Crush of the Day: Sawajiri Erika

Like a lot of people, I fell in love with Erika Sawajiri through that awesome j-drama 1 Litre of Tears.

She was just so pretty in this one. Above is a capture of my very favorite outfit of hers, this summer dress, she looked so cute in it! Unfortunately, most of the full-body shots of her in this outfit, she's either in the hospital or standing in the rain, all wet! :(
I didn't watch 1 Litre of Tears til years after it aired. When i finally got around to watching it, I loved the show so much, and fell in love with Erika Sawajiri.

Then my friend Car said 'Hey, wasn't that the girl who had that scandal where she was being interviewed and she was giving all that attitude to the press?"

My mouth dropped open, and I yelled "What! That was HER?" For I totally remembered that fiasco.

This bummed me out, because one likes to believe that the actors (and actresses)in dramas are just like the characters they play in their dramas, and I didn't like this memory of the "real" Erika Sawajiri intruding!

Fortunately, I still had over half the drama to watch, and by the 7th episode, I regained my image of Erika as the sweet little girl, and I'm gonna retain that image in my head as long as possible! Erika Daisuki! Ahahahahaha!

Addendum:

Say what you will about Erika good or bad, but when it gets right down to it, she’s simply a beautiful girl and as these pics from the 2010 GLAMOUR Photoshoot will attest, she’s absolutely captivating in front of a camera! Oooh, and those last few shots of her sprawled out over those books can KILL!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Kondo Masahiko / Ai wa Hitotsu

   Since we were talking about curvaceous model Akiko Hinagata the other week, I thought it was time to  come clean about a guilty pleasure of mine.


Remember that Japanese drama that came out around 1997 starring Akiko Hinagata and Jinnai Takanori called STALKER~SASOU-ONNA? The one where Akiko plays the psychotic Glenn Close to Jinnai Takanori’s Michael Douglas a la FATAL ATTRACTION? And was universally panned for being outrageous and silly? That One?

I fricking LOVED IT!

That is to say, all the way up until the last episode, I thought that show was right up there with shows like LONG VACATION, SAY YOU LOVE ME and HITOTSU YANE NO SHITA! Gasp!

 But then, the LAST episode aired, and they concluded the show with a very fake stuffed Akiko Hinagata falling down a flight of stairs… and I had my moment of clarity: “Say…maybe this drama AIN’T all that, after all!” Then I thought about the past 10 weeks when I was raving to anyone who would listen about this fantastic, gripping show, and how I would have to face them afterwards! Ahahahaha!

 But…Why did I love it so much?

 Well, like I mentioned before, the drama WAS a more or lessj-dorama rip-off of Fatal Attraction, with Akiko as the nut case girlfriend, Jinnai Takanori as the befuddled cheatin’ husband, and forever slighted Yumi Aso as the heartbroken wife, and HEY at least it was ENTERTAINING, right? And of course, Akiko was lovely to look at either way,(except for when she had a knife in her hand, of course) so think I would have rated this an OK drama anyway, but the fact of the matter is, the thing that I absolutely LOVED THE MOST about the drama was THE THEME SONG.


 It’s true, and I think if you ask any of my friends who I’d preached to about the show’s greatness, they’d agree that the thing I always raved about was the way the drama would have this chilling cliffhanger, then the show would fade to black, and the incredible song “Ai Wa Hitotsu” would start and the credits would start scrolling. A perfect song to match the show, rocking and melodramatic at the same time, It was one of those ending credits that had the same collage of clips set to the music, so that after about three episodes, you got used to seeing specific images with specific lines in the song- THAT SHOW WAS LIKE THAT!

  Well, for 10 episodes that show thrilled me, but unfortunately, as I’ve already mentioned, that last episode was so dreadfully silly and zany that it made the other episodes seem silly as well, and one blogger somewhere (I forget where) sums up the entire series in the most accurate and succinct way: “Akiko Hinagata threatens Jinnai Takanori each week, and he makes his “Oh No Mr. Bill face!” Ahahaha, Oh My Gosh that was it exactly!

 I remember later I saw Akiko on some show (I think it was MECHA MECHA IKETERU) and she was happily involved in a hilarious spoof of Stalker Sasao-Onna, where instead of demanding Jinnai Takanori to make love to her, she’s demanding the guy (I think Okamura dressed as Jinnai Takanori) to let her put mayonnaise on his head!

Instead of breathing “Shuji-san, make love to me”, she’s going “Shuji, Shuji…Mayonnaise! Mayonnaise!” And of course the spoof ends with Okamura sitting there while Akiko happily squirts some mayo out of a tube onto his face! AHAHAHAHAHAA!!

 Whew! That was too much! Okay, Here’s Ai Wa Hitotsu” by the big old Johnny’s Dai-Sempai himself, Masahiko Kondo!

