For this series like to begin off talking about some of my favorite Japanese women, usually ones that haven't had a post for a while. But for this post and probably the next two will briefly discuss my third 'Top Twenty Faves of All Time' list, the countdown won't begin until early August but before you know it the month will be July! So of the twenty think I've already settled on who sixteen will be, maybe even seventeen and what that means is there's only room for three more women! When I write down my thoughts it helps make my decisions much easier to make so will talk about a trio of women in this and the next two posts which means nine are fighting for the final three spots on the list! Leading off this post is Mizuki, five years ago she would have been a shoo-in for the list. But things slowed down so much for her from 2021 until a year ago, she's had four terrific posts in the last year but will they be enough to make up for that very long period of so few activities and posts? Even if it doesn't Mizuki will always have a spot on my list for all time hottest Idols!
This series has become somewhat popular as three of the previous posts have hit that section for most viewed posts of the past thirty days/month. I briefly discuss what movies and films I've been viewing, it's given me a chance to talk about some American TV shows. Try to keep the reviews at three paragraphs and also have a video along with some screenshots or other kinds of photos. At this point know I will begin off with a pair of dramas and after that will be some older Japanese movies but as mentioned have no clue how many or which ones but think any I view will be terrific.
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This season ran from October 2016 to May 2017 for a total of 23 episodes, I still have 63 more to view. When Sam was just four months old and Dean was four years old their mother Mary had been killed by a demon in front of her husband John and the young Sam. It's in the Winchester blood to be a Hunter of demons or anything eerily evil, Mary was a Hunter and so wasn't John so of course their sons kept the family business alive. The huge change in this season was that after 33 years Mary has come back to life and that was because of a deal Dean made with the Devil. Throughout the season Mary was invaluable to their crusades but she was only supposed to remain alive for a certain amount of time, when a Grim Reaper named Billie tried to take Mary once again to the land of the dead she had been stopped by Castiel, he's an Angel who has worked with the brothers since season four and it appeared Castiel saving Mary was an unforgivable mistake but nothing major has happened, least not yet. Another new storyline was that of Lucifer, one of the most evil beings of all time who has been a recurring character for the last three seasons. Lucifer is a spirit so like most devils, angels and whatever else needs a human vessel to live. For a while in this season Lucifer took the body of the U.S. President Jeff Rooney and of all things got his mistress Kelly pregnant!
PS: Almost forgot to add in that before using the President's body as a vessel Lucifer had used the body of an aging rock star named Vincent Vincente. He used that body for seven episodes and the person who was playing Lucifer was the 1980's rock star Rick Springfield and he was about 67 in age at the time of his appearances on the show.
Kelly is in a few screenshots below and was played by Courtney Ford, I had never seen her before but she was a very attractive woman who did get killed near the end of the season. There was a race on between the Winchesters, Castiel, Lucifer and the King of Hell Crowley to find Kelly before the baby was born. In the case of Winchesters and Castiel it was to prevent Lucifer from taking his child but would they have killed an innocent baby? For most of this season Lucifer had been a prisoner of Crowley who had been my favorite character but his role wasn't as sparkling as previous seasons. Near the end he got killed but I wouldn't be surprised if he makes a return for season thirteen. At the end of this season Kelly did give birth to her son and within a few hours the baby was about twelve in age, delivering such a creature is too much for a human so Kelly did die during delivery. Soon on the scene was Lucifer who had escaped Crowley's prison with the help of two traitors and arrived at the location of where his son was just born. Nothing Sam, Dean or Castiel did could repel this evil creature but Mary had a powerful weapon that did injure Lucifer, dashing to him was Castiel who was trying to throw Lucifer through a time warp to an alternative reality! But in the commotion Mary had grabbed hold of Lucifer, both were sent through the warp and soon after it closed, are both characters now gone forever?
