The Flowers of War

Directed by Zhang Yimou, this epic film is about courage and sacrifice set against the ravages and horrors of war in 1937 in Nanjing, China. This film also marks the first time that a Western Actor has the lead role in a Chinese production.

The film has a limited opening playing only in a short list of select cities (just 21 theaters nationwide) beginning on Friday, January 20th, 2012.

Since it is not playing anywhere in Florida, I have to hope that it will achieve a wider distribution later on, or I’ll have to wait for the DVD to review it.

Christian Bale (an Oscar winner for The Fighter and he starred as Batman in The Dark Knight) has the lead role. He plays a traveling mortician, attending to the dead, not an adventurer, yet he’s kind of a wayfaring dissolute man who happened to find himself in Nanjing, and at the church, when the Japanese troops attacked the city in December of 1937.

By circumstances unknown to me, so I’ll call them luck and fate, he and a group of frightened Chinese Catholic schoolgirls and another group made up of a dozen beautiful courtesans, find themselves trapped inside a walled cathedral – which they hope will afford them safety from the marauding soldiers. Bale’s character, John Miller, will take up the role of the church’s priest, donning the clothing and vestments of a recently killed priest

That’s about all the set up I can provide not having seen the film. Zhang Yimou’s cinematic pedigree – Raise the Red Lantern (1991), Shanghai Triad (1995), The Road Home (2000), Hero (2002), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) are amongst his best known films that have garnered interest, praise and adulation from western audiences.

He’s worked with Gong Li multiple times (at least 5 films), and with Zhang Ziyi at least three times. So he’s got the talent and the rep to attract China’s most beautiful and best known actresses.

The reviews have been mixed, but if you are attracted to Asian beauties, love going to the movies, and you live in or near LA, San Francisco, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, Washington DC, Houston, Honolulu, Seattle, or Atlanta – then you will have an opportunity to see the film on the big screen as soon as Friday, Jan. 20th.

I will be happy to help you publish your review if you do happen to take in the film in the near future, wish to contribute a review, and you don’t already have author status on this blog. You can contact me on the Scanlover Forum via Private Message.

For interviews with Director Zhang Yimou and lead actress Ni-Ni, visit Sidewalks.

To view a calendar with The Flowers of War beauties as the models visit Beijing Shots.

The trailer for The Flowers of War is below:

He’s not only an eligible bachelor, but he revels in it. He’s unofficially – the hottest guy in the office. He’s also a male chauvinist, and his skill is in selling products to men. Girls working there fawn all over him, that is when they’re not flirting with him, or creating scenarios where they can bump into him.

On his way to the office one day – he meets a beautiful woman in the elevator. He offers to buy her a coffee, and she says she only drinks water. You can see the attraction. His for her is written all over his face, and she’s intrigued too, only she’s not so outgoing about it that you can easily tell what she’s thinking. She is Li Yu-long and she’s played by Gong Li. Lau’s Mr. Sun doesn’t know it, but she’s just been hired by his firm to become the Executive Creative Director of the firm – a position that he thought he would be promoted into that day.

After his boss, the firm’s CEO’s broke the news to him that Li got the job instead of him, he heads back to his office, where his staff had a surprise party set up for him – a celebration on his promotion. That he didn’t get. He dismisses them. Sorry guys, not today. Maybe sometime in the future.

The next morning, there’s a big meeting scheduled in the conference room to introduce this Li. Sun makes a bet with one of his buddies, that this Li, whoever she is, will look like a man. Soon after Li walks in and sits down. Sun goes over to chat her up.  He still hasn’t a clue as to who she is. He only knows that she is the woman from the elevator from yesterday. ”Oh – you also work here?‘, he says, amping up the wattage of his smile.

When Li takes off her glasses, Sun says, “You look good without your glasses.”

She replies, “You also look good … without my glasses.”

So that’s how these two – who are China’s two biggest film stars begin the 2011 romantic comedy film, What Women Want. If that title sounds familiar to you, that’s because this is a remake of the 2000 American film of the same name that starred Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt.

Well Gong Li’s character is introduced and she has a game plan at the ready. She’s been hired because the ebb and flow of money has dictated that women are now China’s biggest consumer group. So Li has prepared a box of female products for each of these male execs (most of the creative staff are men – in this agency). She wants them to get in touch with their female side, their ‘anima’ and get familiar with the products. Because that’s what they’re going to be selling going forward.

