Tiger and Dragon

Taiga…taiga…jyutaiga…(*the catch phrase that Tora -the main character always says in the beginning of his story-telling time)

I cannot stop laughing from the very first time I watched this dorama. To summarize in few words, this is a story about a young yakuza named Kotora who wants to be a professional “rakugo” (read: traditional Japanese lone storyteller/traditional Japanese comical monologues).

Yamazaki Kotora, which is played by Nagase Tomoya (previously played in Mukodono as Sakuraba Yuichiro (Kotora name can be translated as tiger cub) is a yakuza whose work is collecting debts from people who borrow money from his boss who he refers as “oyaji” (read: father). Until one day he comes to a restaurant to collect the debt owed by Hayashiatei Donbei. Donbei borrowed a huge sum of money from Kotora’s boss to help his son, Ryuji (literally Ryu means dragon) who wanted to open his own clothing line called Dragon Soda. Unfortunately, the shop doesn’t do well and Donbei can’t pay back his debt. Pretending to go to the toilet, Donbei tries escaping by leaving the place via the back door. Tora apparently can read his plan and secretly follows Donbei. The chasing ends up in a small theater where rakugo shows are held. In that place, Tora gets to know a profession called rakugo at the first time. He quickly learns that Donbei is a rakugo master and in fact a quite famous one. Everybody is always expecting his appearance on the stage. While waiting for Donbei’s next move, Tora sits in the audience seat and ends up enjoying himself watching Donbei’s performance till the end. Having encountered the world of rakugo for the first time, Tora gets too excited and suddenly approaches Donbei (with his usual scary expression XD) uttering his motives to learn under Donbei’s supervisionto be a professional rakugo.   In short, Tora finally makes a deal with Donbei that he will pay tution fee 10,000 yen (around $100) per story and Donbei will pay his debt using that money. 

At the end of each episode, I guarantee you will be laughing watching Tora pays Donbei his tution fee while expressing his gratitute for what he has learned and couple seconds afterwards he turns from student and back to his yakuza’s job, then acts scary forcing Donbei to pay his debt (obviously using the money that he just gives to him) .

Tora does not have a talent to be a professional rakugo. He cannot remember clearly his story and often forgets his line while on stage, which makes the audiences get annoyed and complain about his flaws. But as the story develops, we see that Tora experiences many real-life stories in today’s modern world which are in many ways very similar to the rakugo stories that he is about to perform. By realizing this, he later uses his experiences to retell the story with the same title but using a way, what so called, Tora’s style.

In contrast, Donbei’s son, Ryuji, is a natural genius born rakugo. However, because of dissapointment caused by his rakugo shinsei (teacher) who is also Donbei’s competitor, Ryuji decides quitting rakugo for good and starts with his own essentric clothing line business.

The two meet up when both of them cross path through a girl named Megumi. Megumi, played by Ito Misaki (from yama onna kabe onna). Megumi is a beautiful girl who is nice and kind to everybody and she is loved and adored by everybody especially men. Guys love Megumi even they know this woman changes partner from time to time but they can always forgive her. No exception for Ryuji who is head over heels in love with her and gets so upset when he knows Tora has one night stand with her (not forgetting Megumi keeps mentioning they’ve done it twice). But always…Megumi chan is always forgiven because she’s cute and kind.

I think this dorama is one of a kind. You will enjoy every episode which is always combination between rakugo traditional Japanese folk story (potrayed in Japanese old time) and real modern time Tora’s style story.

Love makes me strong

Just a scene from Buzzer Beat (O __–)

Love does make me strong…it gives you strength to overcome life’s obstacles.

Yamato Nadeshiko Sichi Henge

Also known as “Perfect Girl Revolution” in English

Adopted from an anime with similar title, this dorama tells story about four super good looking boys who have a mission to transform a super gloomy creepy girl named Nakahara Sunako into Yamato Nadeshiko (read: a fine lady)
Nevertheless the main story is mainly telling about same life struggle being faced by Sunako chan and Takano Kyouhei.

Sunako wants to shut herself completely from outside world as she considers herself as a dark ugly being who can’t stand bright good looking people…AAHH MAa-MABUSHI (read: aah..too bright). In the anime, Sunako is always pictured having nose bleeding everytime she gets in touch with any of the boys especially Kyohei.

