So, I finally made myself watch Real Steel, the movie about the robot boxers. Now that the final credits are going...I am sitting here wondering why I was so reluctant to see it when it first came out. I think most of it was that people were telling me it was uber lame. It's about: (if you want to call these teasers, have at it)
A loser pits robots against opposing robots in Earth's new fave sport: robot boxing. His abandoned kid is suddenly thrust in his life. They don't get on well. ("Waaahh! I'm too cool to be a dad!" and "Waaaahhhh, Daddy doesn't love me!") Kid finds a sparring robot and they fight it.
And the movie goes on from there.
I could take or leave the storyline, but finding out the origins of the movie, and then the nods to the original story within, I gained a little more respect for it.
Well. I'm an idiot. Total baka! I should have known I would like it; it has two of my favorite things in it: boxing and robots.
3, if you count cool, good looking Korean (/American) dudes in it (that are playing a Japanese character. What is that all about?!).
Rowwrrrr
But, this movie could have spent the entire time being nothing but a bunch of big, bad robots fighting in a ring, and I would have been happy. To me, that's what makes this a winner. The rest is just extra stuff that was pretty decent to watch.
And, nay-sayers before me....you had me convinced this was just a more technical version of Rock'em Sock'em Robots! For shame!!!
But, now I would like to see a horror version of Hungry, Hungry Hippos.
I watch a ton of Japanese films, but my favorites (aside from the ones starring my main man....errrrr....monster, Godzilla) are the live actions based on manga and anime (since I am a complete nerd over the two). One that I just watched for the billionth time is Love*Com (or Lovely Complex) based on the manga of the same name. This is a total chick movie (Wait!!! Fellas...hey guys!! Where are you going?!?! Don't leave just yet!) because it is so sweet and endearing, but it is also pretty funny and legitimately makes me "LOL". The storyline is a bit different than the manga and anime, but they can only fit so much into a 100 minute film.
The story is essentially this:
They are high-schoolers. The (absolutely adorable!) girl, Koizumi Risa (played by Fujisawa Ema) is tall and the boy, Atsushi Otani (played by Koike Teppei) is a shawty (that's "shorty" in both southern and ghetto talk). They do not care for one another because they both have complexes about height, but they hang out a lot because they have the same small circle of buds and eventually become good friends. They are teased by their buds that they are perfect for each other and they should go out. But, they "just ain't having it". Apparently, a big height difference (see below) is a thing to ridicule a couple about if you are young ......or, if you are a mangaka who wants to write a love story, but needs some kind of obstacle to add in so it isn't all just fluff.
If she didn't wear heels every day, it might not be that big a difference.
Otani! they're called platforms dude. Chicks dig punk guys over there.
But......
Since this is a shoujo, it's no surprise that things happen. Will the duo get over their complexes? Will they *gasp* get together, even?!?! (if you listen really hard...you might hear me in a fangirl moment going "EEEEeeeeee!" right about now).
Yoroshi-QUEEN!
But, I just adore this film. It's such a sweet story, and there are some seriously silly moments within as well.
A bonus for everyone is that this was also released here in America by Viz so, there is an English subtitled version if you Nihongo ga wakarimasen (no speako japanese--o). Oh!! And Netflix finally got a few copies...again (they used to have it, then stopped having it altogether, and now it is back).
And, a bonus for me (haha...and maybe the other ladies out there) is that the suave character, student teacher Kunimuni Maitake (right) is played by the handsome Tanihara Shosuke (who later went to play in 2 Godzilla films, so I eternally *heart* him!). So, there's some unquestionably legal eye candy on here (they're all adults, but ...come on dude, they're playing high schoolers. That's just gross.)
Well, that's about it. I'll leave you with the trailer now. Oh, and you didn't hear it from me, but the whole movie is on YouTube...for now anyway. I found it when I was looking for the trailer. Just an FYI. (but not from me. From...uhhh...errr...????)
