 Asunaro hakusho [あすなろ白書]
Sex, Lies, and Shoulder Pads [Rating: 2/10]
The Cast:
Kimura Takuya, Ishida Hikari, Tsutsui Michitaka, Anju Suzuki, Nishijima Hidetoshi
In a Nutshell:
Five college students play musical chairs with each other�fs hearts amid the sexual revolution and sociopolitical tumult (mwahahahahaha yeah right) of the�c early 1990s.
(SpoiLert: Major plot revelations!!! Not that you should care!!!)
Good friggin' grief. Am I the only one who thought this drama SUCKED more than a giant monster lamprey? No? Good.
You take a sordid soap opera like... Melrose Place, situate it on a Japanese college campus, and contort the main cast into this SLEAZY LOVE PRETZEL where they do nothing but sleep with each other, then cheat on each other, then sleep with OTHER people, then cheat on other people, then break up, then hook up, then KNOCK another person up, then get outed as gays and DIE. Oh, and not to mention they engage in a few token "let us study because we are college students" scenes thrown in for good luck.
Sheesh.
Never mind the atrocious fashion and even worse hairdos--this was the early '90s, after all, so all that's forgivable. It was how the main characters and situations were written (why, Kitagawa Eriko? why why WHY????) that made me want to wring their necks. Okay, maybe not ALL of them (well... helloooo, KimuTaku Prototype, lol). Come to think of it, all I really detested were the Female Lead, Narumi, and the Male Lead, Tamotsu the Little Sh*t-boy. But because the other three friends are, like, IN LOVE with either of the two, they inevitably get sucked into this web of codependent relationships, a black-hole-cesspool of doom and masochism. So, Tamotsu is supposed to come across as a sympathetic hero character because he�fs poor and hardworking and has to put himself through college and has a money-grubbing hoe for a mother? And as a corollary, we�fre supposed to adore Narumi because she�fs this �gwinsome ingénue�h who secretly pines after Tamotsu? Well, let�fs add �gWorld�fs No. 1 Virginal Little Skank�h to her epithets, because that�fs exactly what she is!!! She BREAKS UP Tamotsu and his girlfriend but keeps acting like the aggrieved party, strings along Geekboy Osamu (well... hello again, KimuTaku Prototype, hehe) when Tamotsu cheats on her (and later breaks up with her), but doesn�ft even have the frikkin�f DECENCY to ACT REMOTELY HAPPY around Osamu whenever they�fre together. Argh!!!!! Countless times I prayed that Narumi would get hypothermia and DIE during the 1,876 times she waited for Tamotsu to meet her under the starlit winter sky or whatnot, and of COURSE he never showed up because the Laws of the Jdoramaverse decree that intensifying the heroine�fs misery will make her a more sympathetic character (well, it DOESN�fT; it just makes her a STUPID one).
And Tamotsu... it defies basic logic and believability that 3/5 of their little college clique are head-over-heels in love with him, overtly or otherwise. He�fs a horrible, horrible scumbucket, and half the men that Sensitive Geekboy Osamu and Rich Gayboy Junichiro are. Again, he does nothing but cheat (on his psycho girlfriend and on Narumi) and sleep around and he has the GALL to act SAD and GLUM about the mess he�fs just created, which makes Virginal Skank Narumi and Studious Best Friend Saeki AND Rich Gayboy Junichiro FALL for him even more, which creates an even BIGGER mess than before. Aieeeee!!!!!! *tears out hair*
Ishida Hikari (Narumi) and Tsutsui Michitaka (Tamotsu) are terrible actors, and given that, coupled with the writing that precludes any iota of sympathy for either of the two, no wonder I couldn�ft bring myself to feel anything for their characters except hysterical, eye-rolling contempt. Anju Suzuki who plays Studious Best Friend Saeki is much better in the acting department, and she�fs way prettier than that cretin Narumi, who uncannily resembles... SMAP�fs Inagaki Goro wearing a mop, hahaha. Saeki appears to be the most sensible one of the lot (and it isn�ft just because she has the most study!study!let�fs!study! moments), and you really do feel her pain, her unrequited love for Tamotsu. But somewhere along the way (and it isn�ft very clear just when), her character develops feelings for Gayboy Junichiro, and one fateful night, while wallowing in their Tamotsu-centric love woes, the two share an Extremely Weird Moment... that magically spawns New! Life! oh wow. (Parthenogenesis? Immaculate conception? Self-pollination? Mwahahaha) Now you�fre REALLY watching a soap opera.
