reynardine's blog

Utahime

nobody@vox.com(reynardine) — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 11:00:42 -0600

I just finished watching Utahime (dramawiki site is here), a nostalgic romance set in the mid-1950s. What an excellent drama!

The drama starts off with the trials and tribulations of Akira (played by TOKIO lead singer Nagase Tomoya), a young man who loses both his job and his fiancee in one fell swoop. His mother, a famous singer, sends him off to the final showing at a run-down movie theatre off in the boondocks, an old movie called "Utahime" that she assures him will change his life. Akira, not pleased, heads off to the tiny seaside fishing village where the theatre is located, and gets drawn into the film, as it seems the film is actually about his own grandfather:

The movie's story revolves around Taro (also Nagase Tomoya), a soldier who washes up on the shores of a beach on the last day of the war. He is rescued, but has no memory of anything that happened before. For ten years, he lives with and works for the man who rescues him, a movie theatre owner.

The younger daughter of the family, Suzu (Aibu Saki) is a feisty girl just on the verge of adulthood. Suzu is in love with Taro, but he seems not to notice. In the meantime, a local yakuza thug, "Croissant no Matsu" (a hilarious Sato Ryuta) has fallen hard for Suzu and is determined to make her his wife.

Most of the drama is focused on life in their tiny rural fishing village and how Suzu and Taro deal with their evolving relationship. Things become more complex with the appearance of Miwako (Koike Eiko), a woman from Taro's past who is determined to make him remember the person he once was.

Utahime didn't get very high ratings, but I absolutely fell in love with it. I'm not sure if it was because of the 1950's setting, or because of the story itself, but it is one of the most original and entertaining dramas that I've watched in a long time, even with the rather hokey premise. The acting was all-around excellent with an especially talented supporting cast and the story kept me riveted. Taro and Suzu have a very electric relationship--and it turns out the two actors playing the roles later got together in real life. Highly recommended!

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Hotelier (Jdrama)

nobody@vox.com(reynardine) — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 11:00:19 -0500

Autumn must be here, because I'm finding time to watch Jdrama again. This past week, I've been marathoning Hotelier, a Japanese remake of the popular Korean drama of the same name.

First, I wasn't even aware that "Hotelier" was even a word. It's not one that is in common use in America, although when I looked it up, it seems that it is English (borrowed, of course, from the French) and means a hotel owner or manager. Huh. Learn something new every day.

Anyway, back to the drama. I'd caught a few episodes of the Korean version when it was shown on AZN TV and it looked good, so I thought I'd give the Japanese version a try. It also helped that one of the stars was Oikawa Mitsuhiro (more on him later). The story focuses on Odagiri Kyoko (played by cutie Ueto Aya), an assistant manager in a large luxury hotel. She's devoted to the job and popular with her fellow staff members. Alas, there's another company looking to take over the hotel (led by villain Morimoto Masakazu, played by character actor Takenaka Naoto, probably best known in the US from his unforgettable role as the Latin-dancing enthusiast Aoki in the hilarious movie, Shall We Dance?). The hotel's president asks Kyoko to find a former manager of theirs, Ogata Kouhei (played by very hot Tanabe Seiichi) to help them defend the business from being taken over. Undeterred, Morimoto in turn hires Mizusawa Keigo (Oikawa Mitsuhiro), a Japanese ex-pat now living in America who is famous for being able to force hostile takeovers.

But as it happens, Mizusawa happens to meet Kyoko by chance when she's tracking down Ogata, and it's love at first sight. That's not about to stop him from taking over the hotel, but he figures he can have his cake and eat it, too. Kyoko has other ideas. Plus, Ogata is in love with her, himself, and he and Mizusawa clash over both love and business.

Basically, the entire drama is about a takeover bid on this hotel, and how the hotel staff band together to fight it. And surprisingly, it was pretty good. It did seem a bit rushed in places, but I think that was due to the writers trying to cram 20 episodes of plot from the Korean drama into 9 episodes of Japanese drama. Unfortunately, I didn't see enough of the Korean version to tell if the plots were similar, but from what I did see, the Korean version was much better (and I'm going to have to track it down now, aren't I?).

However, a big plus in this drama was the supporting cast. The only weak spot was the girl who played Morimoto's daughter. The rest of them were spot-on perfect, and it made the "slow parts" go by quite quickly because they were all so entertaining. Ueto Aya isn't an actress of great range, but she did very well in this drama, even if she was a bit young for the role. I think the only complaint I had was that the romantic parts weren't very romantic at all, and not just because of the age differences. The romance parts just weren't written very well. So don't watch this one for the romance, but for cheering on the gutsy employees of the hotel as they take on "The Man".

