Notes On "Utsubora"

Recently wrapped up the dark noir/erotica WOWOW drama "Utsubora" (Moray Eel) and had some thoughts on it...

I was captivated by this story of a faded writer named Mizorogi (Yukiya Kitamura) who, upon the suicide of a woman named Aki (Atsuko Maeda) whom he had stolen a manuscript and plagiarized as his own, is confronted by an identical woman named Sakura (also Maeda) claiming to be the woman's twin sister. 

Captivating and mysterious, the woman takes over Mizorogi's life in both his writing and "under the sheets" as they eventually engage in a sordid romantic tryst, even as he struggles to uncover if this woman is truly a twin sister, or the deceased victim herself seemingly back from the grave!

Meanwhile Mizorogi's own editor Tsuji (Fujiwara Kisetsu) himself is starting to doubt that the recent stories he is penning have come from his own hand. And when talking to fellow authors like Yatabe (Ikkei Watanabe) and Nomiya (Akiko Hinagata), they seem to share the same opinion!

And while all this is going on, the police detectives (Hajime Okayama,Kohei Takeda) are not far behind, concerned because not only does the deceased Aki have no credentials to prove who she is, neither does the mysterious Sakura! They suspect foul play, and if, as they suspect, Sakura is simply Aki pretending to be her own twin...then who is the dead person lying in the morgue?

A GRIPPING drama that had me on my toes throughout its ENTIRE run with its twists and turns, and a SPECTACULAR performance by Atsuko Maeda who simply SLAYED as the dual roles of both the deceased writer Aki and her brooding twin counterpart Sakura!

A really great cast- when was the last time I saw Akiko Hinagata in anything? LOL!

Ooh, and also MUST mention the always adorable Yuna Taira, here as the naive niece of Mizorogi, the eternally cheerful and wide-eyed waif Koyomi...who, behind her happy smile holds some dark secrets of her own!

I wasn't planning on writing an after-viewing wrap up for this one,(while engaging, I found the conclusion a bit underwhelming)  but I found I just could not stop thinking about Utsubora even days after finishing it! Finally had to jot down my thoughts and in the end did a write up proper!

WOWOW certainly are becoming the kings of the murky, dark and desperate dramas!!!

Props to them for keeping me on my toes with these fresh ideas and concepts!

Crush Of The Day: Mayu Yamaguchi

As a drama structured primarily for main character Tsuyu (Riho Sayashi) to give tips on making cheap and easy-to-fix meals, “Mentsuyu Hitori Meshi” doesn’t have much on the actual story content side, but I must say I’ve been developing a mild crush on actress Mayu Yamaguchi as Riho’s co-worker Iriko Togoshi who is Tsuyu's main adversary in more ways than one!

For one, she is the complete opposite of Tsuyu. While Tsuyu wears cheap and comfortable clothing, Iriko is always dressed professionally to the T. Where Iriko is calm, collected and immaculate in all her jobs, Tsuyu is a sloppy mess!

Their main point of contention , however, comes  in making meals. Tsuyu is a carefree and lazy girl who uses the cheapest ingredients and the least amount of work in making her food- a far cry from Iriko, whose virtual Martha-Stewart levels of perfection in the kitchen is a source of  both inspiration and aggravation to Tsuyu as she tries to keep up with her!

It creates some fun scenes with the demure Iriko politely listening to Tsuyu's crude cooking tips every day, knowing how slapdash the methods are...but secretly curious just how Tsuyu's meals must taste!

Nonetheless, whenever Tsuyu happens to feel she is getting a leg up on Iriko, it only takes a quick comparison between their cutlet sandwiches to see which one is clearly the "winner" here! Even Tsuyu has to demur this time...but she's not giving up!

Their relationship is best summed up in this clip where Tsuyu has just been praised by the boss for her meal (who rewards workers she likes with seat pillows) and is trying to playfully rub it into Iriko’s face. But once Iriko tells her ways she could have IMPROVED the meal, Tsuyu is instantly back to being dejected, AHAHAHA! I love the calm and collected demeanor Togoshi has to Iriko’s antics, patiently keeping her composure as Iriko has her fun, before dropping the bomb on her LOLOL.

It’s Iriko's refined aura that makes her so attractive to me!

You know, going over these screencaps I made of Mayu, it occurs to me how much she reminds me of early Haru Kuroki, and we all know what a FAN of HERS I became! Got a feeling Mayu's going to be growing her resume in big ways!

She has certainly come a long ways since her early days when she was playing the little sisters kind of roles in dramas like REVERSE and the daughter of Kimura Takuya in "I'm Home"...

... will be interesting to see her make the transition from high school girl to more grown up roles like these!

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PS: Also great to see Natsumi Okamoto again (here as one of Tsuyu’s odder  co-workers), really loved her in “Pâtissier-san to Ojousan”! Very funny how she always needs to be "keeping an eye" on Tsuyu!

Just a bit of the "spice" that keeps this mostly routine foodie show entertaining for me!