Nishijima Hidetoshi as Junichiro is unremarkable, although a better actor would�fve done more justice to such a relatively small but interesting role. But killing him off was such a disservice to the character and to the story (AND to the viewer), because it was just so frigging SENSELESS. So, homosexual men who are secretly in love with their best friend don�ft deserve to LIVE in this world? Because that�fs the point the drama seems to make, and it�fs a supremely idiotic one at that. Oh, let the sad little f@g boy DIE, because there�fs no other way for him to be happy in the story. Gaaaah.
But oh, Osamu. You loved and you lost, and you went to Kenya to �gfind yourself�h (lol), and in so doing you grew up and became a man. You�fre too good for Narumi, you always were. That being said, I�fd recommend Asunaro Hakusho only if you�fre a Kimura fan (which I am, obviously) and/or wish to complete his body of work (again... guilty as charged!). Because he really does shine here, with a role better fleshed than any other character in this pretentious, drippy farce, and he does have the best lines (i.e. the iconic �gWon�ft I do?�h spoken at that playground early on in the drama). And instead of letting his character become this geeky, lovesick caricature of a second-fiddle-best-friend-sidekick, the one left holding the bag as the Hero and the Heroine ride off into the sunset, Kimura keeps it REAL. So that you feel for Osamu, but you don�ft feel SORRY for him. There�fs a difference, you see. Kimura�fs a natural, and that�fs more than I can say for the two lead actors, ugh.
It was a bit strange at first to watch Kimura as this scrawny, prepubescent (lol, ok not really), deglamorized dweeb... a mere 3 years before he exploded with that SexLoveMojo in the wonderfully sublime [b]Long Vacation[/b]. But then I look at how much he�fs aged (and I mean really, REALLY aged) in the past 4 or 5 years, and I�fm thankful that with Asunaro Hakusho, I�fm just one DVD away from revisiting KimuTaku in his early years in the business, before the ravages of celebrity and chain-smoking and cosmetic �genhancements�h and sustained exposure to Old Man Johnny Kitagawa slowly siphoned off all the youth from his face.
Watch this if you�fre a:
1) Kimura completist
2) A sadomasochist
3) A fan of daytime soaps--from any clime or country
4) You were a hairspray-and-shoulder-pad-wearing teen in the late �e80s to early �e90s�c T______T | CHANGE
Take Me to Your Leadah! Leadah! [Rating: 7/10]
The cast:
Kimura Takuya, Fukatsu Eri, Terao Akira, Abe Hiroshi, Kato Rosa
In a nutshell:
Mild-mannered schoolteacher Asakura Keita takes over his late father�fs Diet seat and is swept into power as Prime Minister of Japan--but soon finds himself at the center of a political plot hatched by a powerful few to gain control of Government.
(SpoilLert: Moderately spoilerish.)
Politics for Dummies (�cand Jdorama Viewers, Too!)
Hmmm.... This drama is riddled with all the ineluctable loopholes of a political fairy tale, and as much as I wanted with all my might for Kimura's character to succeed in that cutthroat world of politics, the implausible situations had me rolling my eyes most of the time. I mean, c'mon: nerdy and naive schoolteacher becomes premier of Japan, and single-handedly (oh, not single-handedly, but aided by a ragtag crew of housemates-turned-"political advisers," oh my!) attempts to turn the tide of corruption and greed that has permeated the highest echelons of government--AND tries to run the world's second largest economy in his spare time!!! Whoopee.
