Osama ni Sasagu Kusuriyubi おわり

Well, despite all the cliches common in romcoms like this (including one very big one that I really loathe), “Ousama ni Sasagu Kusuriyubi” still completely charmed and delighted me throughout its run, and unquestionably became my Number One drama of the season!

 Not gonna really justify the basic plot devices or the obvious and entirely predictable situations, but when I look over my experience with the show and its ups and downs, the feeling I remember is it being a reliable show I could get comfortable and take it easy watching each week!

 For all of its foibles, the underpinning strength of the show was leads Ryosuke Yamada and Kanna Hashimoto portraying these warm lead characters whom you always believed really loved each other, characters you liked and wanted to spend time with!

And of course, me going completely bananas over Kanna Hashimoto didn’t hurt the series either! I know a lot of you out there don’t like her, but I really think she has something special! She really was the cherry n the top of this drama!

Check off another positive checkmark for Kanna Hashimoto!

Once More with the "Ally Of Justice"

 
Avistas recently had their anniversary and to celebrate, had a "freeleech" weekend where you could grab anything without worrying about the size or the burden of reseeding the amount, and I used that opportunity to get a few larger size dramas I've always wanted in more HQ formats, and among them was the excellent "Seigi No Mikata" from 2008!

I've gushed time and time again this drama's virtues, and besides being my #1 drama of the 2000-2014 era, could even possibly place number one bar none, it's THAT good! I've always wanted cleaner files of the show, and wasted no time grabbing that one right up!

With this set of crisp new files now in my possession, I knew it was a PERFECT opportunity to REWATCH the series ALL OVER again! spent the week absolutely BLOWING through it, and HOLY HECK, It's JUST as great and timely as it ever was, despite it being a good 15 years since!

This is  the FOURTH time I am watching the series all the way through again- as I've mentioned in older posts, this is a drama I return to TIME and time again as every episode seems to showcase one scene or another that I've just GOT to see again! I cannot stress how much I adore this drama, though I guess my many, many posts gushing about it makes it clear enough!

My original assessment after watching it for the second time sums it up succinctly:

"...While watching the show all over again, I realized that Seigi No Mikata is probably my FAVORITE drama of my “modern” era!  Besides the clever, witty dialog, the hilarious slapstick scenes and the awesome, awesome acting of Shida Mirai and Yamada Yu, this drama also benefits from having one of the tightest storylines; in its set-up, its consistency and its superb conclusion, one that keeps me coming back for more!

Seigi No Mikata is the story of a young girl named Yoko who has a dominating, bullying older sister named Makiko, whom, though evil, selfish and vain, always seems to come up looking like a savior to everyone around: When her boss chews her out at work, she wrings a moldy washcloth into his tea- when his stomach begins hurting, she orders him to “leave and get to the hospital!”  She is free of him for the rest of the day! Next day, the boss’s wife comes in to gratefully thank Makiko for advising her husband to go to the doctor because they discovered a malady that, since they took care of it so soon, is non-threatening. Makiko has inadvertently saves her boss’s life, and is celebrated for it! 

It’s situations like this that drive little sister Yoko crazy. Only SHE can see her sister’s real, evil intentions, but she seems almost helpless as she watches each person, one by one, get accidentally “saved” by Makiko and praise her as a real “Savior of Justice”! 

This is a title hard for Yoko to take when she is being persecuted every day by Makiko- made to do her chores, run her errands and help her with her selfish pursuits. But when Makiko sets her sights on a new lawyer at the firm (Mukai Osamu) and enlists Yoko to help snag him, Yoko happily realizes if Makiko succeeds and tricks the guy into marrying her, she’ll be free of her sister forever! But will Yoko’s conscious let her stand by while this innocent guy gets deeper and deeper into Makiko’s deceit?

Well, by the last episode, everything has come to a head, everything has been put on the table and, amazingly, everything gets resolved! And for the last chapter of the story, the person who benefits from Makiko’s selfish ways is none other than Yoko herself, who finds that even in the midst of her evil, narcissistic ways, Makiko’s deceptions bring forth true goodness to all those around her!"