Oh, back to what I was saying about Oikawa Mitsuhiro. He's a nice-looking man, not spectacularly handsome, but he's quite a compelling actor. I've seen him in supporting roles here and there and he's always been good. Evidently, he's also a singer and dancer as well. This role had him as quite understated, but that just made him sexier than even the hunky Tanabe Seiichi. Hopefully, he'll get more starring roles in the future. I'll be looking for him.

2007 Japanese Drama - Hotelier - w/ English Subtitle

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Izumo no Okuni

nobody@vox.com(reynardine) — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 11:10:09 -0500

Was hand-sewing like a fiend yesterday, so I sat down and did a marathon of Izumo no Okuni, a six-episode NHK historical drama about the woman who founded Kabuki.

While Kabuki artists are now all male, the Kabuki dancers were originally female. It wasn't until some time later, during the Tokugawa era, that women were banned from performing the art and it fell into the realm of men. (It was a question of public morals, strangely similar to the ban of women from the English stage for a time).

While this is a historical drama, it is actually based off of a novel and takes a lot of liberties. But here's the basic plot:

The story concerns a foundling young girl named Okuni whose parents died while trying to run away together. The villagers who found the dying mother and baby wanted to leave the child, but an old woman insisted on taking her, since the mother had died while giving her life. She was adopted into the old woman's family and raised alongside their own daughters, but she faced a lot of discrimination in her village because of the actions of her parents. Okuni swore to the old woman that she would never become like her mother.

Years later, Okuni and her sisters are going off to the city to raise money for their local shrine (Izumo jinja) by dancing. She is betrothed to a local man, Kyuzo (Tsuda Kanji), who isn't too keen on her leaving. She isn't in love with him, but agrees to his advances so that neither of them will be lonely while she is gone. (Also, it's not like she has a whole lot of choice...) Okuni promises Kyuzo and also her youngest sister, Okiku, that she will return to the village.

The sisters, accompanied by their father, go off to the shrine. There, they encounter Master Baian, who basically disses them until he sees Okuni dance. Okuni seems to be touched by the heavens when she goes into her dancing, and it affects everyone around her. Baian takes the group in for training. It is at his home that she meets Sankuro (my boy Sakai Masato), a drummer and singer who becomes her lover and own personal Svengali.

Despite their love, Sankuro will not let Okuni tell anyone, because Master Baian doesn't like his artists getting involved with one another. When the sisters want to go back to Izumo, Okuni talks them into staying and making a tour, saying that they can make a lot of money and get nice clothes, etc. The father ends up going home to Izumo with only one of the sisters and the rest stay with Okuni and Sankuro.

Sankuro, in his own way, does love Okuni, but he is ambitious and pushes the troop unmercifully. They become quite popular among the common people, but that's not enough for him--he wants to be acknowledged as the Best in the World. He thinks Okuni can do it, but she has to be seen by the "right people". A long-running argument begins between Okuni and Sankuro concerning this. She dances to make people happy and couldn't care less who they were.

After a falling-out with Master Baian, the troop must survive on its own. Around this time, Okuni finds out that Sankuro has another woman that he was seeing. He casts the other woman aside in favor of Okuni, but the woman warns Okuni that Sankuro will eventually cast her aside as well. Okuni refuses to believe this, thinking that as long as she dances, Sankuro will stay by her side.

The politics of the late Sengoku era affect the daily lives of the common people, and artists are no exception. Attempts are made to freeze the social status of the populace, and the artists, who were not listed, have no idea where they stand in this new society. Sankuro decides to build a theatre by the Gojou bridge so that the Shogun can see their performance as he goes by. But the plan backfires--Hideyoshi doesn't like the dances and considers them an eyesore. The troop is forced to tear down their theater and open another one in a less-fashionable part of town. There they flourish.

At this point, younger sister Okiku comes to join the troop. She is happy to see Okuni again, but resentful that Okuni did not keep her promise to return to the village. She also is jealous of Okuni's talent and tries to upstage her. Eventually, she manages to seduce Sankuro away from Okuni, who is heartbroken. But rather than let that defeat her, Okuni channels her anger into art, cross-dressing as a male and entering a dance with Okiku, trying to beat her up. What starts out as a public catfight turns into a popular play.

With Sanjuro casting her aside, Okiku next falls in love with a flute-playing samurai. But their time together is short. However, he leaves her with much of his clothing and with the inspiration to improve. But things start to go downhill--there are several competing theaters now, and Sankuro and Okiku betray the troop by selling the theater out from under them. The sisters go to work in a wine-shop, with only Okuni and a couple of others continuing in the art. Even when poor and not colorfully dressed, however, Okuni manages to inspire people with her dance.

