Mertseger
The titular Sakura is played by Takahata Mitsuki in a rigorously disciplined and idiosyncratic performance which is similar in some ways to that of her Sachiko in Boukyaku no Sachiko, but here the script takes her character much more seriously, and she is allowed to go much deeper. I am no expert in neurological classifications, but Sakura appears to be autistic, rarely smiling and unrelentingly honest for which the large construction firm which hires her repeatedly punishes with demotions and transfers.
The episodes themselves are highly structured. Each tells a story in Sakura's corporate life from ten successive years told by her co-worker friends to her while she is in a coma in 2019. Through repeated encounters and motifs in each episode we learn about how she became their friends and the positive impact she has had on their lives.
The series is unquestionably good through episode 9 where the episodic structure is intentionally broken, and there is a very interesting tension well into episode 10 of whether the show can actually stick the landing without betraying the spirit of its characters. Surprisingly, it does so. A bit unrealistically and conveniently, perhaps, but the show does remain true to Sakura's character while providing a satisfying, if a bit pat, ending to the series.
In the end, the series makes a fairly clear case that the company would be better were it more open to Sakura's way of seeing the world. The story talks about corporate power and intention, and provides an interesting though probably simplistic view of what the source of that power and intention should be. Sakura comes to her company with a dream of building structures with her friends that will make the world a better place, and ends with her having helped those friends define their own dreams. They become more Sakura-like, and she becomes more empowered by their increased authenticity.
It's worth checking out.
Was this review helpful to you?
Nevertheless, she is still well liked enough to get fairly steady work for national advertising campaigns and has launched a music career as a singer/song-writer and guitarist. And, obviously, someone liked her enough to invest in her for this movie for YouTube Originals that she wrote, directed, starred in, did the costumes for, art directed and edited. That someone also paid for an accompanying documentary series on the making of the movie called "I AM NON".
And so what we have here is, essentially, a student film shot on a thirteen day shooting schedule with a professional crew led by a wildly creative young woman who has, apparently, never heard of these strange things called film schools. Given all of the above saying anything bad about this film would be like punching a kitten.
It is a fairly simple story of a high school senior trying to understand why her grandmother has left the household and also trying to figure out what to do with her life while being tempted by and distracted by the forest spirits (yokai) around her. There are no real surprises here, and the editing would probably be tighter in more experienced hands. However, Non does have a strong visual sense as a director and is a charming actress. The story has Ghibli-esque aspirations and largely succeeds at evoking the wonder of a young woman discovering her power as an artist (both within the story and outside via the making of the film).
Was this review helpful to you?
Soichi (Hakamada Yoshi) is having an affair with his co-worker Akari (Kakei Miwako) after hours at his office building, and awakens in the morning to find his wife Akari (Tokunaga Eri) stabbed to death on the floor besides him. Hijinks ensue.
Some of the twists you'll see coming pretty much from the beginning, and some are just ridiculous.
Probably not worth watching.
Was this review helpful to you?
At the center of the series is a sweet love story of the celestially beautiful heir to an ikebana empire (Momo played by Ishihara Satomi) and an older, poor, "ugly" and humble bicycle repairman (Pooh-san played by Mineta Kazunobu). There is no real sexual chemistry between the two actors, and the trope of a beautiful woman falling for a man "far beneath her station" is a tired one indeed. However, the performances of the two actors are superb and are the primary reason to watch this series. This is largely Ishihara's series and she rocks it. Pooh-san is presented as pretty much saintly having never having had a girlfriend because he had to take care of his bed-ridden but now recently deceased mother. He altruistically helps the people in his neighborhood and is presented as a hidden intellectual genius (he never looses on his shogi app!), but that character trait is largely irrelevant in the end though it does come up now and then.
