Yep, Keiko Kitagawa is My Favorite Japanese Actress of All Time!

Can’t say enough about how much I enjoyed watching Dokushin Kizoku, what a sweet little drama! I know I grouse a lot on this blog about how much I avoid the run-of-the-mill cliché romance dramas out there, but once in a while one will come along and remind me why I began loving j-dramas in the first place, and such was this one!

 Out of all of this, one thing that became VERY clear to me is how much I love, love, LOVE Kitagawa Keiko! Over the years I’ve seen her in dozens and dozens of movies and dramas, and I’ve liked her in just about every one of them. There is just something about her that always makes me instantly like her character and it seems no matter what role she plays, she always brings this down-to-earth sincerity to the part and you feel like you know the person and feel a connection to her. !  I can’t think of anyone else who I’ve loved so much in so many different roles, whose dramas have all gone on to be favorites of mine, and with each new character she plays, I fall in love with her all over again! Far beyond Crush Of The Days and Executive Crush statuses, for me, Kitagawa Keiko is in a whole world of her own!

Funny, this morning at work, I realized I had this achy feeling in my heart and had to laugh when I realized it was because the drama had ended and I was already missing Keiko, LOL! Yeah, though I’ve speculated it for awhile, Dokushin Kizuko seals it-I think it’s safe to say that once and for all, Keiko Kitagawa is indeed my favorite Japanese actress of all time!

Ahhn, it seems like only yesterday that I first saw her sweet face peeking out from behind those doors for the very first time in Mop Girl…. Who’d have thought that that girl would soon turn into just about the coolest, funniest, quirkiest and doggone prettiest actress out there in my eyes! My hat’s off to you Ms. Kitagawa, you are the cut above for me and my j-drama and movie watching sensibilities…Here’s to many more years!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Ode To The Romantic Comedies of the Past

Kitagawa Keiko and Kusanagi Tsuyoshi in Dokushin Kizoku

 Oh Man, Doukushin Kizoku is such an awesome drama so far! I love, love, love it!!! I’m up to episode 6 and my initial feeling that this story seemed like a throwback to old fashioned romantic comedies wasn’t off the mark- the show is just FILLED with nods and references to the beloved films of the past!
  With music from such movies West Side Story (I Could Have Danced all Night) and the Wizard of Oz (Somewhere Over the Rainbow), the music transports you to those movies of yesteryear, and they’ve even got the sweet Audrey Hepburn tune “Moon River” (from Breakfast At Tiffany’s) as the show’s recurring interlude song!

Speaking of Audrey Hepburn, even the storyline of the stoic and proper Mamoru (Tsuyoshi Kusanagi) and the suave and dashing younger brother Susumu (Ito Hideaki) both fighting over the affections of humble poor girl Yuki (Kitagawa Keiko) reminds me of the 1954 movie “Sabrina” where Humphrey Bogart and William Holden were fighting over the dainty Audrey!

The characters in the show are so great and colorful- besides the main cast, I’ve already mentioned Renbutsu Misako, here portraying the cute and frustrated Sumika (LOLOL):

...but even Nishihara Aki as Yuki’s hippie roommate Saori and Hiraiwa Kami as Mamoru’s scatterbrained would-be fiancé are glorious to watch! BTW, it took me a couple of episodes to realize Yuki’s bossy and yet insecure immediate supervisor Yuta was played by Fujigaya Taisuke!

Ito Hideaki and Renbutsu Misako

Kitagawa Keiko and Fujigaya Taisuke

While chatting about romantic comedies of the past and present, Mamoru and Yuki's conversation goes from “An Affair To Remember”to“Sleepless In Seattle”, and one doesn’t need to be a major moviegoer to notice the significance of the Empire State Building snuck into the background on a market poster LOL!

