Lucky Seven, Honjitsu wa Taian Nari & Strawberry Night

I decided to watch three Winter doramas this year. 

"Lucky Seven".

"Honjitsu wa Taian Nari".

"Strawberry Night".

Mystery/Thriller genre <3

Among these three, I probably enjoyed Honjitsu the most... Lucky Seven was..hmm.. I guess the plot didn't work so well with me. I do have a favourite character & it's not MatsuJun's character. (:P)..  I don't really like how he portray his character - was it trying too hard..? Or maybe I saw some gap in his character that doesn't complement each other...? It was somewhat a complete opposite to Eita's performance. Now I know why I wasn't Jun-baited during HanaDan days :P ... I actually loved Jun's Kindaichi (another mystery dorama) - it felt like he wasn't afraid to look dorky/uncool at that time.. now seems different.. *sigh*

I was surprisingly a bit disappointed with "Strawberry Night". It wasn't bad..but it wasn't exceptionally good either (at least to me, it felt that way). In general, there were some interesting cases (bizarre & gruesome) & superb acting from guest stars such as Sugimoto Tetta..  Ishiguro Ken was amazing in the last three episodes!... with some exception... Oomasa was predictably bad (somewhat unnatural expressions... I hope she doesn't appear much in Mikeneko).. Kimura Tae was fine but I find her voice annoying (happened out of blue! I was surprised too) during the scene in the interrogation room, I had to fastforward that scene (hopefully I didn't miss anything essential :P) so that I could finish that particular episode. The regular cast was good too.. though I was kinda annoyed with Gantetsu the whole time... sometimes with Reiko too.. After watching a full-length series, I realise that I don't really like Reiko.. I'm not convinced with this intuition thing (though I believe in intuitions) incorporated in her character. I enjoyed seeing her chemistry with Kikuta, but I wasn't expecting anything to develop between them... Takashima Masahiro & Endo Kenichi were unexpectedly charming in their characters. Watanabe Ikkei's character was annoying too.. actually I'm more annoyed at how Watanabe played his character..or maybe it is the character itself...??  I've always loved Namase's acting...even if it's only a minor role, he always nails the character down. His character in Strawberry Night included.. sometimes I wished he wasn't so clingy to Reiko.. XD


But I'm satisfied with both "Lucky Seven" & "Strawberry Night" endings... especially "Strawberry Night".. *still impressed by Ishiguro-san's performance*

Mou Yuukai nante Shinai [Review]

Real-time (Jan/3)

Keyhole wasn't really nice that day :P. But I managed to watch until the end. I was sick... & I think I almost go to sleep in the middle :D. I didn't think it was that boring if you care to accept this from a biased Ohno fan :P. Honestly, I was expecting it to be a dorama SP that makes your New Year merrier... but I was wrong. It didn't help that this started straight away after VS Arashi ended (without ads between) :P. In my case, I was still a bit nervous/excited watching the final round of Rolling Coin Tower. Anyway... I think this is a dorama you're supposed to watch after all those New Year celebrations.. to like cool down. It has this calming effect on you so if you are one that thought it would be the merry kind, you'll be bored easily in the first 15 minutes. When the dorama reached its climax, I was wide awake...  because the dorama started taking on a quicker pace. I wasn't able to understand much (which means I have to self-study japanese language harder :P) except simple conversations, of course lol.. didn't get what Shotaro's senpai was speaking at all :P. I also like to see Shotaro & Erika's interactions (& sometimes with Komo-senpai).

LQ video (Jan/4-5)

Suffered watching LQ... because I couldn't see Ohno's expressions (which I really like to observe always) clearly. When I watched real-time, I couldn't follow the story properly because of video streaming issues.. anyway.. I just realised Shotaro loves superhero (tokusatsu?) merchandises. Is he counted as an otaku? Though maybe Ohno doesn't see the character that way because I'm not getting that vibe from him... anyway.. Like someone (or maybe most people) said, this dorama is star-studded.. I think I saw Takada Nobuhiko (wasn't listed in the cast list or correlation chart) in one of the scenes. I'm sure I saw more but can't recall anyone now. Kaname Jun didn't look like him at all...is it because of the hair? :P Erika's erm... family looks fun. I like how her father is portrayed as a fierce on the outside yet a fatherly mob leader. He looked sincerely worried when he got the call from Erika's "kidnappers".


Chinese-subbed (Jan/6)
SUBS! lol... Seeing this with subs (with limited chinese vocab :P) enlightened me a bit about the plot. Actually like 75-85% enlightenment :P.. anyway.. About Kaname, I think it was the moustache :P... And I may not be fond of Kanjiya's acting, but she seems comfortable with her role.. And I don't think this is comedy really.. sure there were some funny scenes here and there.. but I still think it's more to the mystery side.

Watching for the 3rd time, I started thinking how interesting it would be to see this as a renzoku dorama. I wish I knew the characters better (for a 2-hr dorama, not much characters development can be done) ... the atmosphere sure feels like I should have known them. But if it will be done as a full-length dorama, I wish it starts from the ending of the SP. Of course the title & plot had to change too lol, I don't think I can watch Shotaro saying "I shouldn't have done this kidnapping stuff" in every episode... I'm thinking of a plot similar to Mukodono..like Shotaro having to work for Hanazono family to get father's approval *oh lol.. Sorry, imagination running wild.. XD* (actually hoping for a more serious role in dorama for him this year *my wish every season*)..

I wish I can say I like Shotaro... but I can't... because I don't know this character well. I think he's likable though.. but I need more than 2hrs to really like him. In my opinion, Ohno's performance here falls in the same category with his character in Uta no Onii-san (characters that are similar to his personality). He played his character well... & that was it. There weren't really scenes that made me go "WOW. This person's acting skill is superb" like the feelings I get watching Maou's eps 7 where Naruse met her sister... or Kaibutsu-kun's eps 4's crying scene at the end.


HQ video + japanese subtitles (Jan/7)
Watching again for the fourth time :D.. Actually not till the end, I just want to check the video's quality. But the more I watch it the more I grow to love it. I also realised that the special appearances by some casts were for "Strawberry Night" (a subtle promo, perhaps?)...



HQ video + english subtitles (Jan/10)
English subs makes a big difference :D...