Manga + Movie Review: Doukyuusei

Title: Doukyuusei
Japanese Title: 同級生
Author: Asumiko Nakamura
Published: July 2006 to July 2007
Movie Aired: February 20, 2016
Sequels: Sotsugyousei, Sora to Hara, O.B., Dousoukai
Tags: Slice of Life, Shonen-ai
Extra Info: From MAL



Summary (From manga):
A boy met a boy.
They were in the flush of youth
Their love felt like a dream, like sparkling soda pop. 

Wdebo's Review: I discovered Doukyuusei roughly five years ago and since then this manga has been one of my favorites both as a BL and as a general romance story along with Seven Days. That's why when it was first announced last year that Doukyuusei would be getting an anime movie adaption I could not wait, especially since Seven Days had gotten a two part live action movie earlier that year as well. I have been waiting for the movie to be subbed and posted online for me to watch for a while and finally got around to watching it today and it is still as cute as I remember it to be.

Doukyuusei is the first book in the series and starts out following the two protagonists, Kusakabe and Sajou. Kusakabe is a fluffy-headed, laid back musician who meets his fellow classmate, Sajou, a studious quiet boy with no musical inclination. Kusakabe decides to tutor him to be ready for their class' musical program, but they unwittingly start to fall for one another. The pacing of the story is very important and gives the story a stronger presence. For the first book, it starts out slowly, folling the boys as they fall in love, kiss and gradually develop deeper feelings for one another. Though it is slower, it gives it a very gentle, calm tone that is very sweet to watch. This is especially evident in the movie (which followed the plot of the story well) and its usage of its gentle OST to greatly exemplify that air. What I did love about the story was that it just shows the gradual feelings of the characters intensifying for one another, it does not base its plot on unnecessary drama such as a love rival or gigantic misunderstanding. Additionally, if you continue from Doukyuusei and read more of the books, it adds more to the characters as the protagonists go through school, graduate and start college/post grad life. Also more characters, fellow students and teachers, are added in to the ensemble and the plots follow their love lives as well.

Additionally, one of Doukyuusei's more unique features is the art style. The author is famous of her artwork which uses more feathery and flowy lines that also adds to the gentleness exuded by the story and characters. However, it takes a bit to get into when you first start into the story, the lines seem a little rough and characters a bit strangely proportioned in the manga; however, in the anime movie it was more smoothed out and worked out better than I felt the manga had.

And finally as stated before, the OST for the movie is wonderful. I love its gentle tones which compliment the story perfectly. It can be seen even in the trailer:



All in all, this manga/movie is wonderful and gives such a gentle touch of romance to a simple school based story and is definitely worth a read/watch.

Grade: A

Wdebo :)

Classic Friday (5): The Rocky Horror Picture Show (Movie)

Title: The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Language: English
Release Date: September 26, 1975
Director: Jim Sharman
Rating: R
Cafe Warnings: There is a tremendous amount of adult matter in this movie.
Actors: Tim Curry as Dr. Frank-N-Furter, Susan Sarandon as Janet Weiss, Barry Bostwick as Brad Majors and Richard O'Brien as Riff Raff.

"Let's do the Time Warp again!"

Summary: Brad Majors and his fiance Janet Weiss were driving down a road one night when their car breaks down. With the rain pouring down and no one around for miles, they decide to hike up the road to a "castle" they saw a few miles back. When they get there, the handyman (Riff Raff-O'Brien) that answers seems a bit on the strange side. When they get into the mansion they see just how weird the whole place is. As they are taken into the Frank-N-Furter's (Curry) convention and immersed in "The Time Warp". Later they are taken into his lab and see his creation, Rocky Horror, a new-born, innocent, blonde "god" :) Brad and Janet's life alters completely from that moment as they are dragged into the world of Frank-N-Furter, the transexual transavanian scientist.

Trailer...

Wdebo's Review: I first watch RHPS during the Freshmen year, I loved it, but I only watched half of it because YouTube blocked the other parts :( So, when I found out that Glee was doing a RHPS episode I decided to rewatch it (the whole thing!) Even the second time it was wonderful and awesome, it's just so weird but so addicting, no wonder it's a cult classic!

The characters are so over-the-top, you have Janet and Brad who seem like they're very clean cut but they turn out to have a dark side too that is brought out by being in Dr. Frank-N-Furt's life. And everyone in the house is so...weird..but awesome. And of course there is the doctor himself played by Tim Curry, and I just have one thing to say. TIM CURRY IS A GENIUS!!!!! He is soo amazing his acting is so good and so convincing, such a wonderful actor, and he has really good legs which is scary....

However, even though this movie is like awesome, in all actuallity it is actuality it is a bad movie. It is low budget like, it has cheesy 80's things going on, the lyrics of the songs are quite weird, but it is still so amazing for some reason!

Seriously, if you haven't watched this go have some kind of RHPS day and just have a wildly fun time!

Grade: A-

My RHPS playlist :)


Wdebo :)

Monga (Movie)

I have my final for Chinese School today...wish me luck!! ~

Title: Monga
Language: Chinese (Mandarin + Taiwanese)
Release Date: February 5, 2010
Director: Doze Niu
Cafe Warning: Since this movie is about gangs/the Chinese Mafia there is a lot of violence especially at the end, for those who are watching the english subbed version, there is A LOT of swearing.
Actors: Ethan Ruan (!!) as Monk, Mark Chou as Mosquito, Rhydian Vaughan (Hottie!) as Dragon Lee and Ju-Lung Ma as Boss Geta
Extra Info: Click HERE for the official site (English)

"What is the meaning of all this fighting?

