Kekkonshiki no Zenjitsu ni

Mieko Harada and Karina

So far Kekkonshiki no Zenjitsu ni, the melodrama (starring Karina as a young businesswoman who finds out she has brain cancer and possibly only months to live ) seems to be filled with all the usual J-drama cliches that I abhor, but Meiko Harada is so adorable and playful as her estranged mother that I feel I just HAVE to keep on watching it!

  Mieko Harada is one woman I've loved since seeing her waaaaaay back in 1996 in the excellent drama Oishii Kankei, and I even remember being particularly thrilled when I got an episode of SMAPxSMAP where she was the SMAP Bistro guest! LOLOL

Mieko with Miho Nakayama 20 years ago in Oishii Kankei

  Mieko's made a career out of playing these classy and stoic women, such a JOY to see her as this eccentric, sassy and PLAYFUL lady for a change! And while Karina's character is going through the roughest time of her life, her bright and positive force is JUST what the doctor ordered!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Another Yokohama Business Park Sighting!

Toma Ikuta on the steps of Yokohama Business Park

Regular readers of this blog know of my obsession with Yokohama Business Park with its unique design and familiar cobbled pond in front. I first saw in in “Pretty Guardian Sailor Moon” but only noticed it when it appeared in an episode of “Tsuki No Koibito” a few weeks later! From then on it became my hobby to document it whenever it showed up in the background of the dramas I watch…and the latest was in the penultimate episode of the highly riveting “Ouroboros”!

 Funny, I know this Waterfront Park so well that even before the structure itself showed up,  in an earlier part of the show, Ikou (Toma Ikuta) is talking to Hibino (Ueno Juri) and I said to myself, “Those buildings in the background look like the ones behind Yokohama Business Park!” 

I wondered if it was…and then, sure enough, the group meets up right at the shores of the famed waterworks and corridors!

One really cool thing about this appearance is that a significant portion of the scene takes palce BEHIND the structure, so we get to see Oguri Shun running through the corridors and  exiting out through the side, into the lobby area! Ah, it's like taking a tour!!! LOL

Yokohama Business Park…where will it turn up NEXT?!!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

An Intense Drama with “Ouroboros”

 Man, just watched the first episode of the suspense drama OUROBOROS last night and DAMN, I was blown AWAY, this is SUCH a DARK and RIVETING drama that I was clutching the edges of my seat throughout the entire show! I watch so many "light" dramas of the romance and comedy variety that whenever a show like BYAKUYAKOU, JOKER~YURUSAREZARU SOSAKAN or ALICE NO TOGE comes along, its grim reality and bleak outlook just shakes me UP! Such is a show like Ouborous!
 Once upon a time there was a Schoolteacher at an orphanage named Kashiwaba Yuiko (Hirosue Ryoko)who is beloved by all her students, especially two boys named Tatsuya and Ikou, who idolize everything she stands for. When she is found stabbed in the courtyard one night, the two look on helplessly as she dies in front of them and the culprits get away. Together they make a pact with each other: to find the four men who took their teacher from them…and get revenge.

Fast forward to present day and the boys have grown up into young men, with occupations that couldn’t be less alike: Ikou (Toma Ikuta) has become a successful Police Detective, while Tatsuya  (Oguri Shun) has become the leader of a lethal and terrifying Mob Syndicate. The only thing these two still have in common is the burning in their hearts to exact revenge on the culprits from that fateful day and eliminate them.

 Because of their professions, the two have a many sources of information to draw from, and whether by hook or crook, they use these connections to gather information so they can find their targets. But navigating their way through the web of corruption isn’t an easy task as they are surrounded by good and intelligent police investigators and detectives, not least of which is Hibino Mizuki (played by Juri Ueno), a smart and straight shooting detective who comes from a lineage of bigwig Police Detectives. She is partnered up with Ikou and likens him to a playful and charming goofball, but as they get deeper into the underground, even she being s wondering if there is more to him that his sweet demeanor.

 Takuya doesn’t have it any easier- naturally his mob dealings are already on the “wrong” side of the law and he constantly has the cops dropping in to keep an eye on what he’s up to…but now he has the added problem of working his own casework (and breaking a few bones and bodies to get his information) to cover up as well.