Sentiments that I feel even MORE strongly after having finished it up for the fourth time!

i'll say ONE thing in hindsight- It's crazy that actress Mirai Shida hasn't become a BIGGER star than she currently is. Because her skills in Seigi are simply OFF THE CHARTS! I mean, I know she's well-known,but in shows like "Brush Up Life" and such, she's still playing the little sister roles and  more often than not is cast in smaller secondary roles. I remember at the time of Seigi, thinking she was going to DOMINATE the drama scene! Well, she's currently heading her own drama with the recent "Shori no Hoteishiki ", so THAT'S good!!

And as for Yu Yamada, she of the the wonderfully volatile character of Makiko, seems like we haven't seen much of her drama-wise for YEARS... Guess that's what happens when you dedicate yourself to being a mother of four (FOUR!) children, such as she has! Well, she still posts on her instagram and continues to look as commandingly radiant as ever!

Besides the aforementioned lead actresses, we also have others like Osamu Mukai and Hongo Kanata who appeared as the romantic leads, as well as Irie Jingi and Shizuka Nakamura as   Yoko’s school friends… ALL actors who have gone on to bigger status in the dramaworld, such a shock to see them so YOUNG!

And it was most heartwarming to see Yoshiko Tanaka once again! As you know, we lost her in 2011 so it is particularly sweet seeing her interacting with her ‘family” once again! Always the PERFECT TV Mommy, she is still sorely missed...

Yep, ALL these feels and MORE can be experienced time and again thru the magic of rewatching, and I KNOW I'll be rewatching AGAIN  for some time to come! 

Seigi No Mikata Forever!!!

A Missing Piece in My Shizuka Kudoh Collection

 One of my favorite Shizuka Kudoh albums of her latter career is her first cover album, called “Showa no Kaidan Vol.1”, featuring Shizuka ’s interpretation of a bevy of classics.

I’d originally missed out on purchasing it when it first came out in 2002 and only discovered it through an online forum.

It soon became one of my “go-to’ albums to listen to while riding out to the country, and, as it is with most acts I  discover thru MP3s, once I fell in love with it, I HAD to have the real, physcial CD. But it was LONG out of print and there was seemingly nowhere to get it!

Ebay sellers sold a wide variety of shizuka’s albums there, and I’d periodically check in to see if anyone was selling a copy of Showa no Kaidan, however as it was a later release of hers, there weren’t many copies out there to sell!

I had to be diligent in checking in, so what I did was save the ebay site with the search for Shizuka CD bookmarked under the search bar- that way, ANY time I logged onto ebay, it brought up all the CD items up for sale.

WELL, it took YEARS, a Good THREE years by my count, but one day a few weeks ago, I visited the ebay, site, scrolled down the list of Cds for sale…and SAW a listing for someone selling Showa No Kaidan!!!!!!!

You know I wasted NO TIME purchasing THAT one,and JUST got it in the mail today!!!

This is one of post-2000 Shizuka’s most fun and eclectic albums yet, a VERY wide style of songs here (which I'm guessing are songs chosen from Shizuka’s childhood growing up since the “theme” of the album has a “then and now” motif with pics of a very young Shizuka contrasted with the svelte singer we know today!

below: Front and back covers

booklet pics

The tracklisting:

Genki wo Dashite

(Originally by Yakushimaru Hiroko)

Koibito yo

(Originally by Itsuwa Mayumi)

Casa Blanca Dandy

(Originally by Sawada Kenji)

Kamome wa Kamome

(Originally by Ken Naoko)

Koori no Sekai

(Originally by Inoue Yosui)

Kuro no Funauta

(Originally by Nosaka Akiyuki)

Nan to Naku Nan to Naku

(Originally by Inoue Jun)

Coffee Rumba

and

Acacia no Ame ga Yamu Toki

(Originally by Nishida Sachiko)

Casbah no Onna

(Originally by Eto Kunieda)

Kuro Yuri no Uta

(Originally by Orii Shigeko)

Tennessee Waltz

(Originally by Eri Chiemi)

Hoshi no Nagare ni

(Originally by Kikuchi Akiko)

Such a wonderful collection of songs which i loved from the get go, it helps that outside of Patti Page's “Tennessee Waltz”, I did not know any of these songs beforehand, so the Shizuka versions are first time I'm hearing them at all!

Can’t wait to take this album out for a spin officially!

