Beautiful Seolhyun

Damn, though Seolhyun may not be my favorite member of FNC pop act AOA or even the second I cannot deny that she is one gorgeous freaking girl!  She has been getting known as the new Korea "it" girl and looking as these smoldering pictures from the latest Marie Claire, it's easy to see why!

 Yes, ChoA is still my AOA bias and Hyejeong is still my favorite "Sexy" member, but Seolhyun is definitely up there in the captivating and elegant category!

Holey Shmokes!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Another Wonderfully Morose Role For Satoshi Ohno in “Sekai Ichi Muzukashii Koi”

Arashi’s Satsoshi Ohno has been pretty famous for playing these rather cold and moody characters, whether it be dark and calculating (like in Maou) or just plain eccentric (Kagi No Kakatta Heya), and here we have him playing yet another emotionally frigid character in  Sekai Ichi Muzukashii Koi!

Ohno plays Reiji Samejima, a man of enormous riches and success with the Hotel business (Samejima is a star player in the Hotel development game, and to date, his Hotel chain SAMEJIME has expanded to five hotels) but when it comes to matters of human interaction and romance, he is like an ignorant child.

Eiko Koike and Satoshi Ohno as Secretary and President

 He runs his businesses like a cold machine, nit-picky down to the smallest speck of dust and ruthless and callous about dismissing any employees who dare come up short with his demands. All his employees and underlings fear him and his condescension, and so it with some surprise that when he crosses paths for the first time with thoughtful and outspoken Shibasaki Misaki, though she does many things to aggravate him, he finds that there is something about her that prevents him from lashing out and reprimanding her.

Cute First Meeting: Misaki Meets Big Boss Reiji

 Each time he sees her, she does SOMETHING that gets under his skin, but he finds himself more and more interested in her. He cannot fathom why, but of course, we as the viewer know- she is an incredibly charismatic girl that seems so genuine, in both her personal life and at work, that a materialistic guy like Reiji just doesn’t know what to make of her or how to deal with her!

Haru as Misaki Shibasaki

Ohno as Grouchy President Samejima

 There’s a bit of rivalry in the hotel chain business, and Reiji has his arch-enemy with Hideo Wada (Kitamura Kazuki), the president of Reiji’s competing company STAY GOLD. Throughout their rise in ranks, Wada has always been the dazzling entrepreneur and has always made it a point to point out Samejima’s social shortcomings, whether they be style or fashion. 

"Ooh, what a beauty!! Is she attached?" Wonders Reiji 

"I see you've met my date, Samejima!"

"Good Old Samejima...We ought to get him a girl!"

And so when Wada shows up at a gala event with a bombshell on his arm (the luscious, luscious Anne Nakamura, whom I’ve gushed about here and here, oooh do I love this woman!) and pokes fun at Reiji for having no date,  he makes it his mission: He MUST find a date to show Wada up at the next event, even better, he must show up with a FIANCE! THAT will shut up Wada but good!
 But where to find such a woman? Past experiences have shown that every woman that goes out with him soon learns that Samejima is an arrogant, materialistic and unfeeling person who cares for nothing but money and himself!  After several such rejections, Reiji finally finds a girl that he feels will be PERFECT for the role of his fiancé…Shibasaki Misaki !

He attempts to woo her in his usual gruff and bulldozing ways, but his stoic secretary Muraoki Maiko (Eiko Koike, in a GREAT role) who seems to be only one who can work with Reiji and understand how he is, tells him that if he wants to get a girl, he will HAVE to change his attitude and ways.  Together with Muraoki and his chauffeur (Tetta Sugimoto), the two try and help the awkward Samjima in his endeavors to attract Shibasaki.

Trying to be friendly to a stunned Misaki

Helping Hands: Eiko Koike and Tetta Sugimoto

 Aww, so far, such a fun show, though it DOES remind me not just a little of the Tsuyoshi Kusanagi /Keiko Kitagawa drama  “Dokushi Kizoku” from a few years back, same formula: Icy tycoon meets spritely young girl who opens his heart and makes him see the world in a new light, but I like the characters well enough,  Haru, whom I’m seeing for the first time, has a very affable aura and you like her right away, and as I’ve mentioned before, Eiko Koike is freaking awesome in this show. Time to check out more!

Eiko Koike as Maiko Muraoki, my fave character on the show

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Notes on "Love Song"

Sakura Fujiwara and Masaharu Fukuyama in "Love Song"

Just watched the first episode of the new Masaharu Fukuyama drama “Love Song”, and so far it seems to be a pretty interesting show: Fukuyama plays Kamishiro, a musician who once had a big musical career but now works as a Personnel Counselor of the Big Mobile company. 

