1
realdeal
philippines
I will just make this review short by comparing this movie to gokusen or gto. Gto or gokusen is like an apple, this movie is a case of a rotten apple but I do love rotten apple better because I M-A-Y eat the apple but I D-E-F-I-N-I-T-E-L-Y wont eat the rotten apple.
now I need to see the drama......
Was this review helpful to you?
The visuals are very engaging if you don't get what the filmmaker trying to say atleast the visuals will make you keep on watching, like that bicycle scene, girl in a high school uniform underwater scene. I love the camera work the zoom in and the unsteady camera gives you a documentary feel to it, you will feel what the characters are feeling.. A great example of this is when the father, dying shaman mother trying to tease their daughter as they relax to their kinda garden part of the house Its a great scene the laughter their bonding as the camera shows that to you...their connection WONDERFUL. The piano music the wind music and that folk kinda song blends well to those scenes plus sounds of the waves, wind and the leaves brushing to each other.
No famous actors here but the performance of the actors are natural it is great but to me 3 characters really stands out which is the daughter(the main female protagonist), the shaman dying mother, and the loving surfer father). The father as he deliver that lyrical dialogue about waves is spot on, And that dying mother....her dying scene is one of the best I've seen powerful performance by her those tears where not fake and her acceptance about dying is really well played. And lastly the female Protagonist Yoshinaga JUn....I will remember your name There something about your aura that tell me your gonna be a fine fine terrific actress someday maybe someone like doona bae, like doona you can show emotions just with eyes, powerful asset and like doona your not afraid of doing nude for the sake of film...if a guy does nude in a film its MANLY if a girl does nude its slutty ppl thinks that but im not one of those closed minded ppl to me they are brave ready to do anything for the sake of their art.
Check my Blog for other reviews & other JDramas stuffs. (｡◕‿‿◕｡)
https://thatjapanesedramaguy.blogspot.com/
Was this review helpful to you?
The key to the horror aspect in this movie is the tonal shifts between the carefree slice of life vibe into something more terrifying. The illusion is so grand that it will make you lower your guard for a moment and make yourself vulnerable until the zombie swarm comes in, and the madness begins. That is the only reason why I think people will find this movie terrifying and not because zombie design was scary or the prosthetics and special effects realistic.
Not only the movie is mediocre in the production quality, but the acting is, let say, cute and leave it at that. The character also lacked depth, and it may be because of the limited time the movie has to explore these characters. They also appeared to be cardboard cutouts, the stereotype "we can do this together" strong personality, Kurumi, the mature but also useless leader, Yuri, the stoic and cold-shouldered pessimist Miki, and the airhead, full of energy, the loli of the group, Yuki. All of them were guided by the caring and everybody's favorite teacher, Megu-nee.
I dislike how the movie handled Yuki's mental state. They didn't explore it thoroughly. It could have been a lot better if they explored it like how dramas such as Boku wa Mari no Naka done it. In the movie, it seems she's just having a tantrum and not a hallucination. I guess it all comes down to the fact that they choose to adapt this story into a movie. Having limited time is a disaster in the making in any live-action adaptation. There are also points in the film where it is clearly written for an episode. They just cramped up all those scenes into a 2-hour movie, which resulted in not only weak characterization but also an abrupt ending.
Objectively, the only good thing I can say about this movie aside from the original plot is the twist near the end. It comes to me as heartwarming (even if it's poorly acted). I didn't see it coming at all, but I guess at that point, I already lost interest in the character, so I was not paying attention. But since I'm a guy who likes this type of plot, I enjoyed it a lot, so if you are like me who just want to see cute girls doing cute things in a zombie setting, then you'll also enjoy this movie.
Gakko Gurashi falls into the category of a brilliant idea but not executed well. There is so much potential in this story, given the strong underlying message it wanted to convey. It comes close to heart since we've been on that road before. There will come the point in time where we need to stop to rely on and just move on with our life. Had they executed it correctly, this movie would have been one of the best zombie movies ever. Now I'll check the anime and see if it's better.
Note: I always try to be as objective as possible in my reviews or just the recent ones, so if I only follow my personal feelings, I would give this one a 9 or 9.5 lol.
