JunYeong was supposed to be a creepy and dangerous man. Unfortunately, he wasn’t.
All his charisma, the charisma that Kyungsoo gave to the character while playing his younger self, was totally outshine after growing old.
He was a pure and innocent man who had two choices : to forgive his family or to punish them.
They tried to give him a sad story just to make sympathize with him. His characters became pathetic in the end. Just a poor man who just wants to built a family with those kids.
Cha JinHa was a pain in the back. A stalker, useless, sleepyhead girl who just wanted to make Lee Hyeon her boyfriend. She was such a bad character that I couldn’t stand her for only two seconds.
This drama had a good plot. But once again, korean screenwriters spoiled it with a romantic and stupid love story.
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Unfortunately, Orange is that case.
I'm not a fan of Tao Tsuchiya but I decided to give this movie a try because my cupcake baby boy Kento was in here.
Let's say it straight: This movie can be barely watch because of Tao Tsuchiya terrible acting.
I'm not saying it's her fault, I think that she was directed really bad.
It was like watching an anime character, I really bad female character with that unpleasant and annoying voice that makes you want to slam your head over your keyboard.
She portrayed that typical Japanese female character with a pure soul and and an high pitched voice.
At some points she really pissed me off with this bloody annoying voice of her and those ridiculous gestures that made her character looked dumb and...... dumber.
Can't get why she was so praised for this movie because she was really that only thing that spoiled it.
Although the movie was way too long and sometimes there were some boring scenes to handle with, I think that the half part of it was really directed well.
As I always say when I talk about Kento, he's only know for his beautiful face and most of the time his fans are just too biased when it comes to give a review or a score to his movies.
In this case, I think he really deserved all the good things people said about his acting skills.
Some crying scenes were really heartbreaking and his intonation ( I let's face the truth, most of the time his voice really lacks intonation) was so on point that I almost felt down off my chair.
I still think that Kento really needs to improve his acting skills but damn, he really showed a glimpse of his real talent here.
He really deserves better roles, dramatic ones I might say.
The cinematography was brilliant, those pastel colours were on point with the sweetness of the plot. Talking about the plot.
If you have read the manga or at least heard about it, you know that the main plot talks about depression.
Kakeru is depressed, He's a teenage boy suffering from a depression caused by a really tragic happening.
What I didn't like about the main plot was that thgey didn't actually showed this side of it.
Although Kento has portrayed it perfectly ( his sad gaze, his low voice, how he changed from hype moments to really depressed ones) I do think that the mangaka didn't really understand how depression works.
Kakeru is depressed and saving him with the power of friendship and with some positiveness looked I little bit odd to me. They cured it too fast and this has left me a little bit confused.
But in the end I think that the mangaka wanted to make us think that even in those kinds of moments there's still hope to relay on.
Talking about the cast, a really good one.
I won't give this movie an high score just because of Tao, I'm so sorry to say it.
I don't think I'm going to re-watch it but at least I was so happy to see that Kento is trying to kick his haters on their feet showing that he can actually be a good actor and not just an hot ikemen.
Kento, my dear, now it's time to move on and pick some really good roles.
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I’ll leave aside the plot, you all know it.
Let’s start by saying that I heard a lot of people saying that this movie is a little bit sloppy.
I didn’t watch the anime nor I have read the manga.
When it comes to live action based on manga otaku or just big fans of the story like to complain about the cast and the adaptation.
In this case I think it wasn't needed.
The cast, a pretty young one (not talking about Suda and Yamada) , is a good cast.
Suda, played Karma amazingly.
Talking about him, I’m always satisfied with his acting. He’s one of the best young actors in Japan ( if I had to make a list, I think he will rock the first place to be honest), and this time too He proved that he can easily play a cold and sarcastic character without being boring.
He had few scenes but He has done them all well.
Talking about Yamada, he’s amazing and it’s such a shame that he played a boring character like Nagisa.
A lot of people bashed his acting here but I think that he’s not at fault. His performance was good, extremely good, but I think that this character wasn’t meant for him.
He’s so talented, his acting skills were wasted on Nagisa.
And now, Kazunari.
I will recommend this movie just for his amazing job as a dubber.
He was the main star here, overshadowing even Yamada and Suda.
I hate seeing people calling him “ a pretty average actor” because in this movie you can feel his charisma just by hearing his voice.
He wasn’t physically there but you could tell what his facial expressions were or his moves just by hearing is warm and nasty voice.
In conclusion, I’ll give this movie 7 out of 10 because it was well made.
