Movie: Love Exposure (2009)

*WARNING - explicit language and maybe... MAYBE graphic images*

Plot: 
"Love Exposure" tells an epic tale of love, family, religion, and sex.
Yu Tsunoda and Yoko meet under the most unusual of circumstances. After Yu loses a bet with his friends he agrees to go into the city dressed as a woman and kiss the first woman he sees. When they go into the city Yu and his friends comes across a young teenage girl named Yoko who is surrounded by a group of thugs. Yu, still dressed as a woman, then helps Yoko beat up the gang of thugs. Afterwards Yu kisses Yoko and runs away. Yu for the first time falls in love with a girl, but Yoko falls in love with the woman in drag known only as Miss Scorpion.
Meanwhile, Yu is being followed by Aya Koike, a member of the cult group "Zero Church." Aya Koike devises a plan to bring Yu's entire family into the "Zero Church," but first she will gain the favor of Yoko by masquerading as Miss Scorpion
Credit: AsianWiki

Main Cast: Nishijima Takahiro (AAA), Mitsushima Hikari, Watabe Atsuro, Watanabe Makiko, Ando Sakura

Comments:
This movie.... THIS MOVIE... is SO. Damn. Twisted.  While there's comedy in it, it's sickening.
It's sick, twisted, morbid, dirty, funny, disturbing........... and more, that i cant really find the words to describe.

Definitely not suitable for the young crowd.  There's a lot of sexual content.  Don't think there was nudity, but there were definitely a lot of panty shots and boners shown for a lifetime.

I didn't know what I was getting into when I got this movie.  I originally wasn't going to get this movie, but every time I went to search for certain genres, it'd pop up, so I thought why not, especially since Nissy was in it.  This movie really gave me a new perspective of him.... not really one I'd like to imagine, but yeah...

So the movie is broken up into chapters.  Some longer than others.  The first chapter seemed normal enough.  The mother gets sick, fairs her son some last advice, passes away and lives to help Dad.  Typical drama style.  So then, a woman enters into their lives, falls in the love with the dad, wants to become part of his family.  But here's where it gets a bit out there.  The dad had become a priest for a catholic church, so he cant fall in love with the women so goes against the catholic religion and secretly lives with her.  She breaks up with him because they cant get married.  The dad goes crazy, kept asking for the son to tell his sins on a daily basis and in order to get his dad's attention to starts to break a lot of rules and sin really badly to confess everyday.

.......... Sin-seeking........... that's the basic story of the first 1/4 of the movie.

The rest of the movie (and excuse my language from here-on out) gets hella fucking crazy.  The biggest sin this fool can do is become a panty photographer.  Sneaking upskirt shots of women and girls in the streets.  And he was doing all these crazy ass moves trying to get them. How the fuck can they not notice what he was doing?!  After getting caught by this one chick, he lets her off free, but you know this bitch is up to something cuz she starts stalking his ass.  He ends up losing a bet and has to dress as a women and kiss a girl in the street (which is described up top).  That chick falls in love with him... but she thinks he's a girl.. so she ends up thinking she's a lesbian.

She gets all hot and bothered when she thinks of his alter ego, yet she never knows that the person she fell in love with is actually a guy.  She hates men, thinks theyre the worst.  This chick is actually an "adopted" daughter of the lady that fell in love with the kids dad. they end up coming back together and the 4 live as a family.  He loves that chick, but she hates him and thinks hes a perv.  Crazy bitch starts to mess around with them.  Joins their school, lies that she's the alter ego, chick falls in love with her, and all this crazy ass bullshit happens.

So after it was revealed the kid was a perv to the class, he gets kicked out of the house and the family get abducted and brainwashed to join a cult called "Church Zero" (church zero? zero church? cant remember).  The kid tries to reprogram the chick but without success and gets dragged along to join the cult but didnt work out and she goes on a rampage and kills a bunch of people in an attempt to save the girl.  Everyone goes crazy, crazy bitch kills herself, the kid goes fucking psycho and then the last chapter occurs.

