Thank You for All The Wonderful Moments, Yuko

 Our Beloved Yuko Takeuchi in the scene that made me (and so many others) fall in love with her, “Lunch No Joou”...

Rest In peace, Yuko, and thanks for all the wonderful dramas you've shared with us. You'll be sorely missed.

Yuko Takeuchi 1980-2020

  Oh My GOD, I cannot believe the headlines. This is horrible. While they are still investigating, they suspect suicide? I am DEVASTATED. Such an awesome, wonderful actress.

From AramaJapan:
It was reported that actress Yuko Takeuchi (40) was found dead at her residence in Tokyo. The Metropolitan Police Department is carefully investigating the possibility of suicide.
Yuko Takeuchi is an actress who has headlined several popular dramas including the getsu9 drama “Lunch no Joou” and “Strawberry Night”. Her most recent role appearance is in the movie “The Confidence Man JP: Episode of the Princess”.

Goddamnit, this is such sad news to hear. Love you, Yuko.

EDIT: Okay, I am reading more details of her passing, and it's really horrible. I'm

 in tears right now. Such tragic, tragic news.

From Nippon.com:

Tokyo, Sept. 27 (Jiji Press)--Japanese actress Yuko Takeuchi, 40, has died in apparent suicide.

She was found hanging by the neck at her apartment in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward on Sunday, according to investigative sources. Takeuchi was sent to a hospital and confirmed dead there, the sources said.

Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department suspects that Takeuchi committed suicide.

Takeuchi's husband and actor, Taiki Nakabayashi, 35, found her hanging herself in a bedroom in the apartment around 2 a.m. (5 p.m. Saturday GMT), according to the sources. No suicide note has been found.

Man, what is GOING ON???? why are so many beloved actors and actresses leaving us in such a devastating way??? I just cannot comprehend it. It's too sad.

Notes on Strawberry Night

After watching the Strawberry Night SP and then the 10 episode drama,I finally watched the  2013 movie and have completed the series!

As I watched this, I marveled at the character of Reiko Himekawa, whom must be one of the greatest roles I've ever seen Yuko Takeuchi perform. So cool, focused and stone-cold, she reminded me more of hard-boiled characters like Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch or John Sandford's Lucas Davenport- no fancy j-drama gimmicks where the main detective is an oddball with one magical trait which helps him solve cases, just true, old-fashioned detective work, canvassing the crime scenes, interviewing witnesses and suspects, and going over the facts over and over and over again.

There was one scene where Himekawa is interviewing a witness (Takao Osawa) and she is relentless with her skills- with every word the guy says, she is there to question and probe every answer he gives, scribble down every fact he reveals so she can investigate those leads further, and I was like, WOW...this is a real detective working here!!!

And when it comes to standing her ground when faced with the superiors and colleagues who cloud the issue with their single mindedness (or even outright evil intent), Himekawa has NO PROBLEM barking BACK at those who try to silence her!

PS: The more I watch it, the more astounded I am that they'd ever dare to reboot this drama so SOON with an actress which, while I do like her, can't EVER hope to achieve the kind of intensity Yuko Takeuchi brought to the table. Just perfect.

PPS: I was going to name this blog post "Strawberry Night Saga" but I can't even do that since that's what they named the reboot, LOL.

Wrapping Up Some Unfinished Dramas

With my success last month of blowing through a WHOLE SMORGASBOARD of older dramas, I decided to try my luck and clear up a whole folder full of unfinished drama clutter!

Strawberry Night

 So I had downloaded the 2012 Strawberry Night Series and was quite confused as this was a sequel to a 2010 Special I hadn’t seen! I put this aside and figured I’d watch it

 SO! Just this past month I FINALLY got ahold of that very first SP and was stunned to find it was the SAME STORY as the Fumi Nikaido drama! Huh, I had no idea the Fumi show was a reboot! In any case, I did watch the SP and was now clear to finish up that original 2012 series!

Well, dove right in and WOW was it good! Yuko Takeuchi in one of her most compelling roles ever! So charismatic,cool, and driven, it's hard to believe they would even dream of rebooting the series with someone else. "Cause I love Fumi, but she ain't no Yuko Takeuchi! For THAT, there's ONLY ONE! 

BTW, it was a “Vampire Heaven” reunion in Episode 3 with BOTH Tsubasa Honda AND Aya Oomasa making appearances!

Jiu

Somehow even the combined efforts of two actresses I really love, Mikako Tabe and Meisa Kuroki, didn’t stop this drama from falling into that void of unfinished dramas for me!

Well, watching it again, the individual episodes have been entertaining enough, documenting both Tabe and Kuroki's characters individual journeys as they move up in the system of violent criminal apprehension...
Hunter~

 I've never warmed up to Ryoko Yonekura despite her being in some excellent dramas, but Mirei Kiritani was in this, so I picked it up anyway....