That's one cliffhanger and so wasn't the enigma of what to do with Lucifer's son who was already twelve years old in a matter of hours. I don't read to see what's taken place in future seasons to keep the suspense up so I have no clue how things will turn out. One other major thing was that Mary, Sam and Dean had hooked up for a while with a Hunter's organization called the British Men of Letters, they've protected Britain since 1920 from all kinds of demons. There's an American chapter that was formed in 1935 and the location was in Lebanon, Kansas and it's been the main base for the Winchester brothers since about season six. The British chapter also wanted to control the American Hunter's and would have done do if not for the efforts of the two brothers. Much more happened in that struggle but don't want this mini recap to go on much longer as it's already four paragraphs. All in all a fine season which I would give a grade of a B+ but the other eleven seasons grades were higher. I prefer the episodes where the Winchesters travel to some American town to save them from the Devil or other kinds of Demons, there was so little of that in this season and there was too much time devoted to the three storylines. Mary is the woman in the first pic below, because she had been in Heaven for 33 years she's the same age as her sons! The DVD's are packed with special features, often two hours for each season so after the pics have one from season twelve called "The Winchester Mythology- Mary Winchester" and if you're curious about the series it's worth checking out.
"From Here on, Showtime" was a Korean series I had been wavering on for so long and after viewing the first eight episodes and wondering WHY?!!!! For this is one fabulous series and think only the first two seasons of "Taxi Driver' have topped it, so much has happened and there's not enough space or time to discuss all of what's taken place. Will have two mini(hopefully) sections for four episodes, this first part will talk about the fifth and sixth shows. Did do an intro for this compelling show in the last post of this series, if you didn't read that it'd be helpful to read that first and the recaps in these posts are easy to read. Koreans love their Ghost dramas and this is another in the vast amount of them, for the most part all have been solid. There's two main characters but about ten get a good chunk of screentime, the male lead is a magician named Cha Cha-Woong who I'll just call Cha. He's become such a popular magician and also a wealthy one but is never satisfied with all of his riches. Cha does have one huge secret and if it ever was revealed his career would be destroyed, most of his magic tricks are done by a trio of Ghosts! It's a family talent or gift that allows Cha to see and talk with Ghosts, he has three living at his mansion! No one else can see them but the trio can still eat and use such things as a computer and TV. There's an older man named Nam who watches over everyone, an ex-gangster whose name is Ma and an ultra cute 22 year old female named Ah-Reum, she's a whiz with electronics.
My fave actress Ji Koo-Ji plays the lead female role of Police Officer Go Seul-Hae, she has some special powers also but what they are remains a mystery at this halfway mark of this series. It appears both Cha and Seul-Hae had lived and known each other some five hundred years ago, we learned that in these first two episodes but they were quick flashbacks so there's still much more to learn about the main characters. There is one other Ghost who works with Cha whose name is Choi and has watched over his family for 2,000 years, he still hasn't entered Heaven and by what Choi says you need to amass a certain about of Aura Points for entry! In the second screenshot Seul-Hae said the name of The Full Moon Murder(er) who was a serial killer and her father Ko had been working the case when he was killed. There was much more in the seventh episode about the case and for a while Seul-Hae thought Cha's grandfather Park/Cha was part of the reason for her father's death so more on that coming up. To improve his image Cha has been volunteering for the Kangguk PD, there is where he hooked up with Seul-Hae and the pair have solved a few cases and that has impressed Seul-Hae's colleagues as she's still just a regular officer. Cha doesn't want to admit but he has fallen hard for Seul-Hae and why not as she looks so attractive even in her police uniform.
Noticing Cha's 'Puppy Love' were his four ghost mates and they do want to help their Master out. Below you will see some screenshots of Cha and Seul-Hae that the computer whiz Ah-Reum had whipped up to show Cha the things that woman fall for and to date that's been one of the best scenes to me, screenshots are in the next set of pics. One advantage Korean shows have over their counterparts in Japan is that they've really cut down on the amount of Idols who star in dramas and what a wise move that was. But there was some K-Popping in this episode as Cha was going to work with an Idol named Aris as they would do a magic trick on a variety show but what a devilish young woman she was. Being an Idol was a perfect front for Aris who had been working as a drug courier and she was never searched at airports or such places. She slipped some drugs disguised as coffee into Cha's briefcase and to frame him? Think so and that would have worked but thanks to Cha's four Ghosts and the 'Super Officer(!)' Seul-Hae who at the end of this episode had found Aris with a group of drug dealing thugs. They captured Seul-Hae and were about to snuff out her life until the arrival of Cha who isn't much of a fighter but does possess some athletic skills. With his heroics and also with help from the four Ghosts Aris and the gang were taken down, also arriving on the scene was Seul-Hae's senior on the force Hee-Soo who I haven't talked about much. He's had such a crush on Seul-Hae for many years and is a very competent detective but doesn't seem to have much of a personality. He's become so jealous of Cha as he's grown closer to Seul-Hae and with the help of his ghost friends has solved numerous cases. With the arrest of Aris and the drug dealing gang the sixth episode came to a close and most cases do last for two shows.
