Basically, over the life of the series, which ran this year from mid-April through June 24th, we will learn some in depth info about the five lead characters. We watch as they struggle with their problems like: their aversion to commitments, their lack of confidence, their unwillingness to either express the truth or to face it.

If that sounds kind of grim and disturbing to you, you can rest assured that the series is not completely or only about bumps in the road, it only seems that way. The cast is youthful, attractive, and their problems/issues are not too remote for most of us to identify with or relate to. As they’ve agreed to meet for the first time in the opening Episode, I’ll give you a little thumbnail sketch about each of them to help you decide if you’d like to watch this series.

Eita as Nakaji

Keisuke Nakajima is played by Eita who is in real life is 28 and has been working steadily in TV series and films in Japan for some time. He’s well liked and you’d have to say that his career is burgeoning as he’s gone from supporting roles to lead roles.

Nakaji and Haru

Here he is called Nakaji. The info he’s put out to the group is that he is a photographer. In reality, he’s a photographer’s assistant, in short a low level assistant in the skin magazine trade. He works on gravure idol photo-shoots. Throughout this entire series, he has a continuous and endless case of one bad hair day after another. As the series begins we learn that he has been involved with and is in love with a married woman.

Haru Mizuno is played by the award winning actress Juri Ueno. She walked off with an award for her role as a high-strung student trying to become concert pianist in Nodame Cantabile in 2006. She then followed with another award for her performance as a gay woman in the 2008 series Last Friends.

Juri Ueno as Haru

Haru has told the group that she is a teacher at a private high school. Her reality is that she’s a provisional teacher who is still on probation and she hasn’t gotten her full teaching license yet. Her character is attractive but has no self confidence at all. As a result, she’s never had a boy friend and has already past her 24th birthday.

Jae-Joong Hero is not only a Korean actor, but in his role in the series, he portrays a Korean living and working in Tokyo. He tells the group he is a Doctor, and that (Doctor) becomes his character’s name. In truth, he is a salesman for a medical supplies firm, and his track record is not too good.

Jaejoong aka 'Doctor'

He’s going to fall head-over-heels for Haru. The relationship has a good many stumbles, and week to week it seems that she loves me, she loves me not is the rule rather than the exception. That’s because Haru also really likes Nakaji. And because she can’t decide.

Megumi Seki appears as Peach. She’s tall and attractive with a willowy figure. Beyond that she’s an aggressive and sexually active woman. She’s only a sales girl in a women’s clothing shop but she’s implied to the group that she manages the store.

Megumi Seki as Peach

She will be attracted to two of the three male leads, and when we meet her, she is already pregnant by another lover. She easily bonds with Haru, and they become the supporting friend for each other.

The last of the main characters is Kaoru Ichihara or ‘Leenda’, played by Tetsuji Tamayama. He has told the group that he is an editor of a prestigious magazine, but in reality he is just an assistant editor who is being sexually harassed by his female boss who constantly promises better assignments and promotions in return for sleeping with her.

Tetsuji as Leenda

As you will see, he is the fifth wheel as well as the odd man out. Yet he outwardly appears as the most stable of the main characters while inwardly he hasn’t yet learned to face up to his reality. He too has his secret which will emerge in the coming weeks.

I’ve watched the whole series which you can find with either hard or soft subtitles. You’ll have to google to find them,  At times, I became angry at the characters for their indecisiveness, their inability to be honest even to themselves, and for letting their fears control them. Yet despite the anger, you do get caught up in rooting for them.

The series as a whole is far from upbeat, and despite the somewhat happy endings achieved by some of the characters. the series does not end with you pleased about the results for each of them. But the production hasn’t skimped on cost savings measures, and it is a visually attractive series. I won’t go as far as saying this is a must see, but it is diverting, and I did stay with it to completion.

For two video trailers go to:
http://asianmediawiki.com/Sunao_ni_Narenakute

Shinzanmono

I think shinzanmono means something along the lines of ‘new neighborhood people or person’, which is what Detective Kaga Kyoichiro is in Ningyo-cho. Kaga was just tranferred to the Nihonbashi precinct, is placed in charge of the case. With virtually all of the residents of the neighborhood’s main shopping street, harboring one secret or another, they will all emerge as suspects, Detective Kaga must use his keen sense of deductive reasoning to uncover the truth about these people as well as solve the case..

Much of that is from the synopsis provided on the d-addicts.com website. But it really doesn’t do the series justice. Calling it a detective show is truly an over-simplification. Unlike American detective shows where the detective solves a new crime each week, this series focuses on just the one case. We, much like Detective Kaga, are in the dark. Though we witnessed the murder in the opening episode, and have seen snippets of it, in flashbacks, in every episode that followed, we still have no idea. This is a literal, “Who done it?”

