Into The World of Lingerie with Mirei Kiritani in Netflix’s Original J-Drama Series UNDERWEAR

Mirei Kiritani in Atelier/Underwear

My friend and his girlfriend have been big supporters of the NETFLIX original series from the beginning with shows like HOUSE OF CARDS down through to the recent Marvel superhero shows like DAREDEVIL and JESSICA JONES. This weekend we’re catching up on movies we’ve seen, and then, remembering that I watch J-dramas, he says, “By the way, I forgot to tell you…Netflix is running an original JAPANESE series!”  I’m like, “You mean an American series with Japan actors?” , to which he says, “No man, real Japanese, Japan actors speaking Japanese language with subtitles and all!”
Well! This was SOME news indeed! He continued, “The show they’re airing is called Atelier, and it’s this story of a plain girl who goes to work for older woman who runs this fancy lingerie business. The young girl is cute, but wow, the older lady is fine…kind of reminds me of the mother -in-law in 'Double Kitchen', but, you know, pretty.” (LOL)

 Upon hearing this synopsis, I went, “Hey, this sounds JUST like a drama I read about a couple of months ago- in this show, a small town girl goes to work for big-time lingerie company, too… but THIS drama was called Underwear”! He then stopped and took his smartphone out and began looking up Atelier. He laughed and said, “look what I found here!”  He showed me a page on his phone which said “Netflix Japan is teaming up with Fuji TV to create an original 13 part series: The show on Netflix is called Atelier, while in Japan it is called “Underwear”. WOW! So this WAS the same show!

Reading up on it online later, I was thrilled to see who the cast was. That “cute young girl” starring in the show as the naïve newbie? Adorable Mirei Kiritani! And that sexy older woman? None other than stoic beauty Mao Daichi! I knew what my friend meant about her being sexy- I’d JUST seen her in the in the latest Ayumi Ito/Kento Hayashi drama “Sono Otoko, Ishiki Takai-Kei” earlier this year, and she was turning me on in every episode!

Mao Daichi

Mirei Kiritani

President and Assistant at Work

My friend said he and his girlfriend had watched about 4 episodes of Atelier already and really liked it, so I hurried online to check it out myself and so far, it’s as described: Mirei Kiritani as cute as heck and Mao Daichi as gorgeously intimidating as ever! Reading up, people have been comparing Underwear to the Anne Hathaway/Merle Streep movie “Devil Wears Prada”, what with the demanding woman boss taking on an innocent  young protégé and all, but after watching just the first episode, it is a lot more sweet than that. In fact, Underwear reminded me more of the Karina/Hitomi Kuroki drama “Real Clothes”, where the bumpkin girl is NURTURED by her new boss and job rather than being BULLIED into it! A show with a lot of heart!

Another thing, as with any drama dealing with a specific profession, each episode takes part of its time to teach the viewer a bit of the trade, how lingerie is created, constructed and marketed! 

And of course, this being a show about underwear, we DO also get a fair share of beautiful models parading around in nothing but bras and panties and if THAT ain’t the deal-sealer, I don’t KNOW what is! LOL

 Well, this takes up MY next few weeks! Should be a fun ride, and HEY! If this continues, we may be getting even more and more j-dramas on Netflix! Wouldn’t that be COOL!?

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Seungyeon and Hara Withdraw from KARA, Gyuri Looking for New Agency

Sigh, I guess I shouldn't be surprised with this news. After all, so many of my OTHER favorite k-pop acts have lost members and been downgraded; Girls Generation, f(x), Nine Muses, Dal Shabet and the like, furthermore, KARA was always a group that seemed one step away from dissolution , with the tangle of lawsuits they went through and then Nicole and Jiyoung leaving.
Still, this one really hits home beacuse as you know, KARA was my gateway drug into K-pop and it was always comforting knowing they were still around. But nothing lasts forever, and I suppose it's just time. Poor Younji, though...she JUST got into the group and was making a mark for herself, I sure don't know what direction DSP is going to go with her, if she's still going to be part of them.
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Coming To America: The Saucy Tang Wei in "Finding Mr. Right"

It was through the awesome Michael Mann movie BLACKHAT that I was introduced to the beautiful Tang Wei.  As the movie's female lead (paired up with Chris "Thor" Hemsworth) her portrayal of the svelte and steely-eyed Chen Lian show me what a sultry “Cool Beauty” she could be, and by the movie’s end, I knew I had to see MORE of her!
As Chen Lien in "Blackhat:

Tang Wei. I’d heard her name before, as she was famous for her steamy scenes in the Ang Lee Period War Movie “Lust Caution" (along with her Blackhat co-star Wang Leehom), and I knew it was time for me to seek that movie out and check it out! 

Above and below "Lust Caution":

 Well, I DID manage to get my hands of a copy of Lust Caution, but a funny thing happened- while I was out searching for it, I came across information about one of Tang Wei’s more recent films, and it was THIS movie that I ended up really wanting to see!

