Sukitte Ii Na Yo (Review)

I'm seriously so lucky that so many movies got released with subs this week! First it was Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno, and now Sukitte Ii Na Yo's live action is out! It was actually out before Rurouni but I just found it on the website I frequent (bilibili). If you understand Chinese subs, you gotta use bilibili cuz it's just the bomb. They always have super fast releases and if you're waiting for a Japanese movie, they will for sure have it as soon as subs are available!

Anyhow, I watched Sukitte Ii Na Yo last night and it was pretty good. I have a few mixed feelings about it but I just gotta say wow at the cinematography. I'll go into a bit more of that later but be sure to expect a shitload of screencaps just of beautiful scenes.

*PS. I'm sorry if it takes a long time to load this page because I just needed to include 100 screencaps.

Synopsis

Taken from Asianwiki:

Mei Tachibana is a high school student. Due to a traumatic incident when she was a kid, Mei has been unable to make friends or have boyfriends. By mistake, Mei then injures the most popular male student named Yamato Kurosawa. Somehow, Yamato Kurosawa likes Mei Tachibana and tells everyone unilaterally that Mei is his friend. One day, Yamato Kurosawa saves Mei Tachibana from a stalker by kissing her. From that kiss, their love story begins.

Cast & Characters

Kawaguchi Haruna plays Mei Tachibana. Kawaguchi just looks perfect for this role. She is lacking a bit of the aggressiveness and bitterness that Mei had in the beginning though. The first kick was really the only time we got to see her aggressive side but Kawaguchi's acting in that scene felt a little flat for me. That scene, however, is the only scene where I felt a disappointed. She really played Mei well for the rest of the movie! Plus, when I was screencapping for this post, I couldn't help but take a bunch of screencaps of Mei because Kawaguchi is just too pretty! Her facial expressions were perfect and I could literally feel Mei's low self confidence radiating off of her.

Fukushi Sota plays Yamato Kurosawa. Sota is always nice to see but his acting can't seem to match his amazing smile. He's improved a lot since before and he plays a great Yamato! The way he looks at Mei is so cute and I also find it adoring how he cares so much for his friends!

Ichikawa Tomohiro plays Kai Takemura. Oh my gosh how have I not seen this actor before?!?! He is just toooooo cute! Even though I really didn't like his mohawk, I thought he looked so cute! Kai is actually the only side character with more of a back story and it was actually shown really well in the movie. I felt for him when he wanted to get revenge on his past bullies and admired him when he decided to take the high road and move on.

Adachi Rika plays Aiko Muto. Maaaan I see her almost everywhere now! It's a good thing though because I love how she has that super natural beauty that you can't really find nowadays. She was also in Kinkyori Renai~Season Zero and thats where I started to like her. I love her character Aiko as well for her matureness and no-nonsense attitude!

Nagase Tasuku plays Kenji Nakanishi. Do all the side characters have to be this cute? I really cannot take it!

Nishizaki Rima plays Asami Oikawa. Asami will always be one of my favourite characters! She's just so sweet and kind and I love how she doesn't let herself get mad at what other people say about her. Nishizaki Rima has the perfect soft features of Asami.

Yamamoto Ryosuke plays Masashi Tachikawa. For the second time, how have I not seen this actor before?!?! He's so cute! It's too bad he didn't have a lot of screentime though :(

Yagi Arisa plays Megumi Kitagawa. Any of you guys watched We Got Married Global? I thought Megumi looked so familiar when I was watching the movie and I only just found out it was Yagi Arisa who played her! Anyhow, I'm glad they didn't make Megumi that bitchy in this movie because there honestly wasn't enough time for her bitchiness lol.

Review & Thoughts 

I actually have mixed feelings about this movie despite all my excitedness. I kind of have this love-hate relationship with shoujo manga adaptations. I love them because no matter how much I love manga or anime, I still prefer watching real life humans as the characters. Everyone feels different about these kind of things but that's just what I prefer and I can't really explain why. I guess its because watching the movements and the surroundings just makes it feel so much more real and relatable. I'm not saying that manga or anime can't do this either because they can. There have been countless mangas and animes that have made me cuckoo in the head because of how emotionally invested I become in them. Also, I just simply like live action because I love to see different variations of a work and also speculate on the casting. In this case, I was super satisfied with the casting! Fukushi Sota and Kawaguchi Haruna are both actors that I love and the side characters are all played by fresh faces who show a lot of promise. There isn't one actor that I hate in this movie.

