Reactions after watching Ep. 1 of the drama "Smile"

[keira_aoi]

These are just my thoughts after watching the drama, I don't think I put in too many spoilers... but if you haven't watched episode 1 with subs, I don't recommend that you read this just yet...

Comments

[mabechid]

Smile is a heavy drama isn't it? It reminded me of Maou and how emotionally draining it was to watch it. The same goes Smile, perhaps even more so since it tackles real issues.

I have to say Jun's crying scene didn't convince me enough but it still moved me. I hope that makes sense. It was heart-wrenching when the lady boss said she believes in him. I do agree with you on the un-Domyouji part. It's a little odd seeing Jun in a kawawa role and maybe that's why it's a little bit weird to watch for me. I think the Gakky and Jun scenes are cute. Wonder why she was stalking him though. lol

[keira_aoi]

You know, I still haven't watched Maou... (bad of me when I've seen Riida's UtaOni). It's tough watching dramas that are emotionally draining, I watched Smile really early this morning and I felt the air knocked out of me after I finished the first ep

[mabechid]

You haven't watched Maou!? Shame..hehehe. But yes, emotionally draining dramas are hard and shouldn't be marathoned.

That's what it is. It was a little too long. Nagtataka lang ako at umiiyak siya sa isang sulok ng HMV..wala man lang lumalapit. Oh well, it's still a drama. I felt really bad for him when he was finally surrounded by the police and the crowd. It's as if he committed murder. Makes me want to curse at the screen and tell them to stop.

Hmm. Sho did cry a lot during the episode where the sensei passed away and that was good. You obviously have to see Maou and watch the episode where Ohno cries buckets. Made me cry a lot too. As for Nino, I think it's in his contract to cry in everything he acts in. nyahaha!

Yeah kawawa din si Jun in Bambino. I remember his character only saying 'hai, sumimasen' in the first few episodes. XD

[keira_aoi]

Replying 4 days late... gomen...

I laughed at what you said about Nino's contract... XD

And because of your comment, I've been thinking of not watching Smile and The Quiz Show just yet... like maybe postponing it until more episodes are subbed... and instead watching RnK and Maou... hehehe... baka talaga ipagpaliban ko muna si ichiban at niban coz waiting for subbed eps each week is a bit draining for me... nakaka-stress...hehehe

Also... I felt weird watching Vito cry dun sa HMV store... he did get noticed in the end pero baka tinakot niya ang mga customers dun... like I can imagine people clearing out from that section because there's a weird man crying and all...

Bakit ba si Aiba wala pang lead role sa drama? Sige, I'm gonna start downloading Maou now.

[amampotita]

mehn..my curiousity on Smile just gets stronger..i'm not yet planning on watching it, but gah. it's just so..controversial.XD especially for us, filipinos..XDDDD
kakaintriga.

[keira_aoi]

You're not yet watching it? LOL... I also haven't watched Door to Door but it's on my list... your ichiban is probably gonna make me cry in that drama special... I loved him in Iwo Jima, but haven't finished a Nino drama yet....

I saw the navi for Smile and found out that they got some Half-pinoys living in Japan to also give their input... I still find it weird that Jun is playing a Half-Filipino... and that he's tackling the issue of discrimination... I'm still like... "maji de?"

XD

[amampotita]

yeah, i feel like watching it after everything has been subbed.
mmmyeah..Nino loves to make fangirls cry.XDDDD

yeah,same here..I was wondering from the start why half-filipino?awhy tackle a very sensitive issue of discrimination?why all of the things they could make a story out of, why this? that just got me wonderin' 'til now..=\

[keira_aoi]

Sorry my reply is a bit late...

And... I have come to the same decision... Smile's episode 1 sort of took over my non-fangirl world for like a day or two and I have decided to stop first and just resume downloading when it's close to the finale... and instead, I shall watch Maou... and maybe even RnK...

By the way, the answer to why it's about Half-Filipino was answered for me before by riavents... I was curious as well and then I read in her LJ about TBS (same network as the drama) covering a controversial story of a Filipino girl's parents coming into Japan illegally and how they were all to be deported back to our country. And I think the girl pleaded to stay in Japan since that was where she grew up and she didn't really speak Filipino or know how to adjust here... (no idea what came of that case)... Reading about this clarified for me why the drama is about a half-Filipino and discrimination...

[riavents]

Go Jun-fans!! rationalize!!

hahaha!

I haven't watched the first episode but I was curious about how the fans are reacting.

I read one that parents of Half-pinoy Half-Japanese kids got alarmed when they heard the police shouted "Firipin jin Yarou" that's tantamount to P.I. kayong mga Pilipino!
Really a warui kotoba (bad word).

According to the parents, kids are still awake at that time (SMILE is shown at 10 pm Japan time) and that might trigger discrimation for their kids. The parents warned they're going to storm the station with complaints if that continues to happen in the next episode.

If there's anything consoling, the parents said Jun was gwapo for a half-Japanese, half-pinoy. (Which is so true!)

As for the rating, I heard the drama got 11%. Sho's drama was higher at 14%. I bet the Japanese fangirls just couldn't take Jun-sama being 'api'. That's really a 180-degree turn from his Domyouji role in Hanadan and far from the romantic roles the JE boys traffic in.

[keira_aoi]

Sorry this reply is late...

Yesh!!! Rationalize!!! LOL...

Seems like the ratings for the second episode went down for both Smile and The Quiz Show... And also, what's the latest on those parents who threatened to complain?

