A Series of Sci-Fi Shorts

 Author Shinichi Hoshi (1926-1997) was a famous Sci-Fi writer of short stories in a decidedly “Twilight Zone” vein: Sci-Fi and Fantasy, with a heaping of cynical Social Commentary thrown in! Hoshi Shinichi no Fushigi na Fushigi na Tanpen Drama (Hoshi Shinichi's Wondrous and Mysterious Short Dramas) is a collection of said short stories, featuring a whole smorgasboard of cool pop talent!

The drama is set for 20 episodes which gives us 20 stories, and the first episode  is “Bokko-chan”, featuring Kiko Mizuhara as Bokko-chan, a fetching young hostess in a glitzy bar where patrons are mesmerized by her beauty and charm and are coerced into buying her drink after drink. 

What they don’t know is that Bokko-chan is an ANDROID made by the Bar Owner and every drop of liquor that is paid for goes through Bokko-chan’s tubes and right back into bottles to be sold over and over again to the unwitting customers!!

Of course, in the style of Twilight Zone or the Outer Limits, you can already feel a twist is coming, and as the very first story in the series and to set up the “mood” of the drama, is a MACABRE one indeed!

Short but SWEET, this drama promises to be LOADS of FUN to watch!!!
And with upcoming actors and actresses like Eita, Kento Hayashi, Nao, Kengo Kora, Shizuka Ishibashi, Tetsuji Tamayama, and Tina Tamashiro (!!!!), this is yet another show “Full of Stars” and a GREAT incentive to check out!!!

Will ya look at all that talent! Gonna be a fun one!!

Shiranakute ii Koto 終わり

Wrapped up Shiranakute Ii Koto and it was a very good drama indeed, in my opinion one of Yuriko Yoshitaka’s best! The story of a journalist who discovers her Father is a convicted murderer and her search for the truth was a gripping one to be sure, but more than that it was the individual episodes showing Kate at her best, tracking down the leads and cracking the cases that MADE the show!

Kate Makabe is surely one of Yuriko Yoshitaka’s absolute best roles ever- she embodied the gung-ho journalist with such cute eccentric tics that only she could bring to the character and I found myself rewinding scenes just to hear the engaging way she delivered her lines!

And the other characters in the show were great, too- I mentioned earlier how much I loved the way her workplace really respected Kate, including her fellow journalists supervisors and boss, and I always looked forward to seeing them do their thing!

Will really miss watching this show each week!

A couple of other things I noted during the show:

There was an episode when Kate injures her right arm. The staff is worried about her coming back to work so soon, but she says “I’m left-handed anyway so I’ll be fine”.

I was like, “Has Kate been using her left hand this whole time?" and then I thought, "Is Yuriko Yoshitaka left handed in real life? ” I then went back and re-watched the first bunch of episodes and, YEP, she’s left handed!

Huh, never noticed that before!

Another thing I noticed:

Odaka is frequently shown in his Photography Studio where he works and where he and Kate have many of their meetings and private talks.

In one episode, they showed the outside of the studio:

…and I immediately recognized it as the same storage house where Abe Sadao and the gang lived in “Kokoro Ga Pokitto Ne”!

I'd know those steel doors anywhere, LOL!
Posted by zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Return of Takako Tokiwa in "The Good Wife"

Following in the footsteps of shows like BONES, COLD CASE and SUITS comes the TBS Japanese version of the CBS Lawyer drama THE GOOD WIFE, with Takako Tokiwa starring in the titular role that actress Julianne Margulies originated…

Takako plays Kyoko Hasumi, a once successful lawyer who gave up her career to get married and have raise her two kids. But when her prosecutor husband Soichiro (Toshiaki Karasawa) is accused of taking bribes (as well as infidelity) and is jailed, Kyoko must dust off her badge and go back to work to support her family.

Because of a connection to an old friend, fellow lawyer Masahiro Tada (Kotaro Koizumi), she is taken on probation with a his law firm Kamiyama & Tada run by the stoic Yoshie Kamiyama (Chikako Kaku). 

Once there, Kyoko is immediately put on a case regarding slander against a client, and goes up against  the charismatic (Tatsuya Takeda) who insists his accusations is based on police info and intends to counter-sue. 

With the help of Tada and a crackerjack investigative team including Kotaro Asahi (Takumi Kitamura) and the awesome Michiru Madaoka (Kiko Mizuhara), they work to get to the bottom of things and bring the truth to light.

In the meantime Kyoko’s husband is having his own problems to deal with with a bunch of unscrupulous former colleagues determined to see that he is convicted of his alleged crimes. But he insists he is innocent and despite their interrogations, he holds out.

Seems like a decent enough drama to check in on every week, and I particularly love the dynamic between Takako Tokiwa and Kiko Mizuhara; when the two of them team up to investigate, it makes me wish the whole show was based around them!

Will be continuing on with this series!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com