Detective Kaga is portrayed by Hiroshi Abe. He brings a quiet calm to the role, and from his simple white shirt without a tie, and black suit…he appears to be completely style-less. In that regard, he is similar to the classic American detective, Lieutenant Columbo, who was played in that classic series by Peter Falk. But unlike Columbo, who actively worked at being shambling, forgetful, and messy to deceive the suspects, Kaga is none of the above. At worst he is edging in the direction of being unkempt but hasn’t arrived at that station yet.

He is direct yet quite polite and courteous, sharp as a tack when it comes to smarts because he is sharp-eyed and listens to everything that is being said, and extraordinarily giving in the sense of calming and reassuring both victims and suspects to gain their confidence.

Though the series broadcast run has concluded, I’ve seen just the first five episodes as I must wait for the subtitles to become available. But from what I have seen, I can decidedly recommend the series. So let’s give you a leg up by introducing some of the characters to get you started.

Mieko Harada as the victim Mineko Mitsui

But first, who and what was the victim Mineko Mitsui all about? She’s a 40 something divorced woman, living alone in a small flat, who is also estranged from her 20 something year old son.

From what we can see in the flashbacks, she’s attempting to get her life back on track, and has moved into this neighborhood because she has discovered that this is where her son lives. She’s made quite a few friends in Ningyo-cho, and apparently was well liked. Mieko Harada had the role.

Meisa Kuroki as Ami Aoyama

The beautiful Meisa Kuroki has the part of Ami Aoyama. She’s a part-time freelance writer/reporter/stringer for some local magazines and newspapers. She also works as a part-time waitress to supplement her meager earnings from writing.

We come to discover that she is the girl friend of the murdered woman’s son. While appearing in each episode, she is also the narrator at the beginning of each episode.

Anne (just a single professional name on stage) plays the role of Nao Kawakama in Episode One. She’s a headstrong girl who can’t get along with her Mom who runs an upscale cookie shop in the neighborhood. Nao wants to go to Paris and study hair design. She also lies to the police under questioning about an insurance salesman who is a suspect. That’s her right above this paragraph.

In Episode Two, we meet Yui Natsukawa (above left) who plays the restaurant owner Yoriko. Her husband is cheating on her with various bar girls. Detective Kaga is on the trail and he questions one of the girls, Asami, played by Mao Miyaji (above right) about this suspect. We will meet Asami again in the 4th Episode.

Yuki Shibamoto as Maki

In Three we get to know more about Maki Yanagisawa played by the lovely Yuki Shibamoto. Maki had met and befriended the murdered woman. Maki also was fighting with her Mother and went missing soon after the police arrived to question her. In this episode. Gravure Idol Yuko Ogura also had a small role as a men’s shop manager. She sells Detective Kaga some ties and undershorts.

Yuko Ogura as The Sales Mgr at a men's Shop. She loves how Det. Kaga looks with the ties she's selling

Four introduces a curmudgeon of a watch repairman played by veteran Japanese actor Yoshio Harada. His surliness stems from his unhappiness and disillusionment because his daughter ran off and married (against his wishes) a young man whom he considered to be biker-trash.

The daughter is played by Haru and she and her father will not reconcile until she delivers a newborn son. Her husband is now working at a watch manufacturing plant. As for the watch repairman, he’s a suspect because he is known to have frequented the same park as the murdered woman Mineko. And both of them were seen in this park at the same time on the day she was murdered.

Miyuki as portrayed by Mahiro Konno

In Five, we meet Miyuki who is employed at the favorite bake shop of Detective Kaga, Ami Aoyama, as well as the murdered woman. Miyuki is played by Mahiro Konno. Her character is pregnant and was befriended by Mineko, who watched over the pregnant girl, as any parent might; only she wasn’t Miyuki’s mother. We also find out that Ami Aoyama met and talked with Miyuki about Mineko in this chapter.

That’s as far as I can go up to now. It’s very interesting to watch as each Episode introduces a new character, and as we get to know them, we find that Detective Kaga will help them as people who are in need of a helping hand, and yet as he helps them, we must consider that each of them is possibly the murderer.

This excellent production has charm, wit, humor, superior writing, and lots of style. The characters are fresh, and while their family problems are universal and not new, we can enjoy how Kaga works his magic and uncovers their secrets one by one.

Through five weeks, I still have no idea who killed Mineko. And neither does Detective Kaga, and therein lies the charm and magic of this wonderful series. You just have to return the following week, because solving the case has become as important to us as it is to Kaga. Okay, make that almost as important.