On the other hand, Kyohei is hating himself for having too radiant look that drives everyone crazy about him both female and male which lead them to attempt abusing him sexually. Born from average looking parents, his parents despise him for being trouble maker (kyohei gets into many fights to defense himself) and for causing chaos at their household as people never stop coming to their house, trying to find and even worst blackmailing their son via mail and telephone. Until one day Sunako’s aunty brings Kyohei under her care to involve in the mission of changing Sunako.

Me? I actually had finished watching the anime in the past and so curious to see how well the dorama compared to the anime. Especially because Kamenashi (whom people consider as young version of Kimutaku)plays as Takano Kyohei.

Happy watching mina-tachi!! (just don’t think while watching…*smile)

Summer 2009 J-Dee (my watchlist)

Takuya Kimura & Haruka Ayase-Mr. Brain

A story of Tsukumo, a night club host who almost lost his life due to a fatal accident that caused damage to frontal part of his brain. In spite of this disability, other parts of Tsukumo’s brain have become more active than before. Parting with his job as a host, he decides going studying brain knowledge and comes to write a research paper at  a special police research academy – so called IPS. Assisted by an assistant named Yuri Kazune (cast: Himono onna..well you know who)  Tsukomo gets involved in many crime cases being faced by the police, which most of the times relate to murder cases.

A quite a nice piece of Takuya. I have watched so far until episode seventh.  Nevertheless, each episode is special not only because of the mystery and horrorfic crime plot (seems like watching a detective movie) but also because different famous Japanese stars took a part as a guest role in the story. Not forget mentioning those actrees and actors that I think you are also familiar with such as Ryoko Hirosue (even only appearing for 5 minutes in the first episode), Koyuki (who played in Last Samurai  with Tom Cruise), Kazuya Kamenashi, and Nakama Yukie (who played in the Rings as Sadako, and in some popular dorama such as  Gokusen and Tricks).

Hideaki Takizawa & Ryou Nishikido-Othros no Inu

Even I have never read the manga, when reading the story I directly made a guess that this J-dee comes from a manga story. It’s been a long time since the last time I watched Hideaki Takizawa played in a dorama. In my memory, Hideaki always had his hair coloured in blond. So, I was a bit surprised when seeing him in his original hair color (read: black hair) in this dorama. In contrast, I still remember watching Ryou-kun in Ryusei no Kizuna a couple months ago. Anyway, it is worth to watch them play in the same series.

I won’t tell the story though since, it is a bit predictable in many ways especially if you are a fan of shounen manga.

Masaki Okada – Otomen

Nah…this is what I call a coincidence. If above dorama was from shounen manga, this one is from shoujo manga. Masaki Okada name may not be so familiar to everyone, but if you ever watched Hana Kimi tachie, you will know him as Sekime-(the guy whose name was always forgotten LOL). I just watched episode one unsubbed and currently hoping this will be another entertaining comedy dorama.

The story is about Asuka Masamune a high school boy who is idolized by every girl because of his look and the fact that he is the strongest kendo player at the school’s doujo. However, nobody knows that their idol is actually hiding his true-self who is very skillful in sewing and cooking. Asuka has been hiding this for all times as he had made a promise to his mother in her dying bed that he would not follow his father’s way of life who wanted to be a woman (at least that was what I understood from the conversation). Until one day Asuka meets a girl named Ryo Miyakozuka and he falls for her because of her brave and cheerful personalities. Because of this, Asuka becomes very afraid if Ryo exposes his true-self.

That’s all for now…see you in the next post.

Osashiburi desu…(it’s been a long time)

I have been away for quite long time, haven’t I? Some asked if I have stopped watching dorama all this time. Well the answer is yes and no. After the last post, I went back to my home country for one month. Then when came back here, I was all the time busy with work and working at my social life. Pfff…to be honest, I can be very introvert sometimes :~! and at some points I prefer having myself lead a life like a hikkikomori. Well if you are not familiar with hikkikomori, try googling it. Any other suggestion? I would suggest you to watch an anime called NHK ni youkoso that tells a story of a hikkikomori.

