Another Intriguing Kimura Takuya Drama with “I’m Home”

Kimura Takuya as Ieji Hisashi in "I'm Home"

From the first glance at the promotional picture of Kimura Takuya’s new drama “I’m Home” with his wife and child’s face covered with ominous silver masks, I thought it was going to be another in line with his recent Sci-Fi adventures like Ando Lloyd, but after watching the pilot episode, it is (seemingly) anything but, rather a dark dramatic story of a man who suffers five years of memory loss due to a head injury he sustained in a huge gas explosion at his factory.

When our story begins, Ieji Hisashi (Kimura) is just getting released from the Hospital after 6 months in care. He rushes home to be with his family, tidies up the house and makes the meals…until his wife Kaoru (Mizuno Miki) and daughter Subaru (Yamaguchi Mayu) come home and, shocked to see him there,  inform him that they are his FORMER family and that he has been REMARRIED to a new woman for YEARS!

Ieji thinking he's Home Sweet Home

Daughter Subaru (Mayu Yamaguchi) thinking WTF is Dad doing here?

Ex-Wife Kaoru (Miki Mizuno) thinking "Why is my Ex-Husband Here?"

"Dad, You and Mom divorced years ago."

"Oh...That's Right." Remembers Ieji.

He needs help, this guy.

He slowly begins to grasp the situation and eventually finds his way to his current spouse and child…where he is appalled to find that he cannot register their faces or expressions as they are covered with those aforementioned masks. Why is this? Why can he not perceive their faces, why does he have such a hard time connecting ot them…and why does he still have actual feelings for his FORMER family in his heart? Ieji struggles to understand.

"Oh Yeah, THIS is where I Live..."

Gazing upon his loving wife Megumi (Aya Ueto) and his son...

Only to find that instead of their faces...

All he can see are cold, lifeless masks.

His therapist isn’t much help. When he hears of Ieji’s “Mask” dilemma, his doctor (Oikawa Mitsuhiro) shrugs and says “The Brain is a very mysterious thing, and much of what you’re going through may be psychologically affected.” Perhaps, but man, there’s just something about any character that Oikawa plays where I just CANNOT trust ANYTHING they say, LOL

Unhelpful Therapist Yoshiaki (Oikawa Mitsuhiro)

"My Doctor is a quack!"

 At work, things are just as tousled about- due to his injuries, he can no longer do the high-speed and intelligent work he once did, He is demoted to the basement department, a drab and shabby dead-end of washed up workers that resembles the SHOMUNI department not just a little! The Department is even run by a Leo Morimoto-type of older man, Kozukue Yukio, played by the likeable Nishida Toshiyuki. 

Movin' On Down To The Small-League

A SHOMUNI like atmosphere...

Section Chief Kozukue (Nishida Toshiyuki)...

..and pretty Takanashi Yua (Yoshimoto Miyu)

Though this is the lower end of the heap, with the co-operation of his fellow section employees (like the babe-a-licious Yua Takanashi, played by cutie Yoshimoto Miyu) Ieji takes on his work with a willing and optimistic mind.

Effective Takanashi always ready to help...

...though we find that even she has secrets of her own...

Because of his memory loss, Ieji  spends most of his time scribbling reminders to himself in a notebook as he re-learns things, this act (plus the hint of mysterious words scratched out), reminded me a bit of the Christopher Nolan Movie “Mememto”, but as the story progressed and we see that before his accident this Ando was a real ruthless SOB, it began to remind me more of the Harrison Ford Movie “Regarding Henry”. And just like that movie, we find that the new, gentle Ieji may just be the thing that everyone needs.

Writing Down the Pertinent Information

Getting to know his family all over again

Because of his memory loss, Ieji is a virtual “man out of time”, and there was this one particularly funny scene where they take him to a Karaoke bar where he finds that because of his accident, he doesn’t know any of the recent music. Then he brightens up when he recognizes a song, and begins to sing KARA’s “Mister”, to which the rest of the employees nod and say, “He IS living 5 years in the past!” HAHAHAHA

Ieji Doesn't know the Current Hits...

...But does a Killer KARA, complete with butt-shaking!

"He really is still back 5 years."

Though I spent most of the first episode kind of confused as to where the story was heading, things are shaping up nicely and I am getting really into it. You can usually count on Kimura Takuya’s dramas to have a certain amount of weight to them, and this one seems like another winner!

BTW- Say, what is happening with Aya Ueto’s casting choices lately, in the dramas I’ve seen her in recently, she’s been playing these same kind of pretty-but-passive Housewife characters, like in Hirugao and Hanzawa Naoki…though those roles were good and surely benefited by her playing them, whatever happened to the femme fatale Aya of AZUMI fame? Let’s get back to THOSE roles! Heh Heh!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The Spirit is Willing in “Nishino Yukihiko no Koi to Boken"

Tsubasa Honda and Yutaka Takenouchi

 Recently watched the terrific 2014 movie Nishino Yoshiko Koi no Boken, a cool romantic/comedy/supernatural flick featuring a stellar cast that includes (among others) Takenouchi Yutaka, Ono Machiko, Aso Kumiko, Tsubasa Honda, Kimura Fumino, Narumi Riko and newcomer Nakamura Yurika. Funny, it hasn’t even been a few weeks since posting about how much I loved Takenouchi Yutaka and Kimura Fumino’s rapport in Suteki na Sen Taxi, and here they are together again! I knew this was a good sign of things to come...!