Check my Blog for other reviews & other JDramas stuffs. (｡◕‿‿◕｡)
https://thatjapanesedramaguy.blogspot.com/
Was this review helpful to you?
As a yamada fan I thought the director and script writer are amateur-ish
As a yamada fan I think the story concept could be great but sadly NOT
AS A yamada fan I thought his character is lame at the beginning
As a yamada fan I was glad his character develops near the end
As a yamada fan he and piere taki lily franky acts great
As a yamada fan his court scene is the most intense scene I saw from him
As a yamada fan This movie is terrible
haha I know watching a movie based on an actor is not good, but knowing how great yamada takayuki is how great his co actors is how great the trailer and HOW F-CKING GREAT POTENTIAL THIS STORY CONCEPT HAS I was nearly sure this was going to become a masterpiece, but for some reason the director and scriptwriter didnt know the borderline of being artsy and being boring. If yamada's character didnt develop then this is without a doubt yamada's poorest performance ever. The writer didnt even bother to put some spice in his character at the beginning. It is colorless so your watching a colorless scene for about half the movie, A script can make a great actor look bad this is one of those case. Pierre takis character Develops unrealistic too, so he became good just like that?? And how yamada was so eager to pursue this case was also not well done, you just dont understand why he acts like that,
Bad movie dont watch unless your a yamada fan.
Check my Blog for other reviews & other JDramas stuffs. (｡◕‿‿◕｡)
https://thatjapanesedramaguy.blogspot.com/
Was this review helpful to you?
One positive aspect is its semi eerie atmosphere. I've never seen such contrast with movie's setting and it's tone, the main lead's vacation with his wife is quite possibly the gloomiest vacation ever.
The sound is fantastic and whoever is responsible for it needs to be praised. He skillfully extracted those nature sounds which helps creating that fantastic semi eerie atmosphere. The location for this movie is beautiful too and the director didn't make shy in showing that.
Acting is quite strong, nishijima and takeshi kitano are both solid, and shiori is a bit of a revelation here. I see it as a start for her on tackling more mature roles. But as we reach the conclusion part, it gives us the ultimate headscratcher, you'll ask yourself "just what the heck did I watch".
Recommended for people who enjoys using all their braincells while figuring out what the heck is happening in the movie.
Check my Blog for other reviews & other JDramas stuffs. (｡◕‿‿◕｡)
https://thatjapanesedramaguy.blogspot.com/
Was this review helpful to you?
70% of the film was shot in my country Philippines, though they didn't mention its name, they just shot here as a location for this fictional place called Republic of Penam. It's obvious that this is a high budget film as there were lots of explosions, they even destroyed many vehicles. The special effects were neat, it didn't look fake, I've watched it with only 360x640 resolution and most of the time you can spot if it's fake with this resolution. The action scenes were superb and it seems they level up this time in this department. This series has amazing music, it's haunting but also catchy, but they didn't capitalize on using it as much this time.
The acting is still solid, though Hidetoshi's character change a bit, he gone van damne mode this time, knocking innocent people around HAHA. Teruyuki kagawa, no need to explain haven't seen this guy fail, also his father and daughter relationship with sugasaki hana is very well played. My favorite characters are still here namely, Shingai and Higashi, played by Hasegawa and Ikematsu, the former providing the comic relief and the latter still cool as he is. As Shingai only appears later in the movie it is Matsuzaka Tori's character provide the gore and creepiness throughout, and Tori played it close to perfection. Other two villains were played by Iseya Yusuke and Beat Takeshi even if they didn't do as much it's still nice to see those 2 well respected actor in this movie. If there's negative here it is Yoko Maki's character, she's just a decoration but it's not the actors fault it's the script.
Although I didn't quite like this, I still enjoy the experience. It's just fascinating to see you own country as a location for a Japanese production. It's also fascinating to hear Tagalog words in a Japanese movie, though most of them were cursed words like "put tank in a mall" if you happen to play online games XD. It's fascinating to hear Yusuke Iseya talking in Tagalog, his accent is quite good too. It's fascinating to see Higashi doing crazy stunts along that road that I used to pass by during college. Having said that, this is more big deal to me than any Hollywood production shot in my country.