Maybe this drama bit off a tad more than it could chew, as most political fairy tales are prone to doing. I read a comment somewhere saying that Change felt like a 10-year-old schoolboy had been given a textbook on Japanese politics, and was told to go write a script, hehehe. I'm rather inclined to agree. I think a major stumbling block for me while watching Change was that Asakura Keita (at least in the first half of the drama) was too... dumbed down to be believable, looking so out of his depth in the legislature--despite his earnest efforts to cope with all his parliamentary obligations. The first half of Change mostly has Keita wandering the Diet corridors looking all... dazed and confused (wink, wink) and asking his secretary Miyama to "explain things to him as if he were a 5th-grader." He also spends far too much time helping Random Disgruntled Citizens who straggle into his office with their personal sob stories, than doing any actual legislation. (That scene in Episode 3 where the pigheaded cat owner detains Keita for hours when he�fs supposed to be at some secret powwow with the Seiyu Party bigwigs--major ROLL EYES!!!) The writing plays up the Underdog-Zero-to-Hero archetype to the hilt, but the same tack which worked so perfectly in 2001�fs Hero simply misfires in Change. (Curiously enough, Hero and Change were penned by the same screenwriter, Fukuda Yasushi.) The drama would have benefited from better writing, IMO�\and a longer run that would more smoothly chart Keita�fs transformation from bumbling do-gooder to a shrewder, more experienced player in the political arena.
Full-length review:
http://endersgirrrl.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/drama-review-change-fuji-tv-2008/ |
Good Luck !! [グッドラック！！]
KIMUTAKU:FULL THROTTLE!/THE AERODYNAMICS OF LUUUVE [Rating: 7/10]
The Cast:
Kimura Takuya, Tsutsumi Shinichi, Shibasaki Kou, Kuroki Hitomi, Takenaka Naoto
In a Nutshell:
Commercial pilot Shinkai Hajime sets his sights on earning another stripe, but must first navigate through workplace issues, personal dilemmas, and unexpected romance at All Nippon Airways.
Aerodynamically Challenged
On the surface, Good Luck! looks as sleek as a newly minted Airbus, with all the modern trappings of a workplace renai. But the plot encounters some, uh, turbulence due to contrived situations and mediocre writing in the first half.
The opening sequence is promising enough with its brisk editing, modish music and saturated tropical hues (very One West Waikiki�c look it up, heh). But after the initial thrill of watching a tan, toned, topless (!!!) Kimura Takuya sprint through downtown Honolulu in the first few minutes, the rest of the first episode, well, never really takes off.
The pilot *wink, wink* episode is usually a pretty reliable gauge of how the rest of the drama will play out. There are some exceptions, of course, as some dramas get progressively better and end up surprising you, while others get progressively worse after a pretty promising start. Good Luck! is no such exception. So why does this drama fail to, uh, leave the ground? *more winking* Hmmm, let me count the ways�c
Good Luck! may be technically smooth and glossy (TBS certainly didn�ft stint on the production values and overseas shoots, I�fll give �eem that), but the story also suffers from faulty writing and (amateurishly) tries too hard to string together what the writers must have thought were Cute Rom-Com Moments and Cool Pilot-y Moments (they must have been contractually obligated to include at least 3 of each per episode, heh). Many situations have a manufactured feel, and seem like they were written in as mere springboards to An Important Moment in the story.
Full-length review:
http://endersgirrrl.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/drama-review-hero-fuji-tv-2001/ | Hero
HERO WORSHIP [Rating: 10/10]
The Cast:
Kimura Takuya, Matsu Takako, Abe Hiroshi, Otsuka Nana, Kadono Takuzo, Katsumura Masanobu, Kohinata Fumiyo, Yashima Norito, Kodama Kiyoshi
In a Nutshell:
Self-taught public prosecutor Kuryu Kohei brings his unconventional crime-busting methods to the Josai district office, much to the consternation of the other prosecutors and law clerks.
