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| The Lovely, Elegant Kyoko Hasegawa |
In the middle of the drama "Boku Dake no Madonna" right now, and am currently experiencing a MASSIVE crush on its pretty co-star, Kyoko Hasegawa!! Ah, Kyoko, it's been a long journey from when I first saw you up to this current crush! Let me count the ways....
According to Dramawiki, the first drama I ever saw Kyoko in was the Hiroshi Abe drama “Dragon Zakura” all those years ago, though truthfully I barely remembered her at all in the role as the stuffy teacher who goes against Abe and his practices…who knew that she would someday become one of my fave actresses!
First time I really remember seeing her was as the flighty Hitomi Kawai in “SCANDAL”. Even then I thought she was so elegant and pretty, a feat when you consider her co-stars were luminaries like Kyoka Suzuki and Naho Toda!
It was here she first showed off her "neurotic" tendencies to me, and I was to find that it was going to be a trend...!
Saw her next in the BOSS sequel as the mousey and dorky Sachiko Tadokoro, the eccentric detective sent to join the team, who spends her time driving Yuki Amami crazy, LOL!
A fun character, though I think I would have liked her more if she wasn't the proverbial "replacement" for Erika Toda on the show...
Then came the wonderful Fumino Kimura drama “Mother Game” where Kyoko played a distraught wife named Satoko Yano who, though part of the posh inner circle of mothers, is secretly persecuted by her Husband and domineering Mother in Law, and, in turn, takes it out on Fumino…My, she could get so CATTY!!!
By the time I saw her next as Fashion Icon Maiko Yasunaga in the Yoko Maki drama “Cecile No Mokuromi”, I already EXPECTED her to be a svelte, haughty b*tch, and indeed she was! I remember thinking, “Huh, she always plays this kind of lady.”
There are actresses out there who seem to be perennially cast whenever they need a beautiful but cold, strict and/or depressed woman, actresses like Reika Kirishima who always plays the divorced wife, demanding superior, or jealous mistress.
And so it seemed was the same with Kyoko…
The drama that made me realize Kyoko could be a charismatic actress and made me a FAN of hers was the hilarious “Kareshi wo Loan De Kaemashita” where she played a bitter divorced single mother Reika Namba who didn’t take any crap from anyone and became naive Erina Mano’s best friend as she navigated through the game of love and marriage! At the time, I noted, “Kyoko’s character is the reliable friend you want to have,” and I found that, though still playing a bitter and angry woman, I liked Kyoko VERY MUCH in this role!
Looking up her back catalog, then, I was surprised to find that in her past she had done quite a few “regular” type dramas in roles that were of the more optimistic and ordinary type, and just last month I gave her 2006 drama “Oishii Proposal” a try! In the role of Chef Suzuko Shiraishi, I was excited to see her starring as a lead actress for a change!
Well, while I appreciated seeing Kyoko finally able to flex her chops, and liked her character enough, I just couldn’t get into the romance aspect of the show. Full disclosure, actor Keisuke Koide really rubs me the wrong way, and his trite character as the mogul who threatens to close Kyoko’s restaurant and then (inevitably) begins wooing her, just had my eyes rollin’.
He appearance in the Takako Matsu drama “Itsumo Futari de" as esthetician Hiroko Fujiwara was akin to a more “Akiko Yada-ish” type of role, a pretty older lady who is a minor romantic foil for the lead Kenji Sakaguchi.
I did like the way the storyline drew the two closer together as the drama progressed, but in true Kyoko Hasegawa fashion, she is promptly dropped in favor of the main actress by the show's conclusion, LOL! Too bad, she looked great here!!
Then, just a few weeks ago, I saw her story in the recent Kento Nakajima/Sho Hirano Cop Drama “ Miman Keisatsu” and HOLY CRAP, I was blown away! Kyoko was SO GOOD in it!!!
The story of a sister and Brother who hold the police detectives hostage until they get justice for their ill father (who they feel is in jail under false accusations) was intriguing from the GET go, and it was ALL due to the intensity which Kyoko played!
As her storyline wound up to one of the BEST episodes in the series, I found myself thinking, “Man, Kyoko Hasegawa is so freakin’ AWESOME…I’ve GOT to see MORE of her!!!”
