Top 10 Japanese Movies Recommendation

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly feature originally created by The Broke and The Bookish. This week's topic for Top Ten Tuesday is Movie Freebie. I'm excited for this weeks' topic because I love watching movies. Just a few days ago, I re-watched Japanese drama called Hana-Kimi. The original one, not the remake, It's so funny and cute. So I'm inspired to write about Japanese movies I've watched and recommend them. Although Japan is quite famous for its horror movie, I'm not going to include those movies in this list. Simply because I'm a wimp (ha ha) and I don't really watch horror movies; and no, no anime movies. That's a list for another day. Instead, I put some mystery, drama, and romantic movies in this list. This list is not necessarily in a specific order.

Confessions (2010)

Confessions is a movie adaptation of Kanae Minato's debut mystery novel. It's about a school teacher who suspects that some of her students are responsible for her daughter's death. So she's planning a revenge. It's twisted and weird, but I love it.

Linda Linda Linda (2005)

Linda Linda Linda is a school drama movie about a group of girls who formed a band and they want to perform at their school cultural festival. But one of their member, the singer, has quit so the remaining members decided to ask an exchange student from Korea to be their singer. It's a fun and lighthearted movie. This movie feels nostalgic to me, because of high school life and whatnot. The title itself is a reference to the song that the band performed at the school festival.

Hanamizuki (2010)

This one is a romance movie. It has simple premise. It's about a girl, Sae, who accidentally meets a guy, Kouhei, in a train. They became close and dating each other. Then they have to try to maintain a long distance relationship since Sae is going to Tokyo for college while Kouhei stays because he's trained to be a fisherman. I don't think I describe this movie properly because this movie is so emotional. It's sad and moving. This movie spans from 1996 to 2006. So we'll see how both Sae and Kouhei grow up and how their relationship is developed. It's bittersweet, really.

Solanin (2010)

Solanin is a live-action adaptation of manga with the same title by Asano Inio. I've actually read and reviewed the manga. It's a bit sad but it's relatable, especially for a recent college graduate like me. It's a coming of age movie actually. This movie has a killer song, also called Solanin by Asian Kung-fu Generation. The lyric is actually a direct quote from the manga. So if you're aware of what the lyric actually means, it will touch you. 

Swing Girls (2004)

Swing Girls is a school drama/ comedy movie. This movie stars Juri Ueno, notable for her work in Nodame Cantabile. It's about a group of girls who have no musical experience, but have to join the school brass band to replace the members that got sick because of food poisoning. It's funny and entertaining. Since the movie is revolved around the school's brass band, the soundtrack of this movie consists of jazz songs. If you're digging that, this movie could be for you.

Kimi ni Todoke (2010)

Kimi ni Todoke is a school romance movie. It's also an adaptation of a manga with the same title. It has typical shoujo manga plotline with a popular boy who falls in love with an 'average' girl. It's a guilty pleasure of mine actually. What I like from this movie is (of course) Harumi Miura. He's the actor who play the male lead, or the popular boy or Kazehaya Shota. He's just soooo good at acting falling in love, I can't handle it. I consider his character is very mature compared to the usual shoujo manga popular boy trope. It's adorable and gives me happy feeling. 

Norwegian Wood (2010)

Of course I have to include this movie in this list. It's an adaptation of Haruki Murakami's novel of the same name. It's a coming of age movie. It stars Kenichi Matsuyama who's famous of his role in Death Note. It also stars Rinko Kikuchi, who's already branched out to Hollywood through 47 Ronin and Pacific Rim. Then there's Kiko Mizuhara, my favorite model who recently stars in a live-action adaptation of Attack on Titan.

Girl in the Sunny Place (2013)

It's another movie that stars Juri Ueno. It's about a salesman, Kosuke Okuda played by Jun Matsumoto, who meets his middle school friend, Mao played by Juri Ueno. They reunited and fell in love. But when they decided to take the relationship further and get married, Kosuke learned that Mao has a secret. This movie is a bit different from other romance movies in this list because it has unexpected twist in it.

Heavenly Forest (2006)

Heavenly Forest is a romance movie. I know, I love watching romance movies, okay? This one is quite popular and it's a real tearjerker. It has sad twist so prepare your tissue before watching this one. 

Rurouni Kenshin

It's a movie adaptation of the classic manga series of the same name by Nobuhiro Watsuki. This movie has a special place in my heart because I love the anime adaptation. I grew up watching the anime. I was so excited when they announced the live-action adaptation. Although it's not a perfect adaptation (for example, I don't think they do Sanosuke justice), but I still like it anyway. There are three movies out, each follows different story arc from the manga. I like Rurouni Kenshin: Kyoto Inferno most, because it tells the origin of Kenshin's archenemy, Makoto Shishio. The live-action version of Shishio is scary and epic. I love it. If you like historical drama, I recommend this movie (or movies, if you want a complete storyline).

So there you have it. There's a movie that I've been wanting to watch, called Orange. It's a live-action adaptation of a manga. The manga itself has been around BookTube for a while so I'm intrigued to read it first (duh) then watch it. Anyway, have you watched any of these movies? Do you have a recommendation of movies that I should watch?