I�fm trying to rack my brains for something about this drama that I hated, or disliked�\even just a teensy bit. Nothing comes to mind. Even the semi-crummy production values (which would seem more at home in 1987 than in 2001, the year the show aired), �gspazzy music�h (as a user from another forum so brilliantly put it), and odd, quirky editing style�\they all just GROW ON YOU. And to think these are just the technical aspects of the drama.
The soundtrack is SO effin�f catchy! By the end of the first episode I was jerking and twitching along to the now-familiar music, a sly throwback to those old-school detective comedies a la Pink Panther: jazzy and off-beat, with just a hint of sleaze. Brilliant!
At first the directorial style caught me off-balanced: the actors speak directly into the lens while the camera swoops in for a close-up, and the dialogue ping-pongs from one person to the next at such a frenetic pace. But the style of Hero actually lends itself well to the screwball, sometimes campy atmosphere. I soon realized how much it reminded me of Baz Luhrmann�fs Velvet Curtain oeuvre (Strictly Ballroom, William Shakespeare�fs Romeo + Juliet, Moulin Rouge!, and even Australia), dubbed as such because of his penchant for the theatrical. But you know what? I loved every Luhrmann film to freaking BITS (and wish he were more prolific) and he remains to this day my favorite director ever. So going back to Hero, it�fs all good, baby.
The great thing about Hero was that despite the drollery and high dramedy, the actors were so completely into their character. Hero scores some of the best ensemble acting I�fve seen in a drama, in a loooong time. That easy rapport among the cast was undeniably there, the comfortable system of trust and reliance so apparent in the way they�fd riff their lines off each other, scripted or ad-libbed, any which way. It�fs also quite obvious how much the actors simply enjoyed being with each other, and what they were doing�\otherwise, this renzoku wouldn�ft have had that intangible quality that makes an ensemble drama truly�c transcendent.
Full-length review:
http://endersgirrrl.wordpress.com/2009/10/30/drama-review-hero-fuji-tv-2001/ |
Nemureru mori [眠れる森]
Vivere disce, cogita mori [Rating: 7/10]
The Cast:
Nakayama Miho, Kimura Takuya, Nakamura Toru, Jinnai Takanori, Yusuke Santamaria, Natsuyagi Isao
In a Nutshell:
A 15-year-old crime casts a long shadow on a young woman whose lost memory of the incident returns with a vengeance. She meets a mysterious stranger, who vows to help her reclaim her forgotten past.
(SpoilLert: Major, major plot revelations!!! Proceed only if you�fve watched the ENTIRE drama!!!)
[Recommended companion track: �gA Sorta Fairytale�h by Tori Amos]
Once upon a Time, in a Faraway Land�c
I enjoyed Nemureru Mori for the dark, modern-day fairy tale that it is: it takes the Sleeping Beauty archetype and gives it an urban-whodunit spin, setting it in 1998 Tokyo. But here the Sleeping in question is a psychological rather than a physical condition, as it is the Princess�f memories that remain submerged for a certain time period, to be Awakened by the Prince at the right Moment. (But who is the Prince, pray tell? Is there even one at all?)
When stripped of its more palatable, Victorian-era coating, the Fairy Tale is no children�fs bedtime reading. I�fm glad that Nemureru Mori feels less like Hans Christian Andersen and more like the earlier work of the Brothers Grimm, with the gore and the gloom and the, er, grimness not seen in their later (and heavily sanitized) versions. I welcome fairy tales in all their literary incarnations, in particular Angela Carter�fs �gThe Bloody Chamber,�h a collection of retold fairy tales--dark, violent, sensuous and lushly romantic, but at times also bleak and terrifying.