This doesn’t look like a review at all. Just my thoughts on this movie.
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Commuting to School Series: Commuter Tram
10 people found this review helpful
I do like to watch shojo movies but this one was really awful.
There wasn’t even a real and catchy plot, no acting skills at all.
I feel bad saying it but as a big fan of Chiba Yudai I was really disappointed by his acting here.
Sloppy, awful, something that I won’t watch ever again.
And what about Ryo? He’s such a great actor but he has a strange and gloomy curse : it seems like no one wants to give him a lead role.
Chiba’s cute scenes were adorable….
I’ll give this movie a low score and, to be very honest, I won’t even recommend it to my friends.
Basically only big fans of Yudai can be able to handle it and watch it ‘till the end.
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I loved both movies and L change the world was actually a cool movie to watch.
So if someone may ask me to describe this drama with a single word I would probably choose to use the adjective “Disappointing”.
Let me explain myself.
It’s actually a pretty good version of the anime. The story is crazily different form the original one BUT it was actually good to watch Yagami Light character portrayed as a extremely good boy who wants to clear up the world.
Let’s go on with the review:
GOOD POINTS
- L character.
I might describe myself as a “conservative” type when it comes to L character. He’s a pretty complex personality, basically a genius who’s also a weirdo.
This version of L is amazing. He’s a brat at first, a handsome young genius who just wants to play a game with an extremely “dumb” version of Light Yagami.
I loved his personality and during the drama you can see that it slightly changed to a serious one, putting aside jokes when police members start to get killed by Kira.
I always say that Kento still needs to improve as an actor but damn, here he was a shining diamond. He should accept those kind of roles more often, a villain would be a really great challenge for him.
Anyway he did an amazing job and he made me fall in love with L even more.
- Cinematography and Photography.
It was a low budget drama, Ryuk was awful BUT I love the cinematography. It’s not as perfect as “PIECE” one but damn, it was well directed.
- Police Team .
I loved the chemistry between them.
BAD POINTS
- The plot.
I would gave this drama a higher score if the plot didn’t fucked up on its last episode. Death Note screenwriters were amateurs, you can’t deny it.
L death was useless and although it was pretty dramatic I found it useless. Why recording videos of yourself in which you explain exactly how Kira will be caught but get yourself killed because of a stupid mistake?
L’s death was really unnecessary for this plot, plot full of odd points and unexplained choices.
- Light character.
Let’s be honest, I loved how they portrayed Light as a good boy who just got himself caught up with something really evil that has made his mind gone crazy.
BUT Some points were missing. He turned into a psycho really quickly and at some point I was like “What's happening? It was a good guy just a sec ago and now he’s as mad as an hatter.”
I love Kubota’s acting skills but he just got too hype during some scenes, making Light looking like an…. Overexcited idiot?
THE ENDING
Worst ending ever! On my point of view this drama started to get awful right after L death. The plot was getting boring and the main star, L, just disappeared too soon, making the audience a little bit confused and disappointed.
Honestly speaking, I would watch this drama over and over again just for Kento’s character.
I would recommend this drama if you are a big fan of Kento (just like me) but if you are a huge HUGE fan of the manga I guess this drama will piss you off.
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This review may contain spoilers
This review might and will contain spoilers: This drama has a lot of violence in it. But it's a crime drama, violence needs to be a part of it.
I'll not focus on the plot this time. It was ok, almost brilliant. There weren't black holes, everything fit perfectly together so I have nothing to complain about the plot.
The most interesting thing about this drama is its characters.
Some of them were written really well, some of them were too plain for me to like them.
Let's start with Jin Hyeok.
A pretty skillful cop, he chases criminals and murderers like a crazy dog chase a car.
Clever, never disappointing when it comes to his way of dealing things and troublesome situations. He seeks revenge toward the psycho who killed his wife, he's a protecting father yet his son has never been a pain in the ass (Like SY has been in Duel).
At first he can't team up with his new team, he just wants to do his job alone like a lone wolf. But after some episodes we see that he's actually stronger while being in a team.
Kwoo Joon is the tough female cop that works as his sidekick.
Both seeking for the murderer who killed their darlings, Kwoo Joon is the brain of the team.
She has a really good hearing, almost a supernatural power I might say.
She knows how to handle things, but, most of all, she knows how making a team work.
She's not the best female character I have ever seen in Kdramas but she was a really strong woman.
REASON TO WATCH IT.
