Skins: Stanley (S1E5)

Synopsis from MTV: Stanley is torn between his feelings for Cadie and Michelle and Tony again tries to help him out. Meanwhile, Stanley and his dad work on their strained relationship.

First off, the chorus recital was HORRIBLE! Tony and that rich blonde ditz, Tabatha, cannot sing for shit! And then they decide to have a make-out session on stage afterwards. And then that leads to sex...

Okay, so basically this episode was about Stanley. A little boring, he's really awkward and I guess we caught a glimpse into his most unlucky day. Stole his Dad's car, drove through a private military camp, doesn't have a license, the car blew up, and Michelle hates him because of Tony, surprise surprise. On top of that, he blames his best friend, Tony for all of it. Well it is his fault...but him and Michelle are fine after their awkward beach slow dance. Oh yeah, and his Dad is the hugest douche ever. But they kind of get over it in the end because they bond over doing dumb stuff and drinking beer. The end.

A fairly boring episode, Stanley isn't as interesting as a character as Chris or Cadie, but he has his moments. Mostly he's the victim in the stories, the fall guy who is just there to make the people around him look better. I'm excited to see the next character, this was just boring. Sorry, Stanley, you lose. Again.

At the end, Stanley's clothes. HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. His pants are like 3 inches too short and since he's so tall and lanky and it makes him look really awkward.

Phantogram -- Mouth Full of Diamonds

"I think my parents got that call from school too. My Dad just yelled at me a lot and told me to be less weird."

The Cape: Dice (S1E5)

So, let me just say how excited I was that Mena Suvari was in this episode. (As was heyitsabell.  She says she loves her but she kinda looks like an alien.)  When I saw the preview I just about squealed.  I'm glad, when I watched it, that she didn't disappoint.

A little sample of what happens when she analyzes probabilities

So, like I said, Mena Suvari is the focus of this episode.  Her name is Tracey Jerrod, but her nickname (or the one she goes by now) is Dice, so called because she could from an early age predict the outcome of dice rolls.  In the greater scheme of things, she could actually predict the future.  When you watch the episode, you see through her eyes that her mind works like a computer, endlessly analyzing probabilities and such.

Tracey as she was young, being analyzed by her father who was funded by Fleming

You first see her as a little girl.  Her dad works for Peter Fleming as a researcher.  And his study?  His daughter.  He says she's a savant and that her mind will save the world.  She makes a creepy prediction when she first meets Peter Fleming: He's going to kill her father, and then she's going to kill him.

Dice and Fleming at his casino themed party for the launch of T.R.A.C.E.

Fast forward to the future, she's all grown up and attending Peter Fleming's launch of their new predictive program: T.R.A.C.E. -- based off of her brain.  She finds and meets Fleming at a congratulatory party for the product later on.  He's intrigued, and hits on her.  (Can I just say, it's a little creepy considering he looked exactly the same when she was a little girl, and so the age difference is rather high.  I guess whatevers?)  She sets off a bomb at the party, but doesn't manage to do more than stun him.  Even after this attempt on his life, Fleming tells Marty that she's spectacular, and seems to be fascinated.

Vince tries to keep Dice from shooting Orwell.
In the mirror, you see written "God is the Dice."

Vince and Orwell find out about this, and at first Vince is rather happy that someone's gunning for Fleming.  Orwell manages to convince him that it isn't a good idea: if Fleming dies, the secret of his identity as Chess dies as well, leaving Vince stuck as the guilty party.  Reluctantly, Vince agrees to save Fleming's life.  He actually recognizes Dice (as little girl Tracey) too: he's been trying to build a case linking Fleming to Chess, and one of Chess's murders included Dice's father -- just as she predicted it.

Vince and Orwell break into Dice's apartment to learn more about her.  Dice surprises them and puts a gun to Orwell's head.  She calls Vince an interesting "blind spot," saying it's nice because it reminds her that she's not God.

The rest of the show is a flurry of assassination attempts by Dice and Vince's attempts to foil them.  Fleming lays on the charm thick, attempting to woo Dice even as she tries to kill him.  She claims what she wants is for the T.R.A.C.E. program to be destroyed... and of course for Fleming to die.  At the end, she gets at least part of her wish fulfilled: Vince destroys the floor of the building where supposedly all traces (ha ha) of T.R.A.C.E. are being held.

Doctor giving Fleming a checkup after the casino bomb

There's a few scenes that suggest Fleming might be suffering from a split persona or something: his physician (that was taking care of him after the first assassination attempt) asks him about if he had any visits from 'our friend,' suggesting that maybe the doctor was treating him for psychological problems as well.  Although Fleming denies it, it seems that it might be a distinct possibility, especially when you notice his eyes change color when he greets a chess opponent near the end.  Maybe Chess is an alternate persona of Fleming's.  Hmmmm....

