I’ve been watching the gripping murder mystery drama GONZO starring Masaki Uchino and was PLEASANTLY surprised to see the appearance of an old Crush fave of mine, uber cutie Chizuru Ikewaki starring as the motivational piece in the pivotal “flashback” episode of the show!
At first, I didn’t recognize her, and when they first flashed her image across the screen as one of the ghosts that “haunt” Uchino’s Kuroki character, my first thought was, “Hey, that girl looks like Hiromi Nagasaku a little bit!” But by the second time she appeared onscreen, it instantly clicked and I realized “WAIT! That must be Chizuku Ikewaki!!!”
People may recall that back when I watched the Tsuyoshi Domoto / Ryoko Hirosue drama SUMMER SNOW how much I loved Chizuru’s portrayal of Chika, and I was entranced not only by Chizuru’s attractive looks, but dynamic acting, as well! At the time, I could hardly believe this was the same girl who’d played the mousey and subdued character Ikawa in the older Ryoko Hirosue Drama LIPSTICK, and now once again she’s upped the ante with GONZO!
Chizuru looks just FANTASTIC here as Saeki Kyoko, and why wouldn’t she? Playing a prostitute trying to go straight with the love and guidance of Kuroki, we get to see her in the best of both worlds: decked to the nines in SEXY flamboyant dresses during her “hooking” phase, and cute t-shirts and jeans for her “detoxing” stage. And of course, throughout the scenes, AWESOME acting as is to be expected from her!
I really wish I could see more of her in future episodes of GONZO, but seeing that she’s the central piece in a FLASHBACK episode doesn’t make it too likely she’ll be appearing again outside of spectral phantom-like visions, but that’s OK. That 7th episode was almost solely devoted to her, and that’s gotta be reward enough!
After watching that episode of GONZO, totally high on the awesomeness that is Chizuru Ikewaki, I went online to go lookin’ for facts and pics to satiate my hunger, and perusing the Wikipedia stats, was surprised to see that she hasn’t been in all that many dramas, and it seems to me that she hasn’t had a chance to star in any drama of her own, like as a romantic lead? Maybe she’s saving all of that for her cinematic career: Chizuru does seem to have a more active movie pedigree, after all. I’ll have to check more of those out! Suggestions. Anyone?
