Top Five Japanese Movies

While looking forward to recording this Sunday (!!!!8 hours in the studio!!!!!), I've been trying my hardest to get over a nasty little lingering cold (that I've been nursing for the past three weeks....) and have been laying around my apartment watching movies more often this week than I usually do. Now. When it comes to Japanese movies.... I'm pretty skeptical. I've seen my fair share of horrid Japanese films (and I think I'm about done with actors not knowing how to stage kiss either...) that have absolutely no flow, the vaguest story known to man, and a theme that is so deeply imbedded in imagery and metaphor, it probably drowned before it hit the theaters. That being said, time and time again I give Japanese movies a chance (because when the love stories are cute and simple, I just can't help but spew hearts at the adorableness) and will randomly go to TSUTAYA and pick up two movies that appeal to me from the cover of the DVD box alone. By doing this, I've come to find some of my absolute favorite movies of all time. So, without further ado, I give you the "Gotta Tell Someone Top Five Ranking!"

Top Five Best Japanese Movies (IMO)

 5. BECK: Movies based off of manga/anime/dramas are kind of hit-and-miss in my opinion. I've seen dozens of them (Hana Yori Dango movie, All Nodame Contabure movies, 1 Liter of Tears movie, Koizora, Kimi Ni Todokeyo movie, Proposal Daisakusen movie, Nana movie... the list continues). By no means are they all bad. I actually really liked most of them! It's just.... in normal movie standards, drama/manga/anime movies tend to be pretty weak and really only function as fan-fodder in most cases, tying up loose ends and getting characters married (cue new Hotaru Hikari Movie set to come out). That all aside, I really liked the BECK movie for what it was and (though I haven't read the comic etc) thought that the cast was pretty good (I love me some Mizushima Hiro) along with their acting. It of course helped that the movie was about a band and very music related of course ;P

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4. Shimotsuma Monogatari (or Kamikaze Girls, as it became in the English release): This is one of those high school 時代 nostalgic movies for me that I absolutely loved and watched a million and a half times. The story is sweet and simple (Loves-Lolita-Fashion girl meets Yankee-Biker-Gang girl and they become friends), and the filming style reminds me sooo much of Amelie that I immediately fell in love with the whimsicality of it all. The narration style is also extremely appealing, and the scene cuts and flashbacks that they add into the movie takes nothing away from the flow or simplicity of the story and just makes the whole thing rather light-hearted and funny.

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3. About Love: I wrote about this movie way back when I first saw it, but wanted to touch on it again since it was so good. It's a movie about three different (international) love stories, all taking place in different countries in Asia. It contains a total of five different languages spoken during the course of the three stories (Japanese, Chinese, Korean, English, Spanish) and although the love stories don't all come to a conclusion (or a happy ending), I loved each story individually and thought that the movie had a lot of heart and hope. <3

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2. Waterboys: I feel like most people have seen this movie... if not, please go out and rent it RIGHT NOW. It is seriously the funniest, weirdest little story about a high school boys synchronized swimming team. Nothing deep, heart-wrenching, or philosophical about it; it is extremely light-hearted, VERY funny, and has a great cast of actors/actresses that will probably be very familiar to you if you watch dramas/movies.

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1. Shounen Meriken Sakku: Last but not least, one of my favorite movies of all time!! This was one of those movies where the DVD box appealed to me so much that one night, I picked it up from TSUTAYA and me and a buddy watched it in my apartment over dinner. I fell in love on-first-watch. Of course, it could be my closeness with the subject matter (the movie is about punk music, and every single character in the band reminded me of real people living in Kochi that I know) that has me so enraptured with this movie... but honestly it is hilarious and I think even if you aren't into punk music/live concert scenes, it has funny banter and is easy to follow along.

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And thus concludes my third segment of "Gotta Tell Someone Top Five Ranking!" I hope you all go out and rent/download these movies ASAP (especially if you speak Japanese). I don't know the availability for these movies in English/with English subs (I only know that Kamikaze Girls and Waterboys has subs for sure), but even without understanding 100%, I think these are all worth a watch. I know that for me, I just turn on the subtitles in Japanese and my understanding goes up exponentially~

J-Festa: Valentine's Day in Japan

Although I already wrote a little about my valentine's day in Japan, I figured I would also write a little entry for this month's J-Festa post! Not only that, but I wanted to add another post onto my "I gotta tell someone Top Five Ranking" series that has sat stagnant since I wrote about the dumbest non-alcoholic beverages this country has produced thus far. :P So, without further ado, I give you...

Top Five Cutest Valentine's Day Sale Items

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5. Valentine's Day beer/alcohol: This isn't really that cute, but I think it's funny how Japan tries to even doll beer and sake up with bows, ribbons, hearts, and "couple's packaging" in order to sell booze on this big day of love. The above image is obviously one of the more simpler packaging ideas. This year, I saw tiny airplane-size booze bottles wrapped up in heart shaped baskets with pink plastic grass and enough pink and chocolate beer to drown Tokyo.

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4. Valentine's Day Kit-Kats: If you've ever been to Japan, you know that the beloved chocolate kit-kat has been transformed into a monster with about a zillion flavors and themes over here. To name a few: Milk Chocolate, Dark Chocolate, White Chocolate, Strawberry, Macha, Sakura, Lemon Soda, Coca Cola, Yuzu, Orange, Custard, Pudding, Cookies and Cream, Melon, Lemon Lime, Fruit Parfait, Banana, Mango, Kurumi.... The list goes on. I've seen pictures of "Shoyu Kit-Kats" as well (nasty sounding if you ask me....). With that in mind, of COURSE kit-kats are going to be holiday themed! It's only a matter of time before they make a difference one for every day of the year so each person can have a "birthday kit-kat" or something....