Now on the other hand, I kind of hate live action adaptations because it's just not possible to condense so much material from a manga into under two hours and make it good. Though there are exceptions like Rurouni Kenshin and Kimi Ni Todoke and more, they aren't the majority. Even if a short amount of the manga is being adapted, these movies often feel rushed. That was the case in this movie. I know how all the characters develop from reading the manga but I couldn't feel anything real from this movie (I know shoujo manga is never realistic but do realize there is a limit lol). Part of the reason is because everything went so fast that I really could not believe in Mei and Yamato's love for each other.

Buuuuut, since I am a very understanding viewer and fan, I'm going to overlook it because of how beautiful the movie was in general. Even though I had to plant a bunch of false memories in my head to believe in Mei and Yamato's love, I still got really good vibes from them separately! Pretty much all of the characters were fitting and had great chemistry with each other. The actors all stood out one way or another because I didn't find any of them boring! They were all extremely good looking, especially the actors who played Kai and Masashi. SWOON!!!!

Anyhow, the reason why I can't dislike this movie is very superficial. As usual I'm always superficial. The reason is the cinematography! I am seriously in love with this movie's colouring and I'm using a bunch of the screencaps as my wallpaper right now. I just so happened to download this movie in 1080p and it's making me have an eyegasm. All the beautiful sun flares make each shot like a piece of art!

KISS CAPS! LITERALLY SO MANY BUT TOO BAD THEY WERE KINDA BLAND IN VIDEO

Lastly, here are some of the kiss shots! They kissed SO MANY TIMES in this movie. I counted and there were 12 kisses in total! 12!!!!! Quantity is not always quality however. I get that the girl is supposed to be innocent and all but most of the kisses in this movie were just so lacking. Sigh..... the ending kiss was really sweet though!

Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno (Review) (WITH A LOT OF SPOILERS! A LOT!)

So like... I JUST WATCHED THE NEW RUROUNI KENSHIN: KYOTO INFERNO MOVIE!!!

It was good. It was really really good. And I have paragraphs and paragraphs of thoughts I need to spew out. I watched the movie with Chinese subs since it just got released on Bilibili (watch here!) like 3 days ago. I was so busy with exams that I didn't even notice!!（ ＴДＴ）I'll do a review on The Legend Ends when it comes out but I'm still waiting haha. I actually thought I'd have to wait like 5 more months since the movies just came out in August but it actually got released really fast. You have no idea how happy I was for it to come out. Even though I didn't read the manga or anything, the first movie of Rurouni Kenshin was on a whole other level compared to most Japanese movies. I loved it so much and I rewatched it like 20 times lol. It's a movie series I definitely recommend so be sure to watch it before reading this review!

Synopsis 

I'm not going to write a synopsis since there is quite a lot of story here. Instead, I'll give some links to the manga story and the movie story. They're pretty similar with a few changes here and there. Click here for Rurouni Kenshin's Wikia page on the Kyoto Arc (man I love Wikia they have SO MUCH information!) and here for the live-action movie Wikipedia. 

Cast & Characters

Here is the wikipedia for all the characters of Rurouni Kenshin! It's always nice to know background information so there won't be any confusion later ^^