Wow, Smile is really such a controversial drama... And I haven't even started Sho's drama yet... I keep worrying about Smile, the ratings and the reactions... so I'm gonna lag behind and not keep pace with the subs... will probably start downloading again when it's almost done... hehehe...

So have you watched the subbed ep 1 yet?

Feeling left out right now..

[muharami79]

I was feeling so left out right now..I couldn't watch it since i haven't found one with subtitles yet..Gonna try at Mysoju next..Ur comments just make me really curious coz no matter how I tell myself to only watch comedy since sad dramas will affect my mood for days (Maou was enough to put me in a misery for days esp the part where Ohno's character was fighting his inner desire to be happy and be loved, and his neverending revenge)now I wanna see Jun's drama as well..Guess I never learn..So far only watched a bit where Jun met the female character at a book store and she was thought to be shoplifting and Jun saved her by returning back her wallet..That's all..Yosh..since today is Saturday ( and the first free saturday I have since a month ago)I'm gonna go on a hunting escapade to watch the 1st ep..Oh yeah..are there really wrong impression of Philipines??in my country, ur country is the one who gave us good dramas like Pangako sa yo..(my mom is a big fan..)Well, we can't control what people think, right..

Re: Feeling left out right now..

[keira_aoi]

Pangako Sayo? Like as in Jericho Rosales? Wow! But I have to admit that I did watch that... I haven't watched any Filipino dramas lately... and nope, so far they haven't touched on many aspects about the Filipino culture yet, just about the difference between Jap food and Filipino food in a small part of the drama...

You probably won't be able to find subs in streaming since the subbing communities of Arashi are very protective of their work... If their subs get streamed or redistributed, they might get into trouble with Johnny's or other copyright laws and such... that's actually the reason why I joined livejournal... in order to get access to subs... I recommend you check my profile and see the communities I'm in, almost all of those are subbing communities... Stormy Team is subbing Smile so you can access that either thru LJ or thru Aibakaland... XD

Re: Feeling left out right now..

[muharami79]

Ma..Some streaming subs are really difficult to process in my head..I don't really understand the process..I'm quite slow when it comes to technology..I think I'm gonna try out ur suggestion..If that is not successful, then I just have to be patient and wait for it to come out in Mysoju..Kyaa..I hate waiting..
p/s:My mom is a big fan of Pangako Sayo..No matter how many times they did re-runs of the show on tv, she still watches every ep..sigh..soap opera/drama like that is her fav..Me??I don't really watch tv that often...

Re: Feeling left out right now..

[keira_aoi]

Wow, so your mom really enjoyed that soap opera? It's actually one of the few memorable Filipino ones that I've watched... I can still remember the villain's name (Claudia)... hehehe... she was my favorite...

Have you started joining communities? I highly recommend that you join:

http://community.livejournal.com/a_ra_shi

That's one of the main LJ comms for Arashi and they post a lot of info there... And have you heard of Arashidex? It was advertised the other day... it's a good resource site:

http://community.livejournal.com/a_ra_shi

[andromaeda]

Haha, I'm trying to watch The Quiz Show and Smile at the same time. But when you have dramas, they tend to come on big files and even when you have a good connection it can still take forever. xD I'm gonna attempt to download Smile later.

And just for the record, I haven't seen Maou yet either. D:
But I will. :D
Summer is almost here. (In the US at least!)

[keira_aoi]

I'm answering your bebot question here... it's like slang for the word "babe"... Why do you ask?

And I'm gonna wait for more episodes of Smile and The Quiz Show before I start watching again... I went into uber fangirl mode with Smile and I sort of cocooned myself with too much Arashi last weekend... which is both good and bad... good because I've started thinking about writing my fanfics again, and bad coz I neglected to do a lot of things... hehehe...

And I'm watching Maou... I'll watch that instead of Smile coz at least it's finished and I can marathon it over the weekend instead of flailing over previously downloaded Arashi vids and binging on too much Jun-ness... Have you seen their Utaban performance of Crazy Moon, I think I watched it soooo many times last night...

Okay, sorry for the semi-ranting...

And yey for you and summer! XD

[andromaeda]

I knew bebot meant something like that. I was curious. xD I heard it somewhere a long time ago.

As a reader/fan of your fics, you don't have to be guilty. :D Once I had a fan fic, and I tried to rush it, and I ended up regretting it because it turned out bad. But you're not me, you're different. (it was never actually posted though, I rewrote it. :D)

Haha. I'm gonna watch Maou soon. I found a web page dedicated to Sho today. It was interesting. :D Crazy Moon? New single?! I think I heard part of it, but I never found out the name. :O

Haha. I heard you started surfing!~ Surfing is a lot of fun, but when you far from shore you gotta be careful. It's kinda scary when you're high in the air and then you fall, you end up hitting the water pretty hard.

[keira_aoi]

Bebot is a song of the Black Eyed Peas, right?

Check out the youtube video of Crazy Moon Utaban performance here

I kept flailing over that performance, lol... But Sho really got thinner... :(

You've written a fic? Ooh! Was it for anime? Arashi?

Can you send me the link for the webpage dedicated to Sho? I need all the material I can get...

And you surf? Yey! I still can't stand on the board though... standing up should be done really fast, right? But I'm so sluggish... so I'm exercising again to lose weight and firm up and get stronger... on June will be my next surfing attempt... I really hope I can stand by then...