Ok..enough of my excuses though. So during month March until end of May, I have  actually finished some and am currently watching some J-dee’s.  Pls find them below 🙂

Kurosagi-a black swlinder

This is a dorama from year 2006. Actually I had downloaded one episode before I went back to Indonesia but then got no time to watch it until last month.  This is a story of  a man named Kurosaki whose father was swindled for a big sum of money and ended up killing his own family. Kurosaki apparently managed to save himself from that incident but since then his life is always haunted by the death scene of his family. Living with goal in mind to avange his family and believing the fact that police can do nothing to help people who got swindled, he works as a black swlinder (kurosagi–kuro: black, sagi: swlinder), a kind of swlinder who doest not cheat commoners but instead he swindles other swindles and gives the money back to the victims.

Obviously Kurosaki’s actions cause different reactions from public. Some consider what he does is a heroic deeds while other like police officers and Tsurara-a law major student who rents an appartment from Kurosaki, think swindling (whatever the form is) is still a criminal action that can’t be tolerated. Such a simple story line but it’s interesting enough to see various methods used by a swindler (and of course not forgetting to see Yama-P’s act in many kinds of roles :D).

Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Horita Maki, and Yamazaki Tsutomu

Dragon Zakura

I was looking at Jdorama.com top 50 dramas voted web-page when came across a title that I have never seen before. Yep another drama from year 2005 which made according to a famous manga with same title. Shortly, this dorama tells a story of Sakuragi Kenji a lawyer and ex-gangster..ups I mean ex-racer 🙂 who swears to admit 5 students from Ryuuzan high school to Todai in the coming year. Is there anything special from this main storyline??

Let me continue. Ryuuzan high school is known in the neighborhood as a low level high school that has an average score of 36 in the national test. Based on a survey, every year only 3 of the students are willing to go to university and the other just drop-out or directly working after graduating. On the other hand, for those who don’t know “Todai” uni, Todai is an abbreviation of Tokyo Daigaku a.k.a. Tokyo University, the most prestigious university in Japan, and it often ranks as the highest in Asia (wikipedia). Interesting?

I personally think, more than the story itself, the dorama talks a lot about the techniques of doing Todai’s entrance exam. Sakuragi is confidence that anyone can enter Todai. Even stupid students but if they know study techniques, they can.

(A bit of my confession: this post has been in my draft folder for about a month…)

New year 2009

So late but as always many say better late than never. So please let me say my late new year greeting before the month January is over.

Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu..kotoshi mo yoroshiku onegaishimasu..

Selamat tahun baru

Gelukkig nieuw jaar en alle beste wensen

Happy new year 2009! New year new hope.. :))

Those yummy stuff..

Exotic Japanese cuisines that you may expect to see when watching Osen dorama…just a preview :p

Dorama that I’ve been watching since May 08 (see this post for reference) but not finished yet until now since I am still waiting for the subbed version (^o^) ….seems it won’t be subbed anymore though (0__0!)

Therefore…I don’t feel like reviewing the series except that I am very much impressed with all food presented…make me want to visit Japan so bad!! Have been my long-time dream…

Mika Nakashima

Still in Ryuusei no Kizuna’s mode…

Nakashima Mika is the singer of the dorama’s Ending song, Orion. Surprisingly she also appears playing in some episodes of the series as Koichi’s weird customer and fan who always calls Koichi with nickname “AXEL”…At the first time I did not recognize her with long hair as Mika Nakashima in my mind always reminds me of NANA. Yes, she was Osaki Nana in NANA live action movies season one and two, the movies that was made according to a manga with same title.  The image of Nana is so attached to her since the life story of Osaki Nana is somehow similar to Mika’s background that she did not go to school and college, instead she went pursuing her music career.

I start recognizing her at Ryuusei no Kizuna when I see her singing the ending song while sitting at Koichi’s restaurant stairs in episode 6. I do not really know if her role in the dorama does exist in the original novel. Even so, in every scene where she appears, I always feel that  it gives more flavors to the story as a whole.