Surrounding the love-story is a bizarre succession drama in a cutthroat world of flower arranging that does not and could not exist in the real world. The people in that world routinely plot and scheme in ways that take this series immediately to soapville and the "villains" are so over-the-top that you will check to see if this was adapted from a manga, but, no, sadly, it's not. Your enjoyment of this series will probably hinge on how much you can ignore the succession drama or appreciate ironically its machinations. There is a heavy metal boy band ikebana troupe managed by the main antagonist, and, honestly, there is probably a better series than this one to be written around the story of that group and the conflict between modern marketing techniques and the traditional business model of this Japanese art form. But this series decidedly does not go there.
The direction of this series and its aesthetic is Lynchian in a good way. The shot-selection, palate, art-direction and song selection are all well above average. The themes of the series are much less dark than Lynch's material but it is similarly populated with a lot of charmingly quirky tertiary characters that do bring a delightful vividness to this otherwise unrealistic world.
In the end, this is a fable of artistic self-discovery for the main character Momo. Ishihara confidently carries the series on her tiny shoulders and is given ample opportunity to display a wide range within the character's journey. She has the hardest job of convincing us that Momo would choose Pooh-san, and she does achieve the goal of reaching that seemingly out of reach flower.
Was this review helpful to you?
The unfortunate idiot at the center of this bog-standard boy meets girl and pines for her for two years before they decide that they are couple despite having all the sexual chemistry of shower mold - no, I should not select something living since that would be an insult to shower mold, and so let's say all the sexual chemistry of argon - is Itchitaka who likes Iori. He was embarrassingly rejected three years prior to the start of this story by a girl in middle school and as a result cannot ever decide what he wants or say what he means. That's all we know about him. He is unbelievably underwritten. He is not shown having any other interests. We see his father twice, and his mother only serves to tell him various I's are calling or visiting him.
The scenarios, such as they are, are essentially situation comedy set-ups and coincidental climaxes all played for pathos and to insure that the couple never express what they really feel, and, ultimately, to maximize the embarrassment of Ichitaka. It's a world full of sexual harassment, kidnapping, attempted rape, stalking, creeping, up-skirt photography and physical assault all of which apparently might have legal, scholastic and emotional consequences but any of that takes place off screen to make room for more moping.
The acting is, nevertheless, pretty good, and, honestly, Shibata Kyoka does exceedingly well as Itsuki, the witness, childhood friend and supporter of Ichitaka. She has one memorable scene towards the end of her main run on the show which is beautifully moving. Seraishi Sei as Iori has little to do except be passive and gorgeous. I really cannot say anything bad about Okayama Amane's performance as Ichitaka: the character is awful, stupid and occasionally mean and he portrays that as intended, I think.
The original manga ran weekly for nearly three years starting in 1997, and this drama may well be a faithful rendering of the material. It is reputedly a bit on ecchi side of manga, and that fact probably accounts for the many lingering thigh-to-waist shots of the women in this drama. The serialization of the original material undoubtedly also accounts for the lack of any kind of emotional progress in the central relationship until (maybe) the last ten minutes of the final episode.
I will not judge what you like. If you go to the comment thread for this show, you will find several people who were thoroughly invested in this series, and the tone of this series may resonate with you as it did for them. For me, however, I found the series both dull and unrelentingly anticlimactic.
Was this review helpful to you?
The agency is presented as a quirky and mildly dysfunctional little family that works pretty diligently to keep the business going and the girls safe. The characters at the office are reasonably likable and the actors do a decent job with the material they are given. The story of the day-to-day operations of the agency seems to be a reasonably sober and accurate if slightly gritty depiction of this side of the sex industry in Japan. There is a bit of humor that does land throughout the series, and rather more banjo in the soundtrack than one might expect.
The show is fairly sex-positive but the tone of the production is definitely not approving of the call-girl business in general. Nor is there any fan service here: the women and what they do with their clients is presented in a matter-of-fact manner, and while several gorgeous actresses are part of the cast, they are not presented for the male gaze even in scenes with their clients.