Being Human: Some Thing to Watch Over Me (S1E3)

The third episode of Being Human.  Yay.

"No one says hi to the neighbors anymore.  You know why?  'Cause we're the neighbors!" - Josh

Above is my favorite scene in the entire episode, and seriously, it happens in like the first real-time sequence after a small narration by Aidan (a regular thing now, which you've probably realized if you've watched them) about immortality and how hard it is (ironically) to live with.

Aidan sets up a neighborhood watch, and needless to say Josh isn't too thrilled by the idea.  Sally, though complaining slightly that all the neighbors she's ever hated are there, is excited because Aidan has invited Danny to join them.  Of course, things don't always go as planned.

Officer Michael Garrity

During the course of this meeting, Aidan gets stared at by a man named Officer Michael Garrity who introduces the neighborhood watch to the petty crime that's happening in their neighborhood (there's a spraypainter on the loose, oh my).  Of course after that little narration by Aidan in the beginning, you know that's gotta mean something.

Turns out of course that it does.  Michael has a horrific past with Aidan in it -- and more specifically he has damning evidence: a tattoo he saw as a child on the chest of man who looks exactly the same as he did back then.  With some minor clashes with the reigning vampires of the city, Aidan tries to work things out with Michael peacefully -- meaning: wipe his mind clear of any memory of Aidan.

The other ghost, Tony

On Sally's side of things, Aidan and Josh try to make her feel better about being a ghost by introducing her to another one.  Tony's been around for decades, and the best part: they can touch.  Huge.  He also shows her her new ghostly powers -- mainly teleportation -- and helps her out the front door.  They go visit her grave and Danny, who she now seems content to watch over, even if she can't touch him.

Josh meeting Jesse, his new neighbor

For Josh, the most reluctant neighborhood watchman, he gets saddled with actually doing the job since Aidan is busy trying to fend off Michael's persistent advances.  Josh finds his new neighbors frighteningly normal, and can't quite figure out how to talk to them.  When he finally gets into his role as "neighborhood guy," his animal instincts remind him once again why he preferred to remain apart.


My thoughts:

Playing with the three separate storylines is pretty smart to give each actor his or her own starring parts, but the problem I find with that is sometimes you just want to know more.  I guess in this case it wasn't too bad, but it has the potential to be extremely frustrating.  The banter between Aidan and Josh is the most amusing, really.  It's just a little too bad they're not together a lot of the time.

Short review today, sorry.  I also realize that I'm behind (like 3 episodes?), I'll catch up soon hopefully.  There may be less screencaps though, depending on if Hulu is obliging and will post up the rest.

The King's Speech

So the Oscars are coming and it's time for me to catch up on the nominated films so that I can make accurate predictions this time around (I had about a 50% fail rate during my Academy Award predictions in January, so hopefully I'll get it right this time around). I've been meaning to get around to watching this film for a while and I am so happy that I did.

The King's Speech was absolutely fantastic. Since I lack any sort of British history skills whatsoever, I was wiki-ing through the whole movie about English monarchs, King George VI's history, and etc...So I'm going to give a little background on the movie, my review and hopefully not include any spoilers in the post. And of course, a little YT video at the end. :)

Trailer:

Characters:
Albert/King George VI -- Colin Firth
Lionel Logue -- Geoffrey Rush
Elizabeth (Queen) -- Helena Bonham Carter
(And also Peter Pettigrew (Timothy Spall) and Dumbledore (Michael Gambon -- as King George V) make an appearance as well ;), obviously I don't know my British actors but I do watch HP )

Plot:
Price Albert stammers while he talks. Obviously this would be a problem for anybody, but as he comes to term with his status and title it becomes increasingly imperative that his speech impediment be fixed. This is where Lionel Logue steps in as his new speech therapist. We learn that Prince Albert has faced adversity from his childhood, his father, and his siblings, all of which did not help with his problem and only decreased his self confidence. And now he's facing new problems as he comes to term with his father's death, his newly appointed kingship because of his older brother's playboy antics and World War II.

Thoughts & review:
So as I said, I'm super confused with royal titles and all of that so I had to look up Albert's name and why he was called George. Same with his brother David aka King Edward VIII. Anyways, so basically, Albert = King George because he changed his name when he became reigning king. Anyways, so to give a little foreground on who exactly is King George to those of you who don't know, he's Queen Elizabeth II's father. :) So I really wonder what she thought of the movie and their portrayal of her father.