 The movie was called “Finding Mr  Right”,  and OH MY GOSH, this flick was a full 180 degree turn ftom the tough and cool girl I saw in Blackhat- THIS girl was one of the cutest and sassiest characters I’ve seen in years! 

JiaJia's arrival in Seattle!

  Finding Mr Right tells the tale of a spoiled rich girl named Jia Jia who is having an affair with a wealthy married man in Hong Kong. She gets pregnant, and to avoid scandal, comes to Seattle in America to have her child covertly. But things don’t run as smoothly as she’d like- the house where she was supposed to have the secret delivery is under arrest, and her quiet  but understanding Taxicab driver must find another place for her to stay.

She moves in with another house where there are a few other women about to give birth, but her spoiled and abrasive attitude makes living with the women more than she (and they) can bear! Soon she finds herself more and more seeking out the companionship of the one individual who always seems to be there for her: Her Taxicab Driver.

Aw man, after seeing Tang Wei as a tough, sultry chick, I was FLOORED to see this luscious, doe eyed girly girl preening and pouting her way across the screen! So spoiled and unaware of common social niceties,  I found myself just wanting to pinch her…and hug her! 

Yep, for no matter how bad things got, you found yourself really liking this girl. And as things come out and you find her situation with that married millionaire not all she’d hoped for, you find yourself really wishing that things would work out for her and she could be happy!

Ah, NOW on to “Lust, Caution” where I’ll have yet ANOTHER 180 degree turn to get adjusted to!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

2015 Kohaku Uta Gassen Highlights

Ayase Haruka, Kuroyanagi Tetsuko (!) and Inohara Yoshihiko

It was another year of Nostalgia for me with this year’s Kohaku Uta Gassen as many of the guests appearing were from when I FIRST got into J-pop, not only was seeing their faces again a throwback, but they even performed the songs from way back when that I loved!
Masaharu Fukuyama doing "Hello", V6 doing "Music for The People, I had to check to make sure I hadn't timeslipped abckk to 1995!

V6

TOKIO

TOKIO rocked out with their great “Ambitious Japan”, a song that has in a lot of ways become their signature song! Is it just me or is Nagase getting scuzzier and scuzzier with each Kohaku, LOL

AAA

AAA were back and I'm always happy to see them appear…just wish they’d sing some of the more FUN type of songs they used to sing back in the day! Mmm, the girls Chiaki and Misako are looking as fine as ever!

Takashi Hosokawa

Ayako Fuji

On the enka side my two fave perfs were Hosokawa Takashi doing a fun song called “Kokoro No Kori” and on the Red Team’s side I was THRILLED to hear Ayako Fuji doing a smooth version of Eternal Idol Momoe Yamaguchi’s rocking “Manjushaka”, WOW!!!

Akiko Wada

The first time I ever saw 1970’s Akiko Wada performing, it was doing her cool song “Waratte Yurushite’ and so it was a real gas seeing her performing it here in all her masculine glory, LOL! Gotta say, this woman really gets the crowd up and at ‘em!

E-Girls

Though this night was all about the acts of the past, a few newer acts I loved were E-Girls’ performance of “Dance Dance Dance”, a VERY catchy song, and AKB48 doing their  (now classic) “Flying GET”. One interesting thing about AKB is now that I’ve gotten to know Anna Iriyama from the drama SIREN, I can’t help but see her adorable face smiling out from wherever she happens to be standing! So Cute! 

AKB49 with Anna Iriyama, center behind

(BTW, Anna Iriyama as Sailor Mars? Hell YES!)

Yumiko Udo and Nao Matsushita

Ikimonogakari performed their song “Arigato”, the theme song from the NHK Asadora GeGeGe No Nyobo froma few years back, and while it was a very good perf, what really made it for me was having cutie pie Nao Matsushita on hand to introduce the song!

X JAPAN

One of the first acts I ever saw on the Kohaku back in 1995 was X Japan (doing their incredible “Rusty Nail”) and it was great seeing them reunited once again  20 years later! 

Miki Imai

The absolute highlight of this years Kohaku for me HAS to be the Miki Imai performance, where she sang  “Piece Of My Wish”, one of my all-time favorite J-pop songs and one that I’ve always wanted to see her do on the Red and White! Finally got my wish, and she was as awesome as I’d hoped!

SMAP

SMAP were back again and besides doing their latest single, they performed “Triangle” one of their later songs that I really like, one that they’ve actually done a few times on past re dand Whites…

Seiko Matsuda

After getting over the shock of not seeing Saburo Kitajima on the show, I was pleasantly surprised to see fave Seiko Matsuda as the closer of this year’s Kohaku, and more pleased to see that she wasn't doing her Red and White staple “Anata Ni Aitakute”, but the awesome, awesome  “Akai Sweet Pea” instead!
Aw yeah, It was another blast from the past for me this year!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com