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A fairly simple but loveable and well-executed drama. And Your Bird Can Sing offers a basic love triangle, but one that is quite a bit breezier and warmer than most of its peers. Superb performances, stylish but subtle cinematography and a lack of overly dramatic events make this film a joy to watch. It's an easy sell for fans of Japanese drama, the excruciating finale is merely the icing on the cake.

I rarely watch mini-series, but since I've seen all the Ju-on films I figured I could handle six short episodes. The franchise is also pretty series-friendly, as the original films too were very fragmented and haphazard. That same structure is still here, though Origins isn't quite as episodic as I expected it to be. They pretty much made a longer Ju-on film with more focus on story. Lately the franchise has been struggling, so some fresh ideas were definitely welcome, but I don't think more plot and fewer scares were really the kind of innovations I was looking for. But that's what happens when you go the mini-series route I guess. Performances were okay and there were a couple of cool horror scenes, but they are few and far between. The rest feels like filler that doesn't really add much to the existing Ju-on universe. The biggest problem is that the series isn't even all that scary, it's just a little edgier. Not a terrible mini-series, but it didn't rekindle the Ju-on franchise.Read all