And take this scene of Mamoru rescuing Keiko from a would-be attacker- I took one look at it and had to chuckle as it reminded me of the ending scene of “The Graduate” so much! And that’s just one of the many, many winks the show gives to viewer! For a drama about movies and moviemaking, they certainly are giving the audience a lot of food for thought!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Shades Of Mop Girl with Kitagawa Keiko in “Dokushin Kizoku”

Kitagawa Keiko in Doukushin Kizoku

  Whenever a drama begins and the first thing I see is Kitagwa Keiko playing her adorably introverted mousey girl persona, I already KNOW I’m going to enjoy the show, and with Keiko as would-be film screenwriter household maid Yuki Haruno in the new drama Dokushin Kizoku, I got all that and more, the whole package of the dorky glasses, the eccentric quirkiness and the goofy-guffawing I love so much that only Keiko Kitagawa can bring to life!

As amateur screenwriter Haruno Yuki

Kusanagi Tsuyoshi and Ito Hideaki

  “Dokushin Kizoku” tells the tale of two brothers named Hoshino Mamoru (Kusanagi Tsuyoshi) and Susumu (Ito Hideaki).  They are the heads of a Movie Production Company named Kinema Etoile and are in dire straights as their key scriptwriter has bailed on them right as the deadline is due. Enter amateur screenwriter Yuki Haruno whose recent employment as the Hoshino Brothers' maid brings her right at the heart of the situation! Will the three find a way to use each other to solve their problems?

Well, I’ve only just watched the first episode, and though it’s as modern as you can get, the feel of this show (and indeed, the soundtrack and BGM) seems to harken back to those old screwball romantic comedies of the 50’s with its jazzy music and colorful personalities with the three unlucky-in-love-and-sworn-off-romance characters!

Keiko really excels at these shy and homey kind of characters, and I immediately liked her right off the bat! Kusanagi Tsuyoshi and Ito Hideaki are hilarious as the forever-bickering bothers, and throw in a sexy Renbutsu Misako as a jealous foil, and you’ve got the makings of another fun drama, that, while maybe not so original, is definitely easy on the eyes and mind! 

Renbutsu Misako

  A perfect drama to casually watch and relax, especially after coming off Kusanagi’s fellow SMAP member Kimura Takuya’s slam-bang sci-fi smasheroo ANDO LLOYD, and speaking of SMAP, I’ve only just heard their latest single “Shareotsu”, and was wondering where the song came from- so funny to watch  this Doukushin Kizoku and realize it’s this show’s theme song! A Perfect fit!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

My Ongoing YesAsia Rage

 Well, it’s now been THREE WEEKS since Yesasia told me that the order I’d put in TWO WEEKS PRIOR to that had been held back because they were trying to get an item that was out of stock, making for a grand total (so far) of FIVE WEEKS since I put in the order AND STILL WAITING!
 In an interesting side note, when they told me they couldn’t get the item and had removed it from my order, I  went onto ebay (which I guess I shoulda done in the FIRST PLACE) and found the item for the same price and it arrived on my doorstep in SIX DAYS! What Da Hell is the holdup on YesAsia's end?!!!

Soojung and Saoirse

Just finished watching the 2011 Action Adventure Movie “Hanna” and  I found it quite interesting that Saoirse Ronan’s portrayal of the titular character Hanna, a girl raised in isolation to be a cold, unfeeling, deadly killer, was played with SUCH emotionless and icy style that she kept reminding me of f(x)’s Krystal throughout the movie, LOL!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Deux Ex Machina

Rise Of The Machines: Kimura Takuya wi Kiritani Kenta

 *Possible Spoilers Ahead*... Just finished watching episode 8 of Sci-Fi thriller “Ando Lloyd”, and damn, what a kick-butt drama it IS! Colorful characters, an intriguing storyline that keeps you guessing, and some pretty awesome fight scenes too! While the tale of the “Sentient Robots who Surpass Humans in the Evolutionary Chain” has been told before many times in films from “2001” to “The Matrix”, this is the first time I’ve heard it told like THIS!

 Besides all the revelations in the last few episodes, we even had the first confrontation/clash with Super-Android Ando Lloyd (Takuya Kimura) and his mysterious ultra-powered arch-enemy ARX-IX (Mirei Kiritani), and OMG, not only was this first battle on the building rooftop as exciting as the epic first meeting between Kikaida and Hakaida in episode #38 of “Jinzo Ningen Kikaider”, it actually kind of LOOKED like it, too! LOL

Only two more episodes to go, and I’m totally on the edge of my seat trying to guess how it’s gonna all wrap up!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Girls Generation In Their Own Write

  You know, with all the various autographed k-pop albums and goods I've been fanatically collecting over the years, you would have thought that one of the very FIRST groups I would have sought out were those nine SM chanteuses of Girls' Generation, but at the time I was first getting into them, the high prices signed copies of their releases went for scared me away and I decided autographed CDs weren't THAT important to have, HOWEVER...

