![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jdrama 2009 winter season (part A)
15 Jan 2009 04:19 pmI'm holed up in my room with that beautiful gale blowing through my window, slamming shut any door that hasn't been wedged ajar in time. It was so hot this morning that I woke up with a splitting headache (yes, I'm blaming it on the heat) and so I crawled out of bed into the lounge, where there's an air-con, but even the air-con blew warm air at me for some reason Orz
So the new season of Jdrama has started! I'm so glad it coincides with holidays rather than exams this time. LOL.
Triangle
In 1985, a young girl, Katsuragi Sachie, was found murdered near a riverbank, and the killer was never caught. 25 years later, the boy who had once sat next to her in class, Goda Ryoji, transfers into the Japanese police force as a detective, after abruptly quitting the medical profession the day the statute of limitations was passed 15 years after her death. At a class union, a woman appears and claims that she is Katsuragi Sachie. A number of other former classmates seem to have vested interest in this cold case. Why? Why now? And did Goda Ryoji really kill Katsuragi Sachie as it seems to suggest? The set-up is interesting without revealing too much of anything, which means it'll either be very good or you'll have wasted your bandwidth watching a mystery unfold painfully over 11 episodes.
Voice
This drama is supposedly about 5 medical students in a forensic pathology study group, but turns out to be more like a detective story as they work out how their patients had come to their demise. The rather tentative script and slow pacing of the first episode means it succeeds neither as a medical drama nor a procedural. On the other hand, this drama has two of my absolutest favouritest actors. A drab actor, like Yama P, would have sunk this drama, but Eita and Toma effortlessly make unremarkable characters likeable. The four guys in the team are so hilarious together that one could almost ignore the existence of the heroine, who has all the acting repertoire of one expression - best defined as expressionless.
Mei-chan no Shitsuji
This is adapted from a shoujo manga and has all the cringeworthy hallmarks of one. A poor girl suddenly discovers after her parents' death that she's the only heiress to her estranged grandfather's immense fortune, and to ensure she becomes worthy of the inheritance, he sends a handsome young butler to help her. This must be the first drama that Mizushima Hiro is not playing the playboy stereotype (actually, I haven't watched Room of King). He is suitably suave and elegant, Satoshi Takeru (the other guy in Bloody Monday ♥) is suitably aggressive-adorable, and Eikura Nana is suitably grounded. But perhaps I'm just totally over school rom-coms after overdosing on HanaDan and HanaKimi and...wait for it...one episode of Princess Princess D. I'm sorry, it's the soft focus and the roses. A good drama to watch if you just want something light-hearted with lots of hot guys. Hmm yes, it even has Mukai Osamu ♥
Kami no Shizuku
So far, this is the only drama that turned out much better than expected - and that's purely because my expectations were set so low...I'm sorry Kame =P The ratings for this epsiode was abysmal for a first episode, so I was pleased by how well-paced and interesting it turned out to be. A son estranged from his famous wine critic father finds himself embroiled in an inheritance battle after his father dies from illness. The challenge is to name the wines that matches his father's description - a tough task for the main character, Shizuku, when he's rebelled against drinking wine since his estrangement with his father. Now, those who know me know that I don't drink, but it's still interesting to watch them dissect the fragrances of the different wines, discuss how to "marry" the taste to the food that is served, and debate on what manual steps can be taken to enrich the flavour for the occasion. I also like the girl. This is very rare for me XD The pop-rock sounding "One Drop" (ending theme) seems a bit out of place after the classy European feel of the episode though.
If I had to choose to keep watching only one out of these, based on the first episode, I'd go for Kami no Shizuku - and that's not even because I like Kame. As actors I like Toma and Eita much better. But the drama has good pace without being tragic or dark. I'm getting rather turned off that genre after half a year of Maou and Bloody Monday.