Sun then aks her if women have a male side. ‘Sure they do’ is the answer – ‘And it’s called animus’.

Okay, there’s your start – boy meets girl. She’s now his boss, and she got the job he wanted but – no problem. That night while he is experimenting with the female products – a tampon applicator, birth control pills, lipsticks, high heels. stockings, etc etc, there’s an accident and Sun suffers a severe electrical shock when a lamp falls into the tub while’s having a bath.

When he wakes up, in the hospital, to his surprise and horror, he finds he can hear in his head, whatever women are thinking. He’s not sure about it and he thinks maybe he’s mistaken. But he isn’t.

Before you know it, he’s stealing the advertising ideas that Li Yu-long is creating. He’s submitting them and he’s gaining favor with the CEO. So far this is pretty much the exact same story that Mel Gibson and Helen Hunt gave us in What Women Want circa 2000.

I’m not going to give you any more of the plot details. Suffice it to say, that with two of China’s biggest movie stars in this film, it had tremendous production values. Everything about this film was beautiful visually. Seemed to me like nothing was too costly – from the sets, to the clothes, to the apartments – even the cars were expensive, and all of it beautifully presented.

But something was missing and it was sex. Simply – there wasn’t any. Not the before, nor the after, and certainly not the ‘during’. Lau’s Sun may have had many women in his bed – but we never saw them. Closest we got to that was when his Mom, who came by make sure he got to work on time, sniffed the air in his bedroom and said, “Hmmm, Chanel, the last one wore Dior” – before finding a female panties beneath the covers. As far as Sun & Li – not only did not they not go to bed, we never even saw them in a bedroom.

So the film, which was directed by Chen Daming, is a virtual scene for scene remake of the original. The Chinese version added in a side story about Sun’s father, but otherwise it was the same. This one wasn’t quite a failure – I mean after all,the two stars are wrapped up in a sensational looking package. But most people have said that there’s a lack of chemistry. I won’t agree to that. I’ll go as far as saying – the sparks really didn’t fly. Maybe we can thank SARFT for that.

SARFT is China’s State Agency for Radio, Film, and Television. In short Big Brother is watching. So while we witnessed some desire, and the stars looked at each other with passion nearly pouring out of every pore – nothing happened. Not only did nothing happen, but we got no indications that something had happened either.

The other thing that I thought worth mentioning is that film is set in China, as well as made and performed by Chinese people. But the flavoring wasn’t the least bit Chinese. This ad agency could have been set in Manhattan or Chicago or Century City. The buildings were all glittering sky-scrapers, the apartments were all worth many millions, and no one rode the subways, or carried a lunch box. Every woman was dressed to the nines and tens.

In the end, I’d say that this was more of a coming to grips with reality for Lau’s character. Gong Li was more much more than simply an attractive woman for Lau to chase. Because as the picture plays – he’s more interested in getting the job that she got rather than having a relationship with her. Only he can’t stay that course because love does intrude. On that note – we might say that this isn’t really about what women want. Instead it is more about what Andy’s Sun Zi Gang wants.

By the way, if you care to gaze at Gong Li and Andy for about 90 minutes, you can see this via Netflix streaming. Below is a trailer for the film.

Same Three Lead Actors - Lau Ching Wan, Louis Koo, and Daniel Wu

Same Directors - Alan Mak and Felix Chong

Same Screenplay Authors – Alan Mak and Felix Chong

Same Producer - Derek Yee

Same Underlying Themes – Covert Electronic surveillance and Insider Trading

I’m not crazy, am I? Every indication would lead us to believe that Overheard 2 was a sequel to Overheard. Only it isn’t. Which brings us to the question: Is this shameless marketing?

In China, there is a state agency which we shall label SARFT. Yes, that is an acronym, and sorry, but no – I didn’t make up the acronym. This agency aka State Agency for Radio, Film, and Television are the folks that decide what is or isn’t acceptable content for the few billion Chinese people. They also oversee the Internet as it pertains to content and access within China.