Anyways, Colin Firth was amazing. He stammered and stuttered so amazingly that I actually believed it. He portrayed King George VI and his struggles brilliantly and you can tell by just watching him act. The speech impediments, the stiff personality, the temper outbursts, and inner turmoil was effectively delivered and I completely understand why he deserves an Academy Award for this role. When you think Colin Firth, well for me at least, I think of either Bridget Jone's Diary, as that guy with a stick up his ass OR in Love Actually when he falls in love with that lovely Portuguese girl. For him to jump from popular chick flicks to a serious period drama, and with such grace, was wonderful.

Geoffrey Rush, one of the roles we recognize him the most from is the Captain in Pirates of the Caribbean. In this movie he is a wonderfully charming and pushy, if a little bit annoying, speech therapist Lionel Logue. I have never seen any of his movies, besides Pirates, and he's such a great actor in The King's Speech and his character Lionel is absolutely genius. As Lionel, he breaks all of the barriers of any sort of comfort zone that Albert has by calling him by an intimate nickname and teasing him with weird tongue twisters. But all of these antics is really a just a disguise in order to make Albert to face his past in order to conquer the future, oh yeah, and to help with his stammering. He IS what makes the movie so fun to watch. You really never know what he's going to say or do, or make Colin Firth do and the things that they do eventually do are surprisingly funny (see clip below).

All in all this was a serious period piece about a king and his personal issues, with jokes here and there. But usually when you think period piece, you think, this must be boring or dry, but it wasn't. Well at least for me it wasn't. It was moving to see that someone who is regarded as so high and mighty face such surmounting personal problems that literally cripple their ability to do their job AND still persevere through it all. It was a wonderful piece and I really hope that you guys watch it, the acting is wonderful.

A quote I liked:
Lionel Logue: Good speech but you still stammered a bit on the W.
Albert/ King George VI: Well I had to feign a few so that they knew that it was me.

A clip from the movie, a swearing scene so be prepared for a few obscenities:

"Yes! Defecation flows trippingly from the tongue!"


Grade: A-

4th Period Murder Mystery / 40-Minute Detective (2009) review.

4th Period Murder Mystery is a fun, fast-paced high school action thriller and for this review, as it's supposed to be a mystery flick, I won't give spoilers.

Thought you'd never see this day, huh?

Mar the Spoiler Queen saying she won't post spoilers. hahahahaha.

Nope, not even the screencaps.

Okay, maybe just for that one kissing scene but that's because it's cute.

The title itself is a tell-all, it summarizes pretty much everything about this movie, excluding the healthy dose of teenage romance between the school's ace and the weird girl.

Ranked #1 in Nation (S. Korea) student, Jung Hoon, gets into a fight with his troublemaker douche-face classmate Tae Gyu and almost lose his cool. After he calms down a bit, he goes to the restroom to wash up but when he returns to the classroom, Tae Gyu is dead - stabbed to death, blood everywhere and Tae Gyu's laptop and cellphone are missing. Everyone else is away having P.E class and all the teachers and students know Jung Hoon beat up Tae Gyu the day before. So now he is the prime suspect of the murder. Then walks in the mystery-loving creepy girl with curtain hairstyle (her hair covers part of her face so she looks like Sadako) that Jung Hoon has a crush on and she agrees to help him find the real murderer. Problem is, they only have 40 minutes left before 4th period is over and everyone will return to the class and no doubt find the corpse. They have to find the murderer before the bell rings for the next period.

Thoughts:

• Tae Gyu is such a dick. He probably deserves to die, but not by repeated stabbing cos that's just plain evil and super painful. The blood used in the film looks like soy sauce to me. It's not red, but more of dark brown (not dark red, mind you) liquid with very runny consistency. They could have done better with it cos there's quite a lot of blood scenes. The stabbing sounds and scene are pretty gory to bear...
• Jung Hoon and 'Curtain Girl' Da Jung's romance blooms in 40 minutes while they hunt the murderer together. hahahaha. wth. Fast pace everything indeed. Funny and cute.. Girl looks wayyyy older than the boy though. Kim So-Eun would have fit the role better but she dropped out of the project before filming began.
• There is a LOT, LOT, LOT of running in this movie. Those actors must be pretty fit. Seriously. This movie is like, 80% chasing scenes. Watching them gives me phantom fatigue to my legs.
• The school commissioner is hilarious. Watch him. 
• I like the nicknames given to the teachers at the school.
• The story is linear and predictable but with enough twists and drama to keep you watching till the end. So I guess it's pretty good and deserving of a high rating for an asian high school teen thriller (which usually suck so much I want to gouge my eyes out).

