Silver Linings Playbook

One of the most interesting movies I’ve come across recently, its story revolves around Pat, who suffers from bipolar disorder.  He was admitted into a mental facility for treatment after nearly beating to death his wife’s lover after he caught them in the act to the background of ‘Ma Cherie Amour’ which happens to be his wedding song.  Whew that was a mouthful.    So, Pat checks out of the loony bin enlightened, positive, and out to find the silver lining in everything.  He sets for himself the goal of reconciling with his wife.  In the process of trying to get his life back, his not-quite stable relationship with his parents, his brother, and his friends are revealed little by little.  He and his parents try to walk the delicate balance of being a family again and dealing with Pat’s condition.  In an effort to establish contact with his wife (who has a restraining order against him), he goes to dinner at her friend’s home and that is where he meets Tiffany.  Now Tiffany is a piece of work.  Widowed at a young age, depressed, and slightly crazy herself, she has a reputation for sleeping around and having many unsavoury relationships with men.  After that dinner, she propositions Pat, he refuses, and thus begins their quirky friendship.  More things happen (football games, tantrums, bets, promises, superstitions, etc.) and the happily ever after soon hangs upon the result of a dance competition.  Like I said before, this story is very interesting.  I loved it to bits.

I really liked Bradley Cooper as Pat.  You just felt for the guy – he just wanted to get a second chance and be happy.  But it was Jennifer Lawrence who gave the most noteworthy wonderful performance – assuredly deserving of the award she received.  Tiffany was like a bomb onscreen.  She was just big and all over the place and you couldn’t look away from her.  Lawrence gave the character ample amounts of guts and nerve and vulnerability – it was just awfully raw and very refreshing, even in spite of all the f**k words and other such colourful expletives.   What surprised me was that Robert De Niro did not win for his supporting role.  He was brilliant!  I loved all the scenes where he was there, and my heart just bled for him, the darling man.   Oh well, I’m sure the winner was just as good if not better.  But for me, De Niro was simply awesome.   Alternately heart-wrenching, laugh-out-loud-inducing, and thought-provoking, if you haven’t seen this movie yet, you should. 

Silver Linings Playbook Official Trailer

Rich Man, Poor Woman (2012)

I decided to give this drama a try because one of my Japanese friends recommended it, and we shared a common liking for Oguri Shun.  Although I never saw the movie The Social Network, this might probably have similarities to that much-talked-about Hollywood production.  Rich Man, Poor Woman aired in mid-2012 and centers around Toru Hyuga, a self-made millionaire who started out small in the vast world of the internet.  He and his friend Asahina have made themselves big in the online world and are now living the good life while leading a company that functions very differently from the traditional office image that most people have.  Of course it can’t all be perfect.  Toru suffers from a strange syndrome of forgetfulness – he cannot remember the faces or names of people.  This is a huge obstacle in the only quest that occupies most of his waking thoughts – to find his mother who abandoned him as a child.   His mother’s name, Sawaki Chihiro, is the only name he can’t seem to forget. 

Enter Natsui Makoto, a Tokyo University graduate having a hard time finding employment.  She remembers an encounter she had with Toru from long before he made it big, and upon taking a chance to apply for a job at his company, she blurts out that her name is (surprise, surprise) Sawaki Chihiro.  Of course such a lie has its inevitable consequences.  The series takes us through the ups and downs of Toru and Natsui’s relationship at work, deepening friendship, and romantic development.  All the while the change in the problematic character of Toru gradually comes full circle as he is faced with professional and personal conflicts one after another.   He matures, learns about humility, professionalism, friendship, love, and forgiveness.  Of course it all comes with the help of the colorful characters around him.

I’d say the series is pretty nice, well-written, and not boring.  Good performances from the cast, and commendable pacing and plot development.  Not really heavy on either comedy or drama, a little bit of romance, and a good touch of life lessons given focus.  Not bad, not bad.  And Oguri is gorgeous (let’s not forget that). 

More information on "Rich Man, Poor Woman"

Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de (謎解きはディナーのあとで 2011)

I’ve always enjoyed a good mystery and the Japanese literary world is rich with them.  This series was based on a popular manga of the same name and starred Sakurai Sho and Kitagawa Keiko. I felt like watching something light and witty so I decided to give this series a try.  It aired in 2011 and ran for ten episodes.

The premise gives you a young heiress (Hosho Reiko) who lives a double life, moonlighting as a police investigator, and her astute and opinionated butler (Kageyama).  Together they try to solve the murders that the young lady encounters in her job as an investigator.  It just so happens that in his functions serving, protecting, and assisting his mistress, Kageyama doesn’t hesitate to insult her and mock her naiveté and her troubles in unlocking the riddles presented by the murders.  He ends up being the one who unravels everything and solves the cases.  And while Reiko can hardly stand the mockery (she keeps threatening to fire him), she recognizes and appreciates Kageyama’s help and dependability in almost every aspect of her life. More comic situations arise due to the apparent randomness of Reiko’s chief detective (Kazamatsuri) who also happens to be the nouveau riche heir to an automobile company. 

What I appreciated best were the murder mysteries and riddles – they were really presented so that you won’t find the answers so simple to decipher.  And in the grand tradition of Sherlock Holmes, Kageyama always seems to make the revelations painfully easy and obvious.  Solving riddles comes after dinner, though.  Too bad they didn’t delve more into the characters of Reiko and Kageyama.  I would have liked it if there was at least one episode that enabled the audience to get a more involved view of the main characters even if another riddle had to take the back seat for a while.  Reiko, Kageyama, Kazamatsuri and all the other regular personages came out as quite flat and stereotypical.  Thus, the series ended with not much in terms of character development.  Other than that, the pace was good, the comedy wasn’t too corny, and I generally felt eager to see the next episode.  Not bad at all. 

Switch Girl 2011 （スイッチガール！！）

I decided to try this out on a whim because I felt a little bit swamped by some rather serious stuff lately.  I craved for a little bit of nonsense and slapstick humor.  Sometimes you just want to forget about the world around you and laugh yourself silly.  Sure enough, this series gave me that much needed break. 

“Switch Girl” is based on a manga of the same name.  The premise presents us with a heroine, Nika, a high school student who takes drastic measures to put up a façade of perfection and popularity at school while hiding her true slovenly self.  Surely any woman of any age can relate to this.  We all agonize over the image we present to the world whenever we step out of our comfort zone.  I loved the fact that this story pulled no punches.  It threw everything at the world, from “safety panties” to deodorizing one’s farts.  I found it totally refreshing that the main character was perfectly comfortable with her imperfections.  The daily ritual of transforming herself was just another way for her to have fun in her life – it neither defined her nor turned her obsessive and psychotic.  She was perfectly able to let her true self shine through whenever the need for honesty arose. 

As a counterpoint comes Arata, a good-looking boy who in exact reverse of Nika hides behind thick glasses to avoid becoming popular.  He faces abandonment issues from when his mother left their family after he caught her having an affair with another man.  He discovers Nika’s secret and they make a deal not reveal each other’s true selves to the rest of the school.  Their relationship starts from there.  Nika and Arata, trying to get to know each other more, trying to get by in school, trying to outwit those who antagonize them – with their wacky friends and Nika’s equally crazy mother and elder sister thrown into the bunch, make for a perfectly loony series.

It all sounds shallow and silly, I know, but I found the situations rather entertaining.  It felt like it was meant to be that way – coarse, upfront, and exaggerated.  With only eight episodes and each episode at only thirty minutes long, it didn’t feel overdone.  If you’re looking for nothing heavy and just want a few laughs, you’d probably like this one.  Enjoy!