Now I have already told you that I wasn’t able to access my blog while in Yangshuo in China earlier this month. Now you and I, and possibly a good number of the few billion Chinese people, will find a small barrier/speed bump created by SARFT for Overheard 2.

In Overheard, our three stars played Hong Kong cops who were conducting a covert surveillance to uncover financial shenanigans by corporate honchos in the form of stock manipulation and insider trading. Only these cops decided to follow up, with their own money, and get in on the insider info and make a bundle for themselves instead of submitting the incriminating sound bytes. But Big Brother SARFT had decreed that crime cannot go unpunished – hence our three eavesdroppers could not be brought back for a Round 2.

Lau Chin Wan, Louis Koo, and Daniel Wu were the three leads who portrayed the greedy cops who only wanted to cash in that one time. This time around Lau Ching Wan plays a stock trader named Manson Law. He’s great at what he does and as such, he came to the attention of a group of very wealthy men, known as The Landlord’s Club. These men want to manipulate stock prices for a double purpose: to line their own pockets, and to beat outside investors (read US financial services firms and banks) at their own game. In short they believed that their own tactics were good for their country (the famous cloak known as nationalism).

They seek to drive up the price of a particular stock which hit the market with an I.P.O. (Initial Public Offering) price of 10 all the way up to 26, then they will sell it all off.

While this is being discussed and planned, another player enters the fray. This would be Daniel Wu who plays Joe Szema, a master of covert operations in the form of electronic eavesdropping including the use of spy-cams, wire taps, and other illegal bugs. His target is Manson Law who is connected to The Landlord Club.

When Manson is called to meet with the Landlords, Joe is at the ready in a ‘nondescript’ van to follow Law and overhear what is being said at this meeting. But Law notices the van a few times too often, and attempts to race away. He’s driving a Ferrari. He has no idea that his car is being tracked by Joe with a GPS homing device.

But there’s a huge crash. Manson Law’s car collides with a truck. Shortly afterwards, the police find that a very sophisticated listening device had been planted in the car. That brings it to the attention of Detective Jack Ho played by Louis Koo.

Now  Detective Ho is not only quite tough, but he is also nothing if not driven, persistent, and focused. He’s so connected to law enforcement and upholding the law that he even busted his own wife, an investment manager, for dipping into client funds to cover a short-term cash flow problem, and she did jail time.

Ok there’s your set-up. I’ve set the stage for you. You should know that these three characters will soon intersect. You should also know that this film has plenty of action packed set pieces – chases on foot (I noticed they used the Mid-Level escalator in Hong Kong’s Central District – a place where I had actually been just a few weeks before seeing this film), a car chase, a motorcycle chase, and some gun-play. Then there’s the insidious market manipulation.

There’s triads, an over-the-top boss of the Landlord Club, cops, and the whole thing is visually splendid. A key element to this film is not simply how they manipulate the market, but the script wants you to understand why they do so. But I must tell that this part of the film is a little long-winded.

On the other hand – this film does entertain. As for shameless marketing, given what I’ve told you about SARFT, that another film with a sequential reference would still have to have brand new characters; are you surprised to hear that Overheard 3 is already in production?

Takeshi Kitano

Kitano has decided that the whole Yakuza experience is nothing more than the human equivalent of the most deadly King of the Hill game you’ve ever seen. From the lowest members of a Yakuza family, who are the button men or soldiers (the drivers don’t count), to the very top of the mountain where the Chairman holds forth – we see nothing but a supreme battle for power. Loyalties are constantly shifting. Your sworn brother today is your executioner tomorrow. And someone else will take care of him on the next day.

We start with a summit of one family. There’s a long line of limos and black-suited chauffeurs. We hear that Murase family has been doing a bit of drug business and that the Chairman isn’t pleased. So he instructs the Ikemoto family to set up an office on the Murase turf and begin to annoy and bother them.

An Ikemoto guy runs up a huge tab in a Murase night club in one night (600,000 Yen). He then claims he doesn’t have the money on him. The Murase’s demand payment but then are embarrassed when they send a couple of low level guys out to collect and find out that the guy was with the Ikemotos. An apology is necessary as well as the money being returned. But this meeting gets out of control fast, and the Murase lieutenant gets beaten up, and loses enough face that he’s required to cut off his pinky.

