Catching Up on Some Older Kimura Takuya Dramas

My friend’s Wife has been bitten by the Kimura Takuya bug thanks to NETFLIX’s recent airing of a BUNCH of his shows, including GOOD LUCK, A LIFE, KAREI NARU ICHIZOKU, and most significantly, GRAND MAISON TOKYO, and she’s been simply "Koo-Koo for Kimura” ever since, and ready to explore more of his catalog!

“OK, My wife wants to see this “Long Vacation” show that  everybody keeps talking about!” my friend requested one day, and of COURSE I was happy to oblige! As some of you know, Long Vacation is just about my FAVORITE J-drama of all time, and the more fans I can introduce the drama to, the merrier! 

I told him I’d pass Long Vacation along as well as a few OTHER Kimutaku shows I thought they’d like, and chose classics HERO, A Million Stars Falling From the Sky, and CHANGE to the mix, as well as more recent dramas "Ando Lloyd", "I'm Home", “Mirai e no 10 Count”, “BELIEVE”, and both “BG: Personal Bodyguard” seasons as well.  A good assortment of Kimura shows!

Going through my files, however, I found several of them to be lacking in quality- back when I'd originally acquired them, files were usually 250MB in size and from crude sources. Worked fine for the time, but now seemed hard on the eyes to watch. I wanted them to experience the shows as best as possible, and so took to the forums to get better quality files.

Thankfully all those dramas were up and available, and while re-downloading both HERO and CHANGE, I saw that there were a few other Kimutaku shows available that even I hadn’t seen before (he has so many it’s easy for a few to slip through the cracks!): GIFT (1997), Love Generation (1997) and Concerto (1996), so I grabbed 'em all! Began watching them right away and have been having a blast! Of the three of them the one I’m liking most is GIFT, a VERY wacky and zany affair of a man with amnesia who becomes a courier for a shady organization while simultaneously  trying to piece back his past.

High points include a VERY cute Ryoko Shinohara in an early role- funny, Ryoko was one of the first J-actresses I knew when I began watching dramas, but she plays such tuff tomboyish roles nowadays that I was taken aback by how gigglishly GIRLY she was here- flirty and OH! Such a BABE!

The biggest shocker for me though is seeing actress Mitsuko Baisho as Inspector Sakuhara- I’m SO used to seeing her as a doddering old lady in dramas, it never occurred to me that there was a time when she was an admittedly pretty HOT Lady!!!! But WOWWW, she sure is HERE! I’m not kidding-  I’ve always respected Mitsuko in her drama appearances as those Granny types, but seeing her as this cool, sexy badass character is a whole new experience!

Just LOVE whenever she's in a scene, and at this moment I'm even going to say that Sakuhara's my favorite character on the show! SO KAKKOI!! 

Throw in Muroi Shigeru as Kimutaku’s outspoken boss and a sassy Satomi Kobayashi as an eccentric psychic and you’ve got a WILDLY entertaining drama!!

CONCERTO (Kyosokyoku) stars Kimura and Tamura "Furuhata Ninzaburo" Masakazu as architects competing for the affection of Rie Miyazawa. Not a big fan of infidelity and cheating dramas, but there’s so much going on in this one I can’t stop watching it! Great characters and great acting!

Rie Miyazawa in particular captivates, she’s so bubbly and cute in this one and it dawns on me that this might be the first drama I’ve seen with her as a younger girl, most stuff I’ve seen is her as an 0lder lady, playing mature wives and spinster-ey widows in shows like GuGu Gu Neko Datte and Shinhannin Flag! But she's simply a heartbreaker here, no wonder these two guys end up fighting for her....

Lastly there’s LOVE GENERATION- it’s hard to believe this is the first time I’m seeing it as this came right on the heels of Long Vacation and EVERYBODY wanted to see it! Sadly however, no station here picked it up, and unlike my friend Golden, (who soldiered through the series blind), I refused to watch it unsubbed, LOL!

Took a good 10 years til fansubbing became a thing and  a team translated it, but it still took me until NOW to get going! Watching it now, it very much seems like a continuation of Long Vacation as the two leads look exactly like they did in the previous show, though in entirely different roles, with Kimutaku as a womanizing "player" type and Matsu as a dorky spastic chatterbox! Great fun!