Check my Blog for other reviews & other JDramas stuffs. (｡◕‿‿◕｡)
https://thatjapanesedramaguy.blogspot.com/
Was this review helpful to you?
first IMO there are factors to make a romantic movie successful.
1. The guy should be likable, I should imagine myself as i am the guy in this movie
I must say that I already watched jay chou in some movies and those movies makes me think that he is a bad actor. I am talking about initial D(which IMO should not exist) and green hornet. So I hesitate watching this movie because this number 1 factor I think is impossible but i was wrong it is not difficult to sink to his character and made me think he is me. Tho I think jay chou suck at one scene....the first time she and the female lead met, His reaction is overacting as f*ck.
2. I should fall in love with the girls character
This #2 factor is what made me love this movie. The female lead is a simple girl that becomes really pretty when she smiles. I also like her cheerful character that appears somewhat weak. It makes me wanna protect her.
3. The setting should be realistic
Now this IMO the biggest weakness of the movie. Its hard to imagine their school exist in real life. In fact at first I thought it is a harry potter music school, their uniform, characters and event that happen is harry potter-ish even the ambiance.
The story at first I already get a hint that she is somewhat not part of that world. This might be because of the way they shot some scenes and she is always with the guys character...this is a give away. The concept is genius but they failed to execute it well. This concept is somewhat similar to beautiful mind starring russell crowe , where that movie execute that concept well and this movie secret didn't. The script is genius but also amateur-ish, like they didn't care about plot holes as long as the scene is dramatic...example is the chalk writing that appears in guys desk near the end of the movie. Yes that is a dramatic scene but also a huge plot hole in the movie not just a plot hole but also a somewhat misleading scene that made me think she is a ghost. Without that scene this might be a better movie. Also that ending picture at the end WTF another huge plot hole just to have a more dramatic ending.
Now for the things the I like about this film
Music..
"music can tell thousand stories, music can portrays different emotions"
The piano battle...that scene alone makes this movie worth watching, That one hand technique by that main guy is epic he totally owned the other guy in their battle. I don't care about the songs used in this film I just don't feel the essence, Its the background music the makes this film a nice film to watch specially that music played during the first time the girl time traveled.
Probably I will watch this again with my girlfriend and see what her reaction about this.
Was this review helpful to you?
THE GOOD
What I like is the formula for each episode, like out of nowhere the yakuza boss will cook a dish, he will explain the proper way to prepare each dish which I am sure most people don't know. While they are eating the yakuza boss will explain what he did to make it delicious then our loser protagonist will make a commentary about the food while wearing his hilarious face LMAO, and as if it's not enough, after they were done eating, the yakuza boss will throw a meaningful comment that will connect the food to the lives of our characters LOL.
Those dishes in this drama are not that hard to do as some ingredients are pretty common and sometimes the yakuza boss improvised if some ingredients were not available.
THE BAD
Although the story has a nice twist at the end, it is still disappointing. I said this because the first episodes are good and it seems it is going to be a great drama but as the main story progress it didn't end up quite well, the plot got messed up and I'm quite annoyed when they forced that romance which in my opinion was so unnecessary.
Too much slapstick comedy as if they want to reiterate how loser the main character is, we got it, he is a loser and it's not even funny sometimes.
CHARACTERS
I like the chemistry between our 3 characters, it is a food drama anyway and it damn funny seeing their hilarious face while namase was explaining with his straight face. Main character has interesting group of friends, I said interesting cause they are the types who are most likely won't get along, rich kid, hardcore otaku(tho they had to cut his character in the middle cause it seems the actor did some sh*t in real life), BL manga lover and your typical loser main guy.
I've seen a lot of jdramas with stupid plots and I hadn't thought that this type of drama could be informative but ironically it is. I learned a lot like how to properly cook rice, the best way to drink beer, better way to cook fried rice, using yakisoba noodles for spaghetti and some methods that I didn't know exist.
Check my Blog for other reviews & other JDramas stuffs. (｡◕‿‿◕｡)
https://thatjapanesedramaguy.blogspot.com/
Was this review helpful to you?