Remarkably and easily, that was the first violent episode of the film and it was also the softest scene of any that were violent in the whole film. From there, the Chairman manipulates everyone, including Kitano who plays Otomo who is an enforcer but a low-level one.

Kitano looks like he could play a heavy in any country despite his Japanese appearance. His face looks like a boxing glove. He’s going to kill a number of people in this film, including Murase who he shoots in a sauna, and the only time he smiles is when he’s laughing in the face of an opponent just after calling him an asshole.

So slowly, the body count rises. Soon it’s not slowly. Not only does the body count rise, but the frequency increases exponentially as well. We have plotting then killing, and each time, the plotting takes less time in order to devote more time to the execution.

At least in The Sopranos, there were family moments, like when Tony Soprano strangled a guy in between visiting Bates College and Bowdoin College with his daughter; and ostensibly, wives and children were supposed to be excluded from the assassinations. In Outrage, there’s not one role that works out positively for a woman. But that’s not all. The Ambassador from Ghana is set up as a patsy with a murdered girl. Before you know it, the Yakuza has decided to make the Ghanaian Embassy into a gambling casino. And they do.

When the Ambassador complains about his cut – and threatens to go to the police, they remind him with an ominous warning – You do know that you are dealing with the Yakuza, right?

But what happens is that the killing becomes the only leitmotif of the film. There’s no end to it. You’d think that these nitwits would catch on – that they’re being used. That eventually even the executioners will be executed. Takashi Kitano has delivered a film that is so nihilistic, and so bleak, that these power struggles become pointless. As you watch, you know well in advance about who the next victim will be. The only question is the ‘how’.

‘Why’ no longer is a part of the equation. You can substitute next for ‘when’. So the film loses it’s impact as well as you lose interest. Kitano does deliver a few striking shots. The only character in the film who smiles is the police detective who collects his weekly envelope of Yen.

It is a bleak world for these Yakuza. Upward mobility exists only up to the point when it stops because you just took a bullet between your eyes. As for we folks who choose to watch this film, I think I can say that this is not one of Kitano’s best efforts. But despite that you simply can’t look away.

Yui is cast as Wakaba Ayukawa, and she’s good at everything she does – she graduated at the top of her class, she’s multi-lingual, and she has what is takes to become an ace lawyer. Only her first assignment is to baby-sit her boss’s five year old daughter, who is five going on 30, or so it seems.

Wakaba is driven because as child she grew up in rather desperate circumstances – her father was in debt from gambling to the Yakuza loan-sharks.

Little Wakaba got them out from under this by studying and then filing a motion and getting a decree for Voluntary Bankruptcy. That set her on her path of wanting to be lawyer and for seeing anything that she took on to its finish. In her own personal lexicon, there was no such thing as not finishing anything to the best of her ability.

But she hadn’t counted on taking a smart-ass five year old girl to pre-school every day. However everything was not all bad. At the law firm every once in a while she got to do a project, or a report, or a translation of a law-brief, and people took notice of her skills. At the pre-school she ran into a single parent Dad whose step-son also attended this school. This was Ryo Nishido as Sota Yamada , a would-be chef.

His story was no picnic either. He married a dancer who came with a son, another precocious 5 year old. But that marriage ended with a divorce after his wife ran off to New York with another guy, leaving Sota with her son. He currently worked as a short-order cook in a little hole-in-the-wall neighborhood restaurant. Sota had formerly worked at the internationally acclaimed, world class restaurant, Paul Bocuse, in Tokyo – but had given that up to raise his step-son.

Anyway, Wakaba and Sota become part of a rotating cooperative of five or six single parents who watch the kids in a group after school each day. There’s lots of friction as well as attraction between Wakaba and Sota. It’s hate at first sight, or is it? Beyond that, Aragaki’s character may be a whiz at law, and she might know what she wants in life, but she’s beyond haughty. You just know that she’s going to find the road to romance, a difficult journey, because she lacks an understanding about how to get on with other people. For her, it has always been a struggle, and she’s overcome every obstacle – but the cost of that is her utter lack of social skills.

Meanwhile, back at the law-firm, Wakaba is working her tail off, as she sets her sights on finding what she calls a AAA+ guy – who in this case is Shindo, a terrific and successful lawyer, a good looking guy, a guy with goals and ambitions, and on top of all that – he is very wealthy.