Verdict?

8/10

and I don't even find the actor cute.

So yes, it was worth my time. :)

Taiyou wa Shizumanai EP 1: Why did mother die?

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone!
Hopefully you all get lots of chocolates, brownies, hugs, cuddles and kisses from your special ones and family.

I'm back with a vintage review here but before you skip over this post with disinterest, let me just tell you that it's a fine, fine series with high ratings that doesn't disappoint, unlike the crap shows that saturate japanese tv nowadays. 

Taiyou wa Shizumanai 太陽は沈まない , or The Sun Never Sets, runs from April to June 2000, more than 10 years ago, and tells the story about a son who suspects that his mother's death is not due to overworking as he was told by doctors, but rather a result of malpractice during an emergency surgery.

Hideaki Takizawa, more affectionately known to fans (me!me!me!) as Tackey or Takky/Takki, plays Nao Masaki, a high school junior who gets in trouble at his kendo club and is embarrassed by his mother's eager-to-please, sunshine personality.

During his summer kendo camp, Nao gets suspended for mischief and on the way back to Tokyo with his mom, he meets a girl, Ami Isetani, who seems to have a crush on him and gives them a ride to the station. They part ways at the station and Nao continues his cold war with his mom for a week.

At the end of that week, one day, his mother collapses and dies at a hospital. Doctors tell the Masaki family that Teruko Masaki's death is caused by overworking. Shiro Masaki, Nao's father, injured his arm years ago and ended up opening an okonomiyaki shop which is mainly run by Teruko until her death.

She leaves behind her young children - Yuko, Nao and seven year-old Runa. Friends, neighbors, customers and even Nao's friends loved her for her friendliness and caring nature. They all show up at the funeral with tearful faces and words get around about Teruko's cause of death and they blame it on Teruko's husband.

Nao, in contrast, seems uncommonly cold compared to the mourners but that is only because the fact that his mother is dead hasn't sunk into him yet. His narrative voice of the story keeps on repeating the date of his mom's death, as if reminiscing and still unable to believe that it is all happening.

At the crematorium, Nao finds a burned scalpel amongst his mother's ashes and begins to doubt everything he knows about the cause of death. He calls up the hospital but they deny any mistake and even suggest that someone else must have put it near the body before she was cremated. 

Desperate, Nao rushes to the police in anger but they are unable and unwilling to help him because there is too little information at hand to do anything about it. 

Meanwhile, his father drowns his own sadness with drinks and sister Yuko tells Nao to avoid creating a mess of the matter at the time being because the family wants to send off his mother in peace.

As reality sinks in for Nao, Ami calls and asks about going to his okonomiyaki shop to taste his mother's cooking and that is when Nao's emotions finally spills out and he breaks down in tears, inconsolable.

He cries alone in a corner and muffles his sobs while holding on the his mom's apron and broken heels. His heartache witnessed by no one but himself.

The opening theme - Nao.

The ending theme - Goodbye Yellow Brick Road by Elton John

Thoughts:

• Tackey was only eighteen years old when he filmed this but his acting skill was already beyond many of today's japanese young actors. In fact, this is the very reason why he is my absolute favorite Japanese actor. I won't argue that he's the best, but he's definitely made to act, just like his adoring senior Takuya Kimura whose eyes emote immensely even in silence. I am biased but the fact that Tackey is a good actor still stands. It doesn't hurt that he's gorgeous as hell too. In case you are wondering if I listen to his songs, the answer is no. I don't like T&T's songs. I love Tackey as actor.
• The theme songs for this drama are winners! So fitting, heart-wrenching and beautiful. This reminds me of another Tackey's drama, Taiyou no Kisetsu - Season of the Sun, which has a similarly dark tone to its plot and amazing OST. They don't make shows like they used to anymore. sigh. So if you plan to watch jdramas, remember to watch Tackey's and Takuya Kimura's! You will NOT be disappointed.
• Although this is a vintage review, the series hasn't entirely been subbed yet since it's such an old drama. Currently, takki.us has subbed it up to episode 9 only and therefore this can still be counted as an 'ongoing' series, yeah? I don't speak fluent Japanese so I need subbed episodes, you see. 
• I took a lot of screencaps as the episode/series deserves it. If you notice, they are not in 16:9 hd size so it gives extra space to make collages. hahahaha.

Stay tuned for this!

- I heart Tackey.

