Anime/TV – Noir (2013) Update
It’s been a while since I provided an update to the anime to TV series project Noir but alas it seems it was stuck in development hell for a long time. Readers will remember that the Starz network greenlighted this to series June of last year with Sam Raimi and others in charge but it seems that they weren’t able to totally get a good handle on the show. Now it’s been announced that Ethan Reiff and Cyrus Voris the creators of the Sleeper Cell TV show have taken over the project.
JDrama Review – Hotaru no Hikari (Glow of Fireflies) (2007)
Hotaru no Hikari (Glow of Fireflies) is yet another in a long line of Jdrama romantic comedies featuring colourful leads who initially bicker and butt heads like oil and water yet deep down the audience inherently knows they’ll eventually hook up. Like just about every Jdrama out there in this genre the key for the audience here is presenting events and dilemmas that keep them apart or present alternate love interests in ways that seem justifiable and realistic but at the same time show the slow romantic buds blooming between the leads. In that sense Hotaru no Hikari works despite having next to no originality but viewers will be rewarded with energetic performances and some delightful chemistry that keeps episodes humming along even though the plot reeks of too many clichés.
JDrama Review – Mr. Brain (2009)
Potential (noun): 1. The inherent ability or capacity for growth, development, or coming into being. 2. Something possessing the capacity for growth or development– http://www.thefreedictionary.com
Kimura Takuya makes his annual return to Japanese drama with the high budget Mr. Brain, a procedural crime investigation series that takes elements from American shows such as CSI and Columbo that on paper sounds as if it could have a ton of potential but instead ends up as a middling entry filled with vacant characterizations and episodic narratives rife with a myriad of illogical contrivances.
JDrama Review – Atashinchi no Danshi (2009)
There are odd setups and then there are totally bizzaro setups. Atashinchi no Danshi is firmly in the later group here. While I can give points for originality the narrative presented here is incredibly fresh yet totally far-fetched and off-the-wall. I suppose it can sort of function if one regards the show as live-action manga or some sort of weird fairy tale but originality aside the series itself has some truly gigantic issues that prevent it from being remotely successful.
TV Review – Virtuality (2009)
Originally meant to be Ronald D. Moore and Michael Taylor’s follow-up television science fiction series to the just concluded reimagined Battlestar Galactica, Virtuality instead ended up not being picked up by the Fox network that decided to shelve the idea of turning it into a series therefore leaving this two hour pilot suspended in limbo making fans wonder just exactly what went wrong. Instead, Fox has decided to just televise the two hour pilot as a TV movie with minimal advertising on the wasteland that is known as the Friday night prime time period. You don’t really need more information to discern that Fox had lost all appetite for the show and had basically dumped it out there for all to see without any fanfare.
JDrama Review – Chance! (2009)
Fun though thoroughly unoriginal inspirational comedy that is a pleasant enough time waster but doesn’t truly make good use of either its leading lady Horikita Maki or its modest plot twist. Chance! is one of those tanpatsu, one-shot TV movies (or in this case 2 episodes) that you occasionally see each Japanese drama season. This time around we have a slice of life tale revolving around a struggling young woman Tamaki Kawamura (Horikita Maki) who after much disappointment manages to finally land a meagre job in a travel company. Shuffled to the lowest rungs of customer service she manages to make it through the days even though she’s saddled with a seemingly nasty boss and a less than bright career path.
JDrama Review – Innocent Love (2008)
Watching Innocent Love I can’t help but recall that hoary old Hollywood cliché that child actors have it tough when they attempt to transition to more mature subject matter. I’m sure you could start a list of famous kids who earned much praise and kudos for their earlier work only to find their careers careening into the abyss as they start to age. For every Ron Howard, Leonardo Dicaprio, Jodie Foster, Elizabeth Taylor or Drew Berrymore there’s a Macaulay Culkin, Edward Furlong, Gary Coleman or Dana Plato. I could go on for hours but you get the point.
JDrama – Bloody Monday (2008) Review
There was a point during the first season of Keifer Sutherland’s 24 where I remembered thinking to myself, “Okay, this is about to jump the shark.” After merrily buzzing along at warp speed the story suddenly seemed to run out of ideas when Jack Bauer’s (Keifer Sutherland) wife suddenly developed a severe case of amnesia which is one of the most ridiculously overwrought and overused plot devices imaginable. To its credit, the inclusion of such a silly soap opera subplot didn’t torpedo the show as it managed to right itself and keep going with a wonderful marriage of tense situations and compelling action.