Poor Sota has none of those qualities or perks – but he is great with kids, and he’s sincere and honest.  There’s your set up – Shindo sets his sights on Wakaba as well. So Wakaba wants a guy like Shindo, or Shindo, she wants to be a successful lawyer, and she envisions herself married to the man of her dreams forever and ever.

Only, she can’t quite get over the bump in the road that turns out to be Sota.

While billed as a romantic comedy – it is quite a bit more than. Wakaba herself undergoes a transformation. It is obvious from the jump that she knows what she wants and she’s going to go after it – and any intrusive feelings about a man without a higher education, without money, and without any future goals (other than being a great Dad) will have to be dealt with.

The supporting cast included a trio of single Dads, a great performance by Hiroko Yakushimaru as Sakuragawa (above left) – the big boss of the law firm, and a sparkling turn by Misako Renbutsu (above right) – who played Soyoko, who was Sakuragawa’s assistant, and a woman who wanted Sota as a boy friend.

There are many bright and comedic moments, and then there are some Yoda-like statements by the two five year old children, who nearly steal the show. But as it turns out they are inspirational kids who one way or another work their magic on Wakaba and Sota. As for the two leads, each week we will watch them learn about work, relationships, and love, in this rewarding, funny, and ultimately heartwarming series. The DVD of this series is scheduled for a January, 2012 release.

The Bull Doctor is a Japanese TV Series about forensic pathology – or the study of why a person or people have died. We have Makiko Esumi (below) in the lead role as Dr Tamami Oodate (Oodate Sensei). She’s just been asked back to the Joto University Hospital to work as a forensic doctor – in short conduct autopsies. The last time I watched Makiko in a role, she played a brilliant surgeon who had the worst luck in finding a guy to be with. That show was called The Love Revolution (produced in 2001 but I saw it just a few years ago. This one is her first appearance in a TV series since 2007. Welcome back. (Okari)

Also on hand is Satomi Ishihara (below). I’ve seen her in a high school baseball TV series called H2 (2005), as a nurse in the TV Series Ns’ Aoi (2006), as an athletic airline stewardess – sorry – cabin attendant/basketball player in The Flying Rabbits film (2008), as a high school teacher in the TV series Puzzle (2008), and one more – as a forensic medical student in the series Voice (2009). This time she’s a homicide detective working with forensic doctors. Go figure.

So what is this one about, besides the overview of forensics?

It seems that Japan needed a distinct overhaul to the laws and regulations surrounding autopsies and forensic studies. This drama goes a long way in that direction because as you will see – autopsies that should be done are often refused by the relatives of the deceased, autopsies that have been done are not always accurate, and more often than you’d think or like – Death Certificates are either false or forged to hide crimes. So in this series the guidelines for the medical procedures and methodologies regarding autopsies, the hospital administrative side to forensics, and police investigative techniques are all put under the microscope.

So the series is at once important and topical. Yes, that does mean serious. But this is not say that the series is all work and no fun. The series has romances, issues about raising kids, work related stress intruding on home life, some comedy, conflicts between the police and the forensic doctors, and some office politics. So it works as not only a medical series, a police procedural, but also as a family series. There are some fine actors and actresses who round out the ensemble cast making the series quite entertaining.

While the stories and cases are interesting yet somehow they all manage to not get solved until we’ve manage t0o reach nearly the end of each episode. While the settings/locations are mostly in the forensic department itself as well as in the lab where the actual autopsies are done, often we go out to a crime scene. I liked the look of the series which involved lots of outdoors location settings, and employed a good many long lens zoomed close-ups which gave us the kind of very attractive facial images with indistinct, or blurred backgrounds due to the reduced depth of field settings.

I thought Makiko Esumi showed a strong screen presence as the tough minded truth seeker who wore either the Doctor’s White lab coat, or the surgeon’s gowns most of the time. When she wasn’t wearing those it was mostly jeans or slacks with that cute hat which we saw mostly while she’s pedaling a bike to work.