Comments from the Original Post:

    * MorningBerryz wrote:

Ah did you manage to transfer the drama to DVD? I purchased the recorder but have yet to attempt a VHS to DVD transfer. You know I never knew that this theme song was done by a Johnny's member but then again all I really knew back then was Smap! :P This song's really catchy and you can really picture the credit footage. LOL OMG the 'dummy'??!! It was like they suddenly ran out of budget to make it look a bit more um real. :/ Still I remember you ♥ing this drama so much! ^ ^

LOL I wish I could've watched that spoof too~! Sounds so funny and..eh?...'mayonnaise?!' :O Birdman was really bothersome for me though...just kept thinking...why aren't you doing something?!! >_< But then years later Kato Noriko would do much the same in a sense and I remember M saying that...and I quote: "she just stands there looking pretty." LOL :O I think the drama had Asuka singing the theme song..was in "One?"..I can't remember at the moment.

Really nostalgic! Thanks for sharing the single and memories! ^ ^

    * zdorama replied to MorningBerryz’s comment:

    Did you manage to transfer the drama to DVD?

    Naw, for this entry I only copied a snippet of it on DVD so I could capture the elevator scene with Akiko checking out Jinnai. 

    Oh, and I found that j-dorama page that made the “Mr. Bill” quip, it was on micahworld http://www.micahworld.com, where they had this to say about Stalker Sasao Onna:

    Best "So Bad It's Good" Dorama: Sutouka Sasou Onna (The Stalker). Unintentionally hilarious show about a woman who goes off the deep end. It's worth watching just for Jinnai Takanori's constant "Oh No!" Mr.-Bill expressions, but there's a lot more! By the time you reach the final episode and the ending, you'll be rolling on the floor.

    I don't think I really knew Matchy (as they call him) was Johnnys at the time either, but remember on the 1995 Kohaku, when he did "Midnight Shuffle", KinKi Kids danced the intro and sang the first verse with him onstage, so I should have had an idea, I guess!

    * Yametekudasai wrote:

Kondo and Nakamori Akina kinda lived this drama, no?

    * MorningBerryz replied to zdorama’s comment:

'Best so bad it's good' drama! lol! Ah that's so true though....Birdman was definitely channeling Mr. Bill throughout~! O__o By the 'ending' like you mentioned they must be referring to the "dummy" incident. :O It's like the whole production team lost the will to even try realism and it really does make you go Eh?! O__o

Wow you're right they do have similar tastes! I haven't heard of that drama either though....was it on NGN? This person's pretty old school though...thank you for sharing the link! ^ ^ LOL! EH?~! '55?'....... O__o Saburo may be right! ^o^

Kinki Kids....Kinki Kids.....when did I know of them?...hmmm.....(goes to check...) not until the Summer of '98 when I first purchase a single and their first album. Are they still using alphabets to name them? A friend once joked that after they reach "Z" they'll have to start calling their albums "AA....BB....until one day it's "AAA" for car assistance! :P And I remember having trouble back then convincing a few people that "Kinki" is a prefecture if you know what I mean!......the jokes never ended back then so I eventually gave up and joined them! :P If you ever bump into Jim W. mention Kinki Kids to him if you dare! :) Wow you knew of them from way back and I didn't even know that they existed back then....must say your memory is amazing!!

MorningBerryz

    * MorningBerryz wrote:

And speaking of the Kinki Kids I forgot to mention....what in the world is going on with Domoto Tsuyoshi?! O_o I didn't know what was going on with his hair at first but then it's like he became an old man inside. O_o ?!! This is not the same person that I enjoyed watching in "To Heart" and "Summer Snow!" :O It's like he's trying to be someone else....I just haven't figured out who that is yet. Granted I haven't watched Domoto Kyoudai in ages and thank you for those! ^ ^

zdorama

    * zdorama replied to MorningBerryz’s comment:

It's funny because his all around image has gotten even stranger since!

At first it seemed like he was doing his Johnny Depp, but in the latest Shojiki Shindois, he's wearing these glasses that make him look like a 50 year old driving instructor!

MorningBerryz

    * MorningBerryz replied to zdorama’s comment:

Ah Johnny Depp! I think he was best in "Sleepy Hollow"..so funny and cool at the same time! ^ ^ But Domoto Tsuyoshi is beginning to weird me out a little or maybe that's too strong. Okay, puzzle me. O_o Hmmm...if he's going for a '50' year old look now I shudder to think of what image he'll portray when he's actually 50 years old. :O ....."OMG! Tsuyoshisan is bringing his walker onto the set again!" :o

ドラゴン桜 と 夜王 : おわり

Saeko, Aragaki Yui, Yamapi, Nao Akiyoshi, Masami Nagasawa and Teppei

Well, after 11 weeks, two of my favorite shows have finally come to an end, and that general empty feeling in your heart that comes  whenever you get too attached to these dramas has arrived! That leaves only ATSUHIME to fulfill my weekly dose of japanese dramas, and even that show won't be on forever!

