Still A Controversy Maker

Seems my very first Crush of The Day here has yet again gotten herself in hot water, this time sounding rather serious. Yikes!

Yesterday the news broke that she was "Allegedly Caught With Illegal Drug MDMA", and today those headlines have been upgraded to "Been Doing Drugs for Years"... 

AIYAAAAAA. Well, I guess this is all the news will be talking about for the next week.

Bet It was on repeat all night on the Carp Dori Televisions, Har.

The Ties That Bind: "Haha Ni Naru"

Just started watching the Erika Sawajiri drama “Haha Ni Naru” the other week and so far I really love it. Strange that I didn’t know anything about this drama despite it being aired between two dramas I watched, Tokyo Tarareba Musume and Kahogo No Kahoko, but it wasn’t until it was completed and linked on a forum that I discovered it, and MAN, I was gripped with its story from the first episode...this is one emotionally draining show!

Haha Ni Naru tells the story of a young couple named Kashiwazaki, mother Yui (Sawajiri) and father Yoichi (Naohito Fujiki) whose child Kou has gone missing since disappearing days before in front of his school. After a tense day of waiting, they are notified that Kou’s hoodie and shoe have been recovered from the harbour, and is suspected to have drowned.

 

 The show then flashes back to how the couple met, with Yui and Yoichi riding the same train together each morning until the day comes when Yoichi comes in to order a book from the bookstore Yui works at. They start off as acquaintances until it blossoms into a relationship, and when Yui finds herself pregnant, Yoichi proposes to her and introduces her to his mother, the kindly Satoe (Fubuki Jun) who welcomes Yui into the family with open arms! They have the support of their friends, Taiji and Risako Nishihara (Yuka Itaya) who have a daughter attending the same daycare as Kou, and all seems good with the Kashiwazaki family.

The fateful event happens when Yoichi, a professor at a University, is running late to meet his family at an amusement park and doesn’t have time to go over paperwork with a troubled student. The slighted student, who fails his exams without his teacher’s guidance, targets Kashiwazaki and his family, and plans to kidnap Kou when he is separated from his mother.

Kou is an excitable boy who is constantly running ahead with his mother lagging behind, and on that day she doesn’t think too much of it when he runs off when she is talking to Risako in front of the school. She calls after him, but he is suddenly nowhere to be found. She thinks he must be nearby, but when she sees a broken piece of his airplane toy on the ground, she suspects foul play, and runs off looking for him.

By the evening he still hasn’t been found and the parents get the horror of their lives when they get a phone call from the angry student who boasts that he took their son because he wouldn’t help him. Before he can say if Kou is still alive, the student commits suicide, severing any chance of the authorities finding out any information.

The parents are distraught and in a panic, and it all comes to a head when the detectives fish out Kou’s clothing from the ocean. All clues lead them to believe that their son has perished.

What they don’t know is that the abducted Kou has been holed up in a dingy apartment in a shady side of town. Scared, cold and hungry, he is heard sobbing to himself by a lonely woman named Asako Kadokura (Eiko Koike) next door. Concerned, she investigates the sound, and upon finding an unlocked door, discovers the kidnapped child.

As the years go by, the Kashiowazakis continue to pass out flyers in hopes of finding their child, believing with all their heart that he is still alive. But the agony and stress takes its toll on them and they eventually separate and eke out reclusive lives alone. Shockingly and Contrarily, we see that Kadokura, who once seemed so bleak, is radiant as she bicycles home and is greeted by Kou who happily calls her “Mama!”

Fast forward to present day and there is a curious situation going on at an orphanage. A dutiful caseworker named Shuhei Kino (Yuta Nakajima) has discovered that a boy who was dropped off at the center two years ago has been found to have a perfect DNA match…to the missing Kou!

Upon the discovery, they reach out to the Kashiwazakis, and for the first time in  years, Yui comes face to face with her son.

What has happened to Kou in the missing years? who was Asako Kadokura and where is she now? And most importantly, will the reappearance of their missing son repair and heal the wounds of the past for Yui and Yoichi Kashiwazaki…or make things more distraught and complicated? All these questions and more are what keeps me glued to my screen watching this show!

I’ve seen quite a few dramas touching the theme of the abducted child (Mother and Youkami No Semi for example) but this is the first time the show seems to give equal sympathy for both the Mother and father of the abducted child as well as the person who stole the child away. You care for both sides of the tragedy (I suppose it’s easier to have sympathy for the abductor since she isn’t really the one who kidnapped the child but instead erred by keeping the boy instead of alerting authorities) and see the heartbreak each are feeling. 
Now that Gomen Aishiteru is wrapping up, I will need a serious drama to put my heart into and it looks like I will be focusing all my energy on Haha Ni Naru for now!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Legends Of Otomejuku: The Lovely Ms. Rieko Miura!