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3. Valentine's Day Packaging: I love and hate how much effort goes into packaging things in Japan. Most of the time, food items come triple-quadruple wrapped in plastic and paper. Then, once you've finally managed to get your item of desire out of it's many shells of wrapping, you have to properly dispose of said wrapping into the correct trash receptacles. So wasteful... However, at the same time, Japan does DIY gift-wrapping in the most adorable way. There are soo many cute boxes, plastic bags, wrapping papers and stickers to choose from. Valentine's day especially. You can choose boxes that will specially fit any type of sweet you made and make it look like a store-bought beauty.

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2. Valentine's Day Chocolate Kits: It's the thought that counts, right? And if your S.O can't make you delicious candies and cupcakes from scratch, then at least they tried their hardest with a kit. But honestly, I think that (while very domesticating for females) it's a really cute idea to make special Valentine's day chocolate and pastry kits so that even the people who aren't skilled at wielding a whisk or double boiler can make something that is "手作り" or "made-by-hand" and has some of their heart put into it.

As is written above, in exchange for some strawberry brownies, Yukiko made me her Special Cake~

Hand-made chocolate from students~

Hand-made chocolate from teachers~

1. Valentine's Day Sweets: In the month or so before Valentine's Day, most sweet-making materials (like chocolate, powdered sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon) go on sale so that ambitious people can make their own sweets from scratch. By far, I think this is the best way to "do Valentine's Day" right. Relying on a kit is one thing, and buying a box of chocolates from the store could be seen as a little lazy at times... but actually taking some time out of your day to make crooked cupcakes and lumpy chocolates for the people you care about is the cutest and only valuable thing about Valentine's Day in my opinion. :)

誰かに言いたいトップ５ランキング

If anyone watches mid-day television (I only occasionally get to when I'm allowed to take my lunch breaks at home), there is an afternoon show that features a panel of popular "talent" who, depending on the day, try and guess the top 10 most popular celebrities/celebrity couples/sports senshu/things among a certain demographic of polled people (more often than not, this demographic is women ages 30-50). The talent get point cards for every right answer, and the "winner" usually gets to taste-test some sort of food that they introduce near the end of the show.

The other segment that they often feature on the show is the "誰かに言いたいトップ５ランキング" (I suppose you could translate it as "The 'You Want To Tell Someone' Top Five Ranking") and as the name suggests, it is a top five ranking of something that someone wants to share. This top five ranking can and has included anything, from top five Tokyo all-you-can-eat buffets, to top five most beautiful snowy onsens, to top five most popular Mr. Donuts donuts. It's a pretty fun segment to watch, and the talent always react amusingly when they get to try the no.1 ranked steak or nabe (if you can get past the annoying audience scream "食べたいいい〜良いなあああ〜” the entire time).

I decided I want to do a 'Top Five Ranking' of my own on this blog, and have decided to post my 'Top Five Gotta Tell Someone'-s every once in awhile. This first one was spurred on by a segment I saw on my favorite morning TV show ZIP today. They were talking about non-alcoholic drinks and how their production and popularity have increased dramatically over the past year. I myself have noticed the varieties of "non-alcoholic beer" increase in the past months, as well as the CM's for them increase in frequency and variety. Anyway! Without further ado I give you my first 'Top Five Ranking':

Top Five Stupidest Non-Alcoholic Drinks

and why (in my opinion)

five = least offensive while one = most offensive

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5. Non-alcoholic Sake: While amazake has a pretty low percentage of alcohol to start with (if it has any at all), Sake with no alcohol seems absurd. You can't call it sake if it has no SAKE in it! Even so, I see it given out at festivals all the time to children and adults alike. It seems too traditional and deep-rooted to really make much of a fuss. Plus, I think it's pretty tasty :)

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4. Non-alcoholic Beer: I don't understand why anyone would want to drink beer when it has no booze in it to at least make the awful taste worth while.... but I give this a little more credit than most things. Nothing else tastes like beer, and if you really truly like the taste of beer (I'm talking about normal, shitty beer. not yummy micro-brews), then I suppose this is a good option for when you want the taste and not the inebriation. (I have had the Suntory all-free and Kirin free before and I think they're both actually not terrible)

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3. Non-alcoholic HighBall: In the English speaking world, a High Ball is a clasification of drink, made with soda and a certain type of liquor in a high ball glass.... in Japan is seems to be exclusively whiskey and water/soda water/flavored soda. I've never tried one of these fake ones.... but really. Why would you want to reproduce the taste of whiskey in cheap soda? It seems idiotic, and judging from the color of the liquid in that bottle, should probably just be called ginger ale instead.

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2. Non-alcoholic Wine: Sparkling grape juice. That's all it is. All calling it "wine" does, is make adults not feel like children on New Years Eve. Wine is fermented grape juice. Grape juice is non-fermented grapes. If you're so embarrased about having a soft drink with dinner, ask for it in a wine glass or champagne flute. Don't go around calling it "non-alcoholic wine" when it's juice.

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1. Non-alcoholic Chu-Hi: This makes me the angriest of all of them. How companies get away with calling shitty-tasting soda "non-alcoholic chu-hi" and jacking up the price absolutely floors me. I also don't understand why anyone would buy something like this. Unless you are trying to get a contact-high (or drunk in this case) from the mere fact that you are drinking something called a "chu-hi," I'd give up and just buy a CC Lemon. It tastes better AND has the added bonus of vitamin C.