The villain is one of the most interesting and creepy villain I ever saw.
I'm not just talking about how he kills people, a really gruesome way, but I really enjoyed his personality and his background story.
A villain is a villain and a well made villain doesn't need to have a sad background story to being with.
Taegu grew up with a mental illness. His father didn't want to cure him so his father made TaeGoo become that kind of adult.
I really enjoyed the way they killed him off.
Maybe it was too unrealistic, but he was killed the way he used to kill people.
And, in the end, he was scared.
Great drama, I'll give it a 7.5 out of 10.
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We all know that OCN is amazing when it comes to Chasing and thriller drama (Voice and Tunnel were gems).
Duel plot centers around a group of people who are obsessed with a vaccine that might cure terminal illness.
We have different characters, all of them are connected to each other somehow: two clones seeking for a way to survive. One is taking revenge on those bad guys who treated him like an animal, the other one is trying to help a veteran cop to find his kidnapped daughter.
This drama started really well, the plot was thrilling, the characters were well scripted.
But, sadly, toward the end it started to be a little bit sloppy and the plot has some black holes.
First of all, let me talk about the two twins.
SungJoon is the nice guy. He was used by his twin as an escapegot, when he committed some homicides he blamed them all to his twin. He has no memories at first, he doesn't know who he was and why there's a guy who looks exactly like him without being his twin by blood.
His character's psychology is not bad. He's too kind, too soft and too innocent to be the real villain. In fact, the drama didn't give us any suspense. We know that there won't be any plot twists about him right in the first episodes of this drama. Pretty disappointing, though.
The real gem of this drama is SungHoon.
Evil, clever and with some guts. He seeks revenge, he seeks life and he's doing everything to achieve these two things.
He was a victim too, yet no one gave a damn about him.
Reason to watch it :
SungHoon, obviously. We can see his character grow during the drama.
Reason to not watch it:
Mirae and the bloody sick kid were useless. Both annoying characters, they didn't make the audience sympathize with them.
The way the police handle the case of Sunghoon left me speechless. When they found out who he was and why he was doing all those bad things they even tried to help him out neither for a tiny second.
If you are watching this to see some sweet moments between the two twins, drop it.
Sunghoon isn't a sweet guy. All the bad things that had happened to him turned him into someone who is just filled with anger and grudge. He doesn't forgive his brother for not trying to find him and even in the end, even though we can see a little bit of change in his mind, I couldn't see a real affection for his twin.
Yup, he did try to save SungJoon in the end, yet I still didn't see that love that brothers share.
SungJoon loved his twin. But, let's be honest here.... Did he really try to help him out? He was all into saving that annoying kid that, in the end, I started to find him a pain in the ass.
IS THE ENDING WORTH THE WATCH?
No, if we are only talking about the ending... Absolutely not.
Korean dramas are predictable, we all know it. It doesn't give justice to any of its characters and it left me with some sour taste on my tongue.
IS THERE ANY ROMANCE?
Nope, thank's God there isn't any romantic story between the characters. They tried to pair up SungJoon with Mirae, but romance were useless in this plot and thank's God the screenwriters knew it before screwing up everything.
I secretly ship SungHoon with SeoJin though.
IS THERE ANY SUSPANCE?
I might say no...
After 5 episodes you know exactly how is going to end.
These drama could have been perfect if they tried to focus a little more on the twins background story and their relationship.
IN THE END, DID I LIKE IT?
I might say so. SeJong is amazing, he made me his fan right after the first episode.
I'll give this drama 6.5 out of 10 because the ending ruined EVERYTHING.
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Kamenashi Kazuya plays a cop who falls in love "without a reason" with a high school girl. Kame's character is good, not particularly likeable but good.
What I didn't get while watching this movie is why, for God's sake, an adult man like him fell in love with a high school student who acted exactly how one of her peers.
The ending with Bruno Mar's song was the part the I actually liked better.
Not a good movie, but definitely better than other shojo manga filmed this year.
*cough* peach girl, for instance.*cough*
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Yamaneko, the sort of tonedeaf version of Lupin, a thief that looks high on drugs every time that he opens his mouth to say something.
I’ll be honest while writing this review and I’ll try to ignore my HUGE love for Kame.
What’s this drama core? Yamaneko and Katsumura’s characters.
Without these two leads this drama would have been sloppy and pretty boring.
The plot is simple. The handsome and weird thief who wants to take revenge and kill the bad man that has ruined his entire life making him a spy without his will.
