Category: Romantic

Cyborg She, 僕の彼女はサイボーグ

我的機械人女友 / Boku no kanojo wa saib?gu
http://cyborg.gyao.jp/

Japan 2008
Director Jae-young Kwak
Haruka Ayase ... Cyborg
Keisuke Koide ... Jiro Kitamura
A sci-fi romantic comedy, of a man in his old age and close to his dying years made a human-like robot in the form of a beautiful young girl and send her back in time to meet his younger self, to save him from a series of fatal disaster and to save innocent people from crime and accidents. He fell in love with the robot but does the robot love him back? What sort of disasters await him? Will she be able to save him every time?

I like this movie a lot, it is a fun comedy. Haruka Ayase played a very cute robot. The story is also touching and there was an interesting twist in the end. But I won't spoil it for you.

5 centimetres per second

Japan 2007
A 3-episode romantic cartoon about a boy an a girl in their teens who were best friends and went to the same school got separated when the girl moved to a new school. Their love for each other suvive the long distance and they were long to see each other. Their brief reunion made their love grew stronger but is it enough to last?

A very high quality cartoon with beautiful graphics and a lovely story.

Shall we kiss? Un baiser s'il vous pla?t

Romantic comedy, France 2007
Director: Emmanuel Mouret

Virginie Ledoyen ... Judith
Emmanuel Mouret ... Nicolas
Julie Gayet ... ?milie

Micha?l Cohen ... Gabriel
Fr?d?rique Bel ... Caline
Stefano Accorsi ... Claudio

Story: Emilie was out of her home town and met a stranger Gabriel who gave her a lift. They ended up spending the day together and had dinner together, just when they were going to part and say goodbye for the night, Gabriel tried to kiss her and she resisted. She then tried to explain to Gabriel how something that happened to her friends made her very hesitant in kissing him. She told him the story of her friends - it was about Nicolas and Judith who started off as just very good friends and how a bizarre request of Nicolas has set them onto a dangerous emotional/physical journey, it has something to do with a certain kiss between them ...

My review:
We were given free tickets of this movie at the premier of the Hong Kong international film festival in March 2008. Tickets were provided by French Tourism board to French alumni association of Hong Kong. The director/leading actor Emmanuel Mouret was there too.

A nice and wonderful comedy that makes fun of friendship, love, husband, wife, lovers, kisses and sex. Sounds like all the good ingredients for a romantic comedy. There were no shortage of funny situation and carefully crafted script

Nada Sou Sou - Tears for You


Type, Country, Year: Romance, Drama, Japan, 2006

Director: Nobuhiro Doi

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Satoshi Tsumabuki ... Yotaro Shingaki
Masami Nagasawa ... Kaoru Shingaki
Kumiko Aso ... Keiko Inamine

Story:
In Okinawa, when Yotaro was a little boy, he promised his dying mother to take care of his young step-sister Kaoru, Karou's father was a singer in a band, he married Yotaro's mother and soon left them and Kaoru behind.

Life was tough for Yotaro and Kaoru after Yotaro's mother died. Kaoru went to live with Yotaro's grandma in another city. A few years later, Yotaro has become a young man who wanted to open his small restaurant and Kaoru is moving back to live with Yotaro and continues her secondary education. Unfortunately, Yotaro has been cheated by someone, he lost all his saving and is deep in debt, which completely shattered his dream of opening his restaurant. Karou stands by her brother and try to give him all her support.

Brother and sister only in name but with no blood tie and living under the same roof, their love and emotion for each other is also the strongest force pulling them apart, sacrificing oneself to help the other is too much to bear for the other party. Soon, Karou is going to University and decides to move out to live on her own, how would things evolve between them?

My review:
I can't really say I like the ending much, but the plot from the beginning up till the ending is pretty good. Satoshi and Masami play their roles very well. It is a pretty touching stories. "Tears for you" broke box office record in Japan in 2006.

