When I first read about this dorama, I couldn't figure out why a body swapping dorama would have the name of a story about a delusional old man. I wasn't expecting much for this genre of doramas because I've seen enough of it in movies and dorama to know its a concept that is usually used to play safe and struggle to get to the finish line of both parties learn more about each other and come out at the end as better people.
Interestingly enough, Don Quixote is more of a spiritual sequel to Ninkyo Helper and the body swap is more of a the mcguffin. Ninkyo Helper was basically about yakuzas working in a retirement home. The mcguffin was that it was part of some stupid test to determine who the next leader would be. The first rule of enjoying movies/dorama is of course never question the mcguffin because it is necessary to drive the story but everything that flows from it is fair game for criticism.
So instead of doing another you have to work as a child care worker because it is somehow relevant to test your leadership qualities, its yakuza ends up in body of meek child care worker. The premise also presents its own interesting problems for our yakuza protagonist. As much as he likes to shout and act tough, he is in a weak body that can't fight, drink or smoke while the meek child care worker is in possession of a tough body that can fight but is afraid to do so.
Sounds a bit like the formula for Trick, which is the foundation for any odd couple pairings. Have a couple of flawed characters who make up for each other's weaknesses have to work together. This is also where Don Quixote made the right choice in terms of storyline.
Most of the time, in body swapping stories one story is usually better than the other but they end up giving equal time to both or less time to the funnier story (Papa to musume nanokakan). Clearly in this one the yakuza being forced to saved kids is more interesting than a wuss who does not take advantage of being a yakuza boss. A sacred child worker in a yakuza's body trying to get out of fights is not really entertaining. So its basically the odd couple saving kids with the yakuza problems as a side story.
The three episodes so far of course have their Full House moments but nothing overly melodramatic. Don Quixote is pretty funny and this is a show where overacting helps. It doesn't reach Yasuko to Kenji's level of over-overacting until it becomes impossible to watch. I really enjoyed Uchida Yuki's 'anata' running joke with her yakuza husband. Kinda reminds me of her 'Sam' running joke in Akimahende which was one of the earliest jdoramas I watched. So far, I have a feeling the writers are aiming for more than just your generic body swap story and feel they have planned the story well. With Don Quixote and Soredemo Ikite Yuku, this season is turning out to be a good one.
No comments:
Post a Comment