Calling Dr. Kevorkian: Go Ayano and Keiko Kitagawa on the Case in "Dr. Death no Isan: Black File"

Ayano Go and Kitagawa Keiko in Dr. Death no Isan

Very thought provoking standalone movie (which somehow feels like part of a longer series) from 2020,  dealing with the subject of the assisted suicide/dying with dignity debate. The film follows two detectives, Inukai Hayato (Go Ayano) and Takachiho Asuka (Kitagawa Keiko) when, following up on a regular death from cancer, hears from a child that the deceased was visited by a mysterious man just hours before his passing.

When interviewing the widow, she denies any foul play and says that her husband passed naturally from the cancer. But a seized video camera provides footage confirming the child's story: There WERE visitors beforehand, a snow-white haired doctor and silent nurse.

Faced with this proof, the widow comes clean. She was indeed visited by a Doctor and Nurse, but it was by her husband's own choosing. Wracked with pain and the misery of burdening his family with debt building up day after day,  he sought to end it all, and thus called upon the man called Dr. Death, who arrived and, with mercy, gave him a lethal injection to put his tormented body to rest.

With further pordding, the wife says she made the call out to the legendary doctor via a website where those with terminal illnesses can make a plea for a visit from the Doctor and be put out of their pain.

Tracking down guests who have put in requests on the website, Inukai and Takachiho find no less than five other such mercy killings, and when they pay visits to the survivors,  they only have gratitude for the mysterious doctor, and see him as a savior.

This is problematic for the duo as they see this "Doctor" as nothing more than a specialized serial killer, and the subject is particularly troubling for Detective Inukai, who himself has a young daughter battling a seemingly terminal illness. He would NEVER want his daughter to choose  a suicidal death, and cannot imagine how the other families can live with themselves for letting their loved ones go in such a fashion.

Bedridden, weak and suffering, as time goes on and the guilt of financial burden builds up, even Iunkai's daughter wonders if it might be best for all is she were to take the 'easy" way out. And when Dr. Death hears of Inukai's daughter's possible request, it it more imperative than ever that the Detective duo catch him before he can contact his daughter! A psychological cat-and-mouse game begins...

This was really a great movie, and I really liked not just the story and its ideas, but the characters of Inukai and Takachicho. I mentioned earlier, but this fim seems like part of a series as the roles seem pretty well-established even from the very beginning, as if we're supposed to know who they are already.

Smart, quick thinking and totally cool,  these we character you loved seeing in action, whether tracking down the killers or even just grousing at the bar about their personal problems.

Would LOVE to see more movies with these two!!!

19 Banme no Karte~The 19th Medical Chart

 As someone who has gone through their share of various physical problems only to be told by the Docs that they are merely due to age and stress, though you feel in your bones that they are something more, I instantly took to the premise of the new drama “19 Banme no Karte~The 19th Medical Chart” to heart, where patients of a fast-moving hospital are quickly (and generically) diagnosed so as to “move them along”, sometimes dangerously detrimental so, until a new Doctor arrives with a new mindset to shake up the old ways, prioritizing time and understanding in order to best serve the patients.

Fuka Koshiba plays Mizuki Takino, a doctor specializing in orthopedics in the hospital, who is frustrated at the limited amount of time she can give each patient as well as the fact that once the patient’s problem moves out of her specific field, she no longer can faithfully look over them or make judgement over their follow up care.

Enter a quirky young man named Akira Tokushige (Jun Matsumoto), a plain and unassuming fellow who is content to look over the hospital’s various goings-on and the methods they use to get their snap diagnoses, and realizes that with every doctor only focused on their specific area of expertise, sometimes the true malady can go undetected.

While looking over Dr. Takino helping an elderly patient in for a broken ankle, Tokushima observes things about the patient that she doesn’t immediately identify, and after asking the patient about his information regarding his lifestyle, job, and the way he injured his ankle, has him properly operated on for a much larger overarching malady.

