Chase eps 2-6

Chase is an awesome show about revenge. Well, technically its not revenge since Murakumo wasn't really responsible for the airplane accident but Haruma needed someone to hate and blame for the incident. Not to mention that Murakumo is his professional nemesis. I'm glad the writer put that line in there because it also explains Haruma's daughter being so spiteful towards her father. After all she lost her mother and has all the while wondered why her mother would stick by a husband who continuously neglected his family.

The stories in Chase are so fun to watch. Ep 2 deals with smuggling money as jewelry out of the country and things don't go according to plan. Ep 3 is about Haruma's former colleague who has now defected to the other side. Ep 4 we finally start to see Murakumo's plan and one of Haruma's colleagues gets in trouble when his one past moral lapse in judgment is exposed. Ep 5 is when Murakumo's plans finally come to fruition.

A lot of the stories serve to show the difficult moral high ground that Haruma has to stand in order to do his job. While the audience may find him a bit bland, he has to be this man of principle because if he were not, he would be like his former sempai in ep 3 or his colleague who's past came back to haunt him. We have the side story of Murakumo befriending Haruma and when Haruma despairs, Murakumo is there telling him to direct his anger towards the world just as Murakumo is doing. Its like the devil saying, "the world is not fair, why should you be fair to the world?".

I love all this subtext. The characters are mirrors of each other with the difference being different circumstances influencing their actions. Murakumo is the classic villain trying to prove that the only difference between him and the hero is a bad incident but he does it without having some lame and too obvious monologue.

Then we get to the last episode and strangely, I didn't enjoy it much. Chase had so far been a thriller/cat and mouse series between tax inspector and tax evader. The tension and excitement of Murakumo executing his plan and Haruma hot on his heels. In the end Murakumo succeeds but fucking self destructs because he is too fucked up by his past and does not know how to deal with it. It becomes a Greek tragedy with Japanese cliches such as the protagonist reaching out to help the villain understand blah blah zzzzzzzz.

The twist is awesome and clearly Murakumo is a much more developed character and his self destruction makes sense but there was no excitement. Actually the tragedy is not really the problem. What happened to Murakumo was a tragedy of epic proportions. The main problem is that there is no final chase in the end. It was handed to Haruma on a silver platter. Who wants to see a hero finally triumph over the villain just because the villain is too screwed up by his past and doesn't know how to enjoy his hard work? It has be a challenge of high difficulty otherwise the protagonist is not a hero and the writer might as well have reduced Haruma's role and spent more time on Murakumo.

I want to declare Chase as a must watch show but the final episode is what I will always remember about this show. I think the writer just fell so in love with Murakumo's tragic past that it consumed most of ep 6 and left nothing for the other aspects of the series. Still, the first five episodes are bloody brilliant and I would not hesitate to recommend them. Just temper your expectation towards the end.

Nagareboshi eps 1+2

Wow. I can't remember the last Ueto Aya jdorama where its freaking obvious that she was miscast. Probably Attention Please? In Nagareboshi she plays Risa who is forced to prostitute herself in order to pay off her brother's debt. This is perfect casting for Ueto Aya because she has to wear sailor fuku for her job and she looks just like a high school girl instead of a 25 year old woman.

Ueto Aya playing a prostitute and all we get is a massage scene??!!

The brown hair and slightly unkempt look in Nagareboshi actually makes her look 20+ instead of a teen. So Risa's working to pay off debts when her evil brother played by Inagaki Goro comes back into her life and causes havoc. Just when she pays off his debts, he destroys her love life and gets her back in money trouble.

Someone needs to make an Ore no imouto konani kawaii ga nai jdorama.


Kengo (Takenouchi Yutaka) works in an aquarium, has a cute sister played by Kitano Kii like all Japanese dudes have and is about to get married Minako (Itaya Yuka). One day, Kengo's sister Maria collapses and it is discovered that her liver is fucked and she can only live for a year unless she finds a donor. Kengo and mom were not suitable to be donors and they furiously try to convince relatives to donote to no avail. Then we find out that there's a rule in Japan whereby donors must be relatives as to prevent people from paying for organs. Either that or hope enough organ donors die so Maria's turn on the list can come up.

Flashback to Koukou Kyoushi 2003. 7 years and she hasn't changed much.

Minako doesn't find out about Maria's illness until later and is asked to donate her liver if she is compatible. She consults with her parents who of course objects to it. I have no idea what the side effects of liver donation are but I am happy to accept it as it is a necessary plotline for the premise of the story. Kengo, who is running out of options saves the suicidal Risa and offers to pay her debts in exchange for her marrying him so she can donate her liver to Maria.