It seems, per the article, that Akiko long suspected her husband of infidelity, but she is surprised that drugs are also involved. She filed for divorce four days after Oshio’s arrest.

I’m not going to comment further on the arrest, the alleged crime, the alleged drug use, or infidelity. Those things will work themselves out with or without press coverage and definitely without my opinions.

Maybe it is part of the press campaign for her next motion picture. In a more recent Japantoday.com article, they’ve  announced that Akiko will play a police detective along with Kenji Sakaguchi doing the Bruce Willis role in the Japanese version of Die Hard.

But let’s set the news blurbs aside. I do think Akiko Yada is a beauty, a wonderful actress, and I have had the good fortune to see her in at least five Japanese TV Dramas. I am not only willing to share these with you, but I am very happy to do so.

The first series I saw with Akiko was called My Little Chef (MLC).This show was produced and aired in 2002. Akiko starred and had the lead as Seri Kamosawa, a talented but unknown chef. She comes in from the country to work at Etoile, a fancy French eatery. But it has gone out of business. However, the fates are kind and she hooks up (not romantically) with that restaurant’s former manager Kenaku Tachibana. played by Hiroshi Abe, and they open their own French restaurant.

With Aya Ueto on board as a hostess and server, and a fine assortment of actors as chefs and cooks in this restaurant, the series will entertain you three ways:

- The stories are often about the guests of the restaurant and all will be well after they taste and enjoy the fine food
- We are treated to the preparation and service of some really tasty and artfully created and presented dishes. The menu for each meal was created by Seri after having a brief conversation with the restaurant’s guest.
- The restaurant itself must fight to survive. It is being taken over by a French outfit, and the CEO is none other than Seri’s Mom who she has not seen in almost twenty years.

My thought was that this was a very fine production, beautifully presented. The cast was extremely likable, and Akiko shined as a young chef struggling to find her footing in the world of culinary arts, as well as pleasing the customers, and keeping the restaurant afloat.

Plus there is a bonus. The theme song of MLC is a wonderful song called Voyage by the superstar Japanese songstress Ayumi Hamasaki.

The second drama featuring Akiko Yada was called Top Caster (2006). It is set in the News department of a network TV station. Yuki Amani as Haruka Tsubaki has been hired as the new News Anchor. She’s bossy, bitchy, and a  ball-buster. She cares about just one thing and that’s getting scoops which translates to higher ratings for the network. The higher the ratings the higher her bonus.

She tabs TV weather girl Nozomi Asuka played by Akiko to be her assistant. That doesn’t mean editorial assistant. It doesn’t mean production assistant. It means both of those AND personal assistant 24-7.

Poor Akiko as Nozomi is nearly overwhelmed. She must wake her boss up every morning with a cup of tea at the ready. She must unpack the dozens and dozens of boxes and crates and that means set up her boss’s apartment.

So Akiko must work her tail off. Will she stay with it, or will she be crushed by the steamrolling anchorwoman Haruka? And will Haruki be able to bring in the scoops to keep the network honchos happy that they brought her in from New York at a super high salary?

The third series was called Voice. It has hints of CSI but it isn’t really about deaths caused by criminal activity. Instead it centers on 5 med students who are in the forensic pathology field. Most of them aren’t thrilled by this field but that will change.

The lead actor believes that medicine ends with death. But as he and the other students will find out, medicine also applies to the dead. The so called ‘voices of the dead‘ is really the pathology and study of the tissues and relevant facts that caused the person to die in the 1st place.

Akiko Yada portrays Reiko. She’s not one of the students. Instead she’s one of the staff at the med school. She befriends the students and helps them along with their studies. It’s not much of a role, but Akiko looks good in a doctor’s white coat.

Akiko played a high school health teacher to Takashi Sorimachi’s Enzo the Art teacher in HOTMAN. Enzo is a family man in a big way. He’s raising a 5 year old girl who is his daughter as a solo parent. He also lives with his 2 sisters and twin brothers. And in effect he is serving as their father, while in truth he is their brother. They all had the same mother, but the brothers and sisters had different fathers.

Akiko gets involved through the school, and her relationship with with Enzo is not the main story. The main story is Enzo and the children. Still as I’ve mentioned before, Akiko is great to look at, and always seems to get a role that you can’t help but like her in.

The last and most popular of Akiko’s TV series was called Last Christmas. Produced in 2004 for the holiday season, the series was broadcast between October 11th and December 20th that year. Her co-star is Yuji Oda as Kenji. Both Kenji and Yuki (Akiko) are employed at a large sporting goods company, a Japanese version of Nike. Yuki is dating Kenji’s boss, while Kenji is concentrating on business.