Sato Takeru plays Himura Kenshin aka Hitokiri Battōsai, which literally means 'Sword-drawing Manslayer' or 'Sword-drawing Assassin.' Sato Takeru is definitely the star of this movie and has got his character figured out perfectly. I don't think I've ever seen an actor be so perfectly in character before. I could probably think of other actors who could play the other characters but I cannot imagine anyone else other than Takeru who could play Kenshin. He lives and breathes Kenshin and his dedication to this character is no joke. There were an abundant of action scenes and I think 90% of the stunts were done by Takeru himself. There were some impossible-like scenes that I thought was done by a stuntman but then they would show Takeru's face without even cutting the scene. I am so amazed at his ability as an actor. If you're a follower of Takeru and this movie, you would know how hard he works just so he can perform his own stunts. Every facial expression in this movie was perfect and I could feel a whole range of emotions from him. He was even better here in Kyoto Inferno than in the first movie, which says a lot because he was absolutely amazing in the first movie. His 'oro' and 'Kaoru-dono' are just too cute! As a longtime fan of Takeru, I'm really proud of him in that he has really found his career-defining role in Kenshin. Cue the tears (⌯˃̶᷄ ﹏ ˂̶᷄⌯). IM JUST SO PROUD.

Takei Emi plays Kamiya Kaoru. I think Emi has improved vastly compared to the first movie. It feels as if she wasn't that into her character in the first movie but that is not the case here. Although her scenes were short, Emi was finally able to truly express Kaoru's personality. I could feel Kaoru's strong-willed and prideful character radiating off of her. And her firm belief of katsujin-ken (swords that protect life) earned my admiration. She's just such a strong motivator for Kenshin! I'm also really glad that there's finally some Kaoru action in this movie. Fans of the manga all know that Kaoru is a spunky and strong female character who can definitely hold her own if she wanted to. Unfortunately, given the short story in the first movie, most viewers weren't able to see that and simply saw her as a damsel in distress. I'm sure they'll be glad to see so many action scenes for Kaoru this time ヽ(；▽；)ノ But I do have to admit I laughed a little when Kaoru said she wanted to fight with Kenshin because Takei Emi just looked so funny holding out her long stick weapon (I'm sorry I don't know the name). Kaoru has always looked so pampered up that it felt weird watching her in rags and pointing her weapon at people who were probably much more powerful than her. Plus, it doesn't help that Takei Emi has more of a princess-y look. However, I completely changed my mind after seeing her perseverance and her kicking a bunch of people's asses. I only see improvement from Emi and I'm glad she's not as awkward as she was in the first movie!

Fujiwara Tatsuya plays Shishio Makoto. When the casting news first came out, I really disliked Fujiwara Tatsuya. The only positive side to the casting was that I wouldn't have to see his face since he was playing Shishio. But in-between that news and this movie, I became a fan of him. If you read my review for ST: Scientific Task Force, you'll see how he won me other with his very expressive acting. I don't know how I went from disliking him to totally finding him adorable now. I definitely took a 180 degree turn because while I was watching the movie, I was actually wishing to see his un-bandaged face lol. What a difference from my thoughts before, am I right? Anyhow, I think Fujiwara did a really good job at portraying the intense degree of hate Shishio had for the Meiji government and also his strong desire to conquer. Shishio is one of those villains that I can't really hate because of reasons I can't even explain myself lol. It's not even because I have sympathy for him or anything (even though he was burned alive lolol...)

Aoki Munetaka plays Sagara Sanosuke. I always think Sanosuke is so funny. Whether he's fighting someone (which is all the time) or doing something serious, his foul mouth and rough body movements just make everything funny. Aoki Munetaka's real life personality really translates into his character because he's just the biggest goofball in real life. I love love love his friendship with Kenshin and I'm so glad we got to see a lot more bromance in this movie. While I was watching the scene above (where he finally meets Kenshin in Kyoto), I couldn't help but take a hundred screenshots because it literally looks like Sanosuke wants to kiss Kenshin. Is it just me or do you see it too? I've never been a shipper of boyxboy or even bromances but they are pretty adorbz together if I do say so myself (~￣▽￣)~

Aoi Yu plays Takani Megumi. Megumi is one of my favourite characters because she just has so much knowledge and wisdom in her. Aoi Yu is an amazing actress in terms of talent and conveying her emotions on screen. She didn't get that much screen time in this movie but every shot of her made my eyes glue to the screen. Her character is definitely vital to the story since she's such a great support to all her friends. She seems to know what everyone is feeling and acts accordingly. I respect that a lot and Aoi Yu portrays that aspect of Megumi perfectly!