Yoshiko tells the tale of a man named Yukihiko Nishino who is lucky with women falling in love with him…but no so much when it comes to any sort of lasting relationship witht them! Whenever things get serious he finds himself abandoned by his women, who, as one ex lover puts it, seem to know his heart belongs to so many others. But there is one love that he placed above all others, Natsumi, and when he is struck down and killed, Yukihiko’s ghost makes the trip to visit her one last time.

The good old days with Natsumi (Kumiko Aso) and little Minami

  When Yukihiko had been seeing Natsumi 10 years ago, she was a housewife with a little girl, and upon arrival at her home, his ghost finds that while Natsumi isn’t around, her daughter Minami has turned into a pretty young thing! He introduces himself as the ghost of Yukihiko, and though she does eventually remember him, she doesn’t quite like the idea of this ghost following her around. He tells her that he’s waiting to see her mother, as he promised that he would meet up with her again after his death.

Yukihiko's ghost meets Minami (Yurika Nakamura) again

Minami followed by that ghost.

  Irritated and confused by this house-crashing spirit, nonetheless Minami is intrigued enough to accompany Yukihiko on his way to his own funeral a few days later, where she finds that this guy comes from a very well-off family- huge mansion home and a multitude of guests. 

Yukihiko disappears on Minami, but she meets a friendly older woman named Sayuri who tells her everything she needs to know about Yukihiko and his philandering past. Seems like everyone at the funeral is a female, and the woman admits that most are probably ex-girlfriends, all with interesting stories to tell!

Sawako tells Minami of Yukihiko's romances....

The woman begins by telling her story of how she herself, an older housewife, happened to hook up with the much younger Yukihiko, (we find out that though their initial contact was through a cooking class, it was their love of movies that brought them together) and though twas not meant to last, they were close enough that he confided in her some of his past girlfriend experiences, all of which this old woman now shares with Minami!

Sayuri (Sawako Agawa) meeting Yukihiko in Cooking Class...

...and then bonding over coffee and movie talk.

The first girlfriend she tells her about is a woman named Manami (Machiko Ono). Seems she was Yukihiko’s supervisor at his clerical job and it was their time together “filing away documents” in the company basement that brought them together. Though both clearly in love, Manami is very stoic and well-to-do, and doesn’t want to commit to a relationship with the rascally Yukihiko, repeatedly stating that they are “not going out” whenever anyone asks, even though they clearly are.

Manami (Machiko Ono)

This situation deosn’t bode well when an ex of Yukihiko, a sassy and aggressive girl named Kanoko (Tusbasa Honda as a real scene-stealing character!) re-enters the picture and wants to re-establish ties with him. Young, loud and brash, she is everything Manami is not, and she actively tries to steal Yukihiko back from her, but he declines, saying ‘We can’t go back to the past”. This decision infuriates Kanoko, especially since she sees that Manami won’t even verbally commit to their relationship!

Tsubasa Honda as Kanoko

Then there was the case of Yukihiko and his next-door neighbors, a lesbian couple named Subaru (a very girly and playful Riko Narumi) and Tama ( the aforementioned Ms. Fumino Kimura). The girls own a cat that always seems to find his way into Yukihiko’s apartment, and it’s through the cat that they all become close. Subaru is very touchy-feely and cuddles up to Yukihiko just like her cat, Tama, on the other hand is very stand-offish, and it’s only with gentle coaxing that she comes out of her shell.

Couple Subaru (Riko Narumi) and Tama (Fumino Kimura)

"Is this your Cat?"

Bonding with Subaru... 

..and an uneasy alliance with Tama.

Fast forward to present day, and looking over at the guests throughout the funeral courtyard, you can see that each and every one of the girls mentioned has attended . “They all understood how he was, and they all loved him anyway” Sayuri confides, before saying her goodbyes and leaving to go to the crematorium. Minami seems to understand him better, and leaves the funeral humming to herself.

She makes her way down to a Seaside café where she had once gone with her mother to meet Yukihiko. Yukihiko’s ghost is there…and also Natsumi, Minami’s mother, who had, of course, also been up at the funeral. Minami tell her mother that Yukihiko's spirit is here, and through Minami acting as his voice, Yukihiko is finally able to conveys his feelings towards her after all these years...

"Mom...Yukihiko's here."

Yet another fine movie to wile away a lazy day... and oh yeah, the cat is really cute, too!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Favorite J-Pop Songs: Nakayama Miho / Title

Back in my early days of J-pop discovery, my co-worker would make me compilations of all the latest Japan hit singles, but occasionally he’d throw in a song from out of left field- an obscure song from an Anime Compilation or an album-only track that he particularly liked. And so it was with a certain song from Miss Miho Nakayama way back in 1995 which he put on the very first J-pop compilation I ever got. 