Kame cut his hair for this drama, which is great because A) his original hair looked really gay and only Johnny Depp can pull something like that off, B) his new cut makes him look the cutest/youngest he's ever looked in a drama, even though he's also smiling the least since Gokusen, and C) it makes Kame and Takeru look just that little bit less alike =___=;;;
So the new season of Jdrama has started! I'm so glad it coincides with holidays rather than exams this time. LOL.
Triangle
In 1985, a young girl, Katsuragi Sachie, was found murdered near a riverbank, and the killer was never caught. 25 years later, the boy who had once sat next to her in class, Goda Ryoji, transfers into the Japanese police force as a detective, after abruptly quitting the medical profession the day the statute of limitations was passed 15 years after her death. At a class union, a woman appears and claims that she is Katsuragi Sachie. A number of other former classmates seem to have vested interest in this cold case. Why? Why now? And did Goda Ryoji really kill Katsuragi Sachie as it seems to suggest? The set-up is interesting without revealing too much of anything, which means it'll either be very good or you'll have wasted your bandwidth watching a mystery unfold painfully over 11 episodes.
Voice
This drama is supposedly about 5 medical students in a forensic pathology study group, but turns out to be more like a detective story as they work out how their patients had come to their demise. The rather tentative script and slow pacing of the first episode means it succeeds neither as a medical drama nor a procedural. On the other hand, this drama has two of my absolutest favouritest actors. A drab actor, like Yama P, would have sunk this drama, but Eita and Toma effortlessly make unremarkable characters likeable. The four guys in the team are so hilarious together that one could almost ignore the existence of the heroine, who has all the acting repertoire of one expression - best defined as expressionless.
Mei-chan no Shitsuji
This is adapted from a shoujo manga and has all the cringeworthy hallmarks of one. A poor girl suddenly discovers after her parents' death that she's the only heiress to her estranged grandfather's immense fortune, and to ensure she becomes worthy of the inheritance, he sends a handsome young butler to help her. This must be the first drama that Mizushima Hiro is not playing the playboy stereotype (actually, I haven't watched Room of King). He is suitably suave and elegant, Satoshi Takeru (the other guy in Bloody Monday ♥) is suitably aggressive-adorable, and Eikura Nana is suitably grounded. But perhaps I'm just totally over school rom-coms after overdosing on HanaDan and HanaKimi and...wait for it...one episode of Princess Princess D. I'm sorry, it's the soft focus and the roses. A good drama to watch if you just want something light-hearted with lots of hot guys. Hmm yes, it even has Mukai Osamu ♥
Kami no Shizuku
So far, this is the only drama that turned out much better than expected - and that's purely because my expectations were set so low...I'm sorry Kame =P The ratings for this epsiode was abysmal for a first episode, so I was pleased by how well-paced and interesting it turned out to be. A son estranged from his famous wine critic father finds himself embroiled in an inheritance battle after his father dies from illness. The challenge is to name the wines that matches his father's description - a tough task for the main character, Shizuku, when he's rebelled against drinking wine since his estrangement with his father. Now, those who know me know that I don't drink, but it's still interesting to watch them dissect the fragrances of the different wines, discuss how to "marry" the taste to the food that is served, and debate on what manual steps can be taken to enrich the flavour for the occasion. I also like the girl. This is very rare for me XD The pop-rock sounding "One Drop" (ending theme) seems a bit out of place after the classy European feel of the episode though.
If I had to choose to keep watching only one out of these, based on the first episode, I'd go for Kami no Shizuku - and that's not even because I like Kame. As actors I like Toma and Eita much better. But the drama has good pace without being tragic or dark. I'm getting rather turned off that genre after half a year of Maou and Bloody Monday.
Kame cut his hair for this drama, which is great because A) his original hair looked really gay and only Johnny Depp can pull something like that off, B) his new cut makes him look the cutest/youngest he's ever looked in a drama, even though he's also smiling the least since Gokusen, and C) it makes Kame and Takeru look just that little bit less alike =___=;;;