Hereby is the Japanese lyric of ORION in latin 🙂

Naita no wa boku datta
(it was me who cried)
Yowasa wo misenai koto ga sou tsuyoi wake jyanai tte
(not showing your weakness doesn’t mean that you’re strong)
Kimi ga itteita kara dayo, I believe
(because you told me, I believe)

Iki ga tsumetakunaru kaerimichi ni tada hoshi ga nobiteru
(my breath becomes cold and my foot stretches in front of me back home)
Tashikameta bakari no awai nukumori sae mo wasuresou
(I might even forget the warmness that I felt just now)
Hito wo suki ni nareru koto ni hajimete kizuita, ima wa
(I just realized how it feels to love someone)

Naita no wa boku datta
(it was me who cried)
Tsunagatta, fuyu no seiza, kono sora ni kietekanai you ni
(The beautiful winter concellations, hope they don’t disappear from the skies)
Mitsumeteita(n) dayo, I believe
(I looked at it, I believe)

Kajikanda te no hira hanarenu you ni itsu made mo sawareteitai
(I want to protect this hand so that it will never seperate)
Tsutaetai kotoba mo furikaesu noni mada koe ni naranai
(What I want to say doesn’t come out as words)
Tawainai koto de waratte, yasashiku tsutsumu yo, kimi wo
(Laughing at things, surrounding you softly)

Nagareboshi, kazoeteta
(Counting the number of shooting stars)
Kimi to deaeta kiseki ga ima boku ni ikiteiru imi wo
(Because of the miracle that I met you, I’m here right now)
oshiete kureta kara, I believe
(Because you taught me, I believe)

Naita no wa boku datta
(it was me who cried)
Yowasa wo misenai koto ga sou tsuyoi wake jyanai tte
(Not showing your weakness doesn’t mean that you’re strong)
Kimi ga itteita kara dayo, I believe
(Because you told me, I believe)

Itteita kara dayo, I believe
(Because you said so, I believe)

Ryuusei no Kizuna (Falling stars/Meteor’s bond)

Intro…

First of all, this dorama somehow reminds me of Sekai no chuushin de ai wo sakebu (English title: Crying out loud in the middle of the world), where the story plot is presented in present and flashback. Well just my opinion..other would probably will say that it is more typical detective story.

Secondly, [FANS’ ALERT] one of the plus points that I can think of, this dorama is casting young and famous Japanese actors and actress who are frequently appear in many new doramas such as  Ninomiya (Nino) Kazunari as Ariake Koichi (Arashi’s member, previously played in Stand-up and Yamada Taro monogatari), Nishikidou Ryou as Ariake Taisuke (I know him from the most memorable based on true story dorama 1 liter of tears-ichi ritoru no namida), and the beauty Toda Erika as the younger sister Ariake Shizuna (finally she gets a main leading female role for her own after her many supporting roles in Hana Yori Dango 2, Nobuta wo Produce, and the latest one Code Blue).

Storyline…

Based on a novel with a same title written by Higashino Keigo (a Japanese famous mystery book author), Ryuusei no Kizuna is a story of three siblings, Koichi, Taisuke, and Shizuna whose parents were murdered when they were out watching meteor shower in the middle of that night. After the three grow up they have sworned that one day they will find the murder and kill him to avange their parents. I’d  say if we just read this paragraph, the story sounds so common and predictable…just like normal detective and thriller movies that tell about murder murder, crime, and revange.  However the process to find the killer, how each character engages to each other, and most importantly how the series filmed and presented to the audience..are things that make the this story is still interesting to be followed.

In order to match with nowadays situation, the time of the incident is set in November, 1993 and the present is in 2008. So 15 years have passed since the tragedy and still the detectives have not found who is the culprit who killed Ariake couple at that night. Even worse, as mentioned in the engagement letter, the case is about to meet its expiration date by the end of year 2008, meaning that the case is going to be closed even the murderer is not yet found.

Kashiwabara (aka Kashi-san), the detective who has been involving in the case, is still not giving up yet. With all of his might he is still doing the investigation while at the same time trying to cooperate with Koichi, the eldest son of the couple who is now 26 years old and running a small restaurant. However, all the times, Koichi always seems not very enthusiastic to find his parents’ murderer in front of Kashi-san. Moreover, everytime Kashi-san asks him about Koichi’s younger brother, Taisuke and younger sister, Shizuna, Kouchi would likely answering that he hardly meets them anymore.