With all the intense moments in the middle of the movie, I was hoping the last chapter would end with something huge.  It ended lame.  The kid is in the psych ward thinking he's his alter ego. The reprogrammed chick goes there to save him.  She ends up doing so in the end but gets arrested, he chases after her and ... thats basically it... WHAT?!
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This movie is full of crazy ass shit that me explaining the movie can't justify.  I mean... this was full of almost 4 hours... 4 HOURS of manipulation and sinning and all this crazy shit.  On a catholic standpoint I felt disgusted that they were using that as a premise.  I thought it was going to be somewhat subtle, especially after the start of the movie but things started to propel worse and worse and got more perverted as the movie went along.  FOUR FUCKING HOURS.  Never have I ever had to watch a FOUR HOUR movie full of perverted shit.  NISSY.. HOW MANY BONERS DID YOU GET THROUGH THIS FUCKING MOVIE?!  MITSUSHIMA HIKARI.. HOW MANY TIMES DID YOU SHOW YOUR PANTIES?!!

You'd think that I'd give this movie a low rating, honestly I probably would but just for being this fucking perverted and fucking crazy I'm giving this shit a 10/10.  That's how fucking cool this shit was LMAO


I'm sorry about the language but that was me rambling my real thoughts about this movie.

Drama: Soredemo, Ikite Yuku ep02

Official Site: Fuji TV - Soredemo, Ikite Yuku 

The 2nd episode wasn't necessarily better than the first episode, but it was still good.  The story continues from where the last episode ended.  Futaba reveals to Hiroki that she is "Shounen A's" little sister (Kenji/Fumiya).  Hiroki can't believe it and says he doesn't understand what that means, very much in denial.  Unable to accept what he just heard, Hiroki tries to leave as quick as possible.  Futaba threw a piece of paper with her phone number one it into Hiroki's car before he drove off.

 Futaba and her family are moving again.  They send off Futaba's grandmother to a home since it's getting harder to pick up and leave with the grandmother's physical state.  As they start unloading their car, a police officer comes by handing out a flier that a little girl had been kidnapped in the surrounding area.  The same day, Hiroki is at his father's funeral along with Kohei.  Kohei brings Hiroki back to his families house for dinner on behalf of his father-in-law.  During dinner, Hiroki brings up his father and all the taboo around their families problems (did that make sense?) despite Kohei telling him not to in the first place.  Before he could really tell how he feels, he stops himself and leaves the house.

That night at Futaba's house, Futaba watches as her sister puts on makeup and asks her why she's doing it.  She tells her that she's just practicing before she goes to school.  Akari tells Futaba that she doesnt want to live her life like her sister, that she wants to live her own life and not have it set by the fate of their older brother.

 At Kusuma Farm, Kenji (Fumiya), greets the Kusuma family as he heads into the kitchen.  Goro (the owner) asks where he's been at night, Maki (Goro's daughter) tells him to leave him alone and notices very large wounds on Kenji's left hand.  Goro had a look of concern about what he's been doing all night.  The same morning, Futaba is seen going to the Fukami fishing spot/house.  Just like in the first episode, theres this awkwardness between the two of them, especially when she first enters the shop.  Futaba shows Hiroki a newspaper telling him that a little girl had been abducted and that it's possible it was Fumiya who kidnapped her because the figure in the newspaper is similar to his.  Hiroki believes that if Fumiya is the culprit, then maybe he had taken the girl to Mikazuki Mountain to where Aki was killed.

 They travel through the mountain area, getting closer to the lake.  As theyre walking, Hiroki asks Futaba why Fumiya would kill Aki.  Futaba doesn't have an answer to that, but she explains all the positive qualities about her brother.  The more she talked, the angrier Hiroki got.  After she mentions a letter that she received from him a year after the incident that said he was sorry about the summer festival being cancelled, she mentions that maybe the charges against her brother could have been false.  Hiroki furiously pushes Futaba to the ground and yells at her about how she thinks that it can't be true her brother is the criminal and that how could she have enjoyed her Christmas that year after the incident.  In a rage, he starts to strangle Futaba telling her that she should feel how Aki must have felt.  As she's choking, Hiroki realizes what he's doing and lets go.  Futaba lets him know that he should go ahead and kill her as others have told her family that they should all die to repent for the sins of their son.  As Hiroki was about to walk away, Futaba tells him that her family didn't eat the Christmas cake that he had mentioned, but was returning that.  With that, he walks away and the rain falls in dramatic fashion.

