19 Banme no Karte~The 19th Medical Chart

 As someone who has gone through their share of various physical problems only to be told by the Docs that they are merely due to age and stress, though you feel in your bones that they are something more, I instantly took to the premise of the new drama “19 Banme no Karte~The 19th Medical Chart” to heart, where patients of a fast-moving hospital are quickly (and generically) diagnosed so as to “move them along”, sometimes dangerously detrimental so, until a new Doctor arrives with a new mindset to shake up the old ways, prioritizing time and understanding in order to best serve the patients.

Fuka Koshiba plays Mizuki Takino, a doctor specializing in orthopedics in the hospital, who is frustrated at the limited amount of time she can give each patient as well as the fact that once the patient’s problem moves out of her specific field, she no longer can faithfully look over them or make judgement over their follow up care.

Enter a quirky young man named Akira Tokushige (Jun Matsumoto), a plain and unassuming fellow who is content to look over the hospital’s various goings-on and the methods they use to get their snap diagnoses, and realizes that with every doctor only focused on their specific area of expertise, sometimes the true malady can go undetected.

While looking over Dr. Takino helping an elderly patient in for a broken ankle, Tokushima observes things about the patient that she doesn’t immediately identify, and after asking the patient about his information regarding his lifestyle, job, and the way he injured his ankle, has him properly operated on for a much larger overarching malady.

 Turns out this Dr. Tokushige is the newest Physician in the building, the head of a brand new department of General Medicine, where his role will be looking over the various problems of the patients, make a clear and concise diagnosis, and, with the help of the other specialists in the Hospital, prepare what is best for the patients.

Humbled, amazed, and inspired, Mizuki confronts him, asking how he knows so much about diseases and afflictions that he can make such detailed determinations, and if there is a way to become like him, a super- doctor who can save every single patient he sees! He gently tells her that there is no one who can cure all, not even him, but she nonetheless sees in him something to aspire to.

 Mizuki aside,  Doctor Tokushige’s unorthodox way of spending so much time with each patient case and his way of involving himself in their diagnoses and patients makes him somewhat of an outcast among the other doctors, who feel they have no need for outside advice!!!

Kimura Yoshino

Taiiku Okazaki

First Summer Uika

Hiroya Shimizu

Tsuda Kanji

Below: Patient Kuroiwa (RiisaNaka) is in constant pain but, despite having seen many doctors, is told that the malady is either due to stress or simply in her mind! With Takino's advice, she takes her in to see Dr. Tokushige.

He sits her down and talks through her past medical history, her current job and routines, and when the pain began. And though he cannot immediately give her an answer to her problems, he is at least listening with his full attention and resolve to see things through. 

It's all one can ask in a doctor, and with his help, they find a way to identify her malady, discuss treatment, and get her back to living!

It will take time, but as time goes on, hopefully every naysayer in the hospital will see that this Doctor’s heart is in the right place, and his plans of having all the doctors working together, sharing knowledge and skills is the real way to go…all while chasing that elusive dream of a Physician who can save everyone.

That was quite a first episode! As some of you know, I only initially downloaded this for Fuka Koshiba, and was kind of disappointed that she had what I call those “reactionary” roles, i.e. a secondary character whose main presence is to look on in awe for every stunt the main characters does, and while there IS some of that, I somehow really liked the show!

I mentioned before in my post about RADIATION HOUSE that I do not necessarily like Doctor Dramas as a whole (too many predictable and irritating cliches) but I’m a sucker for those dramas like that doctor in the Jack Nicholson film “As Good As It Gets”, where Helen Hunt has been taking her boy to one bad doc after another without change and is finally given a good one (played wonderfully by Harold Ramis!)...“ Look, whatever I find, I promise you, at the very least, from now on your son is going to feel a great deal better, okay? ” he assures her, and Helen Hunt melts with gratitude. THAT’s the kind of Doctor shows I LOVE, and 19 Banme no Karte seems to be shaping up nicely!!!

Looking forward to seeing more!

Short But Sweet: Okane no Kireme ga Koi no Hajimari

Cute mini-drama I somehow completely missed from last year starring Haruma Miura (in his final role) and Mayu Matsuoka as two people from opposite sides of the spectrum who are thrown together and how they affect each other.

Reiko Kuki (Mayu Matsuoka) is a reserved and frugal girl who saves every penny and only treats herself to the bare minimum when it comes to comfort. Thus she has grown to appreciate every little nuance in things, the delightful taste of an affordable snack and hidden values tucked away.

If she has one thing she wants to splurge on, it’s a little ceramic dish with a monkey eating a dango which she has been saving up for. She's been staring at it through the shop window for MONTHS and is here to finally get it!

But just as she’s about to walk in and purchase it, a loud, affluent looking guy scoops up a bunch of dishes INCLUDING her Monkey dish, and whisks them away!

PS: Mayu looks so doggone adorable in this scene, LOL

Reiko is devastated and tries to lose herself in her job. She is an accountant for a toy manufacturer, and an efficient one, at that! In fact, she is considered cold and unfriendly among her peers for her all-too businesslike attitude.

But all that is set to change when the president’s son gets demoted to the accounting office for overspending, and Reiko recognizes him as the guy who bought her monkey dish right out from under her!

His name is Keita Saruwatari (Miura) and he’s been sent to accounting to learn a thing or two about managing his money. And as the department’s ace, it falls to Reiko to be the one to school him!

She already has a dislike for him because of the dish, but she will soon learn that a guy who’d been affluent his whole life can’t easily change and begin saving money! Expensive Lunch Sets VS Homemade bento? Vintage Aloha shirts and Starbucks drinks? Looks like it will take ALL her effort to bring him around!!

And yet, while Reiko is teaching him about saving and responsibility, Saruwatari teaches her a thing or two about learning to open up to people and enjoy others company! In the end, it may be that the two are equally beneficial to each other!

Also starring Shohei Miura as a Money Managing lecturer (with secretary/coordinator Karen Otomo) whom Reiko has had a crush on for years…

Jun Itagaki (Takumi Kitamura) as a fellow worker who is the first to find the attractiveness of Reiko’s frugality...

...Stunning Hitomi Seira as Saruwatari’s one-time fiancée... 

....and Yuko Yagi as his little sister (who gets on fabulously with Reiko!)

Also First Summer Uika and Riho Nakamura as Reiko’s co-workers…(PS: Been seeing LOT of First Summer recently- this is the THIRD drama in a row I've seen her in!)

Breezed through this in one sitting and though I wish the ending was a bit more solid, at four episodes, you can’t go wrong- Mayu Matsuoka was a sheer delight to watch and it was nice seeing Haruma Miura again, an actor I’ve always liked and was counting on seeing more of in the years to come. A nice send-off for him.

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

EDIT: 

I mentioned above how I wish the ending was more "solid". After posting the entry, I went to dinner. Then I thought about why I felt the last episode seemed a bit unfinished: because Miura's character wasn't even in it!  And THEN, it occured to me- Did Miura pass away during the shooting of this drama?

Going online I read up on it and YES, it seems that Okane no Kireme ga Koi no Hajimari was meant to be 8 episodes long, but Miura passed away after episode 3. So using what they had, they put together a sort of conclusion for the show's 4th and final episode.

Knowing THAT, when I went back and re-watched the ending, I take back calling it a weak episode- I realize they gave us a touching and poignant end with what they had. In fact it chokes me up the more I think about it. 

PS: And I didn't realize it til I re-watched it again, but they even had a sweet tribute at the end of the show, saying "Haruma-kun we'll always love you" from the cast and crew.

And now I'm getting teary eyed again....