Speaking of Takako, when they were watching Long Vacation, my friend and his wife really detested the Ryoko character-(guess her wishy-washy naiveity grated on their nerves), but when they began watching HERO, not only did they really LOVE her character of Amamiya, they did not even realize it was the same actress who had played Ryoko! This is a TRUE testament of Matsu’s acting versatility- "We couldn't believe it was the same actress when we saw the credits!" they said with some awe and amazement!

Indeed, Amamiya stands out as one of Takako Matsu's most enduring characters, and it's feedback like this that I love hearing and what makes sharing dramas so rewarding!

LOL, and for some hilarious feedback: While talking to my friend’s wife about Grand Maison Tokyo, I mentioned that I really liked the lead actress Kyoka Suzuki, to which she said, “Kyoka Suzuki? Which actress is that, THE ONE WHO LOOKS LIKE A DUDE?” LOLOL I had to laugh and say “Ye Gads, no, THAT was international model Ai Tominaga!”

Ya gotta LOVE feedback like this HAHAHAHA

Speaking of J-Drama Deja Vu....

While we're on the subject of J-Drama Deja Vu, I thought I might mention that just this week watching the latest (for me) episodes of dramas Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai and Believe, I noted a recurring backdrop when both Mio Imada AND Takuya Kimura were shot walking past this highway overpass structure with river canal winding through beneath:

Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai:

"Believe"

Is this some famous part of town or something? And more importantly, I wonder if I should start keeping track of it as well!!!

Believe~Kimi no Kakeru Hashi

 Takuya Kimura stars as Riku Kariyama, an architectural designer with great skills and success. He has confidence in both his designs as well as his relationship with work associates, where he is respected and well-liked!

Maika Yamamoto

Hayate Ichinose

Kinya Kitaoji

As the head designer of a prominent bridge set to be the crowning achievement of a town, it seems he only has highs to look forward to- that is until tragedy strikes. While on location doing routine inspections to the bridge, a serious fault is discovered and, once failing, sets in motion a horrific collapse of the entire structure, causing both injury and even death.

Though there are lots of factors to the incident and much finger pointing, as the head designer of the project, Kariyama takes it upon himself to accept full responsibility for the accident, and after a sensational trail, is sentenced to a prison term.

Though now in prison, Kariyama still holds fast to his dignity and reserve, believing what he has done by taking the burden of the responsibility off the company and fellow workers by placing the fault in his initial architectural designs.

But we will learn that  there have actually been NO faults in his part of the project, and that the blame falls squarely on the supplier of the support cables, of whom which they secretly replaced quality materials with shoddy replacements. No, the real reason Kariyama has taken the blame is due to company president Osoda’s request, who feels that if the truth were to come out, the company themselves would be blamed for associating with the faulty supplier.

Osoda promises  that if Kariyama takes the blame, he will make sure his punishment is light and will surely be returned to the company in due time.But of course, these promises soon fall by the wayside as greedy people in positions of power make their own moves within the company.

For his part, Kariyama intends to endure his sentence silently, believing it is for the sake of all. But when his wife Reiko (Amami Yuki) visits him, she only has two things to report. One, that what he’s doing is not noble protecting people with his silence, but rather lying and deception. And furthermore, she adds that though he never noticed when they were together, she is dying of cancer, and, as it stands, he won’t be out until she has long passed.

It is faced with these hard truths that Kariyama takes stock in what he has done and said and, with the help of his lawyer Akizawa (Saito Takumi),  asks for a retrial so he can finally speak the truth of the tragic accident and clear his name.

But with so much at stake, there are many who can benefit from him remaining imprisoned and  use all their connections to sabotage his attempts at freedom. At the same time, there are those out there who are seeking the truth of the matter, and who will work tirelessly to have Kariyama’s voice heard and the corrupt individuals exposed!

Takaya Kamikawa

Ryoma Takeuchi

Fumiyo Kohinata

Takumi Saito

Chikako Kaku

Yuki Amami

As usual for  Kimura Takuya vehicles, Believe~Kimi no Kakeru Hashi is a real event, with huge stars simply crammed into the cast in all prominent roles and this one looks to be a fast-paced and gripping show!

So far it seems to be a character-driven series rather than a political/business one, and that’s a good sign. Lately lots of dramas have taken the VIVANT route and (IN my opinion) simply been bogged down with technical government/political stuff...I know this is a popular genre right now, but I get a real headache trying to wade through so much technical jargon, political figures, departments, etc.... hope this one doesn’t fall to the same trope!