Mizu No Hiroba Water Park Again

 Haven't thought about that waterfront courtyard at Mizu No Hiroba Park for awhile now, and just this week it appeared in TWO dramas I'm watching, one sighting during the daytime in "Kaidenshita No Gogh":

...and one sighting at night in "Atom No Ko"!

Glad they've begun to utilize this picturesque little park again!

Starry Starry Night: Sumire in "Kaidenshita no Gogh"

Kaidenshita No Gogh tells the story of an office worker named Miwako Kaburagi (actress SUMIRE) who doesn't’ care for art, though it was once her passion as a child. it’s only when she happens to attend a humble exhibit and sees a particular painting that her interest reawakens and she is motivated to try taking classes again.

Once she arrives there, she is met with the usual array of eccentrics in the art class, including the morose and serious Taira, who doesn’t say much during the class, but later tells her he resents someone like her, an affluent woman with a good job who is taking art “for fun” rather than the members of the class who are staking their lives on it.

Miwako intends to convince this man that she is indeed serious about it, and thus gets down to seriously studying, where the two will slowly get to know each other….

Actress Sumire sure is an unusual looking actress- ever since I first saw her in”Gunjyo Ryoiki” as the diabolical “other woman” of main iglr Eunkyu Shim, I thought she had this real eurasian look to her-“ are those her real eyes or are they contacts??” I wondered. But her Father’s Asano Tadanobu and her Mom’s singer CHARA, so apparently she’s pure japanese??

Anyway, saw her next as the author’s muse in the gripping “Iribito” and this was the first time I saw her in a more serious role and possibly someone to look out for! But by the time she was in Mahou no Rinobe, she’d been regaled to Haru’s best friend and so I thought she’d be back to bit parts. But it seems I was wrong, for here we have Sumire in her very own starring role in the new art-influenced drama “Kaidenshita no Gogh”!

Not sure if this drama is really my cup of tea, but will probably check out a few more…

A Drama Of David Lynchian Proportions: “Iribito Ihoujin”

 Very dark and moody drama starring Mitsuki Takahata as Naho Takamura, a curator for her family museum in Tokyo who has a knack for seeing the true potential of the paintings and artists she sees outside of any popularity or grandeur.

She has come to Kyoto at the advice of her mother- Naho and her husband Kazuki (Shunsuke Kazama) are expecting their first child and they want to make sure she takes it easy in the months until she gives birth.

While there she visits a few galleries and museums, and it’s there she first comes across  the mysterious artist Tatsuru Shirane (Sumire), both by her painting (which mesmerizes Naho from the moment she lays eyes on it) and in the flesh.

Naho is captivated by Shirane’s painting and also by the woman herself- silent and mute since a devastating incident when she was younger- and wants to know more about her and her works.

Shirane is a protege of another artist whom Takamura has patronized in the past, the stern Shozan Shimura (Yutaka Matsushige), and it is immediately apparent that there is something mysterious about their connection.

Indeed, she is cautioned by  a fellow art enthusiast who advises she stay away from Shimura lest she get entangled in something she can't get out of. But she is too obsessed with the paintings.

In the meantime, Maho’s husband has been struggling with a failed transaction at the Museum and he is being pressured into asking Maho to release a cherished family heirloom, a Monet Waterlilies piece to a seller.

Knowing full well Maho will never agree to selling the painting that has served as the centerpiece for their museum for years, Maxuki intends to go around Naho through her mother, Katsuko (Yoko Moriguchi), and we can see that even here, things are not quite as they seem…

This drama has all the makings of a riveting movie, and seeing that Iribito is only 5 episodes long, perhaps they always intended it to be more like a long theatrical film. (They even have scenes where it is shot in letterbox)... In any case, this is a dense and intriguing drama, one that I WISH was already done so I could watch it in one sitting!!!

Another fine performance by the versatile Mitsuki Takahata who is becoming one of the most engaging and reliable of the young actresses coming up today!