The story of a group of housewives who use their resources to become sleuths who track down fugitives for the rewards sounds like a fun premise, but somehow I lost interest with this one despite really loving Mirei Kiritani in it.

Well, we're picking it up again, and I have to say it's been a lot more engaging this time around! Enjoying the slapstick sensibility of the show a lot more- everyone's hilarious!

 When one of the ladies says, 'Hey, we kind of look like Goranger, don't we?", it tells you all you need to know about this show!

 Plus, it's been awhile since i've seen Mirei Kiritani in anything and its so nice to see her face again! Well worth finishing up this time!

Perfect Report

 I’ll be honest with you: I thought I’d FINISHED this drama up a long time ago- imagine my surprise looking in my folder of unfinished dramas and seeing this in there!

But it's a fun one to revisit, and  Yasuko Matsuyuki is as cool as ever, though I never quite believed Aibu Saki as the air-headed girly girl. Love the way Matsuyuki's character never calls anyone by their names, instead calling them "Fake Smile", Washed Up Old Man", etc, etc, so funny!

PS: I already mentioned how I don’t care for Keisuke Koide, and I have to see him play the SAME cliched uptight guy grudgingly assigned to work under an outspoken female leader on BOTH Perfect Report AND Strawberry Night!

GOLD

Geez, been so long since I dropped Gold that I completely forgot everything about this drama and had to start all over again from the beginning!

How long ago did I drop this? So long ago that it was before my Love Thang for Emi Takei! I think at the time I had only seen her in Otomen. Kind of funny watching it now and knowing her so well. Actually I was surprised how star-filled this drama was upon revisit! It’s an all-star cast!

Yuki Amami always seems to play the same kind of character, but I dunno, I really liked her character of Yuri Saotome who was very sympathetic despite them painting her as a stubborn hard-headed person. 

Also been awhile since I saw Masami Nagasawa in a role I like, her role of meek and spazzy Rika Niimura is a winner! Really enjoying this one second time around...

EDIT: Holy TOLEDO, was that drama great!When they say a dram a is “heartfelt”, this is what they’re talking about! Probably cried my eyes out in every episode! Gving this show a tentative 9.5 rating on MyDramaList even though I feel it's a solid 10/10!

PS: Loved everyone in this drama, but just HAD to find out who played the adorable girl Maiko Jindai who was matched with eldest son:

Turns out it’s Nao Minamisawa, the actress better known to me as Natsuki, one half of the Cafe Choice waitress duo in the excellent drama “Suteki Na Sen Taxi”!! Just one more reason to love this show!

Long Love Letter

And we DO mean LONG! My gosh, this drama has sat on my hard-drive for at LEAST 10 years and maybe more! 'Bout time I got around to finishing it!

By my recollection, I watched only two episodes of this before getting distracted with other shows. All I remembered was a school getting teleported to another place, and Takako Tokiwa as one of the teachers trying to take care of her students while dealing with it. But, man, re-watching it,  there was so much I didn’t remember-

 Like GOLD, I was astounded to see so many stars in the cast: Takayuki Yamada, Tomohisa Yamashita, Emi Suzuki, Satoshi Tsumabuki, and even Asami Mizukawa!! With Yosuke Kubozuka and Tokiwa as the perennial “leads’, this was an all-star cast!

 Gotta say though, this was s STRUGGLE to get through. A school teleported to a barren wasteland is one thing, but a class full of selfish, arrogant students (and teachers) all rebelling against order, hoarding goods for themselves, wasting water, wasting food and acting cocky throughout is NERVE wracking to watch!

 Sadly, it's not that this is BAD writing, because I KNOW that this is what would happen in REAL LIFE if something like this were to happen- (if COVID19 shows us ANYTHING, it's that some humans are very, very selfish and out for themselves!)- but JEEZ, I don't want to SIT through an entire drama of it!!!

Nagareboshi

 I always thought I had watched this drama, but at best I might have watched just the first few of them, because I don’t remember anything from this. I think I might have mixed it up with Suizokukan Girl???
Funny that I dropped this because it's actually quite a compelling story, following a kindhearted guy (Yutaka Takenouchi) whose sister needs a liver transplant and needs someone who can be a donor, and, after only arriving at dead ends, meets up with a suicidal and desperate girl (Aya Ueto), with the promise of financial reward, agrees to marry into his family and become his sister's donor...

 Finally finishing the drama, I gotta say: I REALLY loved it!!! A very turbulent drama with its ups and downs, but you hung on because you cared about the characters. Great scenes and AWESOME acting!

Takenouchi was usual low-key calm persona as usual, and Aya Ueto’s character was one of the best I’ve ever seen- every sweet, vulnerable, tough and sympathetic, all in one. Now I remember why there was such a buzz about her back in the day, she's so good in this.

Thank Goodness I made an effort to finish up this- would be so sad if somehow I cheated myself out of it and it ended up being unwatched forever!

This was another STELLAR Month of GREAT J-Drama catching up!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com