The question, therefore, would be: if this is the story of Sleeping Beauty, who are the other characters? Who�fs the Wicked Witch? The Fairy Godmother? The White Knight? But given the murder-mystery angle of Nemureru Mori you know that everything and everyone is immediately suspect�\with the exception of Beauty, through whose eyes we watch the story unfold. So�c could it be that certain characters in Nemureru Mori are actually composites of two or more of these fairy tale figures, who in turn may (or may not) be fundamentally disparate from each other (i.e. what if the Prince turns out to be the Big Bad Wolf?)--thus rendering them more ambiguous (but more interesting)? I�fve read enough crime capers and Agatha Christie mysteries to expect the unexpected and brace for twists in the plot. You try to second-guess people�fs motives and anticipate the telltale signs that may (or may not) Mean Something Later On, those breadcrumbs in the woods that point the Way Out. And the woods of A Sleeping Forest have this beautiful, surreal quality to them, where time and space lose their real-world sway. It truly is an enchanted place, one both tranquil and threatening, a secret dream-garden where a long-forgotten evil lurks unseen.
The starting point of our story is a Christmas Eve massacre in a picturesque little town 15 years past. Beneath the snow-coated rooftops and steeples of churches, beneath the clear voices of carolers rising through the winter air, a gruesome crime has just been committed: the cold-blooded murder of three family members. The rain has washed away all traces of the killer, all evidence of his identity. Amid the flashing police sirens and crowds of onlookers, the body bags are carted into the ambulance one by one, the child Minako�fs family--dead forever. That the carnage happened at Yuletide, of all times--is inconceivable, and yet the proof of this horrific deed is incontrovertible: the red stains against the snow, the bloodied corpses, the knife left behind when the murderer fled the scene. The 12-year-old girl Minako, the sole survivor of this nightmare, retreats deep into the darkness, her spirit broken and all memories locked away inside, in a place where even she dares not go. And through it all, the statue of the Virgin Mary at the nearby church remains the lone witness to this scene, her marmoreal countenance sphinx-like in dispensing either benediction�\or judgment. And so our Fairy Tale begins...
Full-length review:
http://endersgirrrl.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/drama-review-nemureru-mori-a-sleeping-forest-fuji-tv-1998/ | Proposal Daisakusen [プロポーズ大作戦]
Back to the Future: Tokyo Drift [Rating: 6/10]
PROPOSAL DAISAKUSEN, or "Back to the Future: Tokyo Drift," or "The Boy Who Leapt through Time" XD
Really, I would've watched this even without YamaPi (heh heh) in it because I liked the CONCEPT. The premise is really a sort of vicarious expiation for anyone who's ever loved and lost, and who secretly yearns for that One Chance to go back and redress a wrong, or a series of wrongs. And what better way to do this than by the finger-snapping and heel-clicking of a benevolent fairy taking an interest in mortal affairs? (Waiiit... that saturnine looking, bowler-hat-wearing dude's a fairy? Looks more like an oversized leprechaun to me. T___T
And the unusual spin on the narrative structure was promising enough, though a bit dicey--all that zipping back through time and ending up at the same wedding reception, where the Leprechaun of Love gives YamaPi another pep talk before zapping him back again into the next photo, could get tedious after a 4 or 5 episodes. Still, props to the writers for taking the risk. Time-pretzel plots always have that intrinsic mind-screwy quality to them, and the sooner you stop vivisecting your brains thinking of how changing the past alters the future and all that, the better for you.
But oh--a twist! YamaPi has to do it all within the time it takes to frame one day's events in a single snapshot. Does he have what it takes to win his One True Love back? Can he finally pull off... that buzzer-beater and win? =P Can the Leprechaun of Love singlehandedly outwit, outplay and outlast the Cosmic Juggernaut of Fate? And in the end, will it all have been in vain? Everything will be illuminated in due time... Hallelujaaaaah... CHANCE!!!