You probably can guess where this will take us, but there’s plenty of side stories – two other couples including the busty MEGUMI and the gorgeous Nana Katase, round out the cast.

But this story is more than just a rom-com. There’s some decidedly dramatic parts to this series. Akiko Yada is certainly beautiful in her own right, in fact, men really go for her in this series. but there’s more to find out about her, much more than meets the eye at first.

While Yuki and Kenji are the central characters, Yuki’s role is much more complex.  My opinion was that this was indeed a holiday treat.

My conclusion is that Akiko Yada is an attractive as well as accomplished actress. I look forward to her return to TV dramas. By the way, a simple google search for each of these dramas will produce lots of links to English language subtitled dl’s.

Karina has the lead role and is just one of many Japanese beauties lighting up the screen in this 11 episode series. She does a superb job as Kinue Amano, a girl who was doing quite well selling bedding in the fictional top of the market Echizenya Department Store in Tokyo. Then one day she finds she’s been transferred to the Women’s Clothing Department.

Karina as Kinue Amano, looking like a plain Jane in Episode 1. This scene is in Paris where the series begins.

Kinue is clumsy, klutzy, and without any fashion sense what so ever. That’s her in the above picture by the River Seine in Paris, France which is where the series begins. She’s  just like the Andy Sachs character in The Devil Wears Prada. Her new boss is Chief Manager Miki Jinbo who is played by Hitomi Kuroki, and her role is styled to be like the Meryl Streep role as the world’s numero uno fashionista, Miranda Priestly, in TDWP.  So the stage is set. This looks like it could  be The Devil Wears Prada re-worked Japanese style.

Hitomi Kuroki as Chief Manager Miki Jinbo

But this is series, not a two-hour story for a single movie. So they had to open it up, give more characters more depth and bigger parts as well as adding in the department store wars. Think Nieman Marcus vs Bloomingdales vs Bergdorf-Goodman.

Plenty of nice threads to see, and these are worn by some of Japan’s most beautiful actresses. So even if high fashion isn’t your cup of cha, watching beautiful women is what you get week after week in this series.

Specifically, Kinue’s task is that she must attempt to balance her workload, her relationship of 8 years with her boyfriend, and navigate her way through the minefield of satisfying a very tough boss. It is a lot to put on anyone’s plate, and when you factor in that she knew nothing about style or fashion, the task seemed even harder.

As the series progresses, and Kinue grows personally, professionally, and of course , at the same time she becomes much more stylish,  the story seems to veer away sharply from TDWP model.

I think if you decide to watch this, just don’t expect TDWP. Even with the similarities and the fact that it starts as if it would be the same it simply wasn’t the same.

As a guy, I’m not particularly interested in fashion as a topic. Nor am I knowledgeable. I couldn’t tell you one designer’s style from another. They’re just names to me. But I did see TDWP back in 2006 in the company of a woman who worked for a major Chinese fashion magazine, and I liked it so I thought I’d give this series a chance.

Kinue Amano played by Karina now looking much more stylish

You should consider this one as there’s plenty of eye candy in this show.

To borrow Miki Jinbo’s trademark phrase in the series – Kekko! (Fine!).  I thought this was a fine series which seemed to hit a lot of different areas – success in the work place but not without a struggle for some; and broken hearts or broken dreams for others, and so forth. The ensemble cast was really good.

Elegant, stylish and very desirable

It played well as a drama, as a comedy, and as a life-affirming story. The only department that it failed in, and this was done intentionally, was the romance department.

It’s not as if it tried and failed, the romance had to be jettisoned otherwise the character of Kinue could not have grown in multiple spheres of her life.

Beauties on the Sales Floor

To summarize, this was a nice series to look at, it was entertaining, and at times a lot of fun. I liked it. Alot.

Dance Subaru

Subaru Miyamoto is played by the beautiful and talented Meisa Kuroki. As is usually done in the movies – to achieve success one has to have previously suffered. Subaru and her twin brother Kazuma are introduced to ballet at an early age by their Mom who soon passes away because of a cancerous brain tumor. But not before ballet had taken hold in the children.

The kids loved ballet and shared a dream about becoming ballet dancers. They could be seen in the street practicing some classical dance movements from Swan Lake. However their conservative father discouraged them, But again, death intervenes. Kazuma dies at the age of 10 from a brain tumor, just like his Mother.