Digging through my folders for another month of J-drama Catch-Up, I discovered I had yet another of Kyoko’s dramas to watch, this one an early 2003 release called “Boku Dake No Madonna”! Co-starring Hideaki Takizawa, this was another romance drama and after the last one with Keisuke Koide, I admit I had reservations!
But BRAH. From the MOMENT she appeared on the screen, I was simply SPELLBOUND! Oh my GOSH, THIS Kyoko Hasegawa was so dazzling and beautiful in the role of the wildflower Surumi Kataoka, that I just couldn’t look away!!!
Not only was she vibrant, energetic and SASSY in this, she ALSO revealed an aspect of her that I was heretofore completely unaware of: Kyoko had the most ROCKING, CURVY BODY!!! MAN, who KNEW that under her cold, elegant exterior, that haughty woman in those early dramas was such a SMOKE SHOW!!!
Boku Dake no Madonna tells the story of Kyouichi Suzuki, a pushover college student who seems to be going through life aimlessly and without much thought, and when we first meet up with him, he has just been unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend(Rena Tanaka) for being too dull and boring!
Life could go on meandering like this, but one day, something happens that turns his life upside down! Besides his day classes in architecture, Kyouichi works as a Night Watchman, and it's coming home from this job…and while getting ready to shower, finds a beautiful WOMAN sleeping in his BED!
He rushes outside to make sure he’s in the right house, and when he returns, the woman is GONE! Who WAS she???
Determined to find out, he takes a night off from work…and spends the evening HIDING under the BED, hoping to get a glimpse of the mysterious woman again should she appear again!
Well, he doesn’t have to wait long til he hears his window open and the woman steps inside his apartment! He sees her raid his fridge, and just when things couldn't be more awkward, she says, out loud, “How long are you going to hide under that bed?” He’s been caught!
He apologizes, and she scolds him, telling him he should be ANGRY at her, not apologizing, and it’s here he finds out that she’s been breaking into his apartment to spy on her ex-boyfriend who lives across the way.
She explains that she’s heard that her ex is getting married and she’s been coming in and peeking across the way every night til she can get a glimpse of this girl.
Kyouichi is sympathetic and offers to let her use his apartment to stake out her ex while he is at work, and the two develop a relationship of sorts, with him leaving notes and meals for her before he leaves for work, and him coming home in the morning with notes from her.
Seems like a sweet situation, but the rub is that this girl, Surumi, is an incredibly outspoken, brash and BOSSY woman, and Kyouichi is kept on his toes doing all of her selfish biddings!
If Surumi is hungry, he is ordered to either cook or run to the combini for snacks, if she wants to go out, it’s up to him to take her there, life could be a HORROR for Kyouchi , but the truth of the matter is THIS: Surumi is the most fascinating, vibrant and exciting thing that’s ever happened to him, and for a guy who once had no passions in life, finds that he just might be falling head over heels in LOVE with this gal!!!
Now, I admit that the story of a woman who gets stalkerey over a jilted romance and who breaks into the adjacent apartment so she can spy on his activities at night and then becomes friends with the shleppy guy who lives there sounds far fetched as HECK…
Not only does the act of breaking into a house so you can spy on someone across the street seem totally IMPRACTICAL, but when they show the window from the outside...
...you see that it’s flat out IMPOSSIBLE for her to get up there, much less climb in that window each night!
But whatever, I throw my common sense out of the window (so to speak) and let everything slide to enjoy the particulars of this show- ‘cause even though the set up is unbelievable, even though Kyoko’s character can get downright mean at times, it is simply HEAVENLY to watch her playing such a wild, vibrant, SEXY woman for a change, a FAR cry for the cold and frumpy roles she’s probably better known for!!!
A FINE little show, and BTW, doesn’t the credits for Boku Dake No Madonna look JUST like the Opening Credits for Long Vacation??? LOL, thought I was seeing things!
With this drama, Kyoko Hasegawa has been propelled into my list of favorite actresses, and now I’m DOUBLY desperate to see the comedy movie “Black Widow Business” from 2016! I had already wanted to see it since my girl Asami Mizukawa was in it, and now with my love for Kyoko amped up, I GOTTA find it!!!
I don't know if it was her eye makeup or the pulled back hair, but Man, she looked SO different in this one!