  On the surface, Ouroboros seems like your usual Revenge Thriller, but there is so much heart in it. You are always aware of what motivated these two boys to becoming the monsters that they are, and it was the love they had of their teacher. Like dramas like Joker~ Yurusarezaru Sosakan, or Alice No Toge, you know what they are doing is wrong, but OH! How you want them to succeed!

MAN gotta get back to watching this show- the storyline is SO intriguing and the CHARACTERS... EVERYONE in this show is top-notch, even the secondary characters and supporting cast... a REAL winner!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Satomi Ishihara..and Much More!

Originally tuned into the drama 5-ji Kara 9-ji Made (From Five To Nine) for Satomi Ishihara, but ended up staying for the various OTHER assortment of lovely young ladies that made up the show! Some of you may recall I started watching this awhile back but it was so wacky I put it on hold for a bit...Well I finally got around to resuming it and I think I've found the proverbial Silver Lining- there's LOTS to love in this drama!

 5-ji Kara 9-ji Made tells the tale of a young monk named Hoshikawa Takane (Yamashita Tomohisa) who falls in love with an English language teacher named Sakuraba Junko. They first met when she accidentally spilled a bowl of ashes onto his head during a ceremony, (LOL) and then, through various circumstances, the two met once again in a forced omiai of sorts. Upon seeing her and her vitality for life, Hoshikawa becomes completely entranced by her… but Junko is a career motivated woman and isn’t the least bit interested in him and his proposal to make her his temple bride! He then resolves to use any means to win her over and make her his bride, whether by following her around, becoming one of her students, or even abducting her and locking her away in the temple! (Daheck?)

 Gotta say that for a comedy, the overbearingly Stalkerish shenanigans Yamapi repeatedly pulled on Junko really rubbed me the wrong way and for the most part I found myself more irritated than entertained with their story. Happily, however, 5ji Kara 9 Ji Made was filled with other beautiful girls with their own stories, and it was THESE girls and THEIR tales that kept me coming back each episode!

 First off there was the sassy n sexy Makoto Kiyomiya. Wooo, so pretty, I knew I’d seen her before but just couldn’t place it. I even wondered if it was Ai Otsuka for a while there. Finally giving up and checking up on the dramawiki stats, I was pleasantly surprised to find this gal was none other than Saeko, a girl I’ve loved in other dramas as far back as Dragon Zakura! Makoto spends the show balancing between chasing after an unreturned love interest and being chased herself by a high school student!

  Momoe Yamabuchi: Probably my favorite character on the show!! Momoe (Rin Takanashi)  is a shy and introverted girl who is secretly (and hilariously) into Yaoi Manga (for those who don’t know, that comics of the “Boy Love” variety) and becomes involved with popular ladies man Arthur (played with his usual aplomb by Hayami Mokokichi) when he catches her with her beloved fetish comics. From there it was THEIR storyline that had me most interested!

Part of me wishes they made a whole separate drama of these two- the cool, popular guy who’s intrigued by the shy mousey girl who runs away from him whenever he comes near. He teases her about her comics, but you know he’s interested as well! And why not-she’s such an adorkable sweetie, you really love her as soon as you meet her! Fave scenes have GOT to be when she has Junko over at her house and you see her nerdy world and how spazzy she really is- so cute, even Junko has to smile!

And then there’s Ran Ino… DAMN, what a breathtaking BEAUTY! With such golden, exotic features I thought I had seen Jessica Alba reborn as a shojo manga character; my jaw dropped upon seeing her and after the first episode, I had to run online to find out just who this gal WAS! 

Turns out this fine actress was named Anne Nakamura, a sexy model who had heretofore only done sporadic acting. I made a mission to find her gravure work and Holy HELL, her online bikini pictures featuring that supple body and gorgeous face are simply to DIE for! What.A. Freaking.BABE!

  And if THAT wasn’t all, why, we’ve even got pretty Miyu Yoshimoto (last seen by me in the Kimura Takuya drama "I’m Home" as the secretive secretary Takanashi Yua) in the VERY clichéd role of “the perfect girl-that-the-mother-wants-her-son-to-marry” Ashikaga Kaori!  Cliched true, but my, so very nice to look at!

Ahahaha, yep, these gals and their storylines will keep me in it for the long haul!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com