JMovie review: Paradise Kiss

Title: Paradise Kiss Release date: 6/4/11 Genre: Romantic Drama Cast: Kitagawa Keiko, Mukai Osamu, Yamamoto Yusuke, Igarashi Shunji, Kaku Kento, Omasa Aya Plot: Despite studying as hard as she can, Hayasaka Yukari (Kitagawa) doesn't so as well at school as her mother would like. One day, she is asked to model for a group of student fashion designers. Torn between what she is supposed to do and what she wants to do, the "Paradise Kiss" designers somehow manage to help her find her way in life. What is good: Mukai did an awfully good job as Koizumi. What is bad: Yamamoto's Tokumori role seemed unnecessary. Letter rating: B

I've never read the Paradise Kiss manga. Nor have I watched the anime. However, I heard good things about the series and, since I like Kitagawa Keiko, I decided to give it a try.

Hayasaka (nicknamed "Caroline") is an interesting character. She goes from a life where she is forced into doing things her mother wants to a life where she does the things she wants. Watching her grow as she is pushed into maturity by Koizumi (nicknamed "George") is a lot like watching a butterfly emerge from its cocoon. Of course, this isn't overlooked. There are butterflies everywhere.

Luckily, both Kitagawa and Mukai do an amazing job as the lead characters. My only peeve is that Yamamoto's character is listed as a main character, yet little is done with him. He is there in the beginning as Hayasaka's love interest but then it disappointingly goes nowhere. His character could have been cut from the film with no real consequence.

As a whole, I enjoyed the movie. It was a nice story and it does make me want to watch the anime. (Sorry, I don't read a lot of manga.) I just wish there was a little more meat to the story.

JDorama review: Tsuki no Koibito

Title: Tsuki no Koibito Broadcast dates: 5/10/10 - 7/5/10 Number of episodes: 8 Genre: Romantic Drama Cast: Kimura Takuya, Shinohara Ryoko, Lin Chi Ling, Kitagawa Keiko, Matsuda Shota Plot: Hazuke Rensuke (Kimura) is the president of an up-and-coming furniture company. His life changes dramatically when three women compete for his love. What is good: I liked the ending. What is bad: It took so very long to get there. Letter rating: C

This show made me absolutely hate KimuTaku for the first 5 or 6 episodes. Since this is only an 8-episode series, that's an awful lot of time hating the main character. He does redeem himself, of course. It just would have been nice to see that change start around episode 4 or 5.

Shinohara Ryoko is awesome as designer Maemi. She made me feel so bad for her character, even though she didn't want anyone to feel sorry for her. I think she totally made up for the crapfest that KimuTaku was.

Poor Kitagawa Keiko got robbed though. Onuki Yuzuki is completely a throw away character. She has no real importance to the show. Even when she tries to make big reveals, the information has already been given by another character. She's convenient but unnecessary.

Now onto Lin Chi Ling, who, in my opinion, takes up way too much time. I'm pretty sure her role was to show what a hardass Hazuke is with everyone, even those he claims to love. But all she really did was take away from the awesomeness that is Maemi. However, the interaction between the two women was nice. I guess that is one redeeming value.

This show absolutely depended on the actors and their characters. There wasn't a big plot to reign the characters in. If the characters failed, the show would fail as well. For the most part, the characters are annoying. It isn't until the last few episodes that anyone shows any redeeming values. I didn't think the show was horrible. It was just meh.

JDorama review: Mop Girl

Title: Mop Girl Broadcast dates: 10/12/07 - 12/14/07 Number of episodes: 10 Genre: Mystery Comedy Cast: Kitagawa Keiko, Tanihara Shosuke Plot: Momoko (Kitagawa) starts her new job at a small funeral services company. She soon finds that she has the ability to go back in time when she touches a precious object of someone who was wrongly killed. What is good: The interaction between the characters was pretty cute. What is bad: The ending felt unfinished. Letter rating: C+ Overall: I started watching this because Kitagawa played my favorite senshi, Sailor Mars, in the live action Sailor Moon series, Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon. She's not a fabulous actress but she is definitely getting better as time goes on. Unfortunately, the role of Momoko is dull. She's klutzy and beyond dumb. There are many times when she could have solved a problem on her own. Instead, she ran to Otomo (Tanihara). Then, at the end, when they show the surprise relationship between Momoko and Otomo, the story doesn't go anywhere with it. It actually gets ignored completely. On one hand, I'd like to have a special episode to tie everything up. On other hand, the story isn't really worthy of an extra episode.