  Both shows closed as well as could be expected, NIGHT KING was about right on target with a very solid ending, but I really wished we could have seen more of the kids from Dragon Zakura AFTER the Tokyo University exams. I just didn't want to leave them!

A thought, though: I wonder if Dragon Zakura and Yaoh's last episodes were actually an hour-and-a-half (as most j-doramas are) and KIKU squeezed them into hour brackets. Both shows went slightly over an hour, and if I'm not mistaken, Dragon Zakura had only ONE commercial break! That would make for more than the standard 45 minute drama...

Matsuoka with Kitamura Kazuki, Karina

That's all fine and dandy, but I can't help worry that they might have cut stuff out to made this timeframe work. Especially in the Dragon Zakura scenes with Yamapi and Masami....seemed like there was more, and I even think I heard a snippet of dialog start as it abruptly cut to the next scene! I guess I'll have to rent a copy of the last episode somewhere to be sure. ????

The clincher was that since both shows ran a few minutes over an hour, my DVD (which was set to SP and would fit only two hours of stuff) cut off RIGHT as the ending song to Night King ended. For a milli-second, I brethed a sigh of releif: "I Whew! JUST MADE IT! Then to my horror, there was MORE after the song! Just a 20 second afterword kind of thing, but CRAP! So technically, I'm missing the "end" of Yaoh!

In the immortal words of...Kanjani 8! "Maa sorya shouganai"

J-Drama Femme Fatale: Suzuki Kyoka

So I was watching the 2006 movie “A Cheerful Gang Turns The Earth” [Yoki na Gang ga Chikyu wo Mawasu] the other day. And all through the movie, I was racking my brains trying to figure out who the lead actress was. She was BEAUTIFUL, man, some scenes I just couldn’t concentrate, she was so smokin’! It didn’t hurt that the character she was playing,cool, calm and calculating, just added to the allure of this gal!

  So I’m watching this, and in EVERY scene, I’m saying to myself “Grphgh…I KNOW who this Actress IS! Just gimme a MINUTE!” But the answer just wasn’t forthcoming! She looked so much like ALWAYS SUNSET ON THIRD STREET star Koyuki  that even though I knew it wasn’t her, that was the actress I kept coming back to. At some point, after scraping the barrel of my brain, it occurred to me that she looked ever so slightly like this actress I loved years and years ago that played Lady Oichi (Nobunaga’s sister) in the Taiga Drama HIDEYOSHI, a woman named Mitsuko Yorichika. But  wouldn’t she be too old to play this hot young gal? But then again, I said to myself, that actress had makeup and a headpiece and was done up in Feudal times in HIDEYOSHI, maybe she was a lot younger under all of that!

  But  even there, the actress didn’t look QUITE like her either! Argh, She looked SO familiar, part of me decided she must be a new actress that I’d just seen recently in some drama or movie.  BY the time the movie was winding down, I was thinking to myself, “C’mon, C’mon, get to the ending credits already!” I just hadda know! But then, guess what happened? The ending credits weren’t SUBTITLED! Agh! I rewound the credits and tried to read the japanese characters as they quickly scrolled across the screen, but the ending theme song was a very wonky song sung by Wada Akiko, and  after rewinding and hearing the song three times, I eventually gave up.

  Funny thing is,  at one point in my life I DID know exactly who the stars of the show were, because CHEERFUL GANG TURNS THE EARTH was shown here in Hawaii at the International Film Festival, and it was the terrific cast that made me want to check it out in the first place! Unfortunately, by the time we found out that the movie was showing, it  was already starting and we just didn’t have enough time to get down there.

 So I always kept in mind that when the movie came out, I would just buy it, and that’s about ALL I remembered, the only other thing I really remembered was that Osawa Takao was one of the actors in it!  So I’m watching the movie, and not only was Osawa Takao in it, Sato Koichi AND Matsuda Shota (the kid playing the new Shogun in ATSUHIME) were in it as well! Very famous actors...how did I forget! And that gorgeous mystery girl. Ah, back to my story.

  So with the movie providing no ultimate answer for me, It was off to the mighty Wikipedia site, where perusing the cast listing for Cheerful Gang finally gave me the name I was looking for…

Kyoka Suzuki!