Flash forward 7 years and Subaru finds herself outside of a Tokyo cabaret, the Palais Garnier, which featured both classical ballet and a strip show. Drawn into the cabaret by the ballet poster, Subaru is taken under the wing of the cabaret owner, herself a former ballerina, and is given further training in the art of ballet.

We are now sure that Subaru has her heart set on dancing. That she is most fulfilled and complete when dancing, and is free of the internal demons that plague her when she’s not dancing. Does she have the same hereditary disease that claimed the lives of her mother and brother? What about her Dad who wants her stop dancing and go to college? And does she have the talent, skills, drive, and perseverance to succeed?

She meets Liz Park, played by Korean beauty Ara. Liz is a dancer in a New York based dance company.  She will introduce Subaru to the world of break-dancing, as well as setting Subaru up with a guy. Also, Subaru is taking classical ballet lessons from her friend’s mother who runs a small ballet school in Tokyo.

Soon, Liz Park tells Suburau of a major dance audition to held in Shanghai, China. So off to Shanghai we go.

That’s about as far as I can go in giving you the plot outline. The film has strong dance sequences with magical editing and pacing. Kuroki has a lot of ability as a dancer. In fact, some might say that the Meisa really shines in the dance parts of the film, so much so that these scenes far outdistance the dramatic scenes.

From another perspective both Meisa and Ara are so very beautiful and graceful.

The script is nothing special as the story arc here is no different than in any other ‘dance film’ you may have seen. But I recommend this film if you like watching Kuroki, and if you love films about dancing.

She is shunned by other children at school, is given stale bread to take to school for lunch, and her birthday or Christmas were ignored by her Mom. At one point, while still as a child, she had attempted to run away. She tried to live in a cardboard box nearby. When she was driven back home by severe rainstorms, and hunger, her mother greeted her with an indifferent, “Oh you’re back? Didn’t you run away?”

We learn just about all of this in voice-overs and flashbacks in the first 7 minutes or so of this TV series. This child, named Yoko Matsuda, and played as an adult by TV actress Miho Kanno, grew up to be a woman who lacked both friends and family. She was totally lacking in any kind of happiness at all. So we are not surprised when she, after giving up all hope, decides to take her life by jumping off a bridge in Tokyo. She climbs up on the railing and jumps off. All that remains are her shoes. Roll intro.

Miho Kanno as Ai-Chan/Yoko Matsuda

After the intro we find that Yoko has not perished, she’s actually a strong swimmer/diver. She’s soaked to the skin, but alive, so she crawls ashore and makes her way to a nearby pub restaurant. Still dripping water, she orders a beer, then passes out.

Well luckily for her character, and for we viewers, she went to the right place because it is here at the bar/restaurant that we meet the characters who will become instrumental factors in her future.

Koji Tamaki as Officer Yuji Kataoka

The first is Yuji Kataoka, a policeman just approaching his mid forties, who has just transferred from the detective division to an admin division so he could spend more time with his young children. His wife Kaori had passed away four years ago and he had not remarried. But his outlook on life is amazing. He’s always smiling and is ever helpful.

Fumiyo Kohinata as Det. Iitsuka

Detective Hideki Iitsuka is like the bachelor uncle that all of us have in our own families. He’s really a sweet guy but is often overlooked or forgotten. He would like to have a girl friend but he will get super nervous when meeting a woman. He is the main comedic character in the series.

Hiroki Narimiya as Det. Yaginuma

Detective Yuusuke Yaginuma is a young detective, and former partner of Kataoka. He’s impetuous, driven, and kind of a thick-headed baka (idiot). This is true because as he pines away for Ai-chan who is really Yoko Matsuda while she works her way through her ‘amnesia’, he totally misses the avid signals tossed his way by a real beauty on the police force. More on her shortly.

Emi Wakui as Fusako-chan

There’s another key cast member and that would be Fusako Enomoto who was played by Emi Wakui. Fusako becomes great friends with Yoko/Ai-chan, and serves as a female chum and confidant. BTW Wakui was the star of the very first Japanese drama I ever watched. It was called Virgin Road, and I watched it broadcast on television in New York about 13 years ago.

Hiroko Sato as Officer Momoka Hamanaka

The last essential member of the cast (appearing in at least one or two scenes in every episode) is Officer Momoka Hamanaka and she is played by none other than former gravure idol Hiroko Sato, who looks great despite the fact that we only see her in a police uniform.

Okay, that’s the who. The why should you watch this heartwarming and moving drama can be summed up quite easily. It is the story of a woman who grew up without any kind of love, who attempted to throw away her life, who now finds herself living under the same roof with a family of a man with three small children and no wife.