Rieko Miura

Just finished wrapping up the highly enjoyable mystery drama “ Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko No Uso” and while I loved Ishihara Satomi and AKB48 alumna Yuko Oshima in it, the one actress that I took particular notice of was Rieko Miura. As you all know, CoCo was the gateway drug that first got me into J-pop, j-dramas and everything else Japan related, and at the center of it was a big fascination with the adorable anime-voiced princess, MS. Miura Rikeo herself!

Reiko in her adorable CoCo Days circa 1991

 While I watched her in it, it impressed me how far she’d come since her early acting days when Coco had just broken up…the first thing I remember seeing her in was an episode of 1996’s “Mokuyo no Kaidan” show with SMAP’s Kusanagi Tsuyoshi (back then BOTH of them were just starting out dabbling in acting) I was so thrilled at seeing her in a show, for the Rieko Miura fan back then, it was a real EVENT!

Mokuyo No Kaidan (1996)

with Tsuyoshi Kusanagi in Mokuyo no Kaidan (1996)

 From there I saw her in shows like TABLOID and the NHK Asadora AGRI, but you know, back then, she always still seemed like “Reiko from CoCo in a show” … I’m trying to remember when it was when she crossed over from being an IDOL and transformed into a bonafide ACTRESS, and for me, it was when she appeared in GALCIR. She was so great as the dorky wife of the local shopkeeper, and when she revealed her beautiful persona underneath, that was an added bonus- I got to see her be goofy AND sexy! But more than that, I somehow felt that she was finally  “Rieko Miura, Actress (trivia: she used to be an idol!)” and all her roles from then on proved me right!

The Dark and Dorkier sides of Rieko in GALCIR (2006) above and below:

 She strengthened her acting chops in a terrific supporting role in the Misaki Ito/Kyoko Fukada comedy “Yama Onna Kabe Onna “ , it was here that I truly realized she had made the transition from "girl" to "woman". Man, she was so good in this role as the seasoned senior manager of the store, really like the mother hen taking care of both Misaki and Kyoko!

With Fukada Kyoko In Yama Onna Kabe Onna (2007)

After this show, they FINALLY gave Reiko her own drama with her as the lead actress. The show was called “Suite 10”, and I was so excited and couldn't wait to watch it! Unfortunately, no channel picked it up here so I never got to see it! ARGH!

Suite 10 (2008)

To date, even with the advent of the internet and J-drama sharing sites, I’ve still never found someone who had the show, so it's still on my wishlist! I'm not sure how this drama fared during its initial airing, but to date, this remains Reiko's only lead actress drama..
.The next drama I saw her in was the Yusuke Kamiji /Aya Ueto drama “Celeb Bimbo Monogatari” where she honed what would become THE signature Reiko Miura role: The Eccentric, Melodramatic and Extremely Beautiful Woman!

with Ueto Aya in Celeb to Binbo Taro (2008)

with Kazama Morio in Celeb to Binbo Taro

 It was this character you'd see her bring out in shows like the aforementioned Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko No Uso, sleek, sly and sexy! Like I said, I really loved her performance in this show as the sultry Agent S, marvelling at how she became this strong, confident actress, seemingly right before my eyes!

wi Shosuke Tanihara in Reinoryokusha Odagiri Kyoko No Uso (2010)

She could still revert back to playing the sweet and innocent girls if she wanted to, as evidenced in shows like MASSUGU NA OTOKO and UTSUKUSHII RINJIN, where she played more homey, down to earth roles. By this point, I was so confident in Rieko’s success as an actress, that seeing her in these, I simply thought, “huh, Reiko’s in this…” then I stepped back and thought to myself, “you know, ten years ago, you would be flipping out with excitement that Reiko was in a show!” It made me happy that she was so firmly entrenched in the drama biz that I could take her appearances for granted!

with Misako Uno in Massugu No Otoko (2010)

with Dan Rei in Utsukushii Rinjin (2011)

Koko Ga Uwasa no El Palacio (2011)

While not as successful as Hiromi Nagasaku from her sister Pony Canyon group RIBBON, Reiko has managed to stay a relative consistent mainstay in dramas, especially when playing the older femme-fatale vixen types, much to my approval! 

with Sawajiri Erika in First Class (2014)

Recent dramas from her include the Rena Tanaka drama “Utsukushiki Wana” as well as the Erika Sawajiri drama “FIRST CLASS”, and she’s still there playing sharp witted and beautiful women, roles that prove that the cute little genki girl from CoCo TOTALLY had what it takes! Here's to your continued success!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com