Are Japanese siblings always this close?

So the basic story of Nagareboshi is Risa going from prostitute to selling her kidneys in a sham marriage. So far I'm liking it because its more serious and darker than those sham marriage turn to love kmovies. The bright and happy Maria in hospital part with Matsuda Shota as her doctor and the kansai-ben guy I don't particularly care for cause its a bit too bright and happy and Matsuda Shota does not make a convincing doctor. Tanihara Shosuke should have been the doctor in this one instead of the sleep inducing Mioka.

So where does Nagareboshi go from here? Goro will continue to be the torn in Risa's backside and there will be some lame redemption scene for him at the end. The doctor will suspect and find out about Kengo and Risa's sham marriage and we'll have our ethical conundrum of the series. The synopsis mentions Kengo's dark secret so I'm looking forward to that. Overall, I'm pretty happy with the first two episodes of Nagareboshi. Not must watch but certainly full of promise.

Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo eps 5-12

After coming to terms with the fact that this wasn't going to be the second coming of 'Mind your Language', I found myself enjoying this series. Sure, sometimes I couldn't really understand the language stuff they were talking about (the show is after all aimed at Japanese) but most of the stuff is pretty interesting. My favourite episode would have to be episode 7 about the gaijin hunter chick. Come to think of it, this is the first time I've really seen the issue of gaijin hunters being explored in a jdorama.

Of course gaijin are rarely cast as even supporting characters in jdoramas. Most of the time, its just a small cameo and make the actor look like he is overseas and can actually speak English. The only supporting gaijin character I can remember is Alan from Hagetaka. Doramas always do social commentary on stuff like hikkikomori, enjyou kousai etc but Japanese attitudes towards gaijin and the challenges that gaijin face in Japan is not something you often see. 

Episode 9 was pretty fun though you've gotta feel for poor Takasu sensei. Although he is Haruko's tormentor, he's not a bully and their exchanges are always entertaining. The rest of the episodes are just average though. I was eagerly anticipating Kinrei's story but unfortunately, her story is not what I was expecting.

The last episode is typical formulaic teacher jdorama fare. Teacher quits, students want teacher back, we get flashbacks to all the episodes with the theme song running in the background, blah blah. Its formulaic because it works and I've grown fond of the students and Catherine sensei. :)

Nihonjin no shiranai nihongo is not as entertaining as it could have been but it brings something fresh and different to the tired maverick teacher genre. If you have interest in the language and want to see a bit of social commentary on foreigners in Japan, I'd recommend this show. Nihonjin no Shiranai Nihongo has interesting content but the execution is lacking in ambition.

Shukumei 1969-2010 eps 1-6

 Arikawa Takahashi (Kitamura Kazuki) is a rising star in the finance ministry and has huge political goals. His family, or more specifically his mother runs 50 hospitals and is willing to give Takahashi the financial resources needed to achieve his dreams. As fate would have it, he receives an omiai offer for the daughter of Shiroi Shinichiro, head of the policy department. Shinichiro is in trouble because his brother in law's construction company who backs him up with funds is in deep financial turmoil and one needs money to play politics.

WTF is wrong with more than 2?


It seems like a match made in heaven except that Takahashi has previously in a 10 year relationship with Nobuko, (Eiko Koike) who takes the relationship very seriously and cannot accept the fact that Takahashi is entering into a political marriage. Shukumei starts off as a political marriage dorama with the crazy ex lurking in the shadows. At the end of episode 2 however, we get to the main reveal of the show: that Takahashi and his fiancee Naoko (Uehara Misa) are in fact siblings!

Oooooo, Fujii Mina saying rude things...

Yes, Shukumei is a story of politics and incest. The 1969-2010 refers to the beginning of the story when Takahashi's mom Arikawa Mina and Shinichiro were lovers during the student protests. The first thing I would have expected Mina to do when she discovered was to rush to Takahashi's apartment and tell him not to fuck his sister. However, she just tells him that she is against the marriage because of Shinichiro's precarious financial position because she does not want to reveal her past as a student activist where she used a false name and was imprisoned. She doesn't have good parenting skills because obviously kids never do what their parents tell them to.

There's only one reason Koike Eiko has a career and he's staring at them.

