Reviews

The story begins with a math genius high school boy Kenji and his secret idol Natsuki going back to her hometown Nagano to celebrate her great grandmother's 90th birthday. One night, Kenji unintentionally helped crack the security code of a second life net community called "OZ" where billions of users communicate and live. Eventually a single password crack in virtual reality caused an enormous disaster to the real world. And young hero and heroin, and heroin's families are united and determined to fight against their overwhelming enemy.

The characters, designed by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, including a young hero and heroin, are all vivid and adorable enough to make me feel that I actually want to be with them and related to the family. Also I think it was a right decision for a casting director not to use popular TV personalities for commercialism because I often witnessed their unexceptionally poor voice acting destroying masterpieces into pieces. Here the voice acting by the experienced actors or actresses enlivened all the characters, especially the great grandmother's affectionate yet dignified voice was just awesome.

The script woven by Satoko Okudera involved me into the story from the beginning to the end. The advanced internet technology and the traditional large family of Japan are cleverly integrated into one cloth, not contradicting to one another. The main plot of the movie is the fiction, however, I read and watch similar types of accidents on the paper or TV now and then. And the fact, I think, added the reality and impact to the story.

In 2006, Mamoru Hosoda proved himself a promising animation director in "The Girl Who Leapt Through Time". This time he proved himself a truly talented story teller who is capable of entertaining anyone regardless of age, gender, or culture. In this movie, he successfully had a virtual network and a real life coexist and interact with each other seamlessly in order to make the 'save-the-world' type main plot as tangible as possible and let it roller-coaster on. The reason why I called this a masterpiece is that this is not a mere roller coaster; he elaborately described the family tie, the growth of youths, and the romance between the young hero and heron, too.

Up until today, the avatars on the internet were just 2D/3D images or computer programs for me. But after the end roll of this movie, I've become aware that he or she actually lives behind avatars and I am "connected" to them in some way through the internet. It is a highly recommended animation film!

Basically I go to the theater without any previous knowledge such as user comments, reviews, or trailers simply because they spoil my pleasure and excitement. On the other hand, I refer to some basic information such as ratings, votes, or people in the film in order to judge whether it's a crap or a must-go.

"Star Trek" got 8.4 points out of 10 by 74,479 audiences (June 2009). Demographic breakdown says more than half of viewers rated 9-10, and female viewers, who usually stay away from Sci-fi stuff, rated a bit higher than male counterparts, which could probably mean main character is a pretty boy and there is a romantic subplot.

According to the director's profile, this J.J. Abrams got Emmys, so he had built certain careers on TV dramas. My first impression from his pictures is that he is the son of Henry Kissinger. Jewish? Anyway I've got a hunch that he is a genius nerd type of guy who are crazy about "Star Trek" and good at grabbing the audiences toward the story with thrill and suspense. Anyway it's a must-go.

OK, I watched the Star Trek (2009). Now I skip synopsis or plot as usual; you can get it at IMDb or the official site. I'm gonna touch on my impressions or comments for your reference.

Actually I am not a fervent Trekkiest like Abrams, but I liked it a lot. Main plot is the revenge. The opponents had earthy reasons to attack USS Enterprise and fight against United Federation of Planets. Both main plot and other sub plots made the story involving. This is not a mere good versus evil stuff.

Another thing is that the quality of computer graphics of universe and star ships was superb. Especially when I saw the full-scale USS Enterprise, I found adrenaline rushed through my body. As for people, I found the young Kirk, Spok and other crews as lively and humane as the original ones. I really look forward to watching the sequel and meeting them.

Unless you've got a big TV set at home just like me, I recommend that you go to the theater and enjoy this master piece at a big screen.

Basically I go to the theater without any previous knowledge such as user comments, reviews, or trailers simply because they spoil my pleasure and excitement. On the other hand, I refer to some basic information such as ratings, votes, or people in the film in order to judge whether it's a crap or a must-go.

"The Reader" got 7.7 points out of 10 by 28789 audiences (June 2009). Thinking about Winslet's Oscar, the number of votes seemed kind of small to me but demographic breakdown says 65% of audiences, regardless of age and gender, rated 8 or greater. As for the people in the film, I liked Winslet on "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind" (2004), Daldry's directing on "Billy Elliot" (2000). Right, I think it's a must-go for me.

OK. I watched the "The Reader". Now let me just skip synopsis or plot here; you can get it at IMDb or the official site, right? I will touch on my impressions or comments for your reference. Actually I wrote paper on "Holocaust" at college but I really learned how horrible it was from the movies, not a textbook. "Life Is Beautiful" (1999) , "The Pianist" (2002), etc.

