Show Introduction Rich Man, Poor Woman

 Yes, I know, since I just finished this over in Operation Kdrama Chat, sure I talked the heck out of over there, but am I done? Oddly, no. I had problems with this show, prob-lems. I just can’t stop thinking about it, finding out where it went wrong for me. Lots of others love this show. I know I saw it on plenty of others best of 2012 lists. Why do I have such issues with it? I really think, while it’s fresh in my mind I want to do a quick rewatch and then rip it apart, look at it’s insides and report my findings.

 With this in mind, I’m bumping Rich Man, Poor Woman up to the top of the list. Of course this doesn’t have anything at all to do with the fact that the next show scheduled to review is Gloria another long one. It’s not that I haven’t been looking forward to rewatching Gloria again, I’ve got lots to say about that crack-tastick show,it’s just after the 159 episode behemoth of a show Smile Dong Hae, I need a breather before I dip my toes into the 50 episodes.

 You know, and it’s nice to change pace and talk about show remotely current sometimes.
Back to Rich Man, Poor Woman. This is my first JDrama. A while ago I tried my first TwDrama and I was totally hooked and I can’t wait to try another one. (Why aren’t there more hours in the day just for drama watching?) With this Jdrama? Meh. It’s probably just because of Rich Man, Poor Woman, but I’m not especially eager to try another one.

Of course it could also be that I’m not as familiar with Jdrama and I don’t know of another one. I did really like Oguri Shun and would like to see him in something else, so I may have to do some research to try another. Eventually. Maybe.

Stats:
Rich Man, Poor Woman ran for 11 episodes from 7/9/12-9/17/12. It reached 12% in the ratings, I”m not familiar with Japanese ratings, so I can’t tell you if that’s high or not, but it seems to be pretty popular so I’ll go with high.

Awards:

1. 74th Television Drama Academy Awards: Best Actor – Oguri Shun &
2. Best Supporting Actress – Ishihara Satomi
3. 16th Nikkan Sports Drama Grand Prix (Jul-Sept 2012): Best Actor – Oguri Shun
4. & Best Supporting Actress – Ishihara Satomi

"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?

Deadpool Proves You Should be Careful What You Wish For

 For years, hardcore Deadpool fans have been yearning for an R-rated live-action movie that does justice to the character. You asked for it, and now you got it — but while this film certainly gives the Merc with a Mouth plenty of opportunities to address the audience and make meta references, that unfortunately doesn't mean that the movie around it is great.
 Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds) is a former Special Ops soldier with a snarky attitude who now spends his days "sticking up for the little guy," which, in this case, means scaring teenage stalkers away from young girls in exchange for cash. Soon he meets Vanessa (Morena Baccarin), a prostitute he falls in love with after the two banter how messed-up their childhoods were. But when Wilson is diagnosed with late-stage cancer, he accepts a stranger's offer to undergo special treatment that will cure him and give him super powers. That "treatment" turns out to be torture by a guy named Ajax (Ed Skrein) and his assistant Angel Dust (Gina Carano) as they attempt to catalyze any mutant genes lying dormant within Wilson's body, eventually succeeding and turning him into an immortal being who looks like a burn victim. But instead of becoming the supervillain-for-hire they hoped, Wilson dons a body suit, adopts the Deadpool moniker, and devotes his life to hunting down Ajax to get revenge. Along the way, he's aided by his sarcastic bartender friend Weasel (T.J. Miller), and two X-Men — Colossus (Stefan Kapicic) and Negasonic Teenage Warhead (Brianna Hildebrand) — who attempt to recruit him onto Professor Xavier's team.

 This film is packed with those kinds of jokes that aren't really jokes. I'm probably going to alienate a lot of you by saying this, but you know the kinds of people who shriek with laughter and practically jump out of their seats when they see the Stan Lee cameo in Marvel movies? Those people are going to love this film, because it's constantly elbowing the audience, raising its eyebrows, and asking, "You recognize this, right?" Example: at one point, Colossus tells Deadpool he's going to take him to meet Professor Xavier. Deadpool responds: "McAvoy or Stewart?" Cue the audience losing its sh*t. Look, I understand that the appeal of the character is that he's edgy and swears a lot and drops meta references all the time, but at a certain point, this becomes just like The Big Bang Theory. Simply referencing something doesn't automatically mean you're actually making a joke about it.