WHA! I couldn’t believe it! That was ONE actress that never crossed my mind! I mean, granted, she WAS a really pretty actress and I DID know her pretty well back in the 90’s, but MAN, she looked SOOOOOO different from the last time I saw her! I loved her in dramas Like GAMAN DEKINAI, KIRA KIRA HIKARU, and especially AFRICAN NIGHTS, but  she had a very different look about her…Seems like she finally lost the ramen-styled hair she had before and replaced it with a stylish bob.  No wonder I didn’t recognize her!

She went from looking like this pretty lady:

To THIS sleek beautiful vixen!

 I was flabbergasted! WOW, Kyoka Suzuki!! I went onto the internet, and  began downloading alla these new pictures of her, damn, she looked so good! And I realized she’d adopted this “newer” look awhile ago, at least four or five years now.

 It’s a funny thing, too…She’s one of those actresses that (to Me, anyway), get just better and better looking with age. Even back in the African Nights days, I preferred that look to her  early “gravure” idol days. Which is too bad, ‘cause I don’t think you’re likely to see the mature Kyoka squeezing into a skimpy two piece bikini anytime soon, though I’m sure she CERTAINLY could pull it off!

Oh, and the Movie Itself? As you may have guessed by now, I LOVED it! The story is about these four individuals with unique powers: Osawa  is a human lie detector, Suzuki clocks off  time in her head like a computer, Matsuda can pickpocket anyone, and Sato is the charismatic talker who charms the audience/captives while the heist is  commencing. The four individuals happen to be at a bank when they are witness to a half-assed robbery, and after stopping the would -be thief, they decide THEY could do better, and become a slick crime unit making daring and theatrical robberies!

  I’ve always loved movies where a team of eccentric people who are aces at “what they do”  join together and execute perfectly planned heists, like that team at the beginning of that first Tom Cruise MISSION:IMPOSSIBLE movie, the HUDSON HAWK museum thieves, heck, even OCEAN’S ELEVEN had that spirit I’m talking about…well, CHEERFUL GANG just exudes the same stuff! Dressed in loud, flamboyant clothes, the look of the gang resembled a Sentai Group that even Ishinomori Shotaro would be proud of!

Okay, I’m off to go search for more recent Kyoka Suzuki pics.

Jya.

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Hinagata Akiko / Six Colors Boy

         Since we've been talking about it in previous entries, I thought it was about time I got off my duff and ripped the single so's y'all can enjoy it!
 This was the theme song for Crayon Shinchan, or at least one of the show's incarnations. I didn't really watch the show all that much, but the ones that I did happen to catch had some other song as the theme. I think the one used during the commercials,but I could be wrong.
  Sung by Uber-Boobed gravure model Hinagata Akiko, this single was a gift from a friend who knew I dug j-pop and figured, hey, anime, what's not to love. But he didn't know that I actually already kind of liked Hinagata Akiko from various variety shows, and would dig her evn more when Morningberryz acquired  one of those "Video Magazines" of hers...truly sexy and fun!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Nozawa Aya / Tenamonda Jinsei

Visiting Dayone’s page reminiscing about MACROSS soundtrack songs made me think about a cassette a friend made for me many years ago that was just filled with various songs from selected anime shows.

   Some great ones I recall were songs like Hare Nochi Parade by Tokyo Policewoman Duo (a song I'm STILL looking for in CD or MP3!), Mouichido Love You by Hiroko Kasahara and Itsumademo by Chisato Moritaka, but by FAR my favorite track on the cassette mix was a kicking song called “Tenamonda Jinsei”, a song that I didn’t know anything about except tht it was sung by an artist named Megumi Nozawa. Or at least, that was the name of the artist that my friend scribbled on the cassette case!

   Years later, my friend got ahold of a anime compilation with Tenamonda Jinsei on it, and made a copy of the CD for me…and also pointed out that the artist was AYA Nozawa, NOT “Megumi”! Yep,even though the kanji in her name was “Megumi”, in furugana on the side, it said “Aya”…so there you go.

I still didn’t know too much about the song however, and It wasn’t until years later I came across the ANIMENEWSNETWORK pge that had some data about the song. I found that the collection my friend had originally taken the song from was a CD called “Anime Hot Wave-The Third Wave”, a 1992 release, and the Aya Nozawa song was the theme for anime show MUSASHI, THE SAMURAI LORD!

 Okay, truth be told, that still leaves me pretty much in the dark about the origins of this song...what the heck is this "Musashi Lord"? And I can't seem to find any more information about Aya Nozawa, at least on english written pages , and hey, that's probably the PROBLEM, right? But even if I type her name in japanese in the search engine it doesn't bring up much. So it goes. Anyway....

 Man, listening to this song right now, It really takes me back-  this was such a  rockin’ favorite of mine at the time, very much in the flavour of then-current rockin’ artists I loved like Nanase Aikawa, KIX-S and Be-B!  

 Enjoy Tenamonda Jinsei!