The most interesting part of the show for me was Shinichiro's reactions to finding out his future son in law was his son. He may have been horrified at the truth but Takahashi marrying his daughter was vital to his continued political survival. After all Naoko was basically the pawn in a political marriage. I think there was a hint of pride in discovering that he had a son who was not only successful but also wanted to him into the political world. I think the siblings creating deformed babies was the furthest thing from his mind.

I quite enjoyed all the tension in Shukumei. Takahashi and Naoko trying to deal with the Nobuko problem. Takahashi's bewilderment at his mother's sudden and seemingly irrational objection to the marriage. Shinichiro having to decide between career and family. The Prime Minister trying to buy over the construction company supporting Shinichiro. Takahashi having to appease his superiors in finance. And finally Mina, using Nobuko to drive a wedge between Takahashi and Naoko. I only wish that Fujii Mina had a more developed role than just playing the sounding board sister for Naoko.

I know there's a disproportionate number of Fujii Mina screencaps but everything else just looks... unattractive.

So far its been a good 6 episodes with Takahashi finally realising the horrible truth at the end of ep 6. Personally, if I found out that Fujii Mina were my sister, I'd be very happy. The bigger question is what happens next. The incest plot has slowly taken over all the political stuff and usually with this type of shows, it either ends with they are not really related ending or one of them has to die.

If you like your political doramas as I do with the heavy spicing up of the story with an incest storyline, Shukumei 1969-2010 is for you. I can't really rate this show as a must watch yet because its all dependent on the ending and who knows what might happen.

Guilty Akuma to Keiyakushita Onna eps 1+2

 When I first read that Guilty was a female revenge flick, the first thing that came to mind was Sympathy for Mrs Vengeance. Not one does dark revenge stories better than the Koreans but this is Kanno Miho in a Fuji TV dorama. Sure Japan has done great revenge flicks like Sun Scarred but my expectations were tempered with the fact that Guilty was probably never going to go places revenge stories needed to be.

Kanno Miho is Nogami Meiko, a dog groomer who seems to have been wrongly accused in the past and is now seeking revenge against everyone who put her in prison. Meiko has this jekyll and hyde personality where she's like this sweet innocent girl when working but when taking her revenge, she's an ice queen. The question needs to be asked which is her true face? Meiko takes revenge indirectly, by threatening her victims to commit suicide in order to protect their loved ones. It remains to be seen whether there is any specific reason for this method or whether she chose it because its the best way to cover her tracks.

Query though the significance of seeking vengeance through her victims' willingness to lay down their lives for their loved ones. They have wronged her and yet she forces them to their deaths by utilising their love/goodness. Its like Meiko is saying they may have wronged her but she recognises that they are good people at heart and they are worth killing. Of course revenge flicks need not necessary have an evil, snarling villain but the avenger needs operate on a slightly higher moral ground in order to gain the audience's empathy. I guess we'll have to wait for future episodes for details of her victims' involvement in her incarceration and decide for ourselves whether the punishment fits the crime. I wonder what Mieko's plan B would be if they chose not to take their own lives.

On the other side of the coin is police officer Mashima Takuro played by Tamaki Hiroshi. His partner has set on fire by this drugged lunatic and he has lived with the incident ever since. The rest of the police forces ostracizes Takuro because they say he left his partner to die though his mistake was not waiting for back up. The police taunt him more like a bunch of school bullies than cops and he struggles with his guilt and feelings for revenge when the killer is declared insane and admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

So Guilty turns out not to be a straightforward revenge flick but a depressed cop meets girl criminal where girl is in the long process of getting her revenge and cop might be seeking his. I was very surprised Takuro finds out about Meiko so quickly but I guess its all about him trying to determine which is her true face. I have to mention the spray paint scene at the end of episode 2 which just boggles my mind. Graffitiers leaving their still unfinished spray cans at the scene of the crime which includes 2 white spray cans while the graffiti itself has barely any white on it.

Fair enough if the graffitiers were chased away by cops and if the graffiti had lots of white but this lack of simple detail is what kills jdoramas. Not to mention Karasawa Toshiaki as the overacting reporter Dojima Kiichi. After acting as the stoic Iki Tadashi in Fumo Chitai he must have though, "fuck it, I'll overact like crazy in my next dorama!" I have no idea what to expect of Guilty. Takuro will probably not interfere with Meiko's plans until middle of the series and he will most probably try to get some sort of revenge on the killer. Of course Meiko will find out Takuro is a cop just when she thinks her life is coming around. I think this show will thread the line between tragic boy meets girl story with vengeance and how well it does it remains to be seen. Watchable show.

D-addicts is down!!!!!