The failure of the series is inherent in its set-up: the show is about Sakita coming to terms with his new job. The arc of the series centers on his repeated failures to be a white knight for the woman at his agency. And so while two of the women he works with are almost certainly raped (trigger warnings for episodes 3 and 12), two of them are kidnapped, and one is physically abused at a rival agency the story only focuses on how those incidents affect him. I think we're supposed to be cheering the fact that Sakita genuinely cares for the women he works with but the series itself really does not.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
Like Dad of Light, Yuube wa Otanoshimi Deshita ne is a pretty blatant ad for an MMORPG which serves as a conduit for two people to learn to express their emotions. This time the MMORPG is Dragon Quest X and the emotion is romance here between the stunning Miyako (Honda Tsubasa) and the relentlessly herbivorous Takumi (Okayama Amane). Like Good Morning Call the plot has the two unexpectedly sharing a house together because, in this case, they were guildies in the game and both playing characters of opposite gender and assuming the other was the same gender as their character. Ha. Ha. But that matters for barely an episode before they find that they enjoy each other IRL, and the main boss fight for the series over all is the tired, tropey, ineffectual man-boy character of Takumi which is eventually defeated by virtually every other character in the series including Miyako's ex telling him that, no, she really does like him.Tsubasa shines and Amane whines, and Terrace House's Kakei Miwako has a lovely turn as a comedic vixen playing Ayano, Miyako's best friend. The story is short and sweet, and ends on a kiss.
Was this review helpful to you?
The show is quite stagey: the major moments of this drama occur when two to four of the main characters are in a room together talking through their issues. I recommend watching through Ep. 8 (the fourth hour) if you wish to test this show out. If Bae Doo Nah's performance in the final scene of that episode does not move you, then this show is not for you.
The characters, performances and writing are uniformly superb throughout this drama. Even though all the characters are pretty difficult people, there are plenty of comedic moments to keep this drama from being a dire examination of failing marriages. There are plenty of surprises along the way, and many happy and light moments in addition to the more hurtful consequences of the failing relationships.
In the end, I preferred this version to the original. Sakamoto's script is more comedic, but Moon Jungmin's additions and changes to the story all tended to clarify and enhance the themes of the original. Furthermore, the supporting cast is definitely better in the Korean version. Moon Sook is radiantly beautiful and luminously wise in the role as the grandmother. And there are a couple of lovely romances going on with the side characters that help provide relief to the two main stories.
Matrimonial Chaos is a sharply observed investigation into the ways that people in relationship can get in the way of each other's happiness. It's a beautiful story of people learning to see each other for the first time all over again. It does not rest on the usual tropes of marriage as a happily-ever-after, but, instead, finds deep wisdom in the ways people still find to like each and learn to be for each other even when it's not easy to do so.
It is great. You should watch it.
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
This is an anthology special that suffers severely from a lack of any unifying through-line other than the fact that each segment features dogs. Most of the segments are intended to be comedic but the humor uniformly fails to land. The longest segment is a melodramatic story centered on early onset Alzheimer's which, if you're interested in a J-drama on that topic, go watch Beautiful Rain rather than this barely adequate short film. Ashida Mana does appear in the final story and has maybe three lines, including one which is meant to summarize the whole mess, but, sadly, even her usual delightful performance cannot salvage the film. Not even avid dog people will find much here of interest. Was this review helpful to you?
The central character here is Mamoru/Marumo who decides to take care of the twins of his late friend so that they won't be separated. He is woefully unprepared for being a parent, but learns quickly and soon comes to love his unexpected little family. Abe does a solid job of portraying his character's growth.
As usual, Ashida Mana will bring you to tears in the final episode with a prodigious amount of subtlety and complexity to her performance though, it must be said, Suzuki Fuku does manage some of the heavy lifting that final episode as well.
It's largely a comedic drama, but there is some exploration of meatier issues as well. The okite or rules that serve as a moral for each episode do make the show a bit didactic and tend to push the series into After School Special territory. However, they are also used as a key plot point in the resolution of the drama and so probably can be forgiven.