Touch - Cartoon 1984-1985

TouchTouch

Type: Cartoon Drama, Japan 1984-1985

My rating: 5
Key characters:
Minami Asakura, Tatsuya Uesugi, Kazuya Uesugi

Story:
Based on the comic book by Mitsuru Adachi. Kazuya (younger) and Tatsuya (elder) are twin brothers, Minami is the girl next door, the three of them were born in the same year and grew up together. Both brothers love Minami. She has a wish which becomes the common goal of the twin brothers that is to go to Koshien Stadium to play baseball. To do so, they must represent their high school and win the regional competition. Tatsuya doesn't want to compete with his brother and thus he quits baseball, Kazuya is a great talented baseball player and has led the school team to the regional final, soon Minami's dream will be realised by Kazuya but she is clear on who she loves - she loves Tatsuya the kind-hearted elder brother who supposed to be inferior to the younger twin only because he always let the younger brother to win. Kazuya is also a kind-hearted younger brother who always wishes the best thing for his brother and Minami. On the day of the final game, something happened and Kazuya did not turn up... Tatsuya has to step up and work hard to make minami's dream come true...

My review:
Touch is one of my all time favourite cartoon. I have always loved this comic by Mitsuru Adachi, this TV cartoon has become a classic. Kazuya and Tatsuya are good and loving brothers, Minami is the kind of girl every boy dreams about. Mitsuru has created many touching and clever plots in the story with many other interesting characters surrounding Kazuya, Tatsuya and Minami, including Harada, a friend who always say something wise despite his big, rough and scary look, Nitta the star player of the rival baseball team.

Close to you

Image from Amazon
Close To You - Philippine Tagalog Movie DVD (buy from Amazon)

Type, Country, Year: Romantic Drama, Philippine, 2006

Director: Cathy Garcia-Molina

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
John Lloyd Cruz ... Manuel
Bea Alonzo ... Marian
Sam Milby ... Lance

Story:
Manuel and Marian have been best friends since childhood. Secretly Manuel has always loved Marian in the romantic sense, but he conceals it well and often make silly comment about Marian. On the other hand, Marian always has a big crush on Lance who is her childhood friend and hero. Lance is now one of the biggest racing pop star. How would this love triangle get resolved?...

My review:
Though the story is a bit old-fashion, it is still quite entertaining (in the old fashion sense of course). So it is not bad at all if you want some clean fun laugh.

You are the one


Filipino Philippine Tagalog DVD You Are The One (buy from Amazon)

Romantic Comedy, Philippine, 2006

Director: Cathy Garcia-Molina

My rating: 3
Key actors/actresses:
Toni Gonzaga ... Sally Malasmas
Sam Milby ... Will Derby/Vernard Garcia

Story:
Sally lives and works in Manila while her parents and elder sister live in USA. Her family wants her to join them in USA, she is not so sure but she applies anyway because her mother is not well and needed to be taken care of. At the US embassay, her application was rejected by the US officer Will, who is young and handsome. While she has a crush on this young man, she also hates him for rejecting her application. She has her chance of revenge, Will was adopted by US parents and he needs to look up some information on his biological parents, he ends up at the department where Sally works and she plays tricks on him at first. Eventually, she actually goes out of her way to help him and the two of them starts on a journey to look for Will's real parents and romance is in the air, but things are never so smooth as it first seems...

My review:
I got this DVD as a gift from a friend in Philippines. It is very funny and entertaining, old fashion clean fun (well, most of the time anyway), with a warm touch.

Dis-moi oui

Image from Amazon
Dis-moi oui (buy from Amazon)

French 1995
Director: Alexandre Arcady

My rating: 4
Key actors/actresses:
Jean-Hugues Anglade ... St?phane
Julia Maraval ... Eva

Nadia Far?s ... Florence
Claude Rich ... Professeur Villiers
Val?rie Kaprisky ... Nathalie

Story:
A young 12-year old patient is in love with her pediatric doctor, she expresses her affection and he cannot accept because she is too young and she is his patient. The young girl is in need of a critical neuro-operation, would she survive? Would she win over her doctor?