Of course Koichi is telling a lie in front of the detective. In secret, he meets his siblings a lot to track the murderer. Koichi believes the police and their law only will not be enough to punish and to make the culprit suffer. Therefore he keeps motivating Taisuke and Shii (Shizuna’s nickname) that they are going to catch the culprit and kill him by themselves.

Another undercover crime…

However that is not the only thing that the Ariake siblings do everytime they meet.In many episodes, we see that Ariake’s like plotting a fake undercover scenario to cheat on people’s money. Honestly I do not really understand why they do that..because it is not related to the main story and it is just simply another crime form (when I finished watching this dorama I finally found my answer in the last episode).

Just like one time, Shizuna resigns from her work because she has been bullied by her what so called “post-it” manager who also marks her as a “boring girl” by stamping a post-it memo on Shizuna’s forehead. Taisuke and Koichi understand that Takayama, the post-it manager, actually has a crush on Shii but he express that feeling by bullying her. As the proof, since Shii resigns, Takayama keeps sending her sms. Until one day, Takayama gets an accident in the fitness center that causes him to be hospitalized. He does send Shii an sms informing about his condition and expects her to react. Instead of replying the sms, Shii and her two nii-san (read: big-brothers) are plotting a story to make Takayama pay what he has done to Shii. So Shii undercovers herself as a attractive (heavy make-up) nurse named Shiho who is in charge to treat Takayama during his stay in the hospital. Fool Takayama thinks that he is hallucinating Shizuna, the boring girl, working as a nurse but later on it turns that he believes that Shiho is not Shizuna and in fact that Shiho is NOT BORING.

After Takayama is dismissed from the hospital, he wants to continue his relationship with Shiho. So one day he promises to meet her at a cafe. Much to his surprise, Shiho is not alone and there is a guy sitting at the same table with her. The guy is Taisuke who is undercovered as Shiho’s upperclassman working as a new broker selling bonds. Shiho tells Takayama that she wants to help his sempai to reach his sales target and that’s also why she is bringing him along to be introduced to Takayama who is known as an experienced trader who is  familiar in financial instrument trading. To win Shiho’s heart, Takayama starts boasting himself in front of Shii and Taisuke…in the end he ends up investing 1,5 million yen (cash) in two-years-bonds offered by Taisuke. Sometimes later, Shiho tells Takayama that she’s going to study abroad in Canada…and that is how Ariake siblings end their scenario.

Critical clue, dangerous scenario that need more than a sacrifice…

Various undercover scenarios written by Koichi and played by Taisuke and Shizuna slowly bring them to the culprit’s whereabouts. It happens when Koichi gets jealous of his annoying frequent plain-looking customer who always orders Hayashi rice everytime he comes to his place. The customer later on reveals himself as the only heir-tobe of famous Togami restaurant chain in Japan. Koichi cannot accept the fact that he and Togami Yukinari are almost at similar age, both are also the son of restaurant’s owner, but both have different destinies. Yukinari is going to inherit such a big restaurant business while Koichi’s parents were killed and left him with nothing. Those drive Koichi to plot a scenario to swlindle a big sum of money from Yukinari so that later on with that money he and his siblings can reopen Ariake restaurant. Koichi instructs Shii to take a role as a rich college student named Takamine Shiori to allure Yukinari with her beauty with an objective to have Yukinari buy her an expensive jewelery that cost millions yen.

Briefly, none predicts that the last scenario will let them meet the person who ran away from their house at the night of the incident 15 years ago that Koichi and Taisuke believe as the real murderer…What a big coincidence that the person is the owner of Togami restaurant, Yukinari’s father. Even worse….having experienced Yukinari’s natural kind-and-honest nature, Shii as Shiori starts falling for him.

If Togami isn’t the culprit…

Of course it will be very boring if you already know from the beginning that Togami is one and only suspect. So here are my version of the killer nominations:

* Shizuna’s real father who keeps the secret from his wife that he had a daughter with an escort girl, who no other than Ariake Toko. Spoiler: Shizuna is later on revealed that she is not blood-related with Koichi and Taisuke as she was brought along when Toko married to Ariake’s papa.Motive: money lent to Ariake’s couple.

*Kashi-san, whose son was always sick at the time of the incident and finally died 15 years later, who is also always treating Ariake’s siblings as his own children.

