shinzanmono 1, sunao ni narenakute 1
And so it begins.
Spoilers!
Shinzanmono
→Abe Hiroshi, Kuroki Meisa, Mizobata Junpei, Miura Tomokazu, Mukai Osamu...
Abe Hiroshi plays an subtly oddball detective with a fondness for local snacks and walking up to people and STARING. With a smile. Oh, and he has a penchant for dropping change. Mizobata Junpei plays his reluctant partner/assistant in the case. I believe Miura Tomokazu is the husband of the woman who died, while Mukai Osamu is probably their son. Kuroki Meisa, so far, is a kohai of Hiroshi Abe of some kind, with some kind of history--they had an interesting interaction (along with Junpei, which amused me more than it should have). She's some kind of photo journalist, who seems to be documenting the story on independently--which is why she also narrates the beginning and the end of the drama. There are lots of other names as well, mostly of the older generation, but it's safe to say the cast is a pleasant mix.
The boasts and delivers all the usual Higashino Keigo elements. His works tend to get made into good dramas, so I'm getting all the usual shininess from the drama. It some ways it gets to have music and lighting and camera shooting of a higher quality than other dramas, and most of the cast are big names. I find the style pleasurable to watch, at least against other dramas, and I'm definitely watching more. Probably not raw, since it's a little hard for me to comprehend crime raw, but still going on to watch it. The first episode is pretty much exposition, wherein the crime is introduced and all the characters are thrown into the mix. Everyone gets a little screen time, in careful portions. There were some complaints about Abe Hiroshi's acting not being up to par, but it's still the first episode so I'm not really being finicky. It's not like he was doing a bad job this time around.
I rather like Abe Hiroshi, by the way. Now there's a man.
And this is embarrassing to admit, but Miura Tomokazu kinda reminds me of my dad.
I'm becoming more and more impressed with Meisa's drama career. Lately the calibre has been high. Supporting, it's true, but she's pretty good at supporting roles. She kind of reminds me of Oguri Shun in that sense. She may end up like him, actually. I don't know her preferences but I get the same vibe--I know Shun actually prefers supporting roles though he doesn't lack starring roles at all.
I'm looking forward to more of Mukai's role.
Sunao ni Narunakute
→Ueno Juri, Eita, Hero Jaejoong, Tamayama Tetsuji, Seki Megumi...
Uhhhh you probably saw this coming. But i can't help it. The vibe is totally Last Friends.
Blah, I hate bringing that up.
Anyhow--the first episode has proven that it's going to be A Very Dramatic Affair. I predict I will want to throw something at the screen at some point, but I won't be able to look away.
Eita and Ueno Juri reunite (and for some fans, finally have a more conventional love story) though riddled with all kinds of twists and turns... which I suppose had to be done in a drama about twitter, of all things. The overwhelming message that I got out of the first episode? If You Have Twitter, You Have Issues. No, seriously. They start with a live meeting of some avid tweeters and one by one reveal each character's instabilities.
So anyway--Juri and Eita, obviously play the main couple. They're two who get close on twitter, and their first real life meeting is somewhat less than ideal. They're supposed to be soul mates, though, because apparently the purest form of their feelings are able to be conveyed on twitter. So in real life they're messed up, or in Juri's case somewhat mediocre, but hey. That's what twitter is for!
Eita plays an aspiring photographer. Not the cutesy, semi-pornographic photos he has to do to make a living, but the artsy, creative type. The type his boss is conditioned to despise, because it doesn't make any money. But Eita's character is also the dangerous, mysterious one--he has a tattoo, and a complicated relationship with a lady who has a matching one. By complicated, I mean he sleeps with her of course. Or so the first episode leads us to believe. But he thinks Juri is cute! And he won't let her go! Or something like that.
Juri is playing a new teacher who has some difficulty because... she's new. And young. So she gets put down by her superiors. Her character feels very Nodame-like so far (well--maybe a little darker), so I'm not sure how I feel about this. I didn't see Nakamura Yuichi coming though. He plays one of her students, and so far his role has been to... stare at Juri. And take her side in things. And to support her and encourage her, only the background music is telling you that it is not in a good way. I predict stalking. Scratch that, he's actually her drug-addicted brother. Okayyyyy. The creepy student is actually played by someone else, but that doesn't make him any less psychotic...