What the f*** is meaning?! I've only heard of brotherhood, never of meaning"

The english subbed trailer...enjoy!



Summary: *Note: Since this movie is Chinese, so the names are translated from the chinese nicknames, that's why they are so weird* Mosquito had been transfered around to so many schools, and then came the day he went to Monga. Even though he didn't know how to fight very well, he was still able to anger the "head" of his class, and he and his gang decided to beat Mosquito up after class. But they weren't able to catch him. While Mosquito was dodging, four friends Monk, Dragon, Monkey and A-Po, saw him and decided to let him into their little "Prince Gang" in which Dragon's father,Geta, was the head of the whole big mafia in their territory.

After all five of them began enjoying their gangster lifestyle, disaster struck. The "head" of Mosquito's class, hurt Dragon's girlfriend, and in retaliation the five friends decided to get a little revenge on him, but instead, they accidently killed him.


Geta is furious, and decides to punish them. After a while he sends them to a training camp for mafia members. While that is happening, Mosquito falls in love with a prostitute and all five of their friendships grow. However, as tensions between all the mafias grow, greed and desire takes over to a giant wave of kills.


Wdebo's Review: Whenever my father goes to California he always buys a lot of Taiwanese movies, usually those really boring, absolutely no romance in it (:O ) kind of movies, that only has a lot of fighting in it. But when he brought Monga back, at first, I was like "ok, that looks like a horrible movie as usual" but when I saw it was Ethan that was acting in it, I had to watch it and I am so glad I did!

This movie starts out as sort of a comedy, it seems to poke fun at Taiwanese gangsters/mafias and the steryotypes that surround them. I for one, found myself randomly laughing out loud at random scenes, especially the scene where Mosquito was fighting with the small gang and he accidently stepped in dog doo doo so he was able to defeat them by waving his dirty shoe around. But after a bit the movie started to get very dark, the scene where they kill the "head" of the class was pretty shiver-making, I mean superglueing someone's facial organs together is pretty disgusting. And then at the end it just became an outright blood bath, which I don't like watching, but I can still stand (except you see someone get their ear chopped off...I mean...eww)

I really liked all of the actors, I think they portrayed all of their roles very well, the acting was muy bueno especially for a Taiwanese movie. I liked the two friends (Monkey and A-Po) the most...they were hillarious.

The ending was just depressing, when you watch it, you'll know what I mean...especially the interaction between Mosquito and the prostitute girl...it was very sad making. :(

All in all, an amazing Taiwanese movie...if you can find the english subbed version (or if you know chinese already and don't need it) I would highly reccomend that you watch this movie. I really hope it becomes very popular because it is such a wonderfully done movie.

Grade: A

Wdebo :)

District 9 (Movie)

Title: District 9
Release Year: 2009
Director: Neill Blokamp
Rated: R
Cafe Warning: There is like intense language like the F word every other line and it is very graphic, even though its super safe, but not good for children.
Actor(s): Sharlto Copley as Wikus Van De Merwe
Extra Info: Click HERE to visit the site! It's pretty cool, check it out!


Summary: District 9 is a place for aliens/non-humans more commonly known by their deragatory term "prawns" that came to this earth around 20 years ago, now humans are ralling for them to be shipped away so the Multi-National United (MNU) is getting eviction notices to the aliens to make sure they leave in a day, and the head of this operation? Wikus Van De Merwe, a not entirely bright man.

Wdebo's Review: I am not a big fan of movies like these, but for some reason when I watched the trailer I really really really wanted to watch this movie. When I started watching it, I had absolutely no idea what was going to happen, all I knew was that District 9 was a place for aliens. But for some reason I really enjoyed it, it was surprisingly a very good movie. Except the middle was a bit boring.

The movie is shot in a documentary form, and it was a very good idea, it was like watching this informational thing-y about something that was happening. I am a person who hates graphic pictures and stuff, so I wasn't all that happy with the blood and guts and stuff, but it was seriously really fake, so it wasn't that bad, but still really gross.

After this movie all I could think was "Humans are seriously horrible creatures."

Grade: A-

Wdebo :)

Secret [piano lovers unite!!]

This is like one of the best Taiwanese movies ever!!

Perfect for anyone who loves, is studying or just knows the piano.

Starring the amazing Jay Chou (Who also directed it).

Name (Chinese): 不能說的秘密
Name (Ping Ying): Bu Neng Shuo De Mi Mi
Name (English): Secret

Summary (From Wiki): Ye Xianglun (Jay), a music student majoring in piano, transfers to Tamkang (Danjiang) Secondary School. It is a school famous for musically talented students, especially for those who play piano. On the first day of school, as he wanders through the piano building, he hears a mysterious melody being played that leads him to Lu Xiaoyu, another piano major. When he asks her about the song she was playing, she tells him that it is a secret that cannot be told.

Here it is eng subbed (1st part) srry it's harder to see to subs... :(



Yeah so here's some stuff about Jay...

Name Chinese: 周杰倫
Name English: Jay Chou
Born: January 18, 1979

Here's the amazing song from the movie (eng subbed!)

[Subbed by JenEm @ Youtube]

Hope you enjoy!! And remember to comment, espeically if you liked it!!

Wdebo :)