Wolf Girl and Black Prince (Ryuichi Hiroki)

  Veteran filmmaker Ryuichi Hiroki's work includes some of the most endearing (and intense) love stories in Japanese movies - April Bride (Eita + Nana Eikura), The Lightning Tree (Masaki Okada + Yu Aoi), The Egoist (Kengo Kora + Anne Suzuki) and the more recent Sayonara Kabukicho (Sometani + Atsuko Maeda). For 2016, he's doing Wolf Girl and Black Prince with Kento Yamazaki and Fumi Nikaido.

   I would consider the pairing to be quite unexpected (even odd) since I always think of Nikaido as more of a dramatic actress in the same vein as Sakura Ando, Hikari Mitsushima and Aoi Miyazaki (who many considered as her doppelgänger or vice versa). AND that she would venture on playing quirky and dark characters rather than rom-com. But on second thought, playing Erika Shinohara may provide her fans with a new side of her. On the other hand, Kento Yamazaki has been grabbing these rom-com roles of late, but there was a time when he was playing characters completely different - especially his two movies with Ai Hashimoto (Control Tower and Another). This is not the first time they will be seen together - in 2010, they were cast in Satoshi Miki's TV mystery thriller Atami no Sousakan as school mates, so this new movie is like doing a full circle. What sort of on-screen chemistry will they have? Now, that's the reason for much of the anticipation for this movie!

Based on the manga series "Okami Shojo to Kuro Oji" by Ayuko Hatta, the story centers around Erika Shinohara, a 16-year-old girl who tells her friends tall tales about her romantic exploits, but she actually has no boyfriend. She says that a handsome boy in a candid photo is her boyfriend, but it turns out that boy is a schoolmate named Kyōya Sata. She has no choice but to make him her fake boyfriend. However, Sata may look like a sweet person, but he is actually an ultra-black-hearted sadist.Sata takes advantage of Erika's weakness and treats her like his dog.

  I watched the anime in a marathon because it's the kind of show where you get hooked with the story and wanted to learn more of the characters as the episodes roll. For me, Erika appears to be a naive girl at first, but then she showed flashes of intensity and assertiveness that make her more endearing in the end. She may appear to be "weak", but she can be a bulldog sometimes, especially when she wants something.

 On the other side, we got Sata - the fucking-gorgeous-handsome guy who can turn everyone's head in a blink of an eye. He appears to be very confident and cocky, but then again, he has his own inner demons to conquer too. What I like about the guy is that he's deep and real than you take him during first impression. He is quite unfazed even during tough competition though he can be quite tentative at the beginning and would recover in a few to assert himself. The term cocky is not really appropriate, but he has an inner glow to him - he's not really a dark character in the sense that he wishes people to die or something like that. He is a genuine person who can be quite sweet and caring.

What started as a compromised dare turned into something serious where both boy and girl find something in common - the realization that things can go even further.

Nikaido's quantum leap in terms of acting mileage is credited to her Himizu casting, with Shota Sometani. Her ascent was further boosted by such movies as My Man, Why Don't You Play in Hell?, Au revoir l' ete, The World of Kanako and La La La At Rock Bottom. No one - among her peers - has come up with something similar to the kind of casting coup she has done for the past 2 years or so.

Yamazaki, on the other hand, initially struggled with his career path. Whether this stifle has something to do with his agency is beyond me, but for someone who has already proven his acting potential early on, getting mediocre roles must have sucked. People still can't agree on whether he was successful with his take on L Lawliet in the Death Note TV series, but I still contend that he did amazing.

I suggest that you go back and watch both Nikaido and Yamazaki in Atami no Sousakan (熱海の捜査官) because the 2010 TV series is just a spectacle of young, talented cast, with Shota Sometani playing a geeky nerdy character. Not to mention  Joe Odagiri and Chiaki Kuriyama playing the main characters.