When Kataoka’s good natured middle aged man (played by the effervescent Koji Tamaki) meets up with Miho Kanno’s Ai-chan, a surly and disagreeable woman, you just know you’re going to watch a feel-good story and changes will occur.

And you do – only not quite in the way you expected or hoped for; and not without some decidedly rough patches for all involved. I heartily recommend this 10 episode family drama which was first broadcast on Japan’s NTV Network from October 12, 2005 to December 14th, 2005, in the prime time slot at 10:00 PM. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

It is available on DVD from the California based Japanese Drama Store
http://www.jpdorama.com/JapaneseEng/dvdbox/Love_Song.asp
with English, Chinese, and Malay subtitles.

The theme song of the series is sung by the series lead actor, singer-songwriter, Koji Tamaki, in what was his first acting role in eight years at the time of the broadcast. You can watch and listen to him sing his song in a live concert performance in the following video.

Ordinary Miracle

The event that caused them to meet was anything but romantic. On their own, they each consider or think that a third person, a man standing by himself at the far end of the train platform, may be going to take his own life by leaping in front of an oncoming train.

Independently they watch him, and as the train approaches, this man edges toward the side of the platform of the oncoming train. They spring into action and barely pull this man back to safety from a sure death by punching him and wrestling him down to the platform’s surface..

Later in the Train Master’s office, this man angrily denies any thoughts of suicide. He claims he was beaten and kicked for no reason at all – out of the blue – is how he describes it.

The woman is called Kana Nakashiro and is played by the beautiful actress Yukie Nakama. The man is called Shota Tasaki and is played by Ryou Kase in his first lead role in a Japanese TV Drama Series.

Soon they are excused from further questioning as the man was not injured, or even bruised. They part company at the turnstile;  Shota heads back up for his train, and Kana leaves the station. Moments later,  Shota rushes down from the upstairs platform after initially boarding his train, and then quickly stepping off. He wants to find Kana. But she’s gone.

Or is she? They later meet by a seemingly random coincidence at a nearby coffee shop shortly after he has given up hope of seeing her again. We of course expected as much – these are the cast headliners – why wouldn’t they meet?

And so begins Ordinary Miracle aka Arifureta Kiseki.  What made each of them suspect this man was harboring suicidal thoughts? That is the premise of this series and the reason why we will continue to watch this drama – hoping their personal mysteries and the emotional scars that each carries will be revealed.

Shota is a construction worker who does plastering.  He lives with his grandfather and father. Kana is employed by a restaurant supplies & equipment firm.  She trains people to use the cooking techniques based on her firm’s appliances. She lives with her parents and her grandmother.  Neither Shota nor Kana appear to be happy, but they have to go about their lives and careers, because even with their insecurities and foibles, life continues.

This series is a moving tale of how ordinary people living their lives, who under an unusual happenstance,  meet, grow closer, and help each other heal. The road to that end is not easy, and some of the turns and twists that their journey takes are not always believable, but the story unfolds slowly and beautifully. There’s no glitter or over glamorization on the screen. This emphasis is on the story, rather than being a star vehicle for the lead actor and actress. If you are not familiar with any of the Japanese cast, then this drama will impact you even more, as you’ll come to  it with no predefined expectations.

The director doesn’t employ any video editing gimmicks and the like. Nevertheless, the series is sumptuously captured on video, and there are many supremely lovely images that make this story captivating. One of the unusual features of this series are the long takes, and the lack of tight closeups.

This intentionally creates a distancing between we the viewers and the actors. But this makes the words of the screenplay take on added value which will make you appreciate the story even more.  Speaking of which, the screen writer of this drama, Taichi Yamada, walked off with the Japanese equivalent of an Emmy for her script for this series.

This 11 episode series was broadcast on the Fuji-TV network at 10:00 PM on Thursdays beginning on January 08, 2009 through March 19th, 2009. There is a DVD with English, Chinese, and Malay subtitles, available from this California based seller – The Japanese Drama DVD Store (URL below).

http://www.jpdorama.com/JapaneseNDVD/dvdbox/Arifureta.asp

Also worth noting is that this drama’s theme song is called Dreams Are More Precious (Than Gold) and is sung by Enya. Listen to the song here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHaE9ABXPtw

Lost in Beijing

The film has been steeped in controversy due to the realistic tone and with its roots in a censor-heavy China.

Trouble started even before its premiere with Chinese censors demanding multiple cuts of the sex and gambling portrayed as well as scenes in slum-like settings. And despite the film acquiring international distribution, it still had problems being released in its own country.

Director Li Yu

On January 4, 2008, not only was the film officially banned in China by SARFT but the director Li Yu along with the Laurel Films production company were prohibited from filmmaking for two years.