Noooooo. The sky has fallen on our heads! Its the first sign of the apocalypse! This is worse than being forced to watch Bloody Monday over and over again! There's no point in living anymore..... except to visit Japan again. Hopefully its just a case of Ruroshin forgetting to renew the domain.

Iryu 3 ep 1

If you've never watched Iryu, just imagine if John Woo decided to make a medical series with the main character having the opposite powers of Kenshiro from Hokuto no Ken. Now stop reading this and go watch the first two seasons. For the Iryu fans, season 3 starts off with the gathering of the team, which is expected. Its a new season and they need to reintroduce the characters to the public. Meishin is in trouble again this time Kitou sensei, the former head of ER is given authority to run the hospital.

 To spice things up a bit, they had to concoct this lame story about Arase feeling guilty about this kid who died, through no fault of Arase's just because he promised the kid he would come out of the operation alive.
Lame. They should have continued his anesthetic addiction and just say he had a relapse or better yet, bring back the bar chick from season 1. That was one of my favourite episodes of the series and Arase was more interesting when he was an alcoholic and drug abuser.

Yes, Baraku is in Iryu 3.


Still, the lame Arase guilt trip is sort of a necessary evil and every episode is entitled to one unexplainable premise which is necessary to tell the story. So we have the gathering of Team Dragon and something is wrong. Miki is somewhere in Germany??? Couldn't she have like quit her job. Did she finally get over Asada? Mizukawa Asami doesn't seem to be doing any shows this season so I really hope she joins the show quickly. Team Dragon doesn't feel the same without her.

In fact I would say, the three essential members are Asada, Miki and Arase. Everyone else is chopped liver. Ijyuuin was the audience's viewpoint in season 1 but anyone can take his place because he's character is stuck in the he's good enough to keep up with Asada but there's nothing else to do with him. Easily replaceable by any character with 'potential'. Katou sensei is just to play second fiddle to Asada but her story arc is over. Fujiyoshi is boring and useless character and he shouldn't be receiving an ovation with the team after an operation. Miki is the heart and soul of the team. She's the one character who connects the non speaking Asada with the other characters. Imagine if they brought Kirima and Miki back into Team Dragon. The tension in the operating room would be awesome.

Can't believe she hasn't been any doramas this year.


I know this sounds bad but Miki's absence just makes it feel strange. Thank goodness for Sakuraba Nanami! She plays the first patient for Team Dragon and there's this relationship between her and Ijyuuin that would have been too sentimental and lame in another series but Iryu's awesome soundtrack just makes it heartwarming. Hhm, I guess Ijyuuin is still necessary as the idealistic and youngest member of the team.

Hope the writers give her further complications from surgery so she can come back. :)


Of course, Team Dragon encounters unforeseen difficulties during the surgery but succeeds and then we get to the really exciting part of the show which I won't spoil here. Suffice to say Noguchi comes back, one member of team Dragon gets in trouble and we sort of get a WTF very high tension sequence where I couldn't the writers were going with a certain outcome. I love it when characters have to make difficult decisions.

Ijyuuin runs like a girl. Its comical how the scene cuts from him to Asada running.


The certainty of this outcome is predicated on certain assumptions about Asada's surgical prowess but suffice to say, they found a way to push the envelope and make season 3 very, very interesting.  The last 15 minutes of episode 1 is fucking awesome and shows why disregarding the slow mo walking in lab coats and superb music, Iryu is fun to watch because there is a story to tell. I like how they avoided getting into the same problem with episode 1 of season 2 of doing way too much and instead set up the storyline of series and got me really pumped for ep 2.

The directors of Iryu should do a badass yakuza dorama.


Tanimura Mitsuki plays Magara Fuyumi, an intern who doesn't care about her job. She's way too young to be playing a surgeon, I mean it takes years to specialise in surgery but we'll see where the story goes. Of course everyone's favourite villain, Noguchi is back with his fish. I dare say he's the greatest jdorama villain ever. I love to hate him and he's fun to watch. I'm sensing someone from the team will hop over the other side and my money is on Fujiyoshi. Maybe I'm just sick of him getting the spotlight after a difficult operation where he contributes absolutely nothing.

Entlassen!

 You can watch subbed Iryu 3 here but I hope they will release softsubs for the series. They haven't finished subbing ep 1 yet but it was so exciting I had to watch the rest of it raw. I think the series should be pretty watchable raw. You know the formula of the stories and there are always graphics explaining the surgery. At the very least, it gives you a reason to rewatch the episodes again.