Oh, YamaPi, whyyyy ssso sseriousss... :twisted: It just ain't the same without watching you flap your arms and giggle spazzily and dig your chin into Kame's bony shoulder! I think I like you best weird and silly and flaky, YamaPi. Don't grow up and become a man just yet. (Come to think of it, all that high school friendship stuff strangely felt more real in Nobuta wo Produce than it did here in Proposal Daisakusen. Nobuta Powwah, entah! *flashes V-sign*) But, seeing YamaPi in all that pain... (Kame, hold him... lol) I was Team YamaPi all the way! (And well well well... I see someone's been working out since NwP, ehh? *hentai leer*) As for Fujiki Naohito--what the eff, man? :crazy: All that charisma and Buchou mojo from Hotaru no Hikari--where'd it all go??? Here, Fujiki's just this creepy nerd who hits on his student--then dates her, then waits for her to graduate so he can marry her, ugh! An F for you, Fujiki! F is for Fail Fail Fail!!! F is for Faculty Members Who Apparently Forgot to Read the No!Screwing!Of!Students! Clause in the University Ethics Manual!!! >D (Buchou, where are you when I need you... *swats randomly at fireflies between swigs of beer*
And one nitpicky thing: This drama operates on the assumption that time is still essentially LINEAR, and that each "pit stop" that YamaPi makes through time, in which he Does Something that incrementally alters his relationship with Nagasawa Masami, has no bearing on other events involving themselves or the people around them. In the Proposal Daisakusen framework, one snapshot (or "pit stop") leads to the next, whether or not YamaPi goes back in time to change a few things. It's conveniently reductionist of the writing to disregard the "ripple effect" that one seemingly inconsequential action makes on future events. In contrast, take for instance the 2006 anime film The Girl Who Leapt through Time, where the eponymous heroine goes back to "tweak" the past, only to discover that one altered action can have more far-reaching consequences than initially thought.
Well, whatev, man. Like I said, this drama is better enjoyed if taken at face value. I didn't LOVE it, and I didn't think much of the YamaPixNagasawa chemistry either (YamaPixKame 4vr!!! lol), but the drama does have some poignant moments between the two leads, where regret and heartbreak and hope intermingle afresh with each revisited snapshot. And a picture really does paint a thousand words. =)
The last episode's main weakness, however, is that The Way Out of the shoulda-woulda-could've-been-lovers' predicament comes by way of Fujiki Naohito's Final Act of Selfless Love (lol), instead of arising from Nagasawa Masami's personal decision (after realizing she doesn't want to be some stuffy professor's Lab Assistant with Matrimonial Benefits after all, hehe). If Fujiki Naohito were... a different kind of man, and instead had said, "Screw it, woman (lol), I'll fight fo' your love!!!"--THEN WHAT? Game over, baby. So I felt that the resolution was too conveniently placed for Nagasawa Masami's character, who seemed powerless to change her own fate. But but BUT I did love the drama's final moment on that deserted road, when the camera zooms in on YamaPi's face as he looks off in the distance. This little scene doesn't exactly spell out What Happens Next, but it leaves no room for ambiguation, either. No open ending here in my book.
That being said, IMO the renzoku's finale did NOT necessitate the 2008 SP--which wasn't a BAD tanpatsu, just rather... superfluous. The story focuses more on their friends' (Funny Hobbit-boy and Pretty, Popular Girl) impending wedding about a year after the drama's events, and if you're a fan of the drama as a whole (which I'm not), you'll probably enjoy these added scenes. The SP also tackles the inevitable fallout from the renozuku's finale--getting the Parents'!Approval, dealing with the Jilted!Groom!, Nagasawa Masami and YamaPi's clumsy, tentative attempts at a Serious!Relationship, etc. That's all very... admirable (lol), and the final declaration of love on the beach is very... Happy Ending-ish, but the SP somehow diminishes the original drama's afterglow (as most SPs inevitably do).
Anyway. Life is short, so make the most of it, and all that. Because (to recall an old movie tagline) NOTHING is ever as big as your First Love. Hallelujah, chance! |
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Matsu Takako [松たか子]
