How to Become Myself is a Japanese film directed by Ichikawa Jun. It was shown here during the Japanese Film Festival, so the title should be familiar to some. I didn’t get to watch the movie then, but I’ve seen people mentioning about it in their blogs. As I didn’t know much about the plot, what initially got me interested was Narumi Riko playing the lead in the movie. She first caught my eye in 1 Litre of Tears, and she’s good actress, especially for someone her age.

Juri portrays the role of the ideal daughter at home and in school, but all she really wants is for her parents to stop fighting. Deep down, she admires her popular primary school classmate Kanako. However, Kanako becomes the class outcast suddenly. Years later, in high school and still craving popularity, Kanako begins receiving mysterious emails about a popular girl named Hina. Inspired, she adopts this fake persona. But what happens when the emails stop? At first glance, this seems like another “seishun eiga” or youth drama. But Ichikawa Jun transcends the clichés associated with this popular film genre and focuses on how two girls struggle to define their individual identities in modern Japanese society.

You can read a good review of the movie here, so I won’t say too much about it.

Chika Umino’s popular “Honey and Clover” is the latest manga series to be adapted to television. It was turned into a movie in 2006, starring Aoi Yuu (蒼井優). This time, 15-year-old actress Narumi Riko (成海璃子) will be taking over as the lead character, Hagumi Hanamoto.

“Honey and Clover” follows the lives of five college students and their love triangles. Hagumi is a talented artist in her first year, even though she appears to be much younger. Ikuta Toma (生田斗真) has been cast as Yuta Takemoto, the lead male character. The remaining main cast members have not yet been announced.

The drama will air on Fuji TV at 9:00pm every Tuesday, starting on January 8. Filming starts near the end of this month.

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This is certainly good news for a Hachikuro fan! I’m surprised that both the leads were changed though. Aoi Yuu did a very good portrayal Hagu in the movie, and I got used to seeing Sho as Takemoto. Much as I loved Toma in HanaKimi, I can’t imagine him as Takemoto. But we shall see! Hopefully the script for the drama will be much better than the one in the movie and do better justice to the manga.

This is how micro-organisms look in anime style! The yellow ones are Aspergillus Oryzae and the green one is Penicillium Chrysogenum.

The short story is about A. Oryzae meeting P. Chrysogenum, and having a short chat until they realised who P. Chrysogenum was… and they ran away.

If only microbes actually looked the slightest bit like that in real life…

I’ve been watching quite a lot of shows lately, which explains the quietness around here. A bit too many in fact, but it’s good to listen more to people speaking in Japanese when I’m learning the language. (Excuses, excuses…) Jasmine says I always watch sad shows, but I usually don’t know what the shows are about before I start watching them; I just pick shows whose titles I’ve heard of before. And it so happens that a few of them are sad ones.

世界の中心で、愛をさけぶ (Crying out love in the centre of the world) was one of those that really left an impression.

“I thought I might be using a lifetime’s happiness in a moment. I was that happy and she was that beautiful.” A young boy stands on the red earth of Australia under its blue sky. It is 17-year-old Sakutaro Matsumoto. His time with the girl comes back to him. The coloured sand runs through his hands and a tear appears on his cheek. He wakes up. It’s 2004 and he is 34 years old and in Japan. He thinks “I have been in a world without her for 17 years.” Returning home to see his old high school for the last time before it is demolished, Saku confronts anew the loss of the love of his life, Aki, to leukemia 17 years ago. Now a medical researcher at graduate school, he has been living as if half of him died with her since then. Based on the bestselling novel that sold over 3 million copies, the past and present come together in this love story that is both pure and sad.

While the story is not something new, what makes it different from shows like A Walk to Remember is that we also get to see the main character 17 years later, finally coming to terms with his loss and realising that he has to move on with his life. I really like Yamada Takayuki’s (山田孝之) portrayal of Saku as well. Very good acting by him, and you just can’t help but feel for Saku when you watch the show.

No one likes to lose someone they love, because it’s such a painful experience. However, in the event that this happens, we can’t stop our lives and grieve forever. No matter how much we want to remember the other person, the fact is that as time passes, some of our memories of them will eventually be lost. It doesn’t mean we forget about them of course, but we just won’t be able to remember all the times shared together, or everything we once knew about the other party. While the other person is no longer around, we are still alive, and so we have to live on properly and not let life just pass us by like that. We grieve, but we have to move on after that.

Back to the show, the theme song is very good as well, and it really catches the essence of the show. I’m reminded to of story whenever I listen to it. English translation is below the cut.

If you can see this page, please comment and let me know!

Apparently the site wasn’t viewable for everyone else except myself. Seems to work now, but I need somone else to confirm!