Face Maker (フェイスメーカー) [Japan, 2010]

After watching a very sad drama, yet a very good one: 1 litre Of Tears (I bet no one saw this and wasn’t moved by it. I cried one litre of tears in almost every episode D:) I thought I’d watch something light and different. So my pick was Face maker.

Face Maker is about a genius cosmetic surgeon, Kirishima Shun (Played by Nagai Masaru), who is capable  of changing people’s faces completely and turn them into a different person. But in order to undergo such an operation the person involved must agree on giving away his current face and life. The person can’t even undergo another similar operation or even get his old face back.

Now I am not gonna say that this drama was extremely good or anything and I didn’t have any high expectations for it so there was no place for disappointment. But honestly, it wasn’t bad. The idea was quite interesting but I can’t say unique because many of us already know John Travolta’s movie Face/Off (1997) and I am sure that there are many more works following the same idea.

The good thing about it is that each episode follows the story of a different person so you really shouldn’t worry about a plot or anything. Except for the last three episodes, they were connected. But that’s okay, since most of it was the reveal the huge mystery around the surgeon.

Personally I liked the last 3 episodes more than the intended format in which it is supposed to air, which is without a plot. But meh, overall it wasn’t a waste. It was pretty entertaining I’d say. I thought I’d get bored after reading that it gets quite repetitive and predictive but it didn’t really matter to me.

Though 5~10 minutes were always wasted in every episode with something that you could memorize, where Kirishima Shun tells his patients  (or customers?) about all the conditions and rules of the operation. As well as his random appearance in front of them telling them that he sold their faces — This is probably better since you probably don’t want to meet someone with your old face, so at least be prepared for it.

So if you have some time to waste in 2-3 days, then this is not a bad pick. You will even have fun times while laughing at some moments where the acting is a little bit…..bad.

700 Days Of Battle: Us vs. The Police (ぼくたちと駐在さんの７００日戦争) [Japan, 2008]

It’s been a while since I have watched something and really had fun.

This is about a group of high school students who have no interest in living a normal high school life but instead they go around town carrying out pranks on people. A new police officer gets moved to their town and like everyone else, the group of students won’t be leaving him alone. This is when they decided to take it head-to-head with the police officer and call it a battle.

This had lots of those Tom and Jerry moments, where each side pranked the other without rest. This made it fun to watch. But next to the fun and pranks there was this friendship among the boys and the caring side of the police officer that made the film sweet at the same time.

So if you are looking for time to lay back and have some laugh, then this film is a good choice.

Namie Amuro’s 「Doctor」

Namie Amuro, I only know the face of this singer but never got the chance to listen to a full song by her or watch a full performance, so this was my first contact with her music for real. I know, you might say I am late to listening to her even after listening to Jpop for many years now. Doctor was a part of Namie Amuro’s single Wild/Dr which was released in 2009 and it got an animated music video that is Amuro’s first.

The story of the music video is set in the year 3000 after the earth got destroyed by wars. A scientist or  ”Doctor” as he is referred to in this sends, what I think is supposed to be an alter ego of Namie Amuro, back into the past in order to save the earth from the destruction that would hit the earth in the future.

As a song, I don’t think it is a bad one, I personally found it quite catchy and I am sure it would stick in my mind for some time if I actually listened to it more. But now what actually makes this song very good is the video. Even though it is very short, and that is how a music video has to be, it is worth every second.

To tell the truth I didn’t get much out of the video the first watch except for some “this is some cool stuff” came to my mind as it made less sense to me. But the second time I had an idea of what was going on.

So it is normal to have thoughts at first like this is nothing special, but can really be enjoyed once you know what is going on.

[Formspring Question] What YouTube video made you laugh recently?

A random Japanese prank show involving ghosts. Random guy sitting in front of a mirror and I think he is getting ready for a show so he then sees a ghost in the mirror. And that itself scares the shit out of him. But the prank didn’t end there, something I didn’t see coming was when the ghosts broke through the walls and started running after him. Oh all the face fixing he was doing went to waste after all the running and screaming.

I always found Japanese prank shows were always hilarious, especially those that involve scaring other people.

Ask me anything

A burning house, limited time…..what should I carry with me?

I thought I’d try out the post a week thing since I rarely post and it might encourage me and provide me with more ideas but I really wonder if I will be able to carry it on. So this is a start and I will see if I will be able to ‘keep it up’. I know it is May now and we are almost mid of 2011 but it is not too late I guess xD Will try for post a week and if I was able to even post more than once a week, I don’t think that is bad either.

Now to today’s topic. Questions like ‘What will you first take with you if you face a (enter unwanted situation here) and you had only limited time?’ are most probably always asked and we sometimes answer them with less seriousness or never put much thought into it.

Now if I was in such a situation, say a burning house, I would hope whatever I need is in an easy to reach place and is not yet surrounded by fire or else I will have to give up on them. Things I will grab are my laptop, phone, purse, important things like passport, ID cards etc. But these might take time to get them together and it would be late, so might just get new ones issued later on since they got lost by accident. And of course my iPod

Seriously, some music to calm you after such a bad time would really help. But looking at this list I believe I will need a bag for all these things…..it might be too late then. Guess I won’t leave my apartment safely D:

Last night I had a dream similar to this. Might call it a nightmare since it wasn’t pleasant. There was a fire at our house yet when I ran away I don’t remember I took anything xD maybe if I was really put in this situation, I might not be able to think and end up taking nothing.

Let’s always hope we never get into such a situation though. We never had a fire thank God but 2 of our neighbours had such accidents once and one of them was next to our door but it wasn’t serious.