Yuuki’s character wasn’t a real villain. He looked like a ghost, something that haunts Yamaneko.
The real villain, the one who really made you scream “THAT’S A NASTY ONE” was Katsumura.
Clever, insane, yet not Narimiya’s best villain. We all know how good is Narimiya at playing the bad guy role.
Suzu Hirose’s character was irrelevant. A genius young hacker with a cold yet good personality who just want to stuck with Yamaneko to finally have a proper family. That was a clique. She was boring, her personality was not well written.
This drama had some good points, a really funny comedy scenes but, also, it had a lot of black holes.
I’ll making a simple example. Let’s talk about Yamaneko’s past. Totally massed up. I think the audience had some hard times while trying to understand what the hell was his reasons to take revenge on that masked creepy ghost. Sure, he was betrayed by the one who rose him. Sure, he wanted to make Japan great again. But why? Why was his trying so hard to heal a country that didn’t asked to be healed?
He was so obsessed with Bushido, yet he didn’t actually follow the Bushido’s philosophy.
I wanted him to commit suicide in the end, just like betrayed samurais do.
Even if the plot was lacking some points, I still think that this drama proved once again that Kamenashi is actually a pretty good character.
Maybe Yameneko reminded me a bit to much of god Yato from Noragami manga but still it was a good watch.
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I wasn’t expecting much, you know.
The main plot is a little bit boring. The main heroine is a girl who doesn’t want to accept that her best friend can actually find himself a good girlfriend.
Talking about Hatori, I really hates her character ( But Kiritani Mirei is always amazing when it comes to make the audience have a good laugh XD).
She’s possessive and, let me say it clearly, a little bit a pain in the back.
What I hated about this movie is how all characters try to scold Adachi attitude. Sure, maybe during the end she acted a little bit as a wannabe victim but please, let’s be honest: She wasn’t the villain at all, why calling her “ a victim” during the first half of the movie? She was basically a good girl stucked between a love game of two best friends who didn’t want to admit that they were in love since childhood.
Rita character is cute but Yamazaki Kento didn’t act so well in this movie. I think he really needs to stop for a moment and try to choose better characters, he’s pretty talented but lately all his characters are plain and have the same personalities. It’s such a shame though, his L was perfect.
I think he still need to improve as an actor and here he wasn’t actually acting at all. ( his kiss scenes are the best though!).
Sakaguchi Kentaro’s character was …idk, he was ok but I guess he was pretty useless. His acting skills are pretty average but at least, he showed some emotions.
In the end, all I can say is that I didn’t like this movie. Sure, some scenes were so funny to watch and Nakajima was a total badass, I was disappointed to see that she didn't get so many scenes TT
There are better shojo manga live actions out there, guess this one didn’t get on my favourites list.
The ost was amazing though, it’s the only thing I liked about this movie ( Kento cuteness too). Kana Nishino songs are such a bliss!
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He’s basically one of the most talented young actors in Japan so when I watched this drama I wanted to slam the screenwriter head against a wall.
The plot is ok, I’m not saying I didn’t like it.
But all the characters, except for Kamiki’s one ( but sometimes his character too were a little bit awful) , were so bad portrayed that I almost drop this drama.
Let’s talk about the plot. It’s basically the common high school story about a girl who was bullied by evil and rich classmates and now she take a stand and try to change her rotten school.
The main idea is actually cool, the first episode left me so speechless. But after some episodes, I noticed that the story started to become a little bit boring because of the characters.
The “evil boys” weren’t actually evil at all. It took just one episode to completely make them become good puppies.
Same thing happened to the “bitches squad”.
This plot had a good meaning behind it. Education is an evil creature and basically school and teachers don’t gice a damn about their students.
Kei monologues were AMAZING! He’s so clever and I liked to see that he was actually pretty old compared to other characters age.
His background story was touching but I couldn’t stop myself from laughing when he stood up just like Clara from Haidi anime.
And last but not least, Hirose Suzu.
Let’s be honest, I really hate her. I can’t understand why she’s so freaking famous as an actress when her voice is so annoying but that’s just my opinion.
Her character was cute but at the same time I found her so freaking childish. But it was a good match to Kei’s cold and sassy personality.
This wasn’t a drama meant for a love story so when Haruna kissed Kei I was like “NOOOOO WHAT THE HELL ARE THEY DOING????”
Romance isn’t always the right choice.
Anyway, I would recommend this drama but just for Kamiki’s acting skills.