Complete cast:

Fumi Nikaido - Erika Shinohara
Kento Yamazaki - Kyouya Sata
Nobuyuki Suzuki - Nozomi Kamiya
Mugi Kadowaki - Ayumi Sanda
Ryusei Yokohama - Takeru Hibiya
Elaiza Ikeda - Aki Tazuka
Tina Tamashiro - Marin Tachibana
Ryo Yoshizawa - Yuu Kusakabe
Nanao - Reika Sata

Death Note 2016

 In the case of the 2016 upcoming Death Note movie, having Sosuke Ikematsu (as Kenichi Matsuyama & Kento Yamazaki's successor to L) and Masaki Suda (as a fervent follower and admirer of Kira; following the footsteps of Tatsuya Fujiwara & Masataka Kubota's Light) then you got an exciting movie in the making.

ANN detailed the cast:

Sōsuke Ikematsu (The Last Samurai's Higen, MOZU's Kazuhiko Shingai) as Ryūzaki, L's successor and a world-famous detective
Masahiro Higashide (live-action Parasyte's Hideo Shimada, live-action Ao Haru Ride's Kō Mabuchi) as Tsukuru Mishima, an investigator pursuing the Death Notes
Masaki Suda (live-action Assassination Classroom's Karma Akabane, live-action Kuragehime's Kuranosuke Koibuchi) as Yūgi Shion, a cyber terrorist who reveres Kira

 As expected, the anime portal would point out Ikematsu's famous roles to its western audience, but Ikematsu must be recognized for his exemplary performances in recent movies where he played matured, bold roles - Undulant Fever, Pale Moon and Love's Whirpool among others. This would be a major departure for Ikematsu, as you can see from his previous roles. Playing a detective may seem "familiar" to actors like Masataka Kubota, Kento Nagayama or Kento Hayashi, but it would be exciting to see how Ikematsu will play the role. Incidentally, he is also playing a detective/investigator in the upcoming movie After the Storm (from award-winning filmmaker Hirokazu Koreeda).

I would say they have yet to find someone as charming and captivating as Kenichi Matsuyama, but Kento Yamazaki did his best to play L with a twist. Being a new character, Ikematsu has no pressure to match the previous work of Matsuyama and to a certain extent the vibes created by Yamazaki in the recently concluded Death Note series from NTV.

  Masaki Suda, who may be considered Ikematsu's 'junior', is also his co-star in SetoUtsumi and in the Yuya Yagira-starrer Distraction Babies. Playing a cyber-terrorist is a perfect role for Suda, who can play any role to his liking and get away with it. Suda, as many J-movie and J-dorama insiders may agree, is his generation's most accomplished actor. Playing a pretty lady in disguise, a bully and bullied student, a Kamen rider hero and a son of a sadistic father are some of his more famous roles. Pitting talents with Ikematsu maybe one of his biggest roles yet.

With Shota Sometani pursuing other artistic inclinations, Yuya Yagira is grabbing major roles left and right. Masaki Suda is now Yuya's biggest rival.

 While Masahiro Higashide took on the lead role in Crows Explode (previously headlined by Shun Oguri), he is the weakest link among the cast. Though considering the role as investigator of the Death Note, he maybe the go-between for Suda and Ikematsu and his role may not be as challenging compared to the other two actors.

Oh and yes, here's the storyline:

10 years have passed since the confrontation between Kira and L. Again, Shinigami sends death notes to the ground and due to this, the world soon falls into chaos. Tsukuru (Masahiro Higashide) is a member of the Death Note special task force team with 6 other investigators including Matsuda who experienced the Kira case of 10 years ago.

Mass murders caused by the death note takes place on Wall Street in the U.S., Shibuya in Japan and other places. World famous private investigator Ryuzaki (Sosuke Ikematsu), who is the rightful successor of L, also investigates the mass murders. They discover that 6 death notes exist in the world.

A computer virus called Kira spreads in the world. A message in the Kira virus says to turn in 6 death notes.

A person who has 6 death notes overwhelms the world. The confrontation begins between the person who wants Kira’s revival and the people who want to stop it. [ AsianWiki ]

If I have to update PsychoDrama's 10 most anticipated Japanese movies for 2016, then this movie will be one of the top 5