Delving Into Yukio Mishima's Works

The first time I'd heard of Yukio Mishima, it was about his radical ideas and his infamous Seppuku suicide. Honestly, I had no idea he was a writer as he was always presented as this outrageous individual, but as I became a fan of Author Haruki Murakami, I would frequently see his name as a"Must read" Writer.

It was a co-worker who finally told me about Mishima's famous "Sea Of Fertility" series, and when he talked to me about the books, he added, "This Yukio Mishima was famous for committing seppuku", and as he described him in more detail, I went, "Wait, I KNOW about that guy! HE was a WRITER??"

I didn't know if I was being suggested to read Yukio Mishima because he wrote in the same style as Murakami, or if he was just another Japanese writer they knew and figured, "If zdorama loves Murakami who is a Japanese writer, then he'll surely love another Japanese writer!"

In any case, I had read and heard enough about the Sea of Fertility series enough to know I'd have to at least check out the first book "Spring Snow", and as luck would have it, I found a dealer selling the entire series in one paperback lot!

Right now am about halfway through Spring Snow,and I can see why my co-worker recommended mishima to me, a VERY similar style- very surreal in tone and also quite heavy on the man objectifying women thing that occurs so much in Murakami novels!

At this point, though, I must say I find main character Kiyoaki Matsugae to be an entirely disagreeable person whom, though similar in ways to the standard Murakami protagonist, I find offensive and hard to sympathize with! Reading up, it seems his friend Honda is going to be the recurring character in the series, so we'll see how this all goes down....

A Most HATED J-Drama Cliche!!!!!

WARNING:

Spoilers for "Osama ni Sasagu Kusuriyubi" and "Watashi No Oyome Kun"

...also for "Summer Snow", but shouldn't you have seen that by now? LOL

Out of ALL the cliches that have been around since I began watching J-dramas in the mid 90’s, so many of them have been phased out and relegated to occasional chestnut, but the ONE cliche that CAN’T seem to DIE is the “Because I Love You, I’m Going To Dump You” cliche, and it’s driving me CRAZY!

In not just ONE, but TWO of the dramas this past season, they’ve “gone there” with this sad, time-wasting trope, and I mean to tell you,  I WANT IT TO STOP!

It’s always the same set-up: Guy and girl fall in Love and everything is going SWIMMINGLY, until one of the couple’s friends secretly says to the other that they are HOLDING their partner BACK, (or, in the case of the health-issue stories, are told they are BAD for the partner’s HEALTH and WELL BEING), and if they CARED for their partner AT ALL, they would LEAVE THEM IMMEDIATELY!

The concerned partner of course, ALWAYS stupidly takes the friend’s advice and I get it, they care about their partner and truly want what’s best for them… but then comes the NEXT part, which always makes me INSANE:

The person plans to DUMP their partner for THEIR SAKE, but not without VERY ENTHUSIASTICALLY saying “We’ll be together 4-Ever!” the day before. Then the next day, the partner is BEWILDERED when their partner GHOSTS them, IGNORING their calls and AVOIDING their visits. When they DO finally meet up, it’s for the person who dumped the other to say they HATE them and NEVER want to SEE them AGAIN!

Below: One of the first dramas I remember seeing this trope in, "Summer Snow" with Tsuyoshi Domoto and Ryoko Hirosue.

Same scenario with recent Osama ni Sasagu Kusuriyubi:

also "Watashi no Oyome Kun:

Tears are shed and it all seems over…until a concerned person pulls the hurt party aside and tells them “ You KNOW they did it for YOU, right? They only DUMPED YOU because they actually really LOVE YOU, and YOU’RE the one with the problem!”

Below: The revelation in Ousama:

in Watashi no Oyome-kun

And then the wounded party CONFRONTS the other, says they now KNOW they did it for THEIR sake, and it’s ALL GOOD…and then they GET BACK TOGETHER again!

I’m BEGGING you drama screenwriters out there…STOP USING THIS DELUDED CLICHE, it’s a TIRED crutch to fall back on it order to pad the show with more drama at the end!

PS: Gotta love how YOUNG everyone in Summer Snow is, ESPECIALLY Oguri Shun, who looks like a 8 year old boy, and cute Chizuru Ikewaki who, for a brief time, I was MADLY in LOVE with!

Once again, gotta say how time sure does fly!