Tsuchiya Tao plays Makimachi Misao. Oh Misao! I think I really fell in love with her character her. She's so young but so bright and full of life! I was actually a bit skeptical of Tsuchiya Tao when I first learned of the casting so seeing her do so well as Misao filled me with relief. I think I'm officially becoming a fan of Tsuchiya!

Kamiki Ryunosuke plays Seta Sōjirō, the right hand man of Shishio Makoto and an extremely skilled swordsman. Sojiro literally has no emotion and I definitely felt that from Kamiki Ryunosuke. I regard this as a positive thing but Kamiki Ryunosuke can really give me the creeps with some of his characters. He barely had any scenes but that emotionless smile on his face just gave me the shivers every single time and I loved it lol. His portrayal of Sojiro kind of reminded me of his character Ninomiya Juichi from SPEC because of the similarities between the characters. They're both very emotionless when it comes to killing.

I just want to comment on how Takei Emi and Kamiki Ryunosuke were in a Taiga together before where Takei Emi played his MOM lol! It's so funny because they're born in the same year and Kamiki is even a few months older than Emi. When the cast of Rurouni Kenshin was on VS Arashi, Kamiki revealed that he calls her mom on set. I loled so hard.

There are way more characters but I'm not going to go into detail into them. Instead, there are a few characters that I want to mention:

Tanaka Min plays Kashiwazaki Nenji, an elder member of the Oniwabanshū. Despite his old age, he really knows how to kickass!

Fukuyama Masaharu plays Hiko Seijūrō. He only appeared towards the end of the movie but I just have to comment on his socks+sandals combination lol. I know they're actually traditional Japanese footwear but I was pretty amused. Sorry I didn't get a picture of his face lol.

Ryosuke Miura plays Sawagejo Cho. I probably wouldn't have commented on his character if not for the epicly cute wink he did lol.






Review & Thoughts 

Lets talk about cinematography because LOOK AT THE BEAUTIFUL SCENERY!!!! I really really love the colouring of this movie because everything is very vibrant and pleasant on the eyes. Each scene fit in perfectly and there weren't any awkward transitions anywhere! Just like the first movie, you can expect high quality directing and effects. All the action scenes were done so well I didn't even know where to look because it was just too exciting lol.

I thought I'd have a lot to say in this section of the review but I actually don't have anything because I said everything in the characters section lol. Also this movie ended with a cliffhanger so I think I'll have much more to say about this whole live-action film series as a whole after watching The Legend Ends. I'm so psyched for that movie because I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!! >.<

OTP

CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT THE HUG AND HOW PERFECT IT WAS. I know it wasn't like the anime with all the fireflies at night but it was short and sweet and fit perfectly into the movie. Takei Emi and Sato Takeru just have so much chemistry together (♡ˊ͈ ॢ꒳ ॢˋ͈)

I really love the soft expression on Kenshin's face whenever he looks at Kaoru and I just can't help but think of that in terms of real life as well. We all know that Kaoru and Kenshin get together in Rurouni Kenshin so I'm going to talk about my REAL LIFE OTP of Sato Takeru and Takei Emi. I don't think there's a ship name for them yet but there are quite a lot of people who ship them because of their own screen characters. Having real life OTPs is pretty much inevitable and its HORRIBLE because y'all know that real life OTPs don't usually become canon. I watched like 500+ videos of Sato Takeru and Takei Emi doing promotions for Rurouni Kenshin and it seems like they have a very bickering relationship. They're always bantering back and forth its really funny and cute. They for sure got closer since the first movie because I remember seeing some awkward behind the scenes back then. Now they're pretty much teasing each other 24/7 at interviews, premiers, and fan events ♡♡♡

They had dating rumours back then during the first movie but I don't really believe it since a lot of Japanese media outlets just speculate without any evidence. There has also been rumours of Sato Takeru dating other women so I'm pretty sure he and Emi are just friends. Or they could be frenemies depending on what perspective you take. Sometimes I feel like he teases her because it's cute but then sometimes I feel like they both hate each other and just tease each other on camera to spite the other lol. Either way, I'm pretty amused at this OTP ♡

Extra Screencaps

Here are some beautiful screencaps of our beautiful OTP and more ♡♡

Subete Ga F Ni Naru Impression & Thoughts (Ep 1-8)

I really wanted to write about this drama right after it started airing but I unfortunately had no time. I can't really do a first impressions anymore since it already aired 8 episodes but I still wanted to write something about it before the drama ends. I'm 100% sure I'm going to do a review since this is probably the only Jdorama I've followed extensively this season (I still have to catch up on the others). I just finished watching episode 8 and I have quite a lot of thoughts on it so here we go!

