ZDORAMA, AGAIN: daito shunsuke

Showing posts with label daito shunsuke. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 18, 2021

Crush of The Day: Mugi Kadowaki

I had already fallen in love with actress Mugi Kadowaki in the role of Saiko Sato in the spritely drama “Todome No Kiss” back in 2018 and she has officially entered Crush Status with “Ukiwa: Tomodachi Ijo, Furin Miman”as the entirely sweet Maiko Nakayama!

Ukiwa tells the story of a young couple Maiko and her husband Takuya (Shunsuke Daito), who has just transferred to a new job and have just moved into an apartment complex next door to Takuya’s supervisor Ichi Futaba (Naotaro Moriyama) and his wife Sei (Naomi Nishida).

Seeing Hubby off

Introduction to the team

At his workplace, Takuya is reconnected with his college friend Ayumi Fukuda (Misako Renbutsu) and he finds himself spending more and more time with her after work than coming home to his wife, and when he is at home, he is distant, leaving Maiko feeling lonely for most of her day.

With both Takuya and Sei always at work or business and never at home, Maiko and Ichi are the ones left to care for the home, and after crossing paths over and over, they become friends of sorts. In fact, Takuya's wife Sei leaves so early for work that it is Maiko who inadvertently sees him off each morning!

Doing the grocery shopping

Putting out the garbage in the early morning hours

Meanwhile both Takuya and Sei seem to be gravitating towards illicit romances and further alienating their spouses. Alone in their respective cold apartments Maiko and Ichi lean on each other for support.

Aw man, as the naive and innocent housewife, Mugi was simply KILLING me here! Every action she does makes me want to give her a big hug!

There was this adorable scene where they showed her outside sweeping the front of the apartment and she was chasing a tuft of rubbish that the wind was blowing around, trying to sweep it up with her broom, I DIED~!

But it isn't just that, it’s the small quirks that really make her- the shy looks, the loopy way of moving around that she does, and especially that disarming smile of hers~!

Maiko is such a sweet and loveable character, I can scarcely believe this is the same actress who played that dour ghost girl in “Omukae Death” or even that extremely racy movie "Ai No Uzu" such dark roles- she’s come a long way!

Omukae Death

Ai No Uzu

PS: By the way, special note MUST be made of Sakurako Konishi whom, as the naughty office gossip Risa Atago, stole EVERY scene she was in with her manic pixie meddling!

Apparently there is a spin off mini-drama of Ukiwa featuring Sakurako’s character, would be great if someone picked that one up, too! *crosses fingers*

Saturday, August 8, 2020

Groovy Ghoulies: Fuka Koshiba in "Youkai Share House"

Adorable Fuka Koshiba continues her Tokusatsu/Kaiju roots with the insanely entertaining “Youkai Share House”, the story of a girl and her ghostly roommates!

Mio Meguro (Koshiba) is a sweet but very naive young girl who has just been unceremoniously dumped at her boyfriend Ken’s door whom she catches with another girl.

She is already on the run from collectors after losing both her funds AND her job thanks to this moocher, and had come to his house hoping for sanctuary.

Instead, she is out on her feet and without a place to stay, ends up at a temple where she is hoping to use her last coin to exorcise her bad luck. But because of her ex boyfriend’s constant leeching off her, she's been starving from lack of food. Add in the constant badgering and pursuing by the collectors, her harried body finally gives in, and Mio collapses on the ground.

Little does Mio know, but off to the side of the temple is a share house where some peculiar people have been staying. One of the tenants, the beautiful Iwa (Marika Matsumoto), has been watching Mio and has recognized her as someone who has been betrayed by a lover just as she has. She takes pity on Mio and brings her in to the house, and when Mio comes to she is greeted by Iwa and a woman named Utako (Nobue Iketani).

Mio thanks them and tries to be on her way, but the smell of yummy food keeps her there until the other tenants arrive home. Ryo (Katsuya maiguma) and Hiyo (Koji Ohkura) aren’t too pleased to find a new girl suddenly in their domain, but when they all hear of how she was deceived by her boyfriend, they all agree that this girl needs help!

Embracing her, Iwa vows to put a curse on Mio’s ex for doing this to her.

Mio is invited to spend the night in the sharehouse, and, having no where else to go, accepts gratefully. However, when she happened so awaken during the night and hears them talking ,she is UTTERLY SHOCKED to find that Iwa and all the other guests… ARE MONSTERS!!!

Mio screams and faints away…only to awaken in her own bed. Was it a dream?

In the morning, everyone just carries on as if nothing happened, and Mio makes herself believe everything is fine, despite Iwa’s insistence that they find Mio’s ex and curse him!

Making good on her plan, Iwa successfully seduces and lures the hapless Ken to the house with the intent of punishing him and showing Mio what a truly bad person he is.

In the end, the yokai show their true forms and scare the cowardly Ken out of his wits, leaving him running scared out of the house and ready to deal with later.

But now Mio knows that her nightmare wasn’t a dream after all- Iwa and her friends are INDEED monsters, but, though she is frightened, she returns to be with them as they are the only ones who have had her back, and she accepts them for what they are.

Sittign down with Mio, the yokai reveal their true selves to her, showing her in an ancient book just which demonic personalities they are! Mio could become an expert on the lore hanging out with roommates like this!

Good thing, too, because after taking take of that nuisance ex-boyfriend (where a now confident Mio demands he pay her back what he “borrowed’ from her)…