 Turns out this Dr. Tokushige is the newest Physician in the building, the head of a brand new department of General Medicine, where his role will be looking over the various problems of the patients, make a clear and concise diagnosis, and, with the help of the other specialists in the Hospital, prepare what is best for the patients.

Humbled, amazed, and inspired, Mizuki confronts him, asking how he knows so much about diseases and afflictions that he can make such detailed determinations, and if there is a way to become like him, a super- doctor who can save every single patient he sees! He gently tells her that there is no one who can cure all, not even him, but she nonetheless sees in him something to aspire to.

 Mizuki aside,  Doctor Tokushige’s unorthodox way of spending so much time with each patient case and his way of involving himself in their diagnoses and patients makes him somewhat of an outcast among the other doctors, who feel they have no need for outside advice!!!

Kimura Yoshino

Taiiku Okazaki

First Summer Uika

Hiroya Shimizu

Tsuda Kanji

Below: Patient Kuroiwa (RiisaNaka) is in constant pain but, despite having seen many doctors, is told that the malady is either due to stress or simply in her mind! With Takino's advice, she takes her in to see Dr. Tokushige.

He sits her down and talks through her past medical history, her current job and routines, and when the pain began. And though he cannot immediately give her an answer to her problems, he is at least listening with his full attention and resolve to see things through. 

It's all one can ask in a doctor, and with his help, they find a way to identify her malady, discuss treatment, and get her back to living!

It will take time, but as time goes on, hopefully every naysayer in the hospital will see that this Doctor’s heart is in the right place, and his plans of having all the doctors working together, sharing knowledge and skills is the real way to go…all while chasing that elusive dream of a Physician who can save everyone.

That was quite a first episode! As some of you know, I only initially downloaded this for Fuka Koshiba, and was kind of disappointed that she had what I call those “reactionary” roles, i.e. a secondary character whose main presence is to look on in awe for every stunt the main characters does, and while there IS some of that, I somehow really liked the show!

I mentioned before in my post about RADIATION HOUSE that I do not necessarily like Doctor Dramas as a whole (too many predictable and irritating cliches) but I’m a sucker for those dramas like that doctor in the Jack Nicholson film “As Good As It Gets”, where Helen Hunt has been taking her boy to one bad doc after another without change and is finally given a good one (played wonderfully by Harold Ramis!)...“ Look, whatever I find, I promise you, at the very least, from now on your son is going to feel a great deal better, okay? ” he assures her, and Helen Hunt melts with gratitude. THAT’s the kind of Doctor shows I LOVE, and 19 Banme no Karte seems to be shaping up nicely!!!

Looking forward to seeing more!

Favorite J-Pop Singles: Yoshino Kimura: “Iruka no Natsu”

As we go into season two of the lively buddy cop comedy drama “No Activity2” and are reunited with Yoshino Kimura as the brash and outspoken Police Dispatcher Satomi Misato, I thought it might be fun to harken back to 1998 and reminisce when Yoshino was moonlighting as a sweet, singing IDOL, and on Pony Canyon, no less!

Though her vocal career was brief, one of her songs really caught my ear and became one of my favorite songs of that summer: The song was “Iruka no Natsu” (Dolphin Summer), and I might have missed it altogether if not for my friend Golden, who included it in one of his many J-pop mixes! With its' jangly guitars and solid backbeat, it instantly captivated, and my first thought was, “EHH? That chick from Riso No Joshi can SING????” 

Yep, up until that point I’d only known her from acting in "The Ideal Boss" with Yuriko Ishida and Yasuko Matsuyuki (and Kyozo Nagatsuka as the titular boss), color me impressed when I found that she was a capable singer, belting out a tune that I had to grab for myself!

I had no idea where this song came from or what it was promoting, watching this youtube upload of the Iruka no Natsu MV, seems it was the CM song for some Instant Cream Spaghetti mix, huh, who knew?!

From here Yoshino would go on to star in dramas like "Over Time" and "(Not so) Perfect Love", among others, assuring her ascent into superstardom!