All in all, the show is well acted, mostly light fare with some emotional punch.
Was this review helpful to you?
I am not a K-pop or J-pop fan, and so my review should be fairly free of any emotional investment in those scenes.
Produce 48 is the third Korean installment of a musical survival show produced by Mnet. The prior two seasons resulted in a successful debut of a girl-group and boy-group respectively. What made this particular iteration of the series more interesting from a global perspective was its collaboration with AKS, the parent company responsible for developing AKB48 in Japan and turning it into a wildly successful music group franchising organization. The initial plan was to do a version of the show in which half of the contestants were Korean trainees and half were Japanese idols from the various 48 groups.
That's not quite what we got. Produce 48 initially started with 39 Japanese Idols and 59 Korean trainees, and the show chose not to or was not able to allow people to vote outside of Korea. And so the contest was never particularly structured to be fair for the Japanese contestants.
The early episodes of the series are a quite interesting look at the differences in approach to artistic development and growth between the two systems. In short, the Japanese idols are shocking less well trained at singing and dance in comparison to the Korean trainees in their agency system. Now, that could be a bias of the presentation on this show; however, it's fairly well documented outside the show that the girls in the 48 groups are not, in general, provided with any kind of training while agencies in Korea can invest years of training into performers before their debut (and exact huge debts for from the performers for doing so, but that's a whole other discussion). What the Japanese idols do acquire from AKS is a wealth of stage and general entertainment experience.
Generally, the structure of the show is a couple episodes of the contestants preparing and then performing a song, and then an elimination episode where roughly a third of the current pool is eliminated until at the end of episode 12 we're left with a group of 12 performers to be known as IZONE. Voting for the contestants often begins weeks before a performance is shown, and so much of the fate of individuals is based on how much screen time they've managed to get and how well they present on camera rather than their ability to sing, dance or rap which is ostensibly are the skills upon which they are supposed to be judged. All survival shows are popularity contests, and Produce 48 is no different in that respect, but it's clear that the way the voting on Produce 48 is structured does not particularly serve to select the best performers which might be okay as long as you understand that fact.
The performances throughout this series were uniformly outstanding, but subject to the usual quirks of Korean editing where any notable moment good or bad is repeated immediately two or three times. Were the show more focused on the performances, it would be far better. The training segments are okay and the training staff are generally charismatic and professional. But there's also a lot of fluff around group selection for the performances, inevitable product placement segments and utterly crap and banal game segments that only serve to juice the votes for whomever makes the cut in the final edit. The host, Lee Seung Gi, does an excellent job until the final live episode where he could use a teleprompter and some training to get his head out of the cards in his hand.
In conclusion, Produce 48 was an intriguing cross-national premise that was poorly served by the game structure and production decisions. It was not a unmitigated disaster, and, indeed, resulted in some quality musical performances. However, it did certainly fail to live up to its hype, and it did fail to create a level playing field for the two groups involved. I enjoyed watching it, but it could have been much better with some fairly obvious structural changes.
Was this review helpful to you?
This series of the show takes a while to reach the form of the later series. Initially, there was only one host, YOU. She was joined by Reina Triendl in episode 14, and four more panelists join in episode 27 including Hiroomi Tosaka, a member of the band Sandaime J Soulbrothers and the only panelist who did not return for the Netflix revivals. If you like the Netflix series, you might be tempted to skip the earlier episodes; however, doing so would cause you to miss several iconic moments and the introduction of key house members who play important roles in the peak episodes of this series.
Another important difference between this series and the subsequent series is that the time between filming and broadcast was initially an astonishingly short one week(!). That is, because the housemates can and do watch the show on the show, they could see what their housemates had said when they were not in the room from the week before. This fact only really has a impact two or three times over the course of the series, and the length of the lag slowly increased so by the end there was a three week gap between filming and broadcast. Nevertheless, if you ever imagined what a reality series would be like if the participants could immediately see how they were portrayed, then this is the show for you.