So didn't Min-Suk's new husband Lee and to us viewers it seemed he was so in love with Min-Suk, everyone else including Seul-Hae thought so too but what a devil he turned out to be. A few days after that encounter with the thugs Mik-Sun was hurt badly at the small store she also owned and operated, she was clubbed over the head with a baseball bat. Mik-Sun was admitted to a hospital and it really appeared she would only last a few more days at the most, even a Grim Reaper made an appearance at the hospital! But this Reaper happened to know Cha's ghost mate Choi from 2,000 years ago so the pair had quite the reunion. On the case to find out who attacked Min-Suk was of course Seul-Hae, helping out was Cha and his trio of ghosts. Even Choi was an asset as he was able to keep the Grim Reaper busy enough where he held off taking the Spirit of Min-Suk and that gave everyone more of a chance to hunt down the assailant(s). The person that planned out this attack had thought of just about possibility and it led to the arrests of the three thugs who had threatened Mik-Sun at her orphanage earlier. The key piece of evidence was the baseball bat used in her beating and had been hidden at their hideout, as bad as those creeps were they were innocent of this crime. Though Choi is keeping the Reaper away the investigation needed to get into a higher gear for Min-Suk's remaining life on Earth is dwindling rapidly. Once again Seul-Hae proved what an excellent detective she would make, she seemed to have the most astute deductions of anyone working on the case and that included her senior Hee-Soo, that's him on the left in the first screenshot.
With the help of Cha's three Ghosts Seul-Hae was able to track the movements of the assailant, what hurt at first was that she nor anyone else knew who the person could be. However we viewers did have a slight inkling and the perp ended up being of all people Mik-Sun's loving husband Lee, what a creep the man was and came so close to getting away with murder! Greed was what drove this man, if Mik-Sun should die Lee could sell the land the orphanage was on and make a hefty profit. Thanks to the ghosts and especially the youngest Ah-Reum they were able to plant a bug on Lee and when he was in the middle of signing the contract for his wife's land the ghosts struck though of course weren't seen. It is kind of odd how they can pick up solid objects yet not be seen by humans, Seul-Hae works with them but even she isn't able to see the three plus Choi. To make this long story shorter Lee was bagged by the cops or was about to but had fled the scene, the thug who was going to buy the land was arrested. Lee ended up at the hospital where Sun-Mik was at, she had so little time left. Also there was the Reaper and of all things he decided to take Lee's life for all the evil acts he had done and spared the life of Mik-Sun so this story did have a happy ending. As I've said before it's so hard to explain more of what took place in 3-4 paragraphs but that's not a bad thing as if you do end up viewing this series I haven't given away a huge amount of spoilers. At the halfway point will give this drama such a high recommendation, there's been so much action, oddities, magic tricks, solid stories plus some doses of goofiness so there's never a dull moment! Am going to skip a video for this post, there are plenty on YT for the drama but I'm not too impressed with them and let me look a bit harder for some. That also brings up something I've often wondered and do readers tend to view the videos in posts?