東京少女/ Tôkyô Shôjo / Tokyo Girl

I'm on a string of Japanese shows this week for no significant reason other than wanting to see more of Takeru Satoh everywhere. After googling for more info, I realized that some of these shows I've watched really lack more comprehensive reviews than a few lines of summary, so here I am to offer a longer, more-detailed ramblings of plot lines. No guarantee on the quality of ramblings but hey, it's still better than wikidramas. 

Tokyo Shojo is a 2008 Japanese movie starring child-actress and model Kaho who plays the willful, slightly-bratty high schooler Miho Fujisaki. I say 'slightly-bratty' only because she's pretty and so the pouty I-want-what-I-want attitude that she pulls off with her cuteness is somewhat bearable. If you're average-looking or ugly, please be a nice kid unless you want your social agenda to crumble like dry bread.

Anyway, the film starts off in the year of 2008 with Miho voicing her objections against her mother's plans to remarry the head of Japanese Literature department of a publishing house, Atsushi Shiomi. She storms off from the restaurant where the three (mom, Miho, Mr. Shiomi) are supposed to have lunch together to add that oomph to her objections. Halfway down walking the stairs, she drops her cellphone which falls into a wormhole that connects to the year of 1912 where it is picked up by a young aspiring novelist, Tokijirou Miyata.

Tokijirou, which is a really old-fashioned Japanese name by the way, wonders what the little box he picked up is and puts it on his writing table without further thought afterwards.

Miho tries calling her phone many times and finally gets through at night and asks for the address to pick up her cellphone but Tokijirou gives her an address that doesn't exist anymore so she gets mad at him and starts calling him a liar and a thief.

But he doesn't sound like a liar and a thief at all. So after a few ask-and-answer, they figure out that they are separated by a 100-year difference and their calls only get through when the moon shines.

Every night, she would call him and even taught him which buttons to press on the cellphone to save battery life since he doesn't have a charger for the cellphone. They grow closer through their night voice-rendezvous - him advising her on her relationship with her mom and Mr. Shiomi; her giving him the inspiration to write a heartfelt novel of their encounter.

They arrange for a 'date' together at Ginza on a day the moon shines at midday and Tokijirou buys a wood-framed hand mirror from a gift shop that still exists in Ginza in year 2008 (he crosschecks this with Miho). He instructs the owner of the gift shop to hold on to that gift for 100 years when a girl named Miho would later collect it. The owner thinks Tokijirou is pulling his leg, but the owner's five year-old daughter Nanami listens intently and promises to safeguard it for Miho. 

Miho enters the store and asks for the mirror, whereby a frail old grandma comes out and hugs her tightly. The old lady is Nanami. She gives Miho the mirror and when Miho passes the phone to her to speak a few words to Tokijirou and 5 year-old Nanami, the old Nanami thanks Tokijirou with tears in her eyes.

So that's about it for their little date together. On the mirror that Tokijirou bought for Miho, he wrote, "Although we're separated by a hundred year difference, it feels as if our hearts are within reach and never apart. - Tokijirou Miyata."

As Miho ponders on what to do about their situation, Tokijirou sets home to finish his novel which he titled, "The Girl Who Walks Towards the Future". Miho's name 未歩 means 'walking towards the future', so the manuscript is a story about her. 

He plans to show the manuscript to the editor at the publishing house the next day, which lines nicely with Miho's plan to have lunch again with her mom and Mr. Shiomi the next day, this time with her approval to the marriage since she has changed into a better, more understanding daughter after interacting with Tokijirou on the phone. 

All that is great but her real motive to have lunch at the publishing house was to pass her cellphone charger to Tokijirou through the wormhole again so they can continue phone-dating. Her efforts fail miserably though, as the charger breaks into pieces on the bottom floor. As she returns to join her mom and Mr. Shiomi, Mr. Shiomi shows Miho the result of a search she asked of him before regarding Tokijirou Miyata and that is when her dreams collapse like a sand castle in the wind and the real twist of the movie begins. 

You can probably make a few guesses as to what happens next but I'm not going to spoil it further for you all lovely readers. I suspected it from the middle of the movie and even though the twist came towards the end of the movie, it felt right and not too late. It fits the story nicely. 

This movie is all sweets and fluffs and made for girls. Your boyfriend, brothers, husband, father and male friends will not like it because males get too technical most of the time. I'm girly girl and all but I've been told countless times that I think like a man so I can figure out how a male would actually feel watching this.

There are many plotholes that I can call off right from the start of the movie and I just have soooo many opinions on the looks and manner of speech of the characters but they are for me to know, and for you to form on your own. My girly mind helps me to brush off all the errors and doubts that usually demand explanations and logic. Besides, this is Japanese teenage movie, you have to ignore common sense to enjoy it thoroughly.