In general, the Boys x Girls Next Door typical episode is about the same in quality to episodes of the later series: you still have the amazing cinematography that never has a camera or mic pack in shot, you still have the slowly developing relationships and romances, and you still have the comedy relief and empathy of the panel who break in to provide context and color - but do note that unlike later series, there is often a panel segment after the closing door sound. However, the peaks of this series are higher than those of subsequent seasons. There are events which unfold which could not have been scripted which are likely to touch you more than anything which has happened in the subsequent seasons. You are likely to laugh harder, cry more, and have your heart lifted higher by a romantic connection than in any subsequent season to date.
Was this review helpful to you?
I initially thought this production was nearly as good. My initial criticism of the first ten episodes was only that it makes some elements of the story far more explicit and is somewhat worse for doing so. There are countless examples, but here's one. The protagonist is icy and detached. In the original, the character is simply portrayed that way. In this version, an early minor character remarks that she's icy and detached. Lee Bo Young's performance is excellent and did not need the explicit framing of her character. Everything is similarly spelled out: the extent of the Hye Na's abuse, her birth mother's motivations, her birth mother's boyfriend's motivations, etc. Jung Seo Kung is writing in crayon compared to Sakamoto Yuji. Clarity in writing is generally a good thing, but subtlety can be more effective and that's certainly the case here.
Far worse, however, are episodes 11 and 12 in which Yoon Bok and Soo Jin are literally damselled by the biological mother's boyfriend who is in this version a serial child killer(!). And the two are, of course, rescued repeatedly by men to the point that the series briefly becomes a mediocre police procedural like the hundreds of other such shows produced on this planet each year. The original never limits the agency of the women in the story in this fashion, nor sinks to the use of such pedestrian tropes.
The series recovers a bit in its final episodes. However, it does spin its wheels a bit in the final episode as it lurches to a happy ending. Everyone wants the pair to be a family. That's the point of the shared scenario between the two productions. Call Me Mother is worse for going there. The end of Mother is d-e-v-a-s-t-a-t-i-n-g. I can tear up right now just by bringing it to memory. The end of Call Me Mother is fine: I will never recall it.
The performances and the production are, nevertheless, excellent. Heo Yool deserves the praise she gets. It's unfair to her, however, that Ashida Mana was there first.
You do not have to choose between these two productions: you can watch and enjoy both. But, if you have only seen this one, do yourself a huge favor and watch the original.
Was this review helpful to you?
Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
This asodora has some unexpected twists in the last 25 episodes when the land lady, Tomo, reveals her Force power, the protagonist Mineko turns out to be a Tanuki robot from the far future (2017) and a group of the characters band together to execute a daring rescue mission.Before that it's warm story taking place between 1964 and 1968 examining the migration of workers from rural provinces like Ibariki to urban centers like Tokyo. The spine of the plot is centered, lamentably, on an amnesia trope (a lame trope or the lamest trope?), and everything about one of the associated characters, Kanamoto Setsuko, makes no sense whatsoever. But that's about the sharpest criticism that can be leveled against this otherwise uniformly delightful morning drama.
The main character is charming enough, but the really great moments of the series fall to several of the tertiary characters who are still dealing with the consequences of WWII. The rapid changes of the 60s form the backdrop, and the Tokyo Olympics, Beatlemania, miniskirts and Twiggy all play a role in the lives of these characters.
Special mention also must be made to two of actresses, Sakuma Yui and Ito Sairi, who were in Transit Girls together a few years before. Sakuma's role is quite substantial as Mineko's best friend Tikiko who goes to Tokyo at the same time as Mineko and seeks to become an actress. Ito's role is much smaller but recurring, and the two do get a few scenes which had me as a fan of Transit Girls wishing for them to kiss (again).
As a whole, it's the usual high quality that one expects from an NHK asadora though personally I think Amachan deserves the higher rating between the two.
Was this review helpful to you?