*What-so-called: mafia’s ring. Ariake’s couple is gossiped to have borrowed a big amount of money from the mafia..

*Togami’s mama: protecting her husband’s  recipes source.

I can’t (be) without you…(Omae yannai to akannen)

Having finished with Code Blue….I came accross this old dorama from 2003, Mukodono (translated as son-in-law/my husband). The comments on this dorama on J-dorama site were pretty much varied from one to another. However after watching the first episode, I found that this is a kind of dorama that I like…a story of a super star named Sakuraba Yuichiro whose off stage life is giving a totally different image than when he’s on stage…I got that “undercover superhero” feeling when watching it. The only difference is that superheroes tend to appear normal and weak when “not in action” but Sakuraba covers his true “childish crazy” nature and turns to be “cool and cold” type of person when he is appearing to the audience as a star.

I do not have much to say about this dorama…but before this post ends, hereby the insert song lyric sung by the star during the airing of the series…a nice romantic proposal song in Kansai-ben (read:Japanese with Kansai dialect):

Lyric (taken from Mognet.net)

女に　わからへん　男の意地があるし

onna ni   wakarahen   otoko no iji ga aru shi

素直に　言われへん　孤独な夜もあるし

sunao ni   iwarehen   kodoku na yoru mo aru shi

わかってくれるか　おいらを全部

wakatte kureru ka   oira wo zenbu

一生かかっていいから

isshou kakatte ii kara

ただまっすぐ　この夢を　叶えようよ

tada massugu   kono yume wo   kanaeyou yo
WOW YEAH

Reff:
星空達が　おいら達の未来を

hoshizora-tachi ga   oira-tachi no mirai wo

今　見届けてるから　ほら　口付けをしよう

ima   mitodoketeru kara   hora   kuchidzuke wo shiyou
WOW YEAH

おしゃべりでええねん

oshaberi de ee nen

どんくさいのもお前やねん

donkusai no mo omae yanen

ついて来い

tsuite koi

verse 2
女に　見せられへん　男の涙あるし

onna ni   miserarehen   otoko no namida aru shi

なかなか　忘れへん　いろんな思いもあるし

nakanaka wasurehen   ironna omoi mo aru shi

わかってくれるか　おいらを全部

wakatte kureru ka   oira wo zenbu

一生かかっていいから

isshou kakatte ii kara

憧れてた　あの店を　予約したよ

akogareteta   ano mise wo   yoyaku shita yo

WOW YEAH

Reff:
星空達に　おいら達の未来を

hoshizora-tachi ni   oira-tachi no mirai wo

ほら　宣言するよ　絶対　幸せにするよ

hora   sengen suru yo   zettai   shiawase ni suru yo
WOW YEAH

寝ぼすけでええねん

nebosuke de ee nen

料理へたのもお前やねん

ryouri heta no mo omae yanen
ついて来い tsuite koi

WOW YEAH
星空達が　おいら達の未来を

hoshizora-tachi ga   oira-tachi no mirai wo

今　見届けてるから　ほら

ima   mitodoketeru kara   hora

(words)
“I WANNA KISS NOW”

WOW YEAH
おしゃべりでええねん

oshaberi de ee nen

どんくさいのもお前やねん

donkusai no mo omae yanen

ついて来い tsuite koi

WOW YEAH
星空達に　おいら達の未来を

hoshizora-tachi ni   oira-tachi no mirai wo

ほら　宣言するよ　絶対　幸せにするよ

hora   sengen suru yo   zettai   shiawase ni suru yo
WOW YEAH

寝ぼすけでええねん

nebosuke de ee nen

料理へたのもお前やねん

ryouri heta no mo omae yanen

ついて来い tsuite koi

ついて来い tsuite koi

English translation:

There’s pride in a guy which a women doesn’t understand
And there are lonely nights which I can’t speak of
Will you understand me? Everything of me?
Even if it takes a lifetime
Straightforward, let’s make this dream come true
WOW YEAH
The starry skies are watching our future
So let’s kiss
WOW YEAH
It’s okay if you’re talkative
Being clumsy is you too
Follow me

There are guys’ tears that I can’t show a woman
And there are feelings that I can’t show often
Will you understand? Everything of me?
Even if it takes a lifetime
I reserved a place in that restaurant