6.5/10

worth watching for the re-created Ginza scenes and fashion of 1912 and the cute, young Nanami in traditional Japanese outfit.

Skins: Cadie (S1E4)

So Skins again, not going to give too long of a rant like a usually do in the beginning of each post so I'm just going to jump straight into the episode:

This episode focuses on Cadie, the kind of psycho drug-addled rehab girl who was supposed to sleep with Stan in the first episode.

Synopsis from MTV about the fourth episode: "Cadie's released from the hospital. Great. Except that Cadie's no better. Her friends want her meds. Her parents want her to be normal. But Cadie's worst problem is love -- an illness that can't be cured with pills."

---

This episode is a series of psych consults mixed in between different snippets of her day. She's a very misunderstood girl, both by the world and by herself because she doesn't know what is and what isn't real. Drugs rule her world so much that she doesn't know anything without them, she depends on them to make her happy and normal. But when she starts falling in love with Stan, we see a different side of her. She decides to not take drugs anymore for her "boyfriend" aka Stan.

But her interactions with the other characters are seemingly interesting. When she tells Tony that he can't always do whatever the hell he wants because it's not always going to go his way is ominous and true. And when Tea tells Cadie about how Stanley's using Cadie (again) for drugs this time we see her withdraw into her drug addled world. And she ends up having a sex tryst with Michelle's mom's boyfriend?! Well Stan to the rescue, sort of, but then she gets into a fight with Stan about how crazy she is. And then just pops more pills.

Her parents only add more fuel to the fire. They want her hopped up on drugs in order to "normalize" her, but is that really what she needs? They don't even try to care for her so how is she going to be normal when she's so alienated from her own family? And when her mother, the perfectionist beauty pageant queen said that EMOTIONS AREN'T REAL, we can see that no wonder Cadie behaves the way she does. A part that I am still a bit confused about in the episode is her the hunting situation with her Dad. So he's alive right? But then they show a scene of her "shooting him" while hanging from a true and then jumping to a scene with a psychologist about how her dad is dead. Ensue the weirdo circus story. Confused, I think yes.

Overall, does Cadie know what she's doing when at the psych consults? Is she just craving the attention that each psychologist gives her since she doesn't have any other support system like her totally fail parents and her "friends"?  Is she that socially inept that she doesn't understand the meaning of happy or is she purposely saying things in order for her to get more medication. It doesn't seem like she takes them regularly since we see hoards and hoards of pill canisters in her cabinet, covered with pretty stickers no doubt. But then again she seems surprised when the psychologist asks her about it and tells her that pills AREN'T going to keep people from disappointing her. At the end we see her pop pill after pill in ordered to "be happy."

Other storylines:

Cadie likes Stan.

Stan likes Michelle.

Michelle likes Tony.

Tony likes Tea.

The music from this episode was weird, nothing to rant or rave about but just really whatevers. I liked this song though.

Aluna George -- Disobey

"My day is great now. It got promoted."

Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta EP 1

Taisetsu na Koto wa Subete Kimi ga Oshiete Kureta (大切なことはすべて君が教えてくれた) means You Taught Me All The Important Things, which is a really refreshing choice for a romantic drama title even if it's a little mouthful to say out in Japanese.


Popular Miura Haruma and Erika Toda play a couple of high school teachers who are set to be married in half a year, Shuji Kashiwagi and Natsumi Uemura. However, trouble brew right from the start of the show when Shuji woke up to find that he had a one-night-stand with a stranger after a night of heavy drinking. Shuji panicked and he gave his apartment key to the stranger, telling the young stranger to lock up after she leaves as he hurriedly left for the first school day of the new year and he thought that was that. He made a mistake, he pondered a little about it on his way to the school then promptly forgot all about it until that one tardy student called him after class and showed him his apartment key.

The tardy student, Hikari Saeki, is none other than his partner last night!

The horrors!

Hikari left the class with his key and Shuji had to lie his way about losing his key to get a spare key from Natsumi.

So now he faces daily challenge of how to handle this issue as he goes about doing his job and being the popular, admired and good-looking teacher every student looks up to. 

His fiancée, Natsumi, knows nothing about it. At school, students congratulate her on her upcoming marriage, at home, her roommate Sayaka, who is a famous wedding planner, helps her to plan her perfect wedding even as Sayaka looks on sadly and longingly at pictures of Shuji and Natsumi. It looks like Natsumi isn't the only one who has her eyes on Shuji. 

Hikari also seems to be having some kind of illness even though it isn't stated. She visited the nurse Aya (played by Yuki Uchida) and told her that she had had sex and wanted to know if that would affect her treatment from then on. The nurse assured her that everything is fine, that it's not something to be embarrassed or kept to oneself but Hikari told Aya that there are some things she'd never want to tell others about. 