On the other hand, Ishihara’s role was more difficult. She’s good in the role, but she’s playing a young female homicide detective, who has some issues to solve away from being a cop. Meaning we buy into her as a character involved, a woman seeking to find her way, but not so much as a homicide detective. Of course she has a tough boss who never wants to see things correctly, or fairly,

or he’s not willing to accept her theories because each time the police department requests an autopsy, he takes a hit on his department. Oh those bureacrats who make a detective’s life miserable. She’s also involved with a doctor in the forensics department – Nakura Sensei played by Goro Inagaki who played his role, through all 11 episodes in a manner that was so low-key that it was off-putting . While his character arc improved greatly by the end of the series, his acting did not. He was the weakest part of the series.

It had 11 Episodes and the broadcast period was from July 6th to September 14th in the Wednesday Night 10:00 PM slot.

I’ll close by telling why the series was called The Bull Doctor. As I said up top it was not about veterinary medicine. Instead think of the fact that Dr. Oodate was so concerned with finding the truth, and overcoming any barriers to the truth, that she operated like a human bulldozer steamrolling through the office, the lab, or over or through her colleagues. The terms stepping-on-toes or following orders were somewhat foreign to her; hence the title: The Bull Doctor. The video below will give you an excellent idea of what the series and cast look like.

What would you say if I told you that Kuroki is in a J-TV series that is currently airing in which she plays a tough as nails lady cop. The full title of the series is: Jiu: Keishichou Tokushuhan Sousakei, but most are simply calling it Jiu.

As the series opens, Kuroki’s character is a member of the SIT (Special Investigative Team). She’s a loner, she repels all and any invitations of friendship from either colleagues or outsiders, at least in the first couple of episodes. She’s barely able to hold conversations with her colleagues; not because she is inarticulate, but because she doesn’t see the point of it.

By the end of the opening episode she has saved a female detective who had been asked to go into a hostage situation by posing as a delivery from a restaurant. Kuroki’s character – called Isaki Motoko, guns down the perpetrator before he can slit his own throat in an attempted suicide.

Isaki’s actions are noticed by the higher ups in the Tokyo police. But they don’t know what to do with her. Is she a loose cannon about to go off like a Dirty Harry. Is she a danger to her colleagues?

Beyond that they don’t even know that she’s gone undercover and infiltrated a small Yakuza cell. This is a mission that is totally unauthorized. But hey – that’s what she’s all about.

Without having any sure answers about her, they do the unexpected – they promote her into SAT (Special Attack Team akin to our own SWAT forces), where she will be asked to work in the most dangerous situations, the ones with the highest risk, or most likely, in their minds, they have placed her on a force that would be deployed where she might get injured or wounded, or even killed. That would protect the risk the city faced because of her quick trigger finger, and her propensity for violence first – ask questions later.

The series began this summer (July 29th) in the Friday, 11:15 PM time slot – which means that it will undoubtedly be more adult than what you might see in prime time. Six episodes have aired, but so far I’ve only seen four episodes with English subtitles, so I can’t go any further into the plot or provide more details other than some images.

I can tell you that you will see Kuroki kick ass. She’ll look great in a one piece swimsuit or in combat boots and camo fatigues, and that even though this is a police drama with another actress, Mikako Tabe as Misaki Kadokura, in a key detective role, and they are polar extremes, they’re going to have to work together to bring down the criminal Jiu who is responsible for a number of brutal crimes.

Kuroki plays the eye candy rough neck cop role, and Tabe plays the cerebral detective who gets her answers by out thinking the criminals and by charming the witnesses.

Quite a duo!

The star of the film is Yui Aragaki who is affectionately known as ‘Gakki‘ by her legion of fans. In this film she’s the central character. As the film opens it is in the early 1980′s and a small Japanese girl is reaching upward to the blossoms on the tree. Flash forward to 2005, and we find ourselves tracking a bus as it drives along the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada.

It is then, on this bus, that we meet Gakki as the now adult Sae Hirisawa. An English speaking young girl ask Sae some questions and we find out that she is headed for a lighthouse where she says, “… I am meant to be…”. The camera pans down and we see a framed photo in her hands.

The image is of a small child and a mother in the shadow of a lighthouse. Quickly the film flashes back to an earlier period in Sae’s life, this time it is 1996, and she’s a senior in High School, and there’s another lighthouse, this time in Eastern Hokkaido, Japan. So within the first 2 minutes of the film, we’ve covered a lot of years, going back and forth, and we know, for certain, that these lighthouses will figure prominently in this Japanese drama.