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This review may contain spoilers
Even though some of you might say that this movie's plot is a little bit "predictable", I still find it innovative. This review might and will contain spoilers, so don't read it if you didn't watch the movie yet.
The plot might sound and look simple, but it has a huge psychological depth.
Some kids, who is obsessed with social networks and virtual life more than their real one, decide to punish a rude girl who post malicious comments about a soldier's death.
They gather up to film this girl being punished. But when they enter her apartment, they discover that the girl has taken her life.
But something smells fishy. It doesn't look like a suicide. Someone murdered this girl and they want to find out who's this psycho.
The plot sounds like some cheap thriller movie, with young wannabe detectives who are chasing a pretty bad killer.
Nope, the director fooled you right in the beginning.
The main characters are the real murders. They played with this girl's mind, making her feel uneasy and scared.
Yet, no one of them want to admit that this girl killed herself because of their words.
Can some nasty comments push someone to commit suicide?
Are words more dangerous than weapons?
Yes, they are.
This movie shows how easily oppressors become victims and victims become nasty fellows.
Young Min is a real shining character. He admitted his wrongs, he was the first one who wanted to target this ""bad girl""", the first one who suggested that maybe this girl was killed by someone and also the first one who openly admitted that the killer was him.
Actually, all of them took part in it.
The internet is a nasty beast. If you keep feeding it, it will grow fatter and hungrier.
Overall, this movie told a good lesson.
The same lesson that all of us will soon forget after one hour.
A must watch.
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In this case, I think that Kuragehime ( just like a lot of other live actions adaptations) shouldn't had become a movie.
I'm a huge fan of the anime so when I found that it was going to get a live action adaptation I was so exited.
Unfortunately, I found this movie boring to the core.
The only diamond here is Suda and his acting.
The crazy and beautiful thing about Kuranosuke is that he's actually a straight guy who just love to wear girl's clothes.
Even if he's wearing a dress or a wig, he's a boy. He can both talk like a boy or a girl, but he's definitely a straight guy. Just like some drag queen who just wear sparkling clothes without being gay or anything.
Kuranosuke is basically a kind of modern and young drag queen.
His character was well portrayed and , trust me, he's the only reason to watch this adaptation. But, obviously, if you didn't read the manga nor watch the anime you can find this movie enjoyable.
But, unfortunately, I have watched the anime so It was quite hard watching this movie till the end without falling asleep in the middle.
The plot it's the same, but now I'll tell you what made me dislike this movie so much.
The lead actress and her horrible acting while playing Tsukimi.
Tsukimi is a shy, innocent , nerd girl. You can not fall in love with her, because she's a ball of sunshine and her cuteness just makes you cry while cuddling a stuffed Jellyfish.
Her beautiful personality it's a great match with Kuranosuke's one, who's hype and shining.
Talking about the lead actress, she didn't make me feel any of those characteristics said before.
Her acting was plain, her voice's tone gave me chills down of my spine, but in a bad way.
Probably people would say that it's mean saying that an actress can't act. But, in my opinion, when it comes to actors, just like singers, you have to leave aside your feelings for an actor and just judge objectively its performance.
In this case, Nounen Rena did an awful job.
Why am I saying this? Because I know her from “Hot road” and she has done the same afwul performance even in that movie.
She wasn't the right choice for this role, she was totally overshadowed by Masaki Suda.
Another good thing about this movie ( The good things about this movie are just TWO single points on my list) is the group of the “Amars.”
Skilled actress, funny and adorable. They had the magical power to bring those characters to life.
Talking about the director, I knew it from the start that I shouldn't had trust him with this adaptation.
I know him from LDK, movie that I rated 4 because, leaving aside Kento's cute face, was a totally bore.
I'll just finish up this review, if I may call it like that, by saying that if you love Suda, you definitely have to watch it.
But, if you are a fan of the anime, I think you will be a little bit disappointed by it.
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I knew it was a pretty popular manga so I gave it a try because lately I'm into live action adaptations.
The plot is not that easy to follow.
Long story short: an homeless guy who suffers from amnesia gets involved with a medical student who believes that if we make a hole in the middle of our forehead we can see things that other people don't. The main character has to live with this hole in the head for seven days to prove to the medical student that the experiment was a success.
The first half of this movie was brilliant.
Narita Ryo character ( God bless his acting skills) is weird, it catches your eyes from the very first time it steps on the scene.
But, towards the end, the plot get all messy.
There's a huge plot twist but it was all rushed up.
In the end, I might say that you can enjoy this movie just for Narita's character.
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