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| Kyoko Fukada & Dean Fujioka in "Please Love The Useless Me" |
I’d been seeing images of the new drama “Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai" (Please Love the Useless Me) for awhile but never thought to check it out til I read a synopsis on a forum and discovered that it starred Kyoko Fukada, an actress near and dear to my heart. Funny, all the time I’d been staring at the promo pics, not once did I realize the adorably dizzy girl with the “Home Alone” expression was Fukakyon- I jut didn’t recognize her!
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| Cute, |
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| Cute, |
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| Cute! |
Dame na Watashi ni Koishite Kudasai tells the story of a naïve 30-something girl named Michiko (Fukada, playing another one of her signature type roles, think Toko from "To Heart" and you've got it) whom, because of her too-trusting outlook and ditzy demeanor, finds herself desperately trying to find a job to support herself and her good-for-nothing younger boyfriend!
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| Trying to appeal to her non-committing Boyfriend |
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| Getting Money for her Boyfriend |
By chance she comes across her former supervisor Ayumu (Dean Fujioka) who she considers her adversary; he had gotten her fired from her previous OL job because of her ineptness, but now, seeing her obviously struggling with monetary problems, offers her a job- seems the only reason he was so cross with her at the office was because it wasn’t a place he really wanted to be, and in fact he’s since quit and has started up a small café and invites her to join his work team.
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| Meting her ex-Supervisor Again... |
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| Joining the Staff at "Himawari" |
So far so good, you'd think, but ehhhhh... truthfully, I had to say that at first, this drama didn’t seem that interesting to me, ALL the usual cliché characters and story patterns of a generic J-drama romcom were there, the pretty main girl torn between two guys: the gruff lead guy whom the lead girl SWEARS she will never love (Ayumu) and the perfect “Man-of-her-dreams” guy (Daichi, played by Shohei Miura) that you KNOW is only there as a foil...
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| A knight in Shining Armor? |
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| Shohei Miura as Daichi |
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| Michiko is smitten... |
But then something happened that suddenly changed my mind: they introduced the character of Akira, Ayumu’s former girlfriend (played wonderfully by Maho Nonami). At first projected as a mean, selfish woman, after a huge blowup where she smashes a plate and storms off, she later spots Michiko walking home and invites her to talk .
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| Akira (Maho Nonami) |
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| An Ex-Lovers Quarrel |
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| "Yikes!"thinks a meek Michiko |
At first crying to Michiko for a sympathetic ear, when she realizes how innocent and simple Michiko is, she turns into more of an authoritative figure and begins giving advice to HER!
Watching the two of them bond over food and drinks, I began to feel some warmth from the drama at last- I realized that if the friendship of these two girls was going to be a thing, then this was something worthwhile the drama had to offer, and indeed, all the scenes with Michiko and Akira are GREAT!
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| "Hey, Wanna Go For a Drink?" |
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| Akira and Michiko getting to know one another |
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| Mature Akira (Maho Nonami) |
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| Naive Michiko (Kyoko Fukada) |
Once that took hold, I began to see that the oblivious Michiko was really the kind of girl who needed someone in her life that was strong and caring, and I saw that both Akira and Ayumu were the kind of people that could and would look out for her; After seeing people take advantage of Michiko’s hopelessly naïve and innocent personality, it made me feel so good to suddenly have two strong, mature people there for her.
My favorite scene in this first episode is when Akari goes with Michiko to confront her young boyfriend about his deceptions, and when he asks who she is, she coolly says, “I’m Michiko’s friend.”, as if to tell the guy, "Somebody's looking out for Michiko now, and you're never deceiving her again!", I got goosebumps!
And afterwards, when the two of them are taking a walk, the way Michiko follows along happily with Akira, her face beaming, made me smile, she’s so happy to have a real friend.
And at the same time, I began to appreciate the relationship between Michiko and Ayumu, this guy really cares about her, yelling exasperatedly into her face when she makes another one of her poor decisions, but kindly praising her when she does things correctly.
So Yeah, there are clichés in this drama, and it's a pretty unoriginal tale, but for now, I think I am happy to let it be, because the parts in this drama that DO work are too good!