Hiroki returns back to his house and turns on the TV.  He calls Futaba reaching her voicemail, leaving a message telling her that the news reports that the missing child had been with her divorced father and that Fumiya had nothing to do with it.  At the Kusama farm, Maki tells her father that Kenji had been fixing up her daughters bike for her, which is why he's been gone late and getting injured.  Outside the farm, Goro asks Kenji what he thinks of his daughter in which he responds with "I will never love someone again, nor will I let someone love me for the rest of my life"

Akari finds some letters in her and her sister's room that were sealed and addressed to Fumiya.  The letter was updating Fumiya about what the family has been up to and how Futaba's life has been since he left.  She ended the letter telling him that she's waiting for his arrival back home and she'll always believe his innocence.
Hiroki heads back to the mountain to find Futaba sitting in a bed of Red Poppies (how he found her so easily, who knows..).  She tells Hiroki that now she believes her brother is the murderer, as her and Fumiya had planted red poppies before over the death of the kittens they had found a long time ago.  She also reveals that Fumiya had tried to kill her before and that if she had died then, then maybe Aki wouldnt have had to die.

 The story cuts to Kenji who is beating a child's bike with a hammer (you can't fix a bike with a hammer, dude).  Maki is asking him a bunch of questions ending with "where have you been before this?"  Kenji doesn't answer.  Making goes in to push his hair back, but he stops her and gets up.  As he's about to leave, she goes in and kisses him.  He shoves her away causing her to fall and he leaves immediately.

 The story ends with Futaba and Hiroki heading to the festival that's nearby.  They have an almost irrelevant conversation about the World Cup.  Hiroki asks if they'd be able to one day be able to say "we did it" with a victory pose.  In the end, they see his mother at the festival and at that moment, they meet eye to eye.

Comments:

 (Awkward, just real scenes)

What I like about this drama so far is the realness of how the story is executed.  It's not over dramatic, especially when they add the awkwardness between the main character and it's a simple story with no twists (so far).  There are small details to the drama that make it have a realness to it, such like when Kohei takes Hiroki's cup noodle from him, or when Hiroki drinks from the spout of the tea kettle or when Futaba looks at a tube of lip stick.  The anger that Eita portrayed seemed so real.  You can really feel his emotions when he was yelling in the mountains and his gestures as well.  He really had become his character.  Mitsushima Hikari is actually doing pretty well.  In the first episode, I didn't really see much in her acting, but in this episode it was really coming through.  When she was getting strangled, her coughing for air really sounded like it was real (lets hope it really wasnt forreal), not a fake cough, but it really sounded like she was gasping for air.  What I wasn't impressed with was her cry, not that I was saying it looked fake, its just that whining sound coming from her was irritating.  Kazama is really scaring me with his emotionless character.  Im used to seeing him happy and loud and really out there, but him playing Fumiya is a really big change which is always a good thing and I think he's doing exceptionally well so far.  I just hope they give him more screentime, which I'm sure will happen closer to the end of the series.

Drama: Soredemo, Ikite Yuku ep01

I've mentioned before that I typically only watch comedies, but I do like the occasional dramatic drama types.  I wasn't particularly anticipating this drama, but I did want to see it since the story sounded interesting.

Plot:
A man (Eita) whose younger sister was killed by a friend, who meets the friend’s sister (Mitsushima) 15 years after the incident. Both of their families have been burdened with grief, but through their meeting they struggle to find a brighter tomorrow
Credit: Dramawiki

Cast:
Eita, Mitsushima Hikari, Kazama Shunsuke, Tanaka Kei, Sato Eriko, Fukuda Mayuko, Murakawa Eri, Kurashina Kana, Ando Sakura, Emoto Akira, Danta Yasunori, Ono Takehiko, Fubuki Jun, Tokito Saburo, Otake Shinobu

Official Site: Fuji TV - Soredemo, Ikite Yuku

Comments:

So the story starts off with the title screen saying it's the year 1996.  Doing the math, Eita's character Fukami Hiroki would have been 14 at the time, which makes Kazama Shunsuke's character "Amemiya Kenji" (in quotes because that's after he changed his real name) about the same age.  So Hiroki's family is all doing their own thing and he's the one left in charge of watching his little sister, but he ignores the request and goes off to do some stuff

(Hiroki, right, and his friend, renting a porn video!)

So while he's off illegally renting a porn vid, his little sister is off in the forest, or woods, or the mountains or whatever it was... there was a lake there... anyways, his little sister is off flying a kite and just so happened to have Kenji there with her.

(Aki flying the kite)

Thinking back to this scene, I'm not sure if I missed it in the dialogue or not, but it made me wonder why Kenji was there in the first place.  Did Aki ask him to fly the kite with her after Hiroki said no?  Maybe I didn't miss something in the dialogue and they'll mention it in a different episode, especially since we only got to see Kenji for a total of 2 minutes or so.  While Aki is flying her kite, Kenji pulls out this small hammer he had in his pocket and hits her in the head.  We only see the reflection in the water and we only see him do it once, but according to Hiroki, he hit her "five, six, or maybe seven times."

