Crush Of The Day: Iwasa Mayuko

Watching the dark and moody drama DEEP LOVE based on the writings of mobile-phone guru YOSHI has opened my eyes to just how wonderful an actress Mayuko Iwasa is. I mean, I’d seen her before in the wildly wacky comedy drama MEI-CHAN NO SHITSUJI, but all I remembered about her turn as fellow student Ryuonji Izumi was that she was a very (if a bit dour) pretty girl.

Now here comes Deep Love. MAN, what a 90 degree turn from those bright and fun high school comedies, this one is a gloomy, bleak and heartbreaking melodrama about the sordid underside of one schoolgirl’s life, where betrayal and heartbreak has closed up her heart and sent her spiraling down a road of drugs, violence and prostitution. But through it all you can sense that underneath is a good girl just waiting for a chance to emerge once again.
Mayuko is just BRILLIANT as the emotionally flawed Ayu! Though her character is silent and morose for most of the show, what you read in her expressions speaks volumes. Something about the way she coldly looks at things with her beautiful but withdrawn eyes makes you instantly understand the hurt and pain she’s been going throughout her life, a life that has brought her to this state where the only way she can face up each morning is to detach herself from any kind of feelings, saying to herself, “If you had a heart, you wouldn’t be able to survive”. A really HEART-WRENCHING show!
Besides its great acting and story, another admirable thing about DEEP LOVE is its commitment to the pacing of the show. Nothing is rushed, particularly in the scenes with Ayu, and the viewer is there to watch and observe the goings on just as Ayu is experiencing them herself. When she is presented with a new insight to a certain subject, we will see her thoughtfully ponder on it, and then her thoughts appear onscreen as text-messages, mantras for her to go by: “If You Die, That’s It.” and “People shed such Beautiful Tears”.
Another thing about Deep Love is how BEAUTIFULLY the scenes are shot! The composition and framing of the scenes are VERY artistically done, and so may of them seem like they could have been framed photograph prints handing on a wall! I mean, take for instance this scene of Ayu talking to her friend Reina. Simple enough, but it is pulled back to show the colorful graffiti and even the slow water trickling down the slab in the foreground.
Or this one with Ayu leaving after talking to the old woman she sees every morning (and who will change Ayu's life) look at the buildings and streets, so beautifully framed and shot!

Just about the only thing that strikes me as “off” about this drama is that opening Credits song “Delighted” by LEAD. I dunno, but in MY opinion, this song doesn’t match the feel of the drama AT ALL, and actually takes me out of the “mood” of the show every time it starts. Not helping things is the fact that during the song, they show upcoming scenes (read: spoilers!) from the drama! Thus, this is an ABSOLUTE MUST FORWARD!!! The ending theme, however, is just INCREDIBLE, a sad and melancholy song that TOTALLY captures the feel and loneliness of the show. Sung by Sato Hiroko, the lyrics to the song AI GA WATASHI WO SUKUTTE KURERUNO just tears your heart out when listening to it at the end of each episode:

Deep Love- Why Do I Want Love?
Deep Love- Can Love Save Me?

My interest in Mayuko sent me searching online looking for more information on this beautiful actress, and I must say with all candor how thrilled I was to read in her Dramawiki stats that she was "an actress and gravure idol" GRAVURE IDOL? Well, I just couldn't imagine moody Miss Iwasa running about in a bikini, and made a HUGE effort to get my hands on some of her video magazines to see for myself, and as you can see here, Mayuko was INDEED a perky bikini model, (and a STUNNING one at that!) making me all the more impressed by here acting skills, because you would NEVER have thought the girl playing Ayu in Deep Love was ANYTHING EVEN CLOSE TO a genki idol girl!

Thanks to this drama, I now absolutely LOVE Mayuko Iwasa, and I’m excited to watch some of the other dramas she’s in, even to the extent of digging out HANAZAKARI KIMI TACHI E and making an effort to watch the drama past the first episode! AHAHAHAHAHA!

I’m really wanting to see more shows featuring Mayuko playing lead roles as most dramas seem to only have her appearing as a guest in a single episode. Funny that DEEP LOVE was a lead role for her, as it actually was an earlier drama for her, years before MEI CHAN came out! Hopefully we'll be seeing even MORE stuff from this talented actress!!

*Once again a BIG THANKS to the fine folks over at TIMELESSUBS,

for without their hard work I would never have been able to enjoy this drama (as well as so many others)!!