In a typical "Nobody Loves, Everybody Dies" Japanese ending, the story finishes with Okuni returning home, dying of tuberculosis. But to the end, she dances, and when she dies, she is reunited with the loved ones from her past, and they all dance together.

Interesting story. Script was weak, but the acting was pretty good. Standouts were Sakai Masato as the brilliant, scheming Sankuro, who you really wanted to hate but couldn't because he had too much charisma; Harada Natsuki as the beautiful, back-stabbing Okiku; and Suzuki Kazuma as Densuke, another male actor in the troop who loves Okuni but settles for being a supportive friend when he realizes that she will never see him as a suitor.

I know little-to-nothing about kabuki or Japanese dance, so I can't judge the performances of that part, but the costumes were incredible! I may take some screenshots to show some of the stencil/dye work and colorful combinations used on these outfits--they were really remarkable! Another thing I liked about this drama was that it really was about common people--the great and mighty who are so often portrayed in such dramas have but a minor role in this one, and when they are shown, it is usually behind a screen. In our culture, we are used to our officials being fairly accessable (present administration nonwithstanding), but that wasn't the case in late 16th century Japan.

All in all, an uneven, but well-worth watching drama. There are some English-subbed versions floating around, but the subs were done by someone who didn't speak English very well and who tended to leave out some of the dialogue as well. Feelin':

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Hotaru no Hikari

nobody@vox.com(reynardine) — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 00:48:30 -0500

I think I may have a favorite jdrama for this summer season: Hotaru no Hikari. With the rainstorm this afternoon, the street construction workers took a long break and I had some time to check this one out. And it is excellent.

Hotaru (Ayase Haruka) is an OL (office lady = usually means secretarial/clerical work) for a architectural design firm. She seems pretty much like all of the other gals in the office except that when she goes home, she throws up her hair in a ponytail, puts on her most comfortable sweats and becomes a "himono-onna", which means "dried-fish woman". She lives like a slob, doesn't go out on dates and pretty much eats and sleeps when she isn't at work. And she likes it that way, thank you very much. At work, she tries very hard to be presentable and to fit in, so when she gets home, all she wants to do is relax.

Alas, Hotaru's comfortable existance is coming to an end. Her boss, Seiichi (played by the always-luscious Fujiki Naohito), just got kicked out by his wife (but "it's not a divorce!" he claims) and decides to go back and live at his parents' house until the storm dies down. One gets the feeling that the storm isn't going to die down. As it happens, Hotaru is living in his parents' house. She had met his dad at a bar and somehow they struck a bargain that Hotaru could live at the house while Dad was away overseas (no mention of the mother--I'm not sure if she's overseas with Dad or if she's passed away). So Hotaru has a contract of sorts that allows her to live in the house forever.

Seiichi isn't buying it. He claims that the house is his now and she needs to move out within the week. He's appalled at her awful housekeeping, her junk-food-junky diet and the rags she wears when she's at home. Hotaru argues the point, but Seiichi tears up her contract, so she has no choice but to prepare to move out.

In the meantime, a very hunktastic new coworker has rejoined the firm. Makoto (Kato Kizuki) has been in London for the past few years and was gone when Hotaru started working there, so they have never met before. All the OLs are excited by the new addition and some are plotting to get his attention. Hotaru is fairly oblivious to the whole thing, although Makoto helps her out when he first meets her, and steals a kiss when he finds her asleep in a chair. (Her reaction is hilarious: "Will I become pregnant??!!") In desperation, she asks Seiichi why a man would kiss a woman, and Seiichi (clueless as to why she would ask such a thing) primly states that he, himself, would never kiss a woman unless he was in love with her. At first, Hotaru is all lovey-dovey when thinking about Makoto, but then she sees him flirting with one of the other OLs and realizes that the kiss didn't mean anything.

Hotaru is crushed, for not only did she lose out on love, but she has to move out of the house. Seiichi, however, has a change of heart and tells her that she can stay. After all, he reasons, his wife surely wouldn't be upset about them living together since Hotaru isn't a "real woman". While he drones on about this (he really likes to lecture), Hotaru flashes back to the kiss that Makoto gave her. Yet when he steps away, it's isn't Makoto's face she sees, but Seiichi's.

Hee! This one is going to be so good! I really like Hotaru--she reminds me of myself, especially at that age. Maybe not quite so solitary--I tended to meet people outside of work through hobbies like karate, ren faire and SCA--but her attitude about wanting to be comfortable no matter what other people think. Gotta track down the manga. Check it out, ya'll!