For me, this is the first time to see a movie which described the viewpoint of perpetrators, not of the victims. So I thought the story seemed new and unique to me. Also the best reward of this movie was Winslet's outstanding performance. If I could borrow a quote from Eastwood, Winslet "Just stood there and spoke the truth", and she made her acting real.

On the other hand, I felt that the movie could have been much better with less naked scenes or love affair and with more depictions of reading and mental interactions between Hanna (Winslet) and her lovely kid. I expected hope for life, not despair, would come to Hanna as a result of her redemption, you know. To be honest, I was not fully satisfied with the ending. If you are eager to watch Winslet's acting AND her voluptuous body, I guess it's worth watching at a big screen.

Thanks to my previous knowledge on "Sangokushi" or Three Kingdom Saga in Ancient China, I enjoyed the outstanding performance and the dynamic war scenes. The movie also succeeded to dramatizing Sun Tzu's "The Art of War". It was exhilarating to see outnumbered allies made full use of the strategy and fought against their common enemies and ran a dead heat.

Usually I do not expect story or drama stuff being described in the action movies but "Red Cliff" betrayed my expectation in a good sense. There were several scenes that touched my heart. For example, two genius war generals who belong to different lords met for the first time and they instantly understood that they were hard-to-get friends by playing musical instruments together, without using any tricks or politics.

In a newspaper article a veteran charismatic movie buyer from Avex had foretold "Red Cliff" would take academy awards right after he finished reading the script. Though his hitting ration was high, I was not sure if he would raise his ratio and salary in the future. But I was sure that Tony Leon had a dominating presence through the scenes and it was highly possible that he would be nominated in his acting.

Actually I saw a lady stood up to go to the rest room during the highlight, and some left before the end roll skipping the trailer of part two, and after the trailer I heard a girl behind me complain against her excited boyfriend about dozens of characters who had lost her. I thought some previous knowledge would be important to fully enjoy this historic war movie.

Basically the movie was created for everyone because John Woo focused on the battle of red cliffs which was one of the best highlights in the saga, cleverly avoiding another digest version. Also there was a brief explanation about history and people at the beginning being accompanied by easy-to-understand Japanese subtitles crafted by Natsuko Toda. Personally I wanted to give my big hug to John Woo, actors and actresses, all the staffs, and their accomplishment "Red Cliff" (Part One).

No matter how many awards the movie had won or no matter how many movie fans had graded five stars, how could ever a story about guys who make livings by placing corpse in coffins entertain or even touch my heart? Impossible!!

A couple of weeks later, I went to a movie theater to see Oshii Mamoru's animation film; I had beautifully forgotten about this one. I was surprised to see a crowd of people, mainly housewives and old folks, making lines on weekdays, toward the ticket office #3 with a sign in front that read "Departures". Impossible!

I changed my mind and joined that line in order to see their disappointment. Frankly speaking, I was very exhausted. Um... very exhausted from two-hour laughter, running nose and excitement! Gee, how could ever...no, never mind.

Actually I kept having 'deja vu' while watching and then I found myself stepping into my childhood memory which had been sealed in deep mind, recalling someone who had departed with regret and sorry just like one of the characters in this film.

At the end roll, I could hardly believe my eyes to learn that the film was shot in his hometown, where I hadn't visited for years. Was "Departures" a stone letter from him? I wondered. Impossible?

Actually I was tempted to stand up and leave the theater at the beginning part of the film because there were flooding scenes of childish and idiotic acting and dialogue yet I had a second thought about it. Well I found I was right about my hunch at the end credit. It was one of the best fantastic comedies with a little spice of tragedy.

I got involved with the story and went through catharsis because I identified with one of the characters who shared my problem and got it over with. There were various kinds of people in the film and you should find the one whom you can identify yourself with, I guess.

Koji Yakusho's performance was overwhelming. He was really good at expressing his emotion through his eyes not through line of dialogue, which reminded me of his mentor Tatsuya Nakadai in "The Shadow Warrior(1980)". Ayaka Wilson was as lovely as Ivana Baquero in "Pan's Labyrinth (2007)". Jun Kunimura well-known for his low-keyed performance played a cameo role as a hard gay.

I wish there were a little more explanation why that cold-hearted shitty old man began to care about the fairy whatever her fate was; it is my personal opinion, though. Everyone in the theater was giggling, running nose like me ;-) and applauding. Oh, if you ever had a chance to see this film, make sure you got your handkerchief, OK?