WOWOW Drama "Hokuto"

Just finished watching HOKUTO, a very involving 5-part crime drama about a young man on trial for the double-murder and the effect his incarceration and upcoming trial has on his lawyer, his counselor, and the woman who loves him.

 This was a slow-boiling story but throughout I was invested with the characters, and as we learn more about Hokuto and his past, from abused child to reformed life and dark turn to murder, the more we actually care about him and his fate.

WOWOW dramas always have a sombre mood about them, but this one might be the darkest and most violent one I’ve seen. In fact, HOKUTO seems more like a rated R movie than a television drama. WOWOW shows are getting grittier and grittier, but sometimes it's interesting to divert from the usual J-drama fare...and HOKUTO was definitely that!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Unnatural Selection with Satomi Ishihara and the Gang

Well, looks like it's yet another crackerjack medical forensics team a la LADY DA VINCI NO SHINDAN and COLD CASE only this time with the genki Satomi Ishihara at the forefront!

So far seems to be your general type of medical drama, but I must say I do like the characters and that will probably keep me coming back for more...

Satomi Ishihara as Mikoto Misumi

Arata Iura as Kei Nakado

Masataka Kubota as Rokuro Kube

Mikako Ichikawa as Yuko Shoji (really love her character)

and Yutaka Matsushige as supervisor Yasuo Kamikura...

PS, Hey remember when Satomi Ishihara was first starting out and SHE was the naysaying unbeliever in Esumi Makiko's BULL DOCTOR? Who knew that in just a few years she'd be the one running the show? Power to Her!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Weekly Idol Hosts Stepping Down after 7 Years

Well, I've been saying that the Golden Era of K-pop for me is over for awhile now, with so many of my favorite acts disbanding or re-organizing as smaller units, and now we have the news that WEEKLY IDOL hosts Hyungdon and Deffcon (Donnie and Connie) are leaving after 7 years of idol gushing.

 I always used to say that if you really wanted to see the "real" side of a J-Pop act, you HAD to see then on the Takaki Ishibashi/Masahiro Nakai music/interview show UTABAN, and  for the world of K-Pop , that show was WEEKLY IDOL.

I an't stress how important this show was in the development of my love of so many K-pop groups, and as my many, many posts will attest, Weekly Idol as the one show I always tuned into when an act I liked came on. T-ara, Rainbow, APink, AOA, Dal Shabet, Sistar, even more recent groups like Red Velvet,  TWICE and GFriend, I wouldn't know half as much as I do about them if it wasn't for those two guys.

Girl's Day

f(x)

APink

Dal Shabet

4 Minute

Rainbow

Nine Muses

After School

Secret

TWICE

Brown Eyed Girls

AOA

Connie and Donnie’s initial  shtick was always that of two Dorky Fanboys who were absolutely THRILLED TO DEATH when they were able to “meet” some of their favorite acts for the first time, but as time went by they really became mentors of sorts to rookie groups who needed a friendly hand when promoting for the first time, and this forged great relationships between them.

Early Days geeking out to SISTAR

It was this respectful relationship that caused the fun and playful banter between them and really made the show. They got real reactions out of what could be mundane promotional interviews, and everyone always seemed like they were having a grand old time!

When Red Velvet drops by...

...things tend to get a little silly!!

The wacky challenges they created for the acts to win snacks and food were priceless- As you might know, K-pop idols are on strict diets, and it's only when they're on the show that they can eat as they please, so everyone plays with all their hearts for the prizes!

T-ara meet the Boys

Hyomin winning a Food Challenge!

TWICE: First to Pop a Corn Kernel with a Curling Iron wins!

The girls trying to place their popcorn kernels just right...

...but in the end, it's Dahyun who wins the food!

Mmmm, K-pop acts could always count on eatin' well on Weekly Idol!

APink Chows Down

I'm sure the show will continue on with new hosts, but, like Utaban, it was a show that really relied on the real affection the hosts had for the musical acts that "made" the show, and I only hope they can continue in the same tradition with others at the helm...

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Ren Osugi 1951-2018

Sad to hear of the passing of Ren Osugi...he was one VERY prolific actor but my favorite role of his just HAS to be Nagase Tomoya's stalwart butler Kuroi in My Boss My Hero! 

That was the first really likeable character I'd seen him in (prior to that he always seemed to play such curmudgeon-y guys) but I loved him in this, and he was to star in many more great roles after that! He'll be missed!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Notes On "Final Cut"

Kazuya Kamenashi is Keisuke Nakayama, a man whose mother was accused of murder when he was still a high schooler 12 years ago. His mother was blamed for the murder of a young child at her daycare center, and though there was only circumstantial evidence, a popular “journalistic” TV Program PREMIERE WIDE sensationalizing the case by suggesting that his mother is guilty.

Though his mother swears innocence and speaks of a mysterious man who was at the daycare center earlier the day that the abduction took place, the TV show corrupted stance convinces the public that she is a murderer and shut her out. The stress on her mental well being takes its toll, and young Keisuke comes home one evening to find she has slashed her wrists and taken her life.

Keisuke blames  his mother’s death on the Premiere Wide show, in particular its oily producer, Masaya Ide (Tetta Sugimoto), who wormed his way into the Nakayamas' lives during the ordeal and was quick to turn on them for viewer ratings, as well as his fired up investigative team, Kumiko Masaki (Miki Kizuno), Yuto Koike (Kento Hayashi) and Yoshikazu Minegawa (Ichiro Yatsui).

Keisuke also points a heavy finger at the show’s hosts, Sae (Yuui Aoya) and especially the pompous and judgmental main host Rui Momose (Naohito Fujiki) who helped talk a neighborhood into turning on his mother.

 Together with his partner Daichi Noda (Yuya Takagi) , they scour the internet forums to find people who have similarly been wronged by the Premiere Wide producers. 

They meet up with a  woman (Akiko Yada) who has had her plight covered by Premiere Wide. The family needs funds to send their daughter to a specialist in the States, and had agreed to have their story told by the Program for monetary support.

The program was initially a success, with sympathy and donations coming in, but to “sensationalize” the story, Ide turned the story into a piece about slipshod services and dnagerous mistakes at the hospital, all with evidence that was twisted and edited from more routine practices.

 The backlash from the hospital is of the stance that they would prefer the family leave because of the controversy, and it was out of desperation that the family finally contacted Nakamura via the web. Nakamura evaluates the situation  and  promises he will work out a way to make the program retract their initial statement and apologize. 

Besides this, there is another puzzling side to Nakamura's life: He’s going out with a cute young thing named Wakaba (Kanna Hashimoto) who thinks her boyfriend is just too aloof for her likes. He never invited her back to his place and she never knows what he’s thinking. But  she feels he’s definitely the one!

She goes home and gushes to her bookish older sister Yukiko (Chiaki Kuriyama) about how great her boyfriend is and that she should be thinking seriously about meeting someone of her own...

We see her the next day at the Art Gallery she works at where she is met by a striking young man mulling over a painting. They make small talk and Yukiko feels a twang of interest in her heart. Unfortunately, the man is none other than Nakamura himself, and it’s clear that he’s playing both of the sisters for some part of his revenge plan. But how do they fit in?

Quite a convoluted story, with so many character introduced and ALL of them with some degree of ‘shadiness” about them that I already figure the characters are going to shift into backstabbers…When Kuranosuke Sasaki showed up as his usual cliched “shady figure” personality (as a police chief no less) I threw my hands in the air and said" Is there ANYONE I’m supposed to trust here??!"

A very WHACK show, and at this point I'm not sure how long I'm going to watch this one, but we'll see...shows like this have a tendency to become big faves after awhile....
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com