A New J-Drama Deja-Vu Sighting: The "Fuujinshi" Underpass

While watching the latest episode of the Minami Hamabe Medical Drama "Dr.White", I immediately noticed the underpass where the jogging Emoto Tasuku stopped to ponder...

...as it was the SAME underpass I had JUST seen in "Fuujinshi" where Mai Fukagawa first crosses paths with Taichi Saotome and the Dark Mists....

This is the first time I've noticed it's reappearance, not really sure how many times I've seen it before (if any)...but I'll be on the lookout for it!!

My Love From the Stars, J-Drama Version!

 As someone who rather liked the original Korean “You Who Came From the Stars”  with Soohyun Kim and the saucy  Jihyun Jun, (which I gushed about here), I was very interested to hear they were making this Japanese version starring Sota Fukushi and Mizuki Yamamoto as the respective main leads!

400 years ago the man now named Mitsuru Higashiyama (Sota Fukushi) beamed down to earth where he met and interacted with a young girl named Kiyo.  Due to a certain incident, he missed the ship back which would not be back for another 400 years! 

 Since then he has since been biding his time, settling into the human way of living until the ship comes around again that will take him back to his homeworld! In this particular century, he's chosen the profession as  a teacher at a college.

Mizuki Yamamoto stars as Tsubaki Sasahara, a hard-headed but very popular actress with a larger-than life attitude and a mouth to match! She always gives her best at work, but as she’s brash and scatterbrained about things, she’s usually the laughingstock of the media, making her even more outspoken!

As the story begins, fate has somehow placed both Mitsuru AND Tsubaki together as neighbors in a High-rise apartment complex, and whenever they cross paths, Tsubaki’s abrasive and larger than life personality against Mitsuru’s stern and conservative outlook creates some very dynamic conversations!!!

At the moment, both have no significant other in their lives, and there’s a reason why:
There’s an overshadowing backstory haunting Mitsuru, of a young girl named Kiyo (Natsuki Deguchi) he met when he first beamed down- something tragic has happened to her, and he’s been lamenting his loss ever since, and has never cared for another.

One day about 17 years ago, Mitsuru had a strange premonition of a young girl that looked just like Kiyo getting killed in a street accident. Using his vision as a guide, he races to the site of the accident and saves her before she can be hurt.

 Little does Mitsuru know that this young girl he saved would grow up to be the obnoxious actress Tsubaki living next door to him!

And as for Tsubaki, though she doesn’t remember the face of the man who rescued her, it’s he that she’s been in love with for her whole life and has been rejecting marriage proposals from suitors such as Hiroya Uwajima (Asuka Kudo) because of it.

The two bickering neighbors have no idea that they are secretly the ones they’ve been longing for all these years, and as their personalities clash, things get even MORE heated!

With Mitsuru’s unhuman sensitive hearing, he can’t sleep when Tsubaki releases stress by yowling songs at the tip of her lungs, and adding further to the fact that she’s just returned to School and has found out HE’s gonna be her new teacher, ya just KNOW things are GONNA GET INTERESTING!

And as all these things are happening, the fated spaceship that is set to to take Mitsuru back home is set to arrive in just a few months! What will happen within that short time!
Also along for the ride are Haruka Kinami in a wonderfully snarky role as Tsubaki’s chief rival Reiko Bando...

Haruka Fukuhara as the sweet and gentle Yukino Tsuji

and Asuka Kudo and Tsubasa Imai as the Uwajima Brothers…

Also Ken Mitsuishi as Kurachi, Mitsuru’s only Earth friend- a lawyer he worked with in what appears to be the mid 1950’s. Now very old, he still meets up with Mitsuru to talk, and is quite saddened to her that his friend will soon be making the trip back.

This going to be a 10 episode treatment of a 21 episode show, and I’m curious how they’re going to tackle it. I’ve watched two episodes so far, and it’s really great! I seems very much like what I remember from the original show, yet it’s been so long since I’ve seen it that it’s like watching it all over again fresh!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Your Monthly Keiko: March 2022

A winsome Keiko for March!