Masaharu Fukuyama as Kamishiro

Sakura Fujiwara as Sakura

One day he is asked to counsel a young mechanic named Sakura in the company who has problems with communicating. Through this first meeting he finds that the reason she is closed up is because she has a speech impediment and though she doesn’t seem to want his help, something about her touches him, and he begins looking for ways for her to get through her problems.

He notices one day that she likes to sing to herself, and they have a breakthrough when they realize that when she sings, she doesn’t stutter. Her voice, which reminds Kamishiro of his former singing partner, enthralls him and he finds he wants to encourage this girl to pursue a singing career.

When I first read the synopsis, it sounded a bit generic, but the actress playing Sakura (Fujiwara Sakura) is really great and I found myself really caring about her. (reminds me a LOT of Satomi Ishihara back in her “Kimi Wa Petto” days) Additionally, her circle of friends are really great too, especially Kaho who plays a sort of surrogate elder sister to her (they both grew up in the orphanage), the interaction between these two is really awesome, very high emotions!

 Kamishiro himself is a bit of an enigma, I still can’t tell if he’s a cool dude or an inept and clueless guy.   Though he really seems to care about Sakura, BOY he’s really a player when it comes to his women, and he’s really a nuisance to his friends, especially his ever suffering colleague (Miki Mizuno), the woman who was the keyboardist in his band. He hits her up when he needs a place to sleep, all the while oblivious to the fact that she loves him.

Well, so far so good, though I must say that the preview for next week looks FULL of those clichés I hate in these kind of dramas…eek, hopefully the strength of these characters will be enough to keep this show feeling fresh and original...we’ll have to wait and see! 

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Futarikko Girls Travelogue

Maiko Kikuchi and Hiromi Iwasaki in Ii Tabi Yume Kibun 

In the j-drama section of reddit, someone was trying to remember the name of the 1997 drama where a little girl gets taught shogi (Japanese chess) by an old man and eventually goes on to become a champion, and I suggested that that drama sounded an awful lot like the classic NHK asadora Futarikko.

 I was later told about "Ii Tabi Yume Kibun” episodes that ran a few years back…with BOTH Futarikko girls (the older girls, not the younger girls) as the traveling commentators!

I was dying to see how both Hiromi Iwasaki and Maiko Kikuchi looked after 15 years, and when he sent over copies of the show, I was to find they looked absolutely fabulous as adults! Both girls had turned into mature 35-something women, but had lost none of the spark that made them so engaging back in 1997!

 In fact, one thing I really loved watching this was how much they seemed like real sisters, and when they went to fetch water from a springs and it splashed all over the place,  their wit and laughter was so funny, it felt like I was still watching a continuation of Futarikko!

This episode took the girls to the city of Kyoto, a town that is said to be extremely hot during summer, yet the girls visited the shops and checked out the eateries in a very cool environment, making for a very pleasant trip all around!

 Also got another episode of Ii Tabi Yume Kibun, and THIS one featured Maiko Kikuchi once again…and Satomi Tezuka, the actress who, of course, played Maiko’s MOTHER on Futarikko! Ah, it was like seeing the whole gang again!

Satomi Tezuka and Maiko Kikuchi

PS, It was quite a different dynamic with Maiko and Satomi as compared to Maiko and Hiromi, naturally, one seemed like Mother and Daughter and the other seemed like sisters traveling! Ah, the NHK Asadora bonds never break, they just go on and become stronger!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Letters From Kanai Nirai

First time seeing the 2005 Yu Aoi movie “Letters From Kanai Nirai”…what a sweet and gentle movie, I don’t know how I managed to let this one pass me by for so long. Well, better late than never, and I’m so glad I did!

 Letters from Kanai Nirai (Nirai Kanai Kara No Tegami) is the story of a young girl named Fuuki (Aoi) who is dropped off to stay with relatives on a remote island in Okinawa while her mother goes to live in Tokyo when she is but 7 years old. As the years go by her mother keeps promising to return one day and get her but never does.  The only communication she has with her mother are the letters that come to her without fail on her birthday.

 As Fuuki gets older she seems to know that the elders are keeping the true nature of her mother away from her, but it isn’t til she is 18 years old and decides to move to Tokyo herself that the true meaning of the distance between them…and the letters she has sent.

 This was such a sweet movie (naturally, any movie that has Okinawa as the backdrop is going to be breezy and laid back) and I how even back in 2005 Aoi Yu was just completely enveloping herself in her roles- she is SO believable as Fuuki you really feel like you know her and are along with her on her journey.
 I have to say that I pretty much guessed the plot of Letters from Kanai Nirai right away- a few years ago, there was a essay on NPR’s “This American Life” that told the true story of a correspondence between Mother and Daughter that was almost exactly what transpired in the movie...though that ended on a more bitter note than the Aoi Yu film which was filled with warmth and love.

Aoi Yu, she’s still amazing me as always!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com