Jdorama ramblings 11/2/12

SHIAWASE NO KIROII HANDKERCHIEF 

Watched it some time ago and wanted to write a long post on the dorama special vs the movie but I kept getting sidetracked by other doramas that I wanted to write about. Long story short, not as good as the movie. The writer obviously didn't want to do a direct remake and changed things for the worse. I don't think the movie is that great either but its very watchable. Of note in the original movie is Takakura Ken in Abe's role and Kinpachi sensei as the comedy relief.

Let's just say the first half of the dorama special sucks cause Abe was hardly in it and the writer changed the structure of the first half. As for the second half, anything with Abe and Natsukawa Yui is bound to be good.

TSUKAHARA BUDOKEN

The thing that got me watching was that I wanted to see the story of the guy Japanese think could have beaten Musashi. There's a reason why the story is not as famous and that's because its not a good story. Firstly, its a 'chosen one' story. The kami chose him when he was young and he was destined for greatness blah blah blah. Plus he is a goody two-shoes who fights for his deity and to spread the fame of his sword style and hometown.Secondly, he doesn't have a Kojiro. Musashi's story is nothing without Kojiro. I don't care about Musahi's story after he beats Kojiro.Batman is boring without Joker and there's no 'last boss' for Tsukahara Budoken to face.

The fight scenes are ok except that for some reason, when they do certain actions in slow motion, they literally do it in slow motion. So you have two actors slashing their swords at 5cm/s trying to make something look cool and all I could think of was why couldn't they just use a high speed camera and slow it down? I think even slowing down your usual 23 frames/s video would still look better than telling the actors to slash slowly. It could look choppy but at least it doesn't look funny. Come to think of it, only comedies use people actually moving in slow motion for a reason.

KARE, OTOKO, TOMODACHI

Ok watchable show but I just have to make one comment which is the acting during this scene above is atrocious. The father's anger and everything felt so fake. I would expect a lot more from two veteran actors. Its like they didn't have time and just wrapped after the first take. Watching the first episode of Shokuzai probably magnified it. Slightly better than average because of Maki Yoko and Kaho but ultimately doesn't go above watchable.