SushiMaki

Absolutely recommendable for those who want to watch a serious drama about family life, choices between work and family. It is amazing how you can watch a TV drama without understanding 90% of the dialogue and still cry because it relates to everyday life. I'm on episode 6, and I'm hoping for a big-time love explosion between Tetsuro (Tsuyoshi) and Yura (Koyuki). I'm just so in love with Koyuki's character.

Yoomigaeri is a unique science fiction that gives you a strange feeling of loneliness and emptiness about death. It is about a town where certain people who died recently came back to life due to some extra-terrestial accident that hit the area. This single episode movie succeeded because of the direction of the tempo, the music and the filming of it. Acting was not demandingly important, although I watched it because of Yuko Takeuchi.

If you don't have the time to follow those 10+ episode TV series, this is one emotional one-episode TV movie that you will enjoy. It is well-directed and well-acted, plus this is one story where you can relate to dilemnas in life when you have to sacrifice your love to achieve fairness, and hopefully happiness.

Hitomi is the wife (doctor) who thought she lost her husband in the famous Kobe earthquake. I have seen her in Good Luck!, but I did not realize she can be one terrific dramatic actress. Etsushi, the husband (businessman), portrayed convincingly a man who suffered from amnesia, but decided what is fair at the end. I never saw him before, but is he popular? Ryoko, who saved Etsushi from the quake and married him after, is her usual self, cute and squeaky. I have seen her in Otoosan and Moto Kare.

Lastly, I am really impressed with Japanese TV movie production and direction, the way they spend money just to shoot different angles of the performer's expressions or to emphasize the scene's message.