LIB stars Fan Bingbing as Liu Pingguo, a struggling foot masseuse living in a rundown section with her window-washer husband An Kun (Tong Dawei).

The film’s output is instantly jarring with a passionate love scene between Liu and her husband in the shower. The scene, while it feels gratuitous, is actually an important plot point and sets the mood for later debauchery.

The last shot of the scene has the couple continuing their affair in the shower fading out as the Beijing  skyline comes into view.

After work, she shares some drinks with a recently fired co-worker Xiao Mei (Zeng Meihuizi) and in a literal blur of drunkenness she unknowingly comes on to her boss Lin Dong (Tony Leung Ka Fai). The cinematography is very effective and innovative in this sequence with the use of an unfocused camera and quick cutting.

Tony Leung Ka Fai

Her boss, a known womanizer welcomes the attention and begins to force himself on her. I’ll admit, I found the beginning of this scene comedic but it quickly turns unsavory. Liu midway realizes her mistake and tries to fend off Lin who eventually ends up raping her.

And in an absurd coincidence, An Kun witnesses the crime while dangling outside washing the window. The exceptional cinematography and editing continues with some nice POV and frantic cuts of an engraged An Kun out for blood.

Now this is where the main dispute of the film is set. Liu becomes pregnant and is unaware of who fathered the child. Lin along with his wife Wang Mei (Elaine Jin) who is unable to bear offspring, offer a deal to An Kun.

Elaine Jin

If Lin is the father, he will keep the child and pay off An Kun. While this premise is an intriguing one, the subsequent events of the story kept me from enjoying the film.

My prime objection is the complete lack of moral substance within any of the characters. While the young couple have hopes for a better life in agreeing to it, the contract just feels unethical and wrong, which degrades my opinion of everyone involved.

Another aspect of the film that turned me off were the random shots of the local humanity and setting. I understand what the director was going for, but these would be more appropriate for a documentary than a drama as they didn’t involve any of the cast.

And overall the performances were the high point of the film, but there were some scenes near the end with characters just staring off in the distance, contemplating. They added nothing and slowed down the pace to a standstill.

While I enjoyed the look and feel of film as well as the performances, the characters’ actions were what inevitably left me with a bad taste. It’s very hard to watch a film from start to finish when midway through you lose all hope for the characters and the faith in their future outcomes.

I’ve since watched this film again and again. The reality is that Koyuki was so mesmerizing, that I’ve wanted to see her in other roles. I’ve been fortunate in that I’ve been able to see Koyuki in a good number of Television drama series.

In this article, we will take a look at a number of those series as well as a look at her brand new film, Watashi Dasu Wa (above) or in English – It’s On Me or I Will Give, which opens in theaters in Japan, October 31st, today.

We’ll do this chronologically rather than in the order that I saw them. in 2002, Fuji TV broadcast Antique. The big picture is that this series was a tale about 4 men who worked in a confectionary – a place where people went to buy and or eat the most delicious cakes. One of these men was a former professional boxer. Koyuki had the role of Izuka Momoko, a writer, who was on the trail of a story about this boxer. Koyuki’s role was written for her to be mousy, timid and shy, but she did sparkle nonetheless.

From 2003, Kimi Wa Petto (You are My Pet): Koyuki plays Sumire Iwaya, a smart career woman whose personal life is the exact opposite of what you might expect. She is hated at work because she’s so good. She was even demoted after punching out her boss, after he complained that she was too perfect.

So, she’s lonely, depressed, and cannot express her true feelings to any man. Except one – Jun Matsumoto as Goda. She had discovered him asleep in cardboard box outside of her apartment building. It was to be for one night but they soon strike up an agreement. He agrees to live in her apartment as her ‘pet’ Momo, and because he has about as many rights in the apartment as a dog, he becomes Sumire’s confidant.

Boku to Kanojo to Kanajo no ikuru michi aka The Way We Live was broadcast in 2004. One day a salary-man is told by his wife that she’s divorcing him. She leaves both her husband and her little daughter.

Koyuki plays Yura Kitajima, a teacher who is hired to be a tutor for the little girl. It is a heartwarming family drama about what life and Love are about.

Engine was broadcast in 2005. It starred Takuya Kimura as a race car driver who was fired from his job, and he has to return home and work in an orphanage run by his father. Koyuki plays a teacher at the orphanage. She’s well meant, and has the right intentions, but she’s somewhat inept. Koyuki was cast to be the love interest for Kimura, but the romantic element seemed to sputter and misfire.