 There were actually two songs from Miho on this compilation. Her current single at the time was her sultry “Shiawaseni Naru Tameni”, and while this song was included later on in the mix, it was another groovy song off of side one that really grabbed my attention. I had to know more about it, and queried my friend upon return to work the next day…

“Hey, you know that J-pop mix, who sings track four on side one?” I asked. 
“Ah, that would be Miho Nakayama”, he replied.
“And what’s the title of the song?”
“Title.”
“The title of the song is TITLE?” I asked, a bit confused.
Laughing, he said “Yeah, Title!”

So anyway, years later and I’m trying to get together  all the CD singles from the original Cassette compilation, and at some point I realize that Title doesn’t appear on ANY of Miho’s Greatest Hits collections. “Hey was that Miho Nakayama song Title even a single? I asked my co-worker the next time I saw him. “Cause I can’t find it on any collection!”

He laughed, “Oh yeah, that was just a song I liked off of one of her albums. It wasn’t a single.” 
“Well…what album was it from?”
“Ehh.. I forget.”
Whaaaa!

Well, it wasn’t until much later that I found out that the album the song was from was a CD called Pure White, and it was even later than that that I finally was able to purchase the album (off of the mighty Otokichi Premium site, that magical place where I found so many of my rare j-pop discs)!

Such a groovy song, and looking over the lyric booklet, says the song was written by To Be Continued, is this THE To Be Continued, AKA Kohki Okada and the gang? Makes sense since To Be Continued have such catchy tunes, but wouldn’t it be credited to the actual guys writing rather than the name of the group?

 Besides being a terrific album, Pure White also features a photobooklet with the PRETTIEST pics of Miho ever ...what a cutie!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Crimes of the Past Run Deep Red

While going through an old hard-drive  I came across a folder of old movies that I’d acquired at some point (though, truth be told, I don’t remember where or how) and one of them was a 2005 movie called Shinku (Deep Red) which I put aside to watch this afternoon. 

When I began watching it, I didn’t remember anything about the storyline or who starred in it, and I was thrilled to realize the movie starred pretty Rina Uchiyama and the dazzling Asami Mizukawa, a big, BIG fave of mine whom I’d JUST been talking about on reddit this morning (discussing her awesome role in the excellent Yume Wo Kanaeru Zo)…looks like the timing was perfect to check this one out!

 Deep Red is the tale of a girl named Kanako (Uchiyama) whose entire family was murdered one night while she was on a school trip as a child, and now, as a grown college student, seeks out the same-aged daughter of her family’s murderer. She finds the girl Miho (Mizukawa) working as a bartender, and without revealing who she is, Kanako befriends her to compare how her life has been since the incident as opposed to hers.

 There is a lot of turbulence going on in Miho’s life as the long-running trials of her father have finally come to a conclusion and he is sentenced to death. Part of her hates her father for committing the crimes and leaving her, but some of her bitterness is aimed towards Kanako’s parents, whom we find are not as innocent as they seem.

As the friendship between Kanako and Miho grows, one also gets a growing sense of unease as the details of the crime come out and we learn that Kanako has a hidden unstable personality that seeks revenge on Miho for what her father has done. Will the two girls’ friendship hold or will the animosity between the families continue to the present day?

Along with Rina (whom I hadn’t seen in anything since I think  “Strawberry on the Shortcake” YEARS ago), Maki Horikita stars as the younger Kanako. the always affable Takashi Tuskamoto appears as Kanako’s boyfriend, and the wonderful Yoshiko Tanaka as Kanako’s Aunt Saiko!

Can't believe I had this movie on my harddrive for so long without checking it out...I'm going to have to sort through these folders more carefully- who knows what cool movie I'll discover next? This was a really entertaining one!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

"Ue O Muite Aruko" Sightings

A few days ago I saw the brilliant Paul Thomas Anderson movie “Inherent Vice”, and just today I watched the Richard Ayoade film “The Double”. Though both films couldn’t be any more different- The Double a film about a Dystopian Society where a Man’s life gets taken over by his doppelganger, and Inherent Vice, a period tale of a Hippie Detective working in 1970’s L.A., but they both shared one thing- a scene with “Ue O Muite Aruko” (or, as it is more famously known in the western world, Sukiyaki) by Kyu Sakamoto, playing in it!

Joaquin Phoenix and Josh Brolin: Motto Pancakku!!

Jesse Eisenberg spying on his double

 Both scenes make sense to have it: Inherent Vice is, after all, taking place in the 70’s, and they happen to be in a Japanese Owned American food Restaurant (Motto Pancakku!!) and The Double features a society not unlike Bladerunner where Asian Music is the Sound of the Times, but hearing the song in BOTH movies one-after-each-other had me thinking: has Ue o Muite Aruko reached that status of Retro-Cool that all singles secretly hope to attain?

Heck, it’s always been a super-catchy song, hence the reason it caught on as a single in America in the first place, and it’s been covered (albeit with english lyrics added) by so many western acts over the years, it’s immersion into Pop Culture cannot be denied…Whether classified as retro-cool or uber-kitsch, seems like through films, a whole new audience is getting exposed to how great this song is!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com