After this incident, both families break apart due to different circumstances.  Hiroki is sent to a juvenile facility, his father divorces in order to protect his wife (name change), but the family still lives together.  Kenji's family is split up due to his father getting a little crazy and his wife just not wanting to deal with him anymore.  Kenji ends up living with his father, running a fishing place while his mom takes his little brother and lives in the city (i believe).

 (Bottom Left: Hiroki now, Bottom Right: Kenji's family)

I need to stop stating Kenji for now as Futaba (Mitsushima Hikari) is actually the leading co-star.  So Futaba ends up going to Hiroki's fishing lake (this part I for sure missed why she went there in the first place, i'll look into it later) and all this awkwardness occurs between the two of them.

 (Left: When they first meet, Right: Awkwardly holding an electric water cooker)

When they first met had so much awkwardness.  Their movements on the dock and not being able to speak was so weird.  In the end, Futaba says she's hungry, so Hiroki invites her in.  So after all this stuff happens which I'm not going to mention, he lets her stay at the house, which makes me wonder if this is a house or a hotel, but Hiroki thinks Futaba is going to commit suicide (he doesnt mention it to her, but to his dad).

(Hiroki's dad and Hiroki visit their old house, with Futaba alongside)

Hiroki's dad goes crazy, ends up at the police station because he was found with a knife on him.  It turns out that his father found out the whereabouts of Aki's murderer and had planned on killing him before he dies.  We find out that Hiroki's dad has cancer and is very ill.  While hearing all this and the pain and suffering that has been filling up, Futaba runs off back to her home and has a talk with her grandma (which is what I had missed about why she went to the fishing lake in the first place).

 

(Floating in the lake where Aki had died) 

While Hiroki's dad is in the hospital, Hiroki finds out his father had been buying shoes for Aki, every year for her birthday and even kept her school backpack in their closet.  Hiroki has some sort of vision and decides to make a kite and fly it where Aki was murdered.  He envisions his sister and breaks down crying and soon after, he jumps into the lake.  I swear at this part, I thought he was going to try to drown himself, especially with what he says.

 (Hiroki chopping off his hair)

Hiroki goes home and cuts off his hair.  Yep, while he was in the bath, he chops off his hair.  How he did it so nicely without a mirror, is beyond me.  Cutting hair is a symbol for starting anew, so I'm guessing this scene was to show an epiphany that Hiroki had.

(Hiroki pulling out a knife from a drawer)

Turns out his epiphany was to kill Aki's murderer for his dad.  After he pulls the knife out of the drawer, he gets a call telling him that his father had passed away.  We find this out after he visits his mother for the first time in awhile.  I didn't mention this earlier, but we got to see Hiroki's brother, Kohei (Tanaka Kei) after he drops off their drunk dad back to the house.  Kohei seems like a douchebag, and their mother seems like one too.  I know the family has been through a lot, but when compared to Hiroki, they weren't seen as the friendliest.

 (Left: Kenji, staring off into the distance, with... a lemon? Right: Futaba stopping Hiroki)

So, Hiroki sets off to the funeral of Kenji's parole officer (I think that's what I understood) to see if he'd be able to see him and then kill him there.  Futaba shows up and has a monologue about little sisters which prompts Hiroki to ask her "who ARE you?"  That's when he sees Kenji on an overpass (man, I swear I haven't seen Kazama in a LOOOONG time), pulls out the knife and heads toward him.  Futaba intercepts and yells out to Kenji.  By the time they get to the top, Kenji had gone.  This is when Hiroki finds out that Futaba is Kenji's little sister and that's how the episode semi-ends (haha, it actually ends with Kenji on a fruit farm)

I've seen many dramas with Eita and I thoroughly enjoy everything that I've seen with him in (no bias haha).  So far, he's delivering his usual quality performance, as for Mitsushima, I think she lacks a certain quality.  So far, I'm not convinced with her performance, but that's primarily because all she had to do this episode was to listen to Hiroki's (Eita) story about how his sister died, cry a few times and yell to her brother.  I'm really looking forward to the next episode though, I'm sure their performances will get better over the course of this drama when the story starts getting more in depth.  They got a pretty average first episode rating (10.6%), hopefully after watching the first episode, the ratings will go up.