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In the intro was undecided about how many movies I would talk about in this post, three or five? It is getting to be a longish post so will go with three and all came out between 1957-59, this first I've seen quite a few times but the other two were brand new for me. In the last post for this ongoing series talked about the above Nikkatsu Noir boxset which is my all time favorite collection of films. In that last post said how that night would be viewing "Cruel Gun Story" from 1964, what an action packed film that was.All the films are terrific so had to watch another which was the first listed and was from 1957, "I Am Waiting". The star of the film and also the second in the boxset was Yujiro Ishihara and though most reading this have never heard of him he just may be the biggest male star in Japan's history! Ishihara during the late 1950's and into the 60's was referred to as Japan's Elvis, what a mega star he was as he was both an actor and singer, later he opened a very successful production company. Ishihara didn't live a long life, he was born in 1934 so was 23 in age for this film and died in 1987 at the age of 53, his death was the biggest story of that year in Japan! It's not easy finding subbed movies of Ishihara but the ones I've seen him in all are superb, he had this screen presence which is so magnetic and so didn't his long time wife.
Who was Mie Kitahara, the pair were married in 1960 and she retired shortly after that. So many Japanese actresses from the 1950's/60's are still alive and so isn't Mie who will be hitting the age of 93 this July. She was also in this "I Am Waiting" movie and there's plenty of screenshots of her below, isn't she just so classy and ultra attractive? She sure was back then and in the film she played the role Saeko though it was an alias, she was on the run from some gangsters who were forcing her to sing at their night club. One rainy night Saeko ran into Ishihara's character Shimaki, he owned a restaurant near a bay. He also had some skeletons in his closet as Shimaki was once such a promising boxer but had his license stripped a year ago for he had accidentally killed a man in a bar fight. Shimaki and Saeko hit it off immediately and both were so alike as they both wanted to escape, Saeko from those gangsters and Shimaki from Japan. He was killing time with this restaurant as his dream was to move to Brazil, his brother had moved there nine months prior and was going to buy a farm from another Japanese man living there, once things had settled down Shimaki would be joining his brother.
However after nine months no word was heard from the older brother and where could be have disappeared to? Nowhere for it was discovered the brother had been murdered after being swindled out of all of his money in a card game just before the boat to Brazil departed. The killer happened to be the gangster forcing Saeko to sing at his club, he too had been an ace boxer and his name was Shibata. Eventually Shimaki discovered the truth of his brother's death and in an epic battle at the end of the film he faced off against the devilish Shibata and came out on top. At the same time the suitcase with his brother's money came pouring down on everyone and on that note the movie ended. Not a lot of action until the end but the suspense and intensity were at such a high level in the whole movie. I've now viewed this at least a dozen times so of course will give it a high recommendation but I often do for most movies from that period of time. There's no official trailer for the film, the only decent video I could find is of the movie's first five minutes and that's after these pictures.
Next up is a real odd film that came out in 1959, it was one of the first films from the very known director Seijun Suzuki and don't be fooled by the title. Which is "Age Of Nudity" and there was zero of that in this film, not sure how it got that title but one boy did blurt out a line very much like that during a scene at a beach. This was no historical movie or well known either but will say this was one of the more entertaining films I've seen in a while, the shortest one too at 54 minutes. The story was about a group of kids that were about 14-19 in age who were juvenile delinquents yet their crimes were just of the petty variety. Such as stealing from stores, vending machines and such but those thefts had been adding up to be quite a bit of money. The leader of this 'gang' was Ken, he's above on the right and will soon be hitting the age of twenty, he got the most screentime and also getting a lot was Sabu who is the boy behind Ken's right hand. Now that Ken is about to hit the age of twenty he's thinking is it time for him to move on for being a petty thief with other youngsters isn't something that could continue on for too long. Most of the first forty minutes were just of watching the youngsters get in and out of trouble, none had been arrested but it was just a matter of time until their wild antics would come to a (tragic) end.
