There was this general agreement going ‘round in the 80’s that Boaz Davidson’s THE LAST AMERICAN VIRGIN was the most depressing movie of all time, at least in the books I read and people I talked to at the time… (I didn’t agree, for me, the most depressing movie was Woody Allen’s PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO-but I digress)
And on the suject of “Most Depressing” awards, It’s time to talk about the j-dorama KONOYO NO HATE (The End of the World) the UBER depressing 1994 drama starring Mikami Hiroshi and Suzuki Honami!
This is without a doubt the most tragic drama I’ve ever seen, and with all the surprise death conclusion/hero-lies-in-coma endings I've seen, that’s saying something!
“But what about Oni No Sumika, that drama where Kyoko Fukada has to work as a practical slave to her relatives?” a friend asked.
“I said Depressing,” I retorted back, “not a load of crap!” You see, the difference was, though both had sad storylines, Oni No Sumika was a terrible drama. Konoyo No Hate, on the other hand, was great. It just had like the biggest downer as its plot!
Attn: Spoilers Below!
Mikami Hiroshi stars as Takemura Shiro, a brilliant world famous pianist who falls hard for cutie Suzuki Honami (and really, who could blame him) as Sunada Maria, and amidst the hurdles of their tumultuous lives, begin courting each other. Eventually them become an item, but soon enough the relationship goes south (as all relationships in any drama are wont to do), and in one of the most disturbing and bizarre actions since Van Gogh , Takemurai decides to prove his everlasting love for Sunada by taking razor sharp shards of a broken bottle and slicing his hands to ribbons! ACKK!!! From there....well, that about says it all, dunnit? Holy Toledo, this one just...affected me!!!
Tonikaku.
Out of this carnage of a drama, however, came probably one of the most poignant, sincere songs ever, the beautiful “Oh My Little Girl” by the late Yutaka Ozaki. Off of the SEVENTEEN’S MAP album, It’s about as basic a song as you can get, but the FEELING this song conveys are oceans!
I remember I loved this song so much after watching the drama, and really wanted to get my hands on the single for “Oh My Little Girl”, but by the time I saw Konoyo No Hate, it had long been out of print! Fortunately, my friend Golden was a HUGE fan of Yutaka Ozaki, and he burned the entire awesome album for me! I was even surprised to find the only other song I knew from Ozaki, a song called “I Love You”, was ALSO on this album! Yatta!
from youtube:
Always a favorite to sing at karaoke, I remember one day at work, me and J-pop buyer Richie were sitting around, and I started singing the opening lines of Oh My Little Girl aloud: “Konnani mo..sawagashi..” Then Richie grinned and chimed in with “Machinamini tatta zumu kimi ga…” then before you knew it, we started belting out the whole song there, laughing our butts off!