Natsumi found Hikari at the school restroom after Hikari downed some medicines and helped her to the teacher's lounge. As Natsumi tidies up her space, which is filled with English books as she supposedly grew up in America, Hikari's eyes studied her carefully with self-deprecation and a tinge of jealousy. This must have bothered Natsumi a little because she brought up the subject to Shuji and later asked if Hikari is a special female student. Shuji was alarmed but he answered no. He loves Natsumi and her dependable nature.

Meanwhile, at the school, parents of two of Kashiwagi's homeroom students, the studious Sakamoto and rebel Taguchi, seek help from the school staff regarding their children's relationship. They found their kids doing the nasty and even though they are very understanding parents, Sakamoto's mother is worried that her daughter would end up as a teenage mom so she asked Kashiwagi to advise the students on the matter. 

After a night of deliberation, the next morning, he delivered a charismatic speech/talk to his homeroom students about teenage sex while carefully avoided naming the students this speech was intended for (Sakamoto and Taguchi). He said that personally, he thinks it is fine to have sex at any age as long as both parties know the consequences and are aware that they'll be forever changed after it. He went on to cite examples that even though he does not have much experience in the matter, he and Natsumi had changed because of it but they changed for better so their relationship grew stronger. He told his class that he has an honest relationship with his fiancée as the students looked on with admiration towards their teacher for being so open and thoughtful about them.

However, they did not know that Shuji is one who doesn't do what he preaches - that he cheated on Natsumi. Shuji is a liarrrrr. 

This talk must have touched Hikari's nerves because she changed from a timid-looking girl into an angry, I'll-show-you-what-I-can-do femme fatale who waited for her teacher near the bike rack and playfully showed him his apartment key which he has yet to claim back. Hikari asked if Shuji really has an honest relationship and whether Natsumi knew he slept with his student. As the music swells, Hikari walked towards her teacher and told him, "You changed me." She's now ready to ruin his love life and win his heart!!! Little did they know that their mild showdown was witnessed from afar by Natsumi. If Natsumi didn't already guess what just happened, she surely is suspicious about things between Shuji and Hikari now.

Musings about this episode:

If there's one thing I like about japanese dramas, it's that they are always pretty fast-paced as the series usually only span 9-11 episodes. They don't drag around or beat around the bush, unlike taiwanese or korean dramas. So the plot starts off right from the get-go, tension has built up by the end of the first episode and the possible breakdowns are set. 

I like this cast, especially the lead actors. They are fairly seasoned and it showed in the show. Haruma Miura gets the most screentime though and even though Erika Toda's appearance is not very convincing as a high school teacher, she plays her character well and has great chemistry with Miura. Casting popular model Emi Takei as Hikari is a pretty good choice too as her acting chops are decent, for a newbie. And it helps that she's sooooo pretty. 

That said, I'm not sure if the issues discussed in the show will be handled professionally to general audience. There are so many ways to take the lessons out of context and get misinterpreted. What? You can have sex at any age as long as you like each other? That's not the right message you want to send out to impulsive, hormone-driven youngings. This is totally off point but while Shuji gave the talk, I wondered if Haruma Miura thinks that way too about teenage sex because he didn't sound that convincing, imo. Is he a virgin? probably not but yeah... that's off track. haha. I can't wait for the second episode to air! Go Haruma! Go Erika!

Skins: Chris (S1E3)

Why hello hello Skins, we meet again.

So not going to lie, I feel like a dork/traitor/idiot/loser for being excited to watch this week, but honestly I super heart last week's episode with Tea so I'm kind of curious what's next. Oh yeah, and hopefully the music is BOMB again (a couple of Lawrence Arabia songs, which I am totally in love with thanks to Skins, oh yes, and The Drums <3). Seriously in love the music that they've been playing! ( Oh yeah, and MTV is being pretty damn gracious by putting a lot of FREE songs on their site to download! Super cool!):)

Quick breakdown of the characters since we still don't know a lot about each character's background which will obviously come in the latter episodes but in case you want to know...

1. Tony Synder (episode 1)
2. Tea Marvelli (episode 2)
3. Chris Collins (episode 3)
4. Michelle Richardson --> Tony's "girlfriend"
5. Stanley Lucerne --> The virgin
6. Cadie Campbell --> The drug crazy suicide/rehab girl that Stanley was supposed to sleep with
7. Daisy Valero --> The Asian girl, I'm guessing Pilipino?
8. Abbud Siddiqui --> The Indian looking guy?
9. Eura Synder --> (Tony's sister)

So this week centered around Chris, we kind of don't really know anything about him. Yeah, we know about Tea and Tony mainly from the past 2 episodes and a LITTLE BIT about the other characters, see above. I remember about Chris is when he called back his teacher's ex-boyfriend, her name is Tina, like a boss. Damn. Super legit. Also, kind of excited to see how the relationship between Tea & Tony evolves...