Tamayama Tetsuji plays an editor (?) of some kind. He basically has a high position at his job because he's the (oldish! middle aged! not young! not pretty!) boss lady's sugar. And as a direct (and somewhat unimpressive) twist to the usual righteous and overbearingly justice-sensed character, he is shown to be totally submissive to the idea. Of, you know, doing whatever the boss lady asks lest he lose his job. And I do mean whatever.
Seki Megumi looks really good in this drama, but as the only other female lead she gets the inevitable--a pregnancy story. Or at least, so far, a pregnancy scare. We're supposed to tune in and see. I'm beginning to believe that Ueno Juri in a drama means the other female lead gets knocked up. But yes, her character is a friend of Juri's character, and she gets sucked into the world of twitter + problems and angst.
Hero Jaejoong plays a (surprise!) korean doctor practicing in Japan. Or does he? Not really--he passes himself off as a doctor to be impressive, but the truth is he is merely the doctor's salesman... and he's been working overtime to get one particular doctor to bite. This doctor is his oppressor, like Juri's senior teachers and Tetsuji's boss lady and so on. This doctor is also the doctor whose name he uses, because he takes the live meeting of the twitter buddies as a goukon and ends up eyeing (dun dun dun) Juri.
I have to say, the alarm bells in my head went off at that point. Fate of the second male lead, anyone? (read: he'll NEVER get the girl, even if he probably deserves her more than the main guy)
But the show managed to bring one more twist to his character. I think the first episode just wanted to throw the characters at us, spicing up the expository elements with last minute details. Like the pregnancy thing, or Eita''s character's tattoo, or Juri's character's.... admirer. In Jaejoong's case, it's a kleptomaniac younger sister (interestingly,converses with him in Japanese even though they're supposed to be Korean?).
Well, ok. She might NOT be a kleptomaniac. Which actually may be worse--she could be resorting to thieving the stuff because she needs it because they don't have enough money because the other kids at school took her stuff for being Korean?
Yeah, that's what I think.
In sum, I'm going to have a lot of issues with this drama's issues, I know, but I'm probably still going to watch it. On the dot. Because I am sad like that.
Spoilers!
Shinzanmono
→Abe Hiroshi, Kuroki Meisa, Mizobata Junpei, Miura Tomokazu, Mukai Osamu...
Abe Hiroshi plays an subtly oddball detective with a fondness for local snacks and walking up to people and STARING. With a smile. Oh, and he has a penchant for dropping change. Mizobata Junpei plays his reluctant partner/assistant in the case. I believe Miura Tomokazu is the husband of the woman who died, while Mukai Osamu is probably their son. Kuroki Meisa, so far, is a kohai of Hiroshi Abe of some kind, with some kind of history--they had an interesting interaction (along with Junpei, which amused me more than it should have). She's some kind of photo journalist, who seems to be documenting the story on independently--which is why she also narrates the beginning and the end of the drama. There are lots of other names as well, mostly of the older generation, but it's safe to say the cast is a pleasant mix.
The boasts and delivers all the usual Higashino Keigo elements. His works tend to get made into good dramas, so I'm getting all the usual shininess from the drama. It some ways it gets to have music and lighting and camera shooting of a higher quality than other dramas, and most of the cast are big names. I find the style pleasurable to watch, at least against other dramas, and I'm definitely watching more. Probably not raw, since it's a little hard for me to comprehend crime raw, but still going on to watch it. The first episode is pretty much exposition, wherein the crime is introduced and all the characters are thrown into the mix. Everyone gets a little screen time, in careful portions. There were some complaints about Abe Hiroshi's acting not being up to par, but it's still the first episode so I'm not really being finicky. It's not like he was doing a bad job this time around.
I rather like Abe Hiroshi, by the way. Now there's a man.
And this is embarrassing to admit, but Miura Tomokazu kinda reminds me of my dad.
I'm becoming more and more impressed with Meisa's drama career. Lately the calibre has been high. Supporting, it's true, but she's pretty good at supporting roles. She kind of reminds me of Oguri Shun in that sense. She may end up like him, actually. I don't know her preferences but I get the same vibe--I know Shun actually prefers supporting roles though he doesn't lack starring roles at all.
I'm looking forward to more of Mukai's role.