Did say Ken was about to hit the age of twenty which makes you an official adult in Japan, he wants to make one huge score and leave the robbery life behind. He did find that score which could net him a million yen, it was to deliver a truck full of dynamite to a Yakuza group. Helping Ken was Sabu and two other boys along with the oldest girl Yuko who was quite attractive. Ken's truck got held up by a rival Yakuza group but he did manage to make them pay a million yen for the dynamite so all seemed well for his future. Their gang/club had a rule where all of their stolen loot would be divided up equally, Ken didn't want to for his final theft as the money was for his future. So he left the group and his mates were so bitter, Sabu especially wanted 'revenge' and later on challenged Ken to a motorcycle race, there was a lot of racing in the film. Ken won but while celebrating his bike went over a cliff, that's the second to last screenshot and that crash was the end of him. Also the gang's life came to an end, the bottom screenshot shows the delinquents leaving their hideout and without Ken there to guide them they appeared to give up that life of crime. While it was not a must watch film I enjoyed it immensely and sometimes you need to watch things such as this just for something different. There is a trailer for the film and it's after the screenshots, you can see what a fun and semi-action packed movie it was.
Final film for today and one that I had never seen but will view it a few more times, it was no classic movie but one that had so much packed into 78 minutes. The first film for this post was from 1957, the one above 1959 and this last one is from December 1957. It was directed by the very respected Keisuke Kinoshita, not one of his more known movies but it's a darn good one and he wanted to make something different than what was expected of him. Except having an actress in the lead role who was Hideko Takemine, she's right above and is my second favorite Japanese actress of all time! She was in about a dozen of Kinoshita's films, wasn't Hideko just so classy and attractive? She was to me and have talked about a few other of Hideko's films in this ongoing series and will have more of her movies in the future. Hideko was known more for her serious roles and this one of her rare lighthearted movies though in a way it was very serious. Hideko played the character of Yuriko Sato who was married to Kaneshiga and the pair had a son Kazuo who was about eight in age plus Kaneshiga's mother Tetsu lived with them. Kaneshiga worked as a shoe salesman and didn't make much money though the house they lived in was fairly nice, not elegant but large. No one in the Sato family came right out and said it nor did Yuriko's sisters but all were in a way hoping for Tetsu to kick the bucket soon as all thought she was loaded, that was far from the truth.
The main story was of the Sato's house being the target of two thieves, they recruited a poor traveler at the beginning of the film to help them out. For some some reason the two potential thieves had thought there was a lot of money stashed in the Sato house, that too was far from the truth. The trio hid upon a hill near the house, they were waiting until everyone had left or have Yuriko there alone, then the young thieves would make their move. However the Sato house was busier than a train station for all day long there was a stream of people coming and going, the trio had become so frustrated. There was a lodger at the house named Miyoko, she got evicted that morning for causing a fire! But she was in and out all day, also coming was a man to repair the Tatami mat Miyoko had burnt to a crisp. Also coming to visit was the newspaper man, another delivery man, two of Yuriko's sisters, a new possible tenant and Kaneshiga had come home twice, all of that coming and going never happened before with the family. Who were poor but managed to survive and it did look as though Lady Luck finally smiled in them. For in that day's paper it was announced Kaneshiga had won the the second prize in a huge contest, the item he won was a brand new camera. Back in 1957 that was quite a prize, the Sato family didn't care at all for the camera but thought they could sell it for close to 50,000 yen!!!!
Which is why Yuriko's sisters arrived at the house and became all friendly with her, surely she could spare some of that 50,000 yen? NO she couldn't and the camera wouldn't be coming for another two weeks so until then the Sato family would still live poorly though they were happy enough. One final visitor did arrive who was Kaneshiga's old college mate Akama, think he was there to hide out. For near the end Akama had told all he was a wanted man who had been arrested seven times, his latest crime was stealing some guns the previous night and had murdered a police officer in the process! But they tracked Akama to the Sato house and at the end had him cornered in a field but Akama was a Judo expert so we never did see his capture. Meanwhile the trio of potential thieves had watched all of the day's activities, they finally gave up their idea to rob the Sato house and with that the film came to it's conclusion. Like the above movie this was no must watch but it was also a very entertaining movie, my favorite kinds are these which are the lower budget B&W Japanese films from the 1950's and 60's. Plus having Hideko as the lead in the movie made it a must watch for me and below are many screenshots from the film, the first is how Tokyo looked in 1957. There was no trailer for the movie so have one for different Hideko movie that had come out earlier that year titled "Times of Joy and Sorrow". I've never seen it but will now be working on getting it, the film also featured her husband from this movie.