WOW YEAH
To the starry skies, we’ll announce our future
I’ll make you happy
WOW YEAH
It’s okay if you’re a sleepy head
Being bad at cooking is you too
Follow me

The starry skies are watching our future

“I WANNA KISS NOW”

WOW YEAH
It’s okay if you’re talkative
Being clumsy is you too
Follow me

WOW YEAH
To the starry skies, we’ll announce our future
I’ll make you happy
WOW YEAH
It’s okay if you’re a sleepy head
Being bad at cooking is you too
Follow me

Follow me

Those old J-doramas broadcast in Indonesia

I don’t really remember if I’ve ever mentioned this…I have been watching dorama since I was only a student at Junior High. Before attached to dorama, I was a big fan of Chinese kung-fu series including Condor Heroes, the return of condor heroes, To Liong To.., twin heroes, and so on

My very first dorama was a long series called “OSHIN.” To be honest, I do not even remember the story except that it tells a life story of…OSHIN (who else?) from a little girl called Oshin, teenager Oshin, until Oshin obasama (read: grandma Oshin) :). Anyway, I was only six at that time.

The first dorama that I can still remember most of its story is Tokyo Love Story (Tokyo Rabu Sutori). As I remember that was broadcast right after the first airing of INDOSIAR channel on Indonesian television. When? don’t ask me about when was it because I am very bad with remembering date and time…that’s why my history’s grades could not go over 7. Briefly, the story is about four adults, two guys (Kenji and Mikami) and two ladies (Rika and Satomi) who are involved in polygon love story.

After the series finished airing, the channel followed it up by having “Just the way we are” aired. I remember it was the title of the dorama. Sounds like a famous song with similar title but it was really a dorama and not a song. Japanese title of it? never know it at all until I accidentally listened to the mp3 of the theme song at my friend’s home…..The song is called Kimi ga Irudakede from Kome Kome Club.

A triangle love story between two best (girl) friends who coincidentally fall in love with the same man. In the end, one of the girls chooses to give up her feeling and let the man marry her only bestfriend. Sadly, because of weak body, her bestfriend passes away while giving birth to her only daughter. Since then the girl promises to take care the daughter as if she is hers. Since

Then, again on the same channel, “Anything for you” was aired. The story? It is the Japanese style of Demi-Moore Ghost movie :p….very romantic and memorable just like the original movie only in a longer version.

And followed by “Ordinary People” which the theme song itself is one of the best all the times Japanese pop song ever…If you never listen to it before, you can try googling or youtubing for “True Love” by Fumiya Fuji.

Then…I came acrross various dorama with Indonesian subbed voice (that I won’t mention them here) until I met…eh…until I watch Kimura Takuya for the first time in Long Vacation. There he was, acting as Sena a 24 years old piano student who inevitable has to live with a woman in her thirty’s who appears to be the bride who has been left behind at the altar by his ex-roomate.Here, I also watched Hirosue Ryoko and Takenouchi Yutaka for the first time acting before their next appearance in Beach Boys.

Ok..I have to end this post here….because it is impossible to me to outline all other doramas that I had watched since then.

Adios..and until next time 🙂 🙂

Seigi no Mikata (ally of justice)

Who does not know the Cinderella story? Everybody knows that cinderella has a step mother and two mean step sisters. If you want to see one step mother and two step sisters are combined into one person and if you’ve ever imagined what if cinderella never gets her happilly ever after, you need to spend sometimes (or some days) to watch this series. Seriously you should give it a try!!

Once upon the time, there were two princesses with two different fates. The first princess was destined to be a queen and the other was to be the queen’s slave. Whatever the younger princess did to escape her fate, in the end, she always ended up following the queen’s commands.

Meet Nakata Makiko-sama, 25 years-old single, working as a bureaucrat at government parliament in Tokyo. She is not only smart and straightforward person but also stunningly beautiful. No man can resist her charm and apparently she always gets what she wants, not only man of her dream but also all things that she wants in life. However, nobody knows that Makiko will do all the ways in order to get her desires fulfilled including make use of her own and only imouto (read: younger sister).