The story sets up with a High School senior on her way to take a college entrance examination. She’ll meet a boy on the train. He’s in school too – only he’s in a trade school for the fishing industry. The train hits a deer and is delayed. Sae’s going to miss her exam.  One thing leads to another and they become friends. Eventually they’re going to have to separate because Sae does take the exam and passes and is accepted into a prestigious university in Tokyo. The boy follows his family heritage and like his father and his grandfather, he becomes a fisherman.

Sae heads off to school. She’s going to meet a photographer in Tokyo.  The boy, Kouhei, played by Toma Ikuta, still pines for Sae. He heads down to Tokyo to see her. There’s a misunderstanding and some confusion.  That’s the way things go in life and in dramas. Times passes. Sae can’t get a job in Tokyo. Kouhei marries a different girl. Eventually Sae gets a job in New York.

Imagine my surprise to see Yui Aragaki in a New York street scene. Or on the promenade in Brooklyn Heights. Sae heads back to Hokkaido for a friend’s wedding. Naturally she will run into Kouhei at the wedding. Her presence is going to put a strain on Kouhei’s marriage. Sae heads back to New York.  Lo and behold the photographer appears in New York. And so it goes.

No need to tell you anymore. The film is beautifully shot in Japan, and New York, and Nova Scotia. Gakki will speak plenty of English in the film. She’s wonderfully attractive, as is all of the cast. They do manage to get you to invest emotionally in this story.

But the problem is that the story, while it has reversals of fortunes, deaths, separations,  and plenty of what might be difficult moments for the audience, doesn’t quite hit its marks. It isn’t a case of being done badly, or poor acting – no everything is handled very well – only the script has been engineered to present you with dramatic moments that just miss being exhilarating, or don’t quite get you to cry.

I wanted this film to make people cry. I had hoped to enter a film world where there’s a strong payoff for your emotional investment. Only it isn’t up to it.  Yes there are high points which you will make smile in expectation. There are low points – some of which you can see coming and others that do catch you by surprise.

I’ll say that I did like the film. The two hours and eight minutes were worthwhile, only not quite to what you might call memorable.  The film ended on an upbeat and positive note only without a payoff.

First a quick look at the stars of the cast:

• Katori Shingo plays Jun Takakura – an advisor at a successful marriage counseling chain.
• Meisa Kuroki plays one of the agency’s clients and she’s easily the most beautiful client on their books.
• Naohito Fujiki plays a rich and successful lawyer, who could be subtitled a playboy out for what he can get.

Those are your headliners and if you read between the lines, you can see that this is also the plot synopsis because it doesn’t take much in the way of imagination to figure out where this one is going to go. Two boys, one girl – do the math.

That’s the simple overview. But the story is a bit more complicated. There are other clients, other involved parties at the agency, as well as friends and families of the three stars. Plus, I know I am repeating myself but I’m doing so for emphasis – you have to suspend disbelief very often in the opening few episodes.

Why is woman as beautiful as Kuroki’s character Haruna Yanagisawa without a boyfriend, and in need of a marriage advisory consultant? When we first see her, she’s spending money like it is going out of style, she’s shops, and shops, and shops, but there’s no drop in sight. Even though the digital displays at the boutiques are showing a readout in Japanese Yen – the figures are huge. She’s literally spending thousands and thousands of dollars on a single shopping spree. At her consultation, she says she doesn’t care what the men she’s introduced look like, just as long as they can make her happy.

Why is Shingo’s character – Takakura-san – also unattached, and still living at home with his mother? Well strictly speaking this character is also a bit of a reach. In real life, Shingo Katori is a member of the super popular boy band group called SMAP. They have sold hundreds of millions of cd’s, have Japan’s all-time best selling song, and individually have successful careers in movies and tv besides the music. Shingo’s character Takakura was recently stunned when his girl decided to marry his best friend. He’s the perfect advisor as he is so driven to work for his clients’ happiness, that he is willing to submerge his own desires as a man. At least he thinks so.