Yoona and Yuri Autographs

  As I began to get interested in some of the newer K-pop acts, I noticed that signed copies from THESE artists were a LOT more inexpensive than the SNSD ones were, and when even SOOMPI was selling embellished copies for almost retail price, I began to get more "involved" in obtaining signed items from my favorite groups...

Seohyun and Tiffany Autographs

  So one day I'm on this one dealer's site where I'd purchased a couple of signed collectibles before (among them my much-cherished APink SNOW PINK album recounted here) and noticed that they had a few autographed albums from Girls Generation listed, and all at (relatively) affordable prices, so I finally thought, "Well, WHY NOT, it will be nice to have at least ONE item in my huge SNSD collection signed by the girls themselves!"

Hyoyeon and Jessica Autographs

 So I went ahead and picked it up a copy of the girls' debut album GIRLS' GENERATION (2007), and just this past week it came in! The CD and album case is a little bit scuffed up, but BOY, the autographs themselves are nice and clear, really SUPER nice signs! 

SooYoung and Sunny Autographs

After taking a few minutes (and minutes and minutes) of lovingly gazing at the autographs, one thing I really love about them is how you can see the girls' personalities in their handwriting, from rushed and rigid to playful and flowery, all the girls have such unique styles! I especially love Tiffany's and Sunny's, they're bursting with charm and energy! All so very worth it!!

Kid Leader Taeyeon gets her own two-page spread for her Autograph

PS: You know, one problem with getting autographed albums is that I usually already HAVE a copy of the album, and wind up with TWO copies on my shelf! Someday I'm going to meet a new K-pop fan and he or she is going to benefit so much from inheriting my "doubles", LOL!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Cuteness Overload with Yoona in “The Prime Minister And I”

Yoona as Da Jung: Reporter Nam is on the case!

You know, from the very first promotional photo still I saw for the new KBS2 Drama “The Prime Minister and I” with a goggle-eyed Yoona dressed up as a housecleaner, I knew this was going to be a show chock-full of adorable Yoona goodness, and having just finished the first episode , I can happily say that the cuteness has FAR exceeded my expectations!!!!

Trying to infiltrate the joint in disguise!

There’s an oft-used gimmick in movies and dramas called the “Manic Pixie” persona, wherein the story goes, an uptight, by-the-book man meets an energetic, wide-eyed and full of life girl who opens his eyes to a bright new world, and though that isn’t quite what the show is about, Manic Pixie is a title I can TOTALLY get with regarding Yoona as the super-peppy Da Jung Nam !!

The Prime Minister and I: Yoona and Lee Beom Soo

Pretty Yoona as Da Jung

The Prime Minister and I follows Da Jung as a hyperactive girl who works as a news reporter for a trashy celebrity gossip magazine called “Scandal News”. All she’s meant to do is interview Prime Minister hopeful Kwon Yul (Lee Beom Soo) to get some information  about the kinds of things her readers like- what kind of relationship he’s in, what kind of snacks he likes, his favorite TV shows and colors, etc, but SOMEHOW, she ends up getting tangled up with him in a whole new scandal of her own!

Mini interview with Kwon Yul (Lee Beom Soo)

A new scandal in the making!

One thing I’ve always loved about Yoona is her adorable reactions- from giggly, sneaky, angry or astounded, her face always seems molded into the cutest of expressions! At first I was worried I might have a hard time getting into her character since I look at the screen and see YOONA there, but my gosh if I didn’t get into the show and fully believe in her persona after all! So much fun so far, we’ll see where we go to!

PS: In a happy coincidence, my copy of Girls Generations' new Japanese Album "Love and Peace" arrived on my doorstep today, so it looks like it's gonna be a BANNER YOONA day all around here!!!! Woohoo, can't wait to give this new album a spin!!!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com