2009 summer jdorama #1
14 Jul 2009 04:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mayoraaseiI've actually downloaded Futatsu no Spica, the horrid Koishite Akuma as well as Ninkyo Helper, but I've only watched the last one ==;
Koishite Akuma seems like a Japanese version of Twilight, except made 10 times worse by the fact that there's also a teacher/student hence adult/underage romance in there, even if you say the vampire is blah blah blah old, the actor is still bloody fifteen and omg he looks like a Martian.
Anyway. It'll get its own rant in time, if I ever bring myself to watch it.
Ninkyo Helper
I wasn't too keen when I first heard about it because it seemed like a publicity stunt to get Kusanagi Tsuyoshi back on his feet after that extremely embarrassing drunken incident back in April. I also have to say, his face really does not do it for me...it's like his features are intended for a face 2 sizes bigger. But surprisingly, after a while, one gets used to his face.
The synopsis also didn't sound that appealing - a bunch of yakuza bosses are forced to work in an aged care facility. It sounded like a rehash of My Boss, My Hero but with old people instead of young...
Surprisingly, it was quite different. Less humorous, for one thing. The main character also isn't instantly likable. Unlike Nagase's pea-brained yakuza boss in My Boss, My Hero, Kusanagi's character is a disillusioned, selfish bastard who had set up a scam ring targeting old people who live alone, telling them that their beloved children were in trouble/arrested/etc. He has no sympathy or patience for the demented elderly, and considers people who put themselves in a position to be used then deserve what happen to them. Obviously it's set up so that he becomes reformed and there's also some angsty past hidden there somewhere.
But the thing that struck me most about this dramaapart from HOW HOT KUROKI MEISA IS is that we're finally getting a thoughtful drama dealing with one of the biggest problems in the developed world - the ageing population. Even more so than Australia, Japan faces the problem of a rapidly shifting age imbalance, and in 20 years or so aged care will be one of the most significant drains on the national economy. In western countries it's less of a problem since parents tend not to live with their children, but in Asian communities where traditionally families remained together for most of their lives, the growing numbers of working families pushing their elderly out into nursing homes is having a devastating effect on the emotional well-being of these people.
Geriatricians will tell you that there is the difference is very small between the people on either extremes of life - both the elderly and the children are dependent, needful, your care often involves communicating with both the patient and their carer, they are frail and prone to many diseases...etc. However, society and the media tend to have a lot of sympathy for children who are unwell or in other ways unfortunate, but we forget our elderly. We give them meager pensions and we put them in nursing homes until they disappear from society. We prosecute parents who allow their children to die of neglect, but we say nothing to the children who allow their parents to die of neglect.
But it's not a change of law that matters, but a change in social values. I think this drama brings to light an important and very pertinent issue, not just for Japanese society but for many developed countries today with a baby boomers population ready to head into their retirement years in the next two decades.
And Kuroki Meisa is HOT. And Yabu is so tanned =_____=||||||| And Mukai Osamu has such a small role T__T And if Naka Riisa didn't look so chubby she'd actually be kinda cute ==;;;
Koishite Akuma seems like a Japanese version of Twilight, except made 10 times worse by the fact that there's also a teacher/student hence adult/underage romance in there, even if you say the vampire is blah blah blah old, the actor is still bloody fifteen and omg he looks like a Martian.
Anyway. It'll get its own rant in time, if I ever bring myself to watch it.
Ninkyo Helper
I wasn't too keen when I first heard about it because it seemed like a publicity stunt to get Kusanagi Tsuyoshi back on his feet after that extremely embarrassing drunken incident back in April. I also have to say, his face really does not do it for me...it's like his features are intended for a face 2 sizes bigger. But surprisingly, after a while, one gets used to his face.
The synopsis also didn't sound that appealing - a bunch of yakuza bosses are forced to work in an aged care facility. It sounded like a rehash of My Boss, My Hero but with old people instead of young...
Surprisingly, it was quite different. Less humorous, for one thing. The main character also isn't instantly likable. Unlike Nagase's pea-brained yakuza boss in My Boss, My Hero, Kusanagi's character is a disillusioned, selfish bastard who had set up a scam ring targeting old people who live alone, telling them that their beloved children were in trouble/arrested/etc. He has no sympathy or patience for the demented elderly, and considers people who put themselves in a position to be used then deserve what happen to them. Obviously it's set up so that he becomes reformed and there's also some angsty past hidden there somewhere.
But the thing that struck me most about this drama
Geriatricians will tell you that there is the difference is very small between the people on either extremes of life - both the elderly and the children are dependent, needful, your care often involves communicating with both the patient and their carer, they are frail and prone to many diseases...etc. However, society and the media tend to have a lot of sympathy for children who are unwell or in other ways unfortunate, but we forget our elderly. We give them meager pensions and we put them in nursing homes until they disappear from society. We prosecute parents who allow their children to die of neglect, but we say nothing to the children who allow their parents to die of neglect.
But it's not a change of law that matters, but a change in social values. I think this drama brings to light an important and very pertinent issue, not just for Japanese society but for many developed countries today with a baby boomers population ready to head into their retirement years in the next two decades.
And Kuroki Meisa is HOT. And Yabu is so tanned =_____=||||||| And Mukai Osamu has such a small role T__T And if Naka Riisa didn't look so chubby she'd actually be kinda cute ==;;;