Sunao ni Narunakute
→Ueno Juri, Eita, Hero Jaejoong, Tamayama Tetsuji, Seki Megumi...
Uhhhh you probably saw this coming. But i can't help it. The vibe is totally Last Friends.
Blah, I hate bringing that up.
Anyhow--the first episode has proven that it's going to be A Very Dramatic Affair. I predict I will want to throw something at the screen at some point, but I won't be able to look away.
Eita and Ueno Juri reunite (and for some fans, finally have a more conventional love story) though riddled with all kinds of twists and turns... which I suppose had to be done in a drama about twitter, of all things. The overwhelming message that I got out of the first episode? If You Have Twitter, You Have Issues. No, seriously. They start with a live meeting of some avid tweeters and one by one reveal each character's instabilities.
So anyway--Juri and Eita, obviously play the main couple. They're two who get close on twitter, and their first real life meeting is somewhat less than ideal. They're supposed to be soul mates, though, because apparently the purest form of their feelings are able to be conveyed on twitter. So in real life they're messed up, or in Juri's case somewhat mediocre, but hey. That's what twitter is for!
Eita plays an aspiring photographer. Not the cutesy, semi-pornographic photos he has to do to make a living, but the artsy, creative type. The type his boss is conditioned to despise, because it doesn't make any money. But Eita's character is also the dangerous, mysterious one--he has a tattoo, and a complicated relationship with a lady who has a matching one. By complicated, I mean he sleeps with her of course. Or so the first episode leads us to believe. But he thinks Juri is cute! And he won't let her go! Or something like that.
Juri is playing a new teacher who has some difficulty because... she's new. And young. So she gets put down by her superiors. Her character feels very Nodame-like so far (well--maybe a little darker), so I'm not sure how I feel about this. I didn't see Nakamura Yuichi coming though. He plays one of her students, and so far his role has been to... stare at Juri. And take her side in things. And to support her and encourage her, only the background music is telling you that it is not in a good way. I predict stalking. Scratch that, he's actually her drug-addicted brother. Okayyyyy. The creepy student is actually played by someone else, but that doesn't make him any less psychotic...
Tamayama Tetsuji plays an editor (?) of some kind. He basically has a high position at his job because he's the (oldish! middle aged! not young! not pretty!) boss lady's sugar. And as a direct (and somewhat unimpressive) twist to the usual righteous and overbearingly justice-sensed character, he is shown to be totally submissive to the idea. Of, you know, doing whatever the boss lady asks lest he lose his job. And I do mean whatever.
Seki Megumi looks really good in this drama, but as the only other female lead she gets the inevitable--a pregnancy story. Or at least, so far, a pregnancy scare. We're supposed to tune in and see. I'm beginning to believe that Ueno Juri in a drama means the other female lead gets knocked up. But yes, her character is a friend of Juri's character, and she gets sucked into the world of twitter + problems and angst.
Hero Jaejoong plays a (surprise!) korean doctor practicing in Japan. Or does he? Not really--he passes himself off as a doctor to be impressive, but the truth is he is merely the doctor's salesman... and he's been working overtime to get one particular doctor to bite. This doctor is his oppressor, like Juri's senior teachers and Tetsuji's boss lady and so on. This doctor is also the doctor whose name he uses, because he takes the live meeting of the twitter buddies as a goukon and ends up eyeing (dun dun dun) Juri.
I have to say, the alarm bells in my head went off at that point. Fate of the second male lead, anyone? (read: he'll NEVER get the girl, even if he probably deserves her more than the main guy)
But the show managed to bring one more twist to his character. I think the first episode just wanted to throw the characters at us, spicing up the expository elements with last minute details. Like the pregnancy thing, or Eita''s character's tattoo, or Juri's character's.... admirer. In Jaejoong's case, it's a kleptomaniac younger sister (interestingly,converses with him in Japanese even though they're supposed to be Korean?).
Well, ok. She might NOT be a kleptomaniac. Which actually may be worse--she could be resorting to thieving the stuff because she needs it because they don't have enough money because the other kids at school took her stuff for being Korean?
Yeah, that's what I think.
In sum, I'm going to have a lot of issues with this drama's issues, I know, but I'm probably still going to watch it. On the dot. Because I am sad like that.