First off, I've noticed that a lot of the bloggers I read don't seem to enjoy this drama. I'm really not that big of a critic and I pretty much like everything lol. From a critical perspective, I can tell when a drama is reaaaallly good or when a drama is reaaaallly bad but most of the time I just depend on how I feel about it personally. So you'll see me write a lot of good things about dramas that my bias is in (like this drama lol) and sometimes rag on people who I don't like. I am extreeeeeemely biased! I don't even try to think things objectively because I just fail miserably. Hopefully you won't find me too shameless due to the fact that I'll like anything my bias is in (¬‿¬)♥

Subete Ga F Ni Naru meaning Everything Becomes F (English title is The Perfect Insider) is about a university associate professor and his wealthy student solving unusual locked room murder cases. Ayano Gou plays Saikawa Kohei, the young professor, and Takei Emi plays Nishinosono Moe, a wealthy student. They've known each other since Nishinosono was a kid and it's been made obvious since the beginning that she has the HUGEST crush on Saikawa. I wasn't really sure about the romance in the first few episodes despite the drama poster being such a big tease. Nishinosono's feelings have always been made transparent but I was skeptical about Saikawa's feelings until the end of episode two. I can confidently say that Saikawa feels the same way about Nishinosono but there is something holding him back and it's a bit of a mystery. The romance is currently on the back burner but there have been a few cute scenes so I'm feeling pretty satisfied so far.

Magata Shiki

In the first scene of the drama, we are introduced to Magata Shiki (played by Hayami Akari), a genius computer scientist who killed her parents when she was 14 (not too sure about the age on that). I thought the murder of her parents would be the main background mystery but I was wrong. Magata Shiki's case about her parents ended at the end of episode 6, but there is still some mystery surrounding her and her relation to Saikawa and Nishinosono. It's like shes some sort of all-knowing being that knows everything about them. There's also been one hint about Saikawa's involvement with the death of Nishinosono's parents (which was a supposed accident) but I'm not too sure about that since I might've interpreted it wrong. It's rare when I can't even figure out the main mystery of a detective drama when it's already aired 8 episodes lol, so I'm kind of feeling a bit curious and unsatisfied.

The cases are pretty standard. They're locked room murders but they are really really bizarre. The synopsis says they're unusual and that's an understatement. Episode 7/8's mystery is definitely the strangest so far. It's so strange to the point that I'm starting to feel like the cases are getting ridiculous. So I'm pretty much just watching this drama for the interaction between Saikawa and Nishinosono and for the main mystery to unravel. Overall, this drama doesn't have the strongest storyline but I find it enjoyable to watch nonetheless.

Takei Emi and Ayano Gou are doing a really good job portraying their characters and they look really good as well! I'm so glad Emi is finally sporting a haircut that I like. Her bangs were a little weird in the beginning but they look so good now! I'm normally not a huge fan of gruff but Ayano Gou pulls it off pretty well. I might actually like him better with a moustache ;)

As for the acting, there's a lot of criticism about Takei Emi in that she always plays the same roles but I honestly don't understand? I don't get whats so wrong with playing the same characters? I agree that it'd be nice for her to change it up once in a while but I don't see it as a negative thing to play the same type of roles. I actually really like her in these types of roles so I guess I'm lucky lol.

Anyhow, this drama is pretty solid for me overall and I'm quite excited to see how the central mystery unravels. I'm also dying for some more romance between Saikawa and Nishinosono because they just look so cute together! TEEHEE HAVE SOME CUTENESS BELOW o(〃＾▽＾〃)o

Watch Subete Ga F Ni Naru with English subs at Dramafever! I'm so glad they're subbing this show because then I can watch it in English instead of Chinese :D