Always – Sunset on Third Street II (Always zoku san-chome no yuhi, was released in November, 2007.  This film was a sequel to the original from 2005 that was set at the end of the 1950’s. There’s really not a large time gap between the original and the sequel. Maybe a year.

The story is was about life in a small neighborhood that was virtually in the shadow of the Tokyo Tower as it was being built in 1958. Koyuki plays Hiromi Ishizaki, an exotic dancer in a small burlesque theater who wants to change her life.

In 2008 TBS broadcast the series called The Sasaki Couple’s Merciless Battle (Sasaki Fusai no Jingi Naki Tataki). Inagaki Goro and Koyuki play a husband and wife (Norimichi and Ritsuko Sasaki) who are not only married but are partners in a law firm. 

Their fights reach such proportions that they take on each other in a fierce courtroom battle contesting the terms of the divorce. It’s funny, its wild, and often over-the-top. Koyuki looks great and we never see her in the same outfit twice.

In the spring of 2009, Koyuki did a guest appearance (to the left) on the detective show, Mr. Brain.

She’s in Episode 2 as Kumiko Miyase, who  might be a murderer. And it will take all of Mr. Brain’s sleuthing ability to discover the truth.

Opening on screens all over Japan today is It’s On Me or I Will Give (Watashi Dasu Wa). Koyuki plays Maya Yamabuki, a woman who wants help people fulfill their dreams and hopes.

She returns to her hometown, in Hokkaido, now a very rich woman, to find that not much has changed at all since the day she left. She looks up her friends from her high school days. Yes, that is Eiko Koike with Koyuki above.

To help them, she will offer each of them a huge sum of money, Many doubt her sincerity, and are suspicious of the offer But they each take the money. Where did the money come from, and why is she giving it away are the questions we hope are answered in this film.

This film opens tomorrow, ( but in Japan it is already tomorrow) and at this time I don’t even have a poster, for this movie, but I do have some stills. Enjoy.

Yes, thank you Koyuki – your beauty and your grace continue to be wondrous. We will see you again I’m sure.

Edit: a new image of Koyuki:

Lust, Caution

It stars Wei Tang as the foolhardy young student Wong Chia Chi who poses undercover as Mak Tai Tai in a resistance effort to assassinate Mr. Yee (Tony Leung Chiu Wai), a high-ranking official of the Wang Jinwei Regime.

The film starts out in 1942 Japanese occupied Shanghai with Wong Chia Chi already knee deep undercover as Mak Tai Tai. She befriends Mr. Yee’s wife Yee Tai Tai (Joan Chen) and becomes a part of her inner circle of friends, thus ensnaring Mr. Yee with her beauty.

The first scene is a game of mahjong, which becomes an important center piece to the film.  Much like the ongoings of war and espionage, the game takes strategy and with each match the stakes behind each player’s motives increase. Also a great amount of subtle acting takes places within these scenes, mostly using gestures and eye movements. It’s really a chess match.

The next act of the film takes place when it flashes back to 1938 Hong Kong where we see the first transformations of Wong Chia Chi from a shy freshman at Lingnan University to the confident elegance of Mak Tai Tai. With this metamorphosis I would like to commend not only the production value of the film but also the costume design.

It’s incredible to see street scenes with hundreds of extras all in appropriate 1940s garb. Mak Tai Tai’s outfits especially fit her for they emulate the films of the era. And what is she but acting in a role of espionage. This also brings me to the use of mirrors throughout the film. Not only do they represent analytical reflection but each time we see a character doubled in a mirror, it’s as if we’re seeing their other selves. With Wong Chia Chi we see Mak Tai Tai (and vice versa) and with Mr. Yee we see the man, not the figure.

As the story progresses Mak Tai Tai eventually entraps Mr. Yee with the use of her beauty and flirtation and becomes his mistress. The following love/hate relationship between them is the real meat of the film.

And as featured as Wei Tang’s beautiful physiognomy is, her naked body is given more of a role in this section. The film boasts more than a few sex scenes, with each one more revealing and lengthier than the last. And this is why the film received a NC-17 rating in the U.S.

There are many high points to this film such as the epic tale that it depicts, but with this comes one of its downfalls. The story is extremely specific and anyone not familiar with the history behind the setting can become lost very easily.

While it’s difficult to fully understand the backdrop of the film, at the same time it’s very easy to relate to the character of Wong Chia Chi and her motives behind her actions.

Wei Tang in her first film role masterfully illustrates not only the turmoil but the determination of such a brave and cunning woman. It’s also amazing how she holds her own against the prolific  Tony Leung and his subtle and humanizing portrayal of such a callous figure.