In contrast, Nakata Youko-chan aka Kumako (kuma means bear and ko means child), a high school freshman, who has been fated to be her onee-chan’s loyal follower for the rest of her life. As the result, she experienced so many extraordinary things in her 15 years life, not forget mentioning:

– joining sumo club when her onee-chan fell in love with a sumo.

– almost raped by a stalker who before was a person reported to police as a mental illness patient by Makiko as the revenge for cutting her line and buying the last remaining bentou on the table. This person afterwards becomes a stalker and attacks Youko because when calling the police Makiko introduces herself as her sister.

-involved in Makiko’s love story, from stalking Makiko’s ume no hito (read: the destined man), Yoshikawa Naoki, until persuasing and convincing him to marry Makiko. Youko is motivated to do so with an intention if Makiko gets married and leaves the house, she will redeem her freedom. But, again, things (as always) don’t go the way Youko wants to.

– when Makiko gets married to Yoshikawa Naoki, Youko was hopelessly forced by Makiko to take over her house chores responsibilities without being known by Naoki.

-even worse, Youko once also becomes Makiko’s food poisoning victim during her conflict with her mother in law.

Strange enough, most of the times, Makiko’s cruelty continuously brings good impacts to the people around her including Youko. This is how Makiko gets people to call her “Ally of Justice”. These frequent occurrences make Youko more convinced that her onee-chan is the one who makes the world turn around.

Oshimai no oyatachi (sisters’parents)

Nakata Goro and Haruko are the parents of Makiko and Youko. Haruko was an ojou-sama (read: lady) from a noble family while Goro was just a commoner. When they decided to get married, Haruko’s parents objected. That’s why, without the parents’ blessing, Haruko ranaway with Goro and spent their first night together in a country side hotel. The story tells that in that  Haruko got pregnant with Makiko. 8 years later, Youko was born. The Nakata family live modestly as Goro works as a Human Resource deputy in a company and Haruko is only a housewife.  Like daughters like parents. At home, except preparing meals, Goro does all the cleaning, ironing and many other chores because he cannot stand seeing Haruko suffers from not capable doing things right.

So, from here everybody can see that Makiko inherited Haruko’s lady charracteristics while Youko is more like Goro.

Impression

Well, I see that it is more a dorama that aims female audiences than male ones because in this dorama the women have more to say than the men.

Code Blue, which code is it?

Finally, a new dorama of Yamashita Tomohisa (aka YamaP). I am pretty sure that lots of fans have been waiting for YamaP’s appearance since the last time he appeared as Kenzou in Proposal Daisakusen Special. If you go to wikidrama page, you will find a very high rating by the airing of Code Blue first episode.

Things that you will suddenly notice while watching this series:

– YamaP has Kimutaku’s hairstyle. I don’t know why the producer styled him like that, are they trying to create a new generation of Kimutaku’s image? I hope not, I will never agree to compare Yama P and Kimutaku. Both are very good actors but still in different way.

– He’s playing a totally different role from what I call “typical YamaP roles” (where he’s used to be an easygoing person, a talker, and such a spontant comedian who is sometimes a bit essentric ^^;). In code Blue, you will see the serious type of YamaP. YamaP as Aizawa-sensei is known as a genius doctor-heli-intern and yet socially inactive when it comes to approach the patients in person.

-Toda Erika, who played the beauty from Nobuta wo Produce, is here again as YamaP’s partner. Not that they have a lover-kind relationship but more like fellow student relationship with lots of competitions to be acknowledged as the best intern of all.  I’m actually glad to see that Toda Erika is given Hiyama’s role in this dorama. I don’t really know if she had ever played this kind of role before but at least while becoming Hiyama-sensei, Toda-kun does not potray that perfect lady type as she usually had in the past (in Hana Yori Dango 2 and in Nobuta wo Produce).

According to some sources, Code Blue dorama is actually representing the real proposal of implementing Doctor Heli in Japan in order to improve hospital service by giving a faster emergency aid than ambulance.  Furthermore some scenes were also done in a real helicopter that gives the audience a more real-life situation when watching the dorama.

My suggestion while watching this series is just be prepared to encounter frequent operation events with lots of blood, cutting, slicing flesh, and not forgetting to mention those near-death life experiences.

I don’t recall to what the title relates to…CