Def Tech: My Way (With a Touch Of Ryoko Kuninaka)

 There’s this new channel on youtube called “The First Take” where they invite artists on to do a “one take” of their songs, and their latest episode featured classic duo Def Tech doing a one take of their 2005 song “My Way”!

WOW, Shen and Micro sound JUST as great as EVER! From the moment they began singing I was locked in, and once the groove kicked in, I was happily swaying side-to-side— ALWAYS loved this song and those vocals and hooks knock me out all over again!!! 

Whenever I hear “My Way”, I ALWAYS think of  “Brother Beat”, the 2005 drama starring Misako Tanaka, Tetsuji Tamayama, Hayami Mokomichi and Nakao Kiyoshi as a Single Mother and her Three Sons, as it was the “insert” song played during key moments in the show~

Ryoko Kuninaka starred as a shy and mousey girl named Chisato who falls for Tamayama’s character Tatsuya, and I always loved the way the Def Tech song would play whenever “something seemed to be developing”, like a fun wink to the audience....Awwww, as some of you may know, I fell MASSIVELY in love with Ryoko Kuninaka in this drama. So sweet and pure, Chisato Tamura HAS to be my all-time favorite role she’s played! One of my FIRST “Crush of The Day”  girls and certainly one of the most enduring ones as well!

Man, even just re-watching this episode to make the gif, I ended up watching 4 episodes of the show, I loved the storyline of her and Tatsuya SO damn much!

Sadly for Brother Beat, I did not care too much about either of the other two brothers, maybe that’s why despite how much I love the Ryoko Kuninaka parts, Brother Beat isn’t  higher on my list of favorites…though it SHOULD be, on sheer Ryoko Kuninaka merit alone!!

Singing On and On and On...

A Slave With An Unwilling Master- Sato rejects President Amagi’s request to dominate him, “Kono Otoko wa Jinsei Saidai no Ayamachidesu”

Company President Kyoichi Amagi (Hayami Mokomichi) has a masochistic streak and wants his subordinate Yui Sato (Airi Matsui) to dominate and humiliate him. Sato wants none of it, and has expresses so several times. However, the more he fawns over her and interrupts her work, the angrier she gets, and she always ends up losing her cool, giving him EXACTLY want he wants!

Crush of The Day: Airi Matsui

My hands-down favorite show on right now is Kono Otoko wa Jinsei Saidai no Ayamachidesu and my Crush of the Day is none other than Airi Matsui, the show’s spritely star playing the feisty and loveable Yui Sato!!

Oh my GOSH, this girl has soooo much charisma, it’s insane! From Cute to Courageous, Airi shifts from confident worker to starry eyed dreamer to tuff tomboy so fluidly and you’re at the edge of your seat just waiting to see which personality she pulls out next!

She totally steals every scene she’s in, no small feat when you consider her best friend is played by the devastatingly luscious Moemi Katayama (whose boobs captivated my interest in the otherwise so-so drama Hello Harinezumi) and yet Airi STILL commands my attention!

I made a note that Airi reminded me not just a little of actress Ayase Haruka with her dreamy “deer-in-the-headlights” look whenever she’s confused by whatever shenanigans Hayami Mokomichi is pulling on her, but now that I’ve had some time to think, you know who she “feels” like, Shihori Kanjiya!

 Same super-tough gal but kind and sensitive to others and a doll to boot!

Seriously, I can not get ENOUGH of Airi in this show! She is SO cute and FUNNY, and ya know what, NO ONE scowls like her!!!

 

Yui Sato always dresses so stylish and I'm always dying to see what outfit she wears next, and Somehow I'm always taken by her hairstyles, especially when it's piled up on her head, etc...

There was this scene where she is forced to attend a party, and it’s a usual cliche: the rich guy buys her a dress and she looks good, but HOLY TOLEDO, Airi looked SO DAMN PRETTY!!! Like, Y’all, this is TOTALLY my kind of GIRL!!

  I already mentioned in a Keiko Kitagawa post years ago about my weakness for hair bands but MAN, the whole look, the dress, the hair, the heels, argh my heart….

So obsessed with my love for Airi, I HAD to go back and re-watch both Yamada kun to 7 nin no Majo  and Jigoku Sensei Nube because I absolutely didn’t remember her in either!

In the former, Airi turned out to be the tomboyishly tuff Noa Tagikawa ( her debut role which really is a nice precursor to her Yui Sato role):

and in Jigoku Sensei Nube, Airi was the girl playing the best friend of Hinako Sano’s character, and if you remember how much I was in love with Hinako back then, it’s no wonder I didn’t pay attention to her friend!

So funny to rewatch these now, because all I can see is my girl Yui Sato in these roles! It's Airi’s time to break out and i’m in full support of it!!!

Posted by Zdorama @https://zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Be My Slave! Airi Matsui and Hayami Mokomichi in "Kono Otoko wa Jinsei Saidai no Ayamachidesu"

Airi Matsui and Hayami Mokomichi

Airi Matsui stars as Yui Sato, an OL in a huge pharmaceutical corporation who is having “the worst day of her life”. Her beloved pet dog has died and she is drowning her sorrows in a few dozen drinks.

 She cries to the sympathetic bartender but her pity party is cut short when a cold officious man chides her for her whining and says if she misses her dog so much she can die, too!!

So angered by this man’s attitude that before she knows it, she has stuck out her leg and tripped the guy...who falls flat on his face!

 “Sorry…” she drawls. “I MEANT to do that!!!” And with that, she storms off in a huff.

The next day, fighting off a throbbing hangover and regretting her actions, Yui tries to compose herself and go to work. As she makes her way to the lobby, there is a big commotion as the company president Kyoichi Amagi (Hayami Mokomichi) is arriving.

Yui admits to her colleague Ami Ishikawa (Moemi Katayama) that she actually hasn’t ever seen the president, and she is shocked when, of course, the President turns out to be none other than the man she tripped the night before!

She is STUNNED by the revelation, but doesn’t have time to think when the President HIMSELF strides into her department and demands she come up to his office!!

Yui knows she;s in trouble now and meekly scurries up to the huge office, expecting to be reprimanded or even terminated!

The LAST thing she expects is when the stern president DROPS to his KNEES…

…and BEGS Yui to dominate him! 

“Please treat me as your slave!!” he pleads, explaining that when she lashed out at him, she was the first one to EVER stand up to him and that made him fall instantly in love with her!

She is sure he must be joking, but when he keeps at it and constantly badgers her, she feels he MUST be making fun of her, and her belligerent persona comes out once again!

Throwing him to the ground and slamming her foot down next to his head, she barks, “Are you making FUN of me?” She’s trying to make a point, unfortunately, this mean-hearted attitude is JUST what the President WANTS, and he simply SWOONS!

Backing off, she stresses in no uncertain terms that she rejects his request and wants to only go back to her usual relationship...

But now that she’s caught the President’s eye, he is constantly meddling in her day to day activities, forcing her superiors to apologize to her and even making the pharmaceutical techs who couldn’t save her dog to bow down to her! 

This is humiliating enough, but soon the entire building is gossiping about her, whispering “That’s the president’s girl!” She’s had enough, and goes up to confront the president again. But his pandering attitude brings out the WORST in her, and she ends up drop kicking him to the ground and dominating him AGAIN! How will she EVER work things out with this guy!?

Oh MAN, such a FUN drama so far! Airi Matsuo is perfectly cast as the adorably addled Yui with one of those faces that reflect her confusion, contempt and curiosity like Ayase Haruka did back in her Hotaru No Hikari days- in fact, there are times (such as this scene below) where her suspicious eyes darting back and forth REALLY reminded me of Hotaru!

PS: this is the first drama Hayami Mokomichi and Airi Matsuo have appeared in since Jigoku Sensei Nube, where he played a teacher and she a student!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com