Well quick synopsis about this episode: $1000, house party, and his mom has left him...forever?

CHRIS:

• Drugs galore
• So Chris took some Viagra and has had an erect penis for 15 hours. Crazy shiz dude. I read that MTV had to pull some scenes from this episode because they were "too mature" and I think that it involved a penis pump. So I guess erection pills are ok but a penis pump isn't? (Well penis pumps were covered on another similar show, Degrassi, which has PG-13 ratings (definitely not MA status) so I don't get what the big deal is about it is on this show)
• Party central
• Chris + Tina aka HIS TEACHER! He's got the hots for his teacher. And he's so adorable and sweet when he's talking to her and asking her to stay at the party. Love it. :) Is he substituting his mother's misplaced love on Tina? Anyways, she freaks out at his "third leg" hahaha.
• Side note at the party about the other characters
• Tea + Tony: Tea blows off Tony when he tries to talk to her..their relationship is getting complicated and it hasn't even started yet.
• Later on at the end when Tea exposes herself, Tony gets all uncomfortable...Can they please get together or like figure things out? I like them. :)
• Stanley + Michelle: Stanley's still a virgin...even though he told all his friends he's not because he's still supposedly sleeping with Cadie. And he's in love with Michelle...and freaks out when he sees her naked on the bed and is asked about the symmetry of her breasts.
• Cadie + Stanley: But does Cadie like Stanley? Or does she just pity him because she knows that he can never have Michelle. She asks him on a date. Cute. :) Maybe he can get over Michelle?
• Tony + Michelle...more interested in the fish in Stanley's room than boning Michelle. What is up between the two of them?
• Mommy issues
• Where the hell is his mom? From the summary that MTV gave us online we already know that Chris' mom is leaving him for good, not just for a couple of days...how is he going to cope with it? And why did she leave?
• He starts to realize that his Mom really left him when she sees that all of her stuff is gone and reality sets in...but he can't really admit to himself or his friends...
• He knows that she's still around somewhere because she left flowers by Peter's grave. We see that Chris leaves his blunt on Peter's grave so what does that mean? Has to be something significant like is he going to quit drugs or did his brother die from drugs? Hopefully we find out sooner rather than later.
• No more money!!
• His Mom left his $1K...with a note that said she'd be back in a few days.
• Blew all his cash throwing a party...he can't even pay the pizza guy the morning after :/
• What is he going to do about the money situation?!!! And we see that he's desperate when he's trying to sell back the stereo system...Yikes! But to escape the reality that he essentially has NO MONEY he decides to drug up. 
• And the homeless guy in his house is really creepy and he gets kicked out of his own house. I feel so helpless for him already.
• HELP HIM
• Friends 
• Donating the clothes, that was too cute. Especially with his midriff t-shirt and mismatched shoes.
• We see Daisy trying to help him out with his problems and how he kind of tells his problems to her to release all his pent up anger. And we learn about the best day of his life involving his brother Peter. I wonder what happened to him.
• Tina
• The only one who can really help him. He's staying over at her place and she bought him a fish. So sweet. :) There's so much sexual tension between the two of them I wonder what's going to happen.
• Dad
• His Dad has the perfect little suburban life unlike where Chris used to live. We find out a little about his Mom? She's "getting help" for another one of her "episodes."
• Did she go crazy because Peter died?
• Problems: we hear a kind of muffled background noise of a fight between his Dad and his stepmom about how he doesn't want to help him. I wonder what happened?

Overall:

Chris jokes around a lot and acts like he doesn't take his life seriously but inside there's so much turmoil with his parental issues, drug behavior, money problems, and his feelings for his teacher. He is such a complex character and a 40 minute show can't even begin to explain the problem that is his life. I'm excited to see more, how these issues will resolve and whether or not he will retreat into a drug filled fantasy OR face reality. 

Quick question: DOES ANYONE KNOW WHERE SKINS IS SUPPOSED TO BE LOCATED??? IT WAS FILMED IN CANADA BUT THEY DON'T REALLY TELL US WHERE.

This week the music was pretty good, I really enjoyed this song, a little different than the other music that was featured so far, so here we go:

Luck-One & Dekk -- Coulda Been Me (ft. Randa Smith)