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A Few Summer Doramas

nobody@vox.com(reynardine) — Sat, 14 Jul 2007 00:42:26 -0500

At last, I had a chance to sit down and watch a few episodes without a backhoe running just outside my window!

Jury is still out on the Japanese version of Hana Kimi. It's just not as funny as the Taiwanese version, although it is easier to watch since I understand enough Japanese to follow what's going on. (Yes, I know, subtitles make it a moot point, but I guess I just prefer the Japanese language to Chinese!) The Taiwanese version stayed rather close to the actual manga, while the Japanese version seems to take the basic characters and premise of the manga and then go on another tangent. Pluses include many many pretty boys (hence the tagline "Ikemen paradise") and some surprises because the drama isn't following the manga exactly. Minuses include the over-emphasis of the pretty boys, the inclusion of some mysterious female principal, and the general "flat" feeling altogether.

Note: not that I object to pretty boys in the least! It's just that part of the appeal of the manga was the fact that the boys at Osaka High were, on the whole, fairly normal guys and Mizuki (the heroine) had to adjust to living in an all-boys school, as opposed to an all-bishounen school. In the manga, she had a few really handsome classmates, but on the whole, the guys were just regular Joes. This includes Sano (the hero), btw, who was nice-looking but was known more for his athletic prowess.

However, I will continue watching it since I want to see where they take this version. And you know, because of the guys.

A pleasant surprise was Papa to Musume no Nanokakan (Daddy and Daughter's Seven Days). I watched the first two episodes of this last night and was enchanted. This is a very funny comedy about a father and daughter who mysteriously switch bodies after a train accident. (Hey, they shouldn't have eaten those mysterious peaches, even if Grandma picked them herself!)

Kyoichiro is a regular salaryman with a wife, a teenaged daughter and a mortgage, doing the daily grind to support his family. His life is pretty grey and empty, particularly because his daughter is growing up and he misses the cute little girl who used to adore him. Meanwhile, his daughter Koume struggles with the usual teen angst of schoolwork, having a crush on a cute guy from the soccer team and dealing with her impossible parents, particularly her extremely uncool father. Life is looking good for her, though, because the cute guy has asked her out on a date! But then...the accident occurs.

Of course the immediate reactions are extremely funny, and all of a sudden, Kyoichiro and Koume have to work together to keep the mystery hidden until they can figure out what caused the problem and how they can reverse the change. In the meantime, Koume is working at Dad's company, while Kyoichiro ends up going on a date with his daughter's crush (and finds that he actually thinks the kid is pretty decent and reminds him of himself at that age.)

Yes, it's Freaky Friday all over again, but this drama goes some places that Disney dare not tread--like Koume's mom making some amorous moves on Kyoichiro while she (Koume) is in his body. Pure hilarity there. Japanese men and women tend to speak very distinctly along gender lines, so the two are constantly having to watch how they talk. Kyoichiro seems to do okay in Koume's life (obviously, he's already been through school), but there are a few awkward moments. Koume, however, is completely at sea when it comes to her father's life, and the actor who plays the father (Tachi Hiroshi) has an unexpected gift for physical comedy. I've seen him in a few other dramas and he's always so serious in them!

There are a few others I plan to check out as I have time: Ushi ni Nagai wo (Wish Upon a Cow), a drama about agricultural students on a Hokkaido farm and Hotaru no Hikari, based on a manga about an OL who somehow ends up rooming with her boss. Not sure if the farm one will interest anyone, but since I live in the Land of Corn, I feel obligated to giving it a chance! The other one just sounds like it would be fun, and I happen to like office romance stories.

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Hana Kimi!!

nobody@vox.com(reynardine) — Fri, 25 May 2007 23:06:53 -0500

Looks like Fuji TV is going to be doing a Japanese version of Hana Kimi! The show is due to start Tuesday, July 3rd! Discussion thread at d-addicts here, including pictures of some of the main cast. Oguri Shun, who played Rui in Hana Yori Dango, will be starring along with Horikita Maki and Ikuta Toma.

I can't wait. The Taiwanese Hana Kimi was cute (and silly), but I haven't finished watching it yet. I don't understand Chinese at all, so I need subs for them. With Japanese dramas, I know enough of the language to at least follow what's going on. But what's this I see? Looks like there will be a sequel to the Taiwanese version, probably next year??? Sweet!

For those unfamiliar with Hana Kimi (aka Hanazakari no Kimitachi e), it was a manga series about a girl who disguises herself as a boy in order to attend the same school as her idol, a high-jump athlete. Mayhem ensues. Pretty art mixes with high comedy and results in one incredible tale of love, friendship and acceptance. Hana Kimi is being published in English and is currently at volume 17.

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