My review:
I watched this movie in 1997 and I happened to be working on a business consulting project for a medical company that sells the apparatus for the neuro-operation described in the film, what a coincidence.

Interesting plot and funny story. Quite enjoyable.

Crying out love in the centre of the world - TV drama

Crying out love in the centre of the worldCrying out love in the centre of the world

Japanese 2004
Director: Isao Yukisada

My rating: 5
Key actors/actresses:
Takao Osawa ... Sakutaro Matsumoto
Kou Shibasaki ... Ritsuko Fujimura
Masami Nagasawa ... Aki Hirose
Mirai Moriyama ... Sakutaro Matsumoto (High School)
Tsutomu Yamazaki ... Shigezou Matsumoto
Kankur? Kud? ... Ryunosuke Ooki
Kanji Tsuda ... Johnny
Issei Takahashi ... Ryunosuke (high school student)
Rio Kanno ... Ritsuko (girl)
Tetta Sugimoto ... Aki's Father
Katsutaka Furuhata ... Johnny (high school)

Story:
"I thought I might be using a lifetime's happiness in a moment. I was that happy and she was that beautiful."

In 1987, a beautiful story about two 17-year old classmates, Aki and Saku who fell in love during one summer and how they soon realized Aki has leukemia and died during Autumn of the same year.

17 years later, Saku has not forgotten Aki for a single moment, he still carries her ashes with him, he re-tell their story to a woman that he loves today on how he and Aki met and spent time together until Aki's final moment and her dying wish was to see the blue sky of a place in Central Australia where the aboriginals believe to be the centre of the world and people who rest there after they die, their spirit will flow from there into another world and be reborn.

My review:
Simply a beautiful story, I love this TV-drama and the adapted version of the movie both based on the same best-selling book of the same name "Sekai no Chuushin de, Ai wo Sakebu". A pure romantic love that happens during teenage years with a sad ending of death of incurable diseases, though the idea is not new, this story will still touch your heart.

Before Sunset

Image from Amazon
Before Sunset (buy from Amazon)

Type: Romantic, USA 2004

Director: Richard Linklater

My rating: 5
Key actors/actresses:
Ethan Hawke - Jesse
Julie Delpy - Celine

Story:
This is the sequel to the romantic movie "Before Sunrise" where Jesse, an American guy who lived in Texas and Celine, a French girl who lived in Paris had the encounter of their life, when they met 9 years ago on a train and agreed to spend a day together in Vienna. They formed such an intense and irresistable bonding that they promise each other that they will meet again in 6 months in Vienna. However, they only met again 9 years later in Paris. What happened in the 6 month after their first encounter, why didn't they see each other again until now? How do you pick up a conversation again after not seeing someone for such a long period of time. So what's next? Are they still made for each other, the soulmate that they had hoped for 9 years ago?

My review:
Absolutely love this sequel as well, the acting, the script, the scenary and most important of all, the mood and feeling that it brings. Couldn't think of a more perfect ending than the one shown.

Ehtan and Julie played their role really well. The plentiful and natural dialogue make the audience feel they have re-ignited their intense connection as in the first movie, and that they have never forgotten each other for a day. It was tragic that they were unable to meet up during that 9 years because they didn't want to exchange contant information not even their last name, they don't want to just call or write to each other a little while and then the relationship will fade away, but as a result, once they have missed their rendervous in Vienna, they had no way of finding each other until Jesse published a book on their 1-night affair 9 years ago. All their possible romantic feelings were all injected and preserved in that 1-night, they were unable to feel and be happy with anyone else. Imagine such torture of not being able to feel love except with a person that you are uable to locate and then the joy of seeing the person again by chance. What sort of intense emotion is unleashed as a result?

Please also see Doris's review.

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