Erika Toda- Behind the scenes of both Death Note movies

 Didn't realize there was one but found a DVD of just Death Note special features which has both movies and a fairly extensive behind the scenes exclusives. However what really matters is Erika in the movies, took some screenshots of her on the set of both films and here they are, starting off with the first film, not as many pics of her playing Misa as her role wasn't as big in Death Note 1.

 And here's some shots from the second film, few more here as her role was much bigger in this one, quite an important part she had and of course aced her performance!

Erika Toda Homemate 2012 calendar #1

 The first of two Erika 2012 Homemate calendars, the other one is in the post just below this one, click on them for a bigger size though they're really not all that huge but big enough.

Yuki Uchida's 1995 film Hana Yori Dango: synopsis and trailer

 Sure most of you know all about the Hana Yori Dango/Boys Over Flower mangas and dramas, a quick recap of it:
 Hana Yori Dango is a Japanese shojo manga series written and illustrated by Yoko Kamio. The story is set in Eitoku Academy, an elite school for children from rich families. It follows lead protagonist Makino Tsukushi, a student from a working-class family, and the members of Eitoku Academy's elite Flower Four, commonly known as the "F4". The manga series was 37 volumes long selling over 55 million copies and was adapted into two live action dramas that ran in 2005 and 2007.

 What most may not know is that before the dramas it was made into a TV movie that came out in 1995 starring Yuki Uchida as the heroine plus a few other stars before they hit it big. Not going to go into depth about this movie as it followed the mangas closely for the most part though at only 80 minutes it was a real rushed effort at that.

 Have been a fan of the mangas though not so much the TV dramas, this effort fell into the same lines, an okay watch but if you haven't seen it you haven't missed too much. Then again if you're a Yuki fan you have missed something, she does a good job in this as the spunky, can never be beaten down heroine Makino, she really carried the film and was in just about every seen, this was really her first big starring role, she pulled it off well but the film itself was just so-so. Would recommend it for Yuki fans and perhaps if you're a fan of the series so you can say you've seen everything about Hana Yori Dango but besides that don't go out of your way to view it, except for Yuki it was the only reason I watched it and I would think that's why most others have seen it.

 Here's the cast list for the film plus the trailer for it, check out the next post for many pics of Yuki from the movie.

Year: 1995    Length: 78 minutes    Theme Song: "Baby's Growing Up" by Yuki Uchida

Cast:

Yuki Uchida as Makino Tsukushi
Shosuke Tanihara as Doumyouji Tsukasa
Naohito Fujiko as Hanazawa Rui
Koichi Hashizume as Mimasaka Akira
Marie Eguro as Toudou Shizuka

Dare Yori mo Mama wo Aisu synopsis

 Papa/Kazutoyo Kamon is a stay at home father, 25 years ago he quit his job as a banker to stay home with their new born child Yuki and let his wife Chiyo pursue her dream of becoming a lawyer, which she did. Along the way the way they had 2 more children, Akira who was born 2 years after Yuki and then a birth which surprised the family, their second son Kaoru who was born when the couple were in the young 40's. Quite a bit of the drama is told thru the eyes of the young son Kaoru, though he loves them all deeply he knows they are quite a unique family, with a pair of strange and funny siblings plus he's the only person he knows who has a stay at home dad, most of the neighbors and such look at that situation in a perplexing way.

 The oldest child Yuki(Uchida) is probably the strangest and wackiest of the family, she's 25 yet still lives at home, her one dream is to find a rich, handsome husband so she doesn't have to work and work is one thing she's not good at, going thru job after job and never being successful at any of them, though she finds a lot of suitors they tend to dump her for various reasons. On the other hand Akira(Tamayama) is a bit of a ladies man, he has to turn most of them away and for being quite a smart guy he's working as a hair stylist, but of all the characters to change thru the series his did the most, in a way none of us thought would happen. And the youngest child Kaoru(Nagashima) is in the 6th grade, he do has all sorts of problems, the biggest is his crush on Tomo(Kawashima), the 2 of them have some sad, funny and uplifting moments during their time together until she moves away.

 Papa(Tamura) as we hear thru the voice of Kaoru loves his wife more than any husband in Japan, he's a funny character too though doesn't try to be. He easily beats any wife as far as being an excellent homemaker, plus he has such an open mind which he needs having to deal with all the problems that constantly arise in the family. Mama(Ito) is quite a successful lawyer but doesn't spend that much time with the family due to that fact, is always working late and it seems as though some of the family's problems over the years were because of not having her around enough, especially Yuki's problems.

 There were also a few major characters outside the family, their next door neighbor Kozue(Kobayashi) who had just moved in, for the first half of the series she came off as an irresponsible woman who drank too much, though ended up she may have been the most sane person on the show as she was a doctor who eventually went back to th eprofession and may have saved Mama's life. There was also Pinky-san(Abe) who was a gay cross dresser and somehow comes into contact with the womanizer Akira, their relationship quite funny and sad but he really contributed to Akira growing as a person and helped the famly out with some of their problems too though they always didn't realize it. There was also Tomo(Kobayashi) who was Kaoru's classmate and first crush, they came from different backgrounds and her family looked down on the Kamons but that too worked out in the end.

 Final conclusion of mine is this is one of the finest family dramas that has come out, didn't have high expectations going in but it ended up being perhaps not a must watch but one that is highly recommended. Started out a bit light hearted and fluffy, still stayed that way until the end of the show but also became quite dark and depressing at times as some of the storylines dealt with cancer, gay relationships, attempted rape amd more, they really made it an interesting watch and what sets it apart from most others in the family drama genre, would highly suggest this drama for anyone, think you'll really enjoy it. Check the next 2 posts for a mega amount of Yuki Uchida screenshots from the drama, cast and other info are right here.

Cast:
Masakazu Tamura as Papa Kamon
Ran Ito as Mama Kamon
Yuki Uchida as Yuki Kamon
Tetsuji Tamayama as Akira Kamon
Mitsuki Nagashima as Kaoru Kamon
Satomi Kobayashi as Kozue Tsunami
Sadao Abe as Pinky-san
Hitori Gekidan as Yamashita
Seiko Sakurada as Sato-sensei
Umika Kawashima as Tomo-chan

Year: 2006   # of episodes: 11   Average rating: 10.4%