Zíza

The police are confronted by a serial killer who murders his victims in bizarre ways. That alone was enough to tempt me; plus Oguri Shun is the lead, so I thought it would be great. Plus the previews promised suspense, mystery, and an interesting atmosphere. In the end, the film failed largely due to imbalance. It seemed like it was always going up; good, good, but then all of a sudden it went "nah" and the fun, interestingness plummeted. Oguri was all over the place, the blood flowed as fast as it could, the frogs were good too, the corpses were truly bizarre, but basically, apart from the rain, I didn't take much away from it. In the end it was just a rainy mediocre crime drama.

Again, rather a mediocre film set in a high school setting with a lot of love, friendship, and everything. It goes by fast, there aren't any big challenges. But the plot is weak and the overall character portrayal isn't great. Of course, what do you want from a high school romance? Good for a nice single viewing and done, it doesn't leave anything in you. Nobody shows any ability here, but if you have a soft spot for this genre, give it a go; plus the mouths here aren't as painfully deadpan as they usually are.

I like fairy tales. But I don't think this was a fairy tale. From the beginning, I had questions about the plot and what was going on, rather than enjoying the movie. Unfortunately, the movie didn't grab me at all, the songs left me unimpressed (and I like musicals possibly even more than fairy tales), and they were at times long-winded, which the rest of the movie was, too. It didn't flow at all, I had to stop it halfway through to browse the internet just to take a break from it. The movie just didn't work at all. How did it even deal with time? I watched it with my guy and he was even more annoyed than I was. Nothing but comments about this and that, even though he's a pretty undemanding viewer. *SPOILER* For example, Gaston's fall... that one was much ado about nothing, they could easily have had him trip and it would have had the same effect. Pretty unsuccessful for me. A weaker 2 stars.

The plot is interesting, the relationships develop nicely, and it's a fact that everyone likes Shizuka in the end, even if he's kind of a jackass. But everyone needs a jackass. Some more, some less. Like Nobi, the newbie at a magazine that publishes mostly solo capers, she needs him to help her become the next "jackass". Although solidly acted, it lacked spark, even when it was going full throttle. It failed to draw me into the plot. In the end, I guess it's about the fact that not everyone is necessarily left with something great. We may bark once in our lives, but that's about it. And there's no need to cry about it, maybe someone else will bark twice because of us... For me, a contradictory film that starts to gain momentum from the moment they want to take a picture of what the killer of four schoolgirls looks like today. Which is too late, because that's two-thirds of the way through the film.

Zenigata is simply a likeable character (especially as played by Suzuki Ryohei), an indomitable soul of law and justice. Such a classic detective story and one detective who does things a little differently, but that doesn't mean he's anything special (except in his persistence and slight obtuseness, though we could easily call it straightforwardness). An okay short series, but I liked the previous four episodes a bit better – it must be because of the other partner; after all, Miura Takahiro is a better actor than Maeda Atsuko, who didn't really fit here.

I'm sure it was interesting. Through the 17th episode, that is; episode 18 was kind of okey dokey, but the last two lost some steam. Of course, for romantic souls it was beautiful, but for tragic souls it took away the tragedy. Though of course, it depends on how you take it. In the end, I'm glad for the last two episodes too, because I got to "experience" the bad guy. He wasn't a jack-of-all-trades a thousand steps ahead of everyone else; he was more human, and his motive for everything he did came out beautifully afterwards. I have to appreciate that about the series. In fact, the other characters (Sun Woo, Min Young, the older brother) were very well portrayed, or rather cleverly written. The friend was more of just the kind of lovable sidekick who would tear up for Sun Woo, but even she had something going for her, oddly enough. Even the characters that popped up from time to time (mainly meaning work colleagues) were actually great, their acting was believable. Actually, it's all kind of nice, the story is pretty ok, the denouement is acceptable for some, fist-pumping for others, far-fetched for me; but somehow I couldn't find my way into the main character or the heroine. I didn't mind any of them, but I didn't root for them. There was no chemistry between us. So I watched, I could admire it from more of a "technical" point of view, but it didn't hit my heart. Which is a shame, because there were definitely places where tears could have been shed. And the rating is also giving me problems. It's not a three, but it's not a four either... so for Tom's sake, I bumped up the rating, because he had a bet on it after all. :-) But objectively I think it's more like 75%.

After an hour, you start to get a sense of what it's actually like, though you may have your doubts (which is fine) – you just need to have seen a few films with similar themes. Still, it's solidly made, the acting is good, some scenes are really good, but as a whole it was too long and didn't draw me in enough to forget the long running time. A very strong 3 stars.

1) The girl with the guitar case was fine, quite an entertaining spectacle for 3 stars. 2) My hopes were high, the elevator scene was awesome and I was looking forward to more episodes, because the quality had thus far been going up (3.5 stars); except the opposite was true. The second episode was the highlight of the series and nothing better came after that. 3) The neighbor Akira wasn't bad either, such a classic from life about a decision one should make, and here just came a nudge for [text cut off] let's say almost 3 stars. 4) Only then I was knocked off by the short story “On the Road", where I almost didn't last long enough for its cameo. Ueno Juri is cute and all, but the cinematography just turned me off it (1.5 stars). And then 5) when Ueno wanted to cook, we even have the theme from Groundhog Day for another day, but it's so all abbreviated (also putting such an idea into 25 minutes ok, but it probably needs a different treatment) and too naive. For me this story is about 2.5 stars. If I calculate the arithmetic mean, it comes out to 2.7 stars for the whole thing, so basically 3 stars by a hair.

Such naive drivel that did not amuse me. Probably should have been touching from the start, but it just bored me. Two tragic characters that I guess we're supposed to relate to, but somehow their fate didn't move me. Okay, I'll admit that the convict's childhood was touching, i.e. there were kids, for whom it's generally easier to be moved by a cruel fate than for adults; but that just doesn't make a quality film. Not for me. I can see from the reviews that quite a few viewers cried their right or left eye out, but for me it was just kitsch and not gracefully executed. I was expecting a super touching film from such good reviews, I even prepared tissues, and nothing.

A nice average film made up of several stories that somehow intertwine in the end. It's definitely not to be singled out as something interesting or special in the context of shorts and romance films, but it's such a nice break that it was perfect for that Sunday afternoon. An unpretentious film with a few scenes I didn't want to see at all and a few scenes that were cute.