Naohito Fujiki as Yashiro

Naohito’s character Yashiro first shows up as a philandering husband. His wife is pregnant. He announces at his consultation that he doesn’t care anything at all about the specifics of the women the agency will introduce him to. Education, employment, or family connections are all besides the point. Anyone will do – just as long as they’re beautiful. This is clearly a man out for fun – and you’re not going to like him despite his good looks, his urbanity and his money.

So assemble these ingredients, er, characters, then add in Takakura’s old girl friend who’s new marriage is soon to go on the rocks, Takakura’s best friend who is a dentist who also signs on as a client requesting that he be introduced only to girls with big breasts, and Takakura’s colleague Marika Sakuragi who, just to make things even more complex then they need to be – has the hots for Takakura.

These folks alone make plenty of ripples on the pond that this series occupies. But wait there’s more connections and relationship yet to come. Takakura’s Mom, Yanangisawa’s father, brother, and Mom, Yashiro’s wife. This pond keeps on rippling and keeps on ticking with surprise after surprise following.

The lines drawn between clients and advisors begin to blur, even though there’s a rule at this agency – clients and advisors may not date or have relationships, you know that this rule won’t matter. Then there’s the fact Yanagisawa decides to date a guy that is so far over into the geek and nerd category, that should have his own category below geek and nerd.

Yeah, as I said – you’re going to have to suspend disbelief. But having said that, I can tell you I’ve watched 10 of the 11 episodes, and the real deal is that the series is able to get its hooks into you despite the very preposterousness of its setup. As the title states – Let’s Be Happy – and this series will definitely take you in that direction and please you as it does so.

A sheet of glass is placed on his chest. We can see the terror on his face.

Another masked man approaches. He carries a baseball bat. Without a word, he swings the bat with all his might bringing it down on this bound man. Again and again. The camera pulls back and we see that this event is being watched by a group of about 15-20 people, mostly men with a few women. We only see them briefly. The bat repeats its deadly journey again and again.

This is the first couple of minutes and how the Japanese TV Special, Strawberry Night opens. We have just witnessed an execution, an execution clearly not sanctioned by the state.

This special aired last fall on November 13th, 2010 and a series will begin in January  2012. The star is the beautiful Yuko Takeuchi. I think she’s irresistible. In this show, and coming series, Yuko plays Inspector Reiko Himekawa who is the only female section chief in the Tenth Homicide Section of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s First Investigative Division.

She is a woman, and in this kind of environment, she’s subject to harassment and the jealousy of her male colleagues and some subordinates as she has swiftly risen through the ranks. Of course the jealousy is misdirected at her because she is truly a superb detective who has solved numerous difficult cases.

One of the most attractive women in the world is being asked to play a tough, no nonsense cop, and she’s going to have to solve this brutal murder. There’s your set up for the Special.

Special or not, this is a made for TV (Japanese TV) movie. Special usually refers to an event of this kind. In some places they might be called a ‘pilot’ for a series. Given that we know that this will be a series, the question has been answered.

In this one, Inspector Himekawa must solve the gruesome murder described above. We come to learn that while her immediate staff adores her, she has enemies amongst other lead detectives on other squads, as well as in the bosses who are often called the suits upstairs.

In a crucial meeting to get the ball rolling, Himekawa says that she’s got a theory about why the body was found where it was. She’s heard out and then her theory is immediately dismissed as invalid.

But she also has friends in the department. So the investigation proceeds despite the awkward start. She has a crew of about five detectives working for her, and she’s called ‘Chief’ by all of them.

They have a group dinner at least a few times a week to rehash what they know, explore possible theories, and as a way to offload the stress,

Takeuchi is marvelous. She’s not so hard-boiled that she can simply laugh off what some of the others toss her way, and she does show a soft side. She’s also got some personal demons and issues to work through.

But she can stand her ground when necessary, and she can protect her crew from the unpleasantness that often comes her way from above.

While this particular case has a particularly cruel element to it, and is solved or should I say, Himekawa and staff kind of tumble their way into resolving it, the resolution itself wasn’t all that satisfying. But the fact that there will be a series is very promising.

If you haven’t figured out by now that I not only adore this actress, but I also think this character (Inspector Himekawa) is bold and brave along with beautiful and as such I will certainly be eager to see it.

How could I not? Just look at that promo image up at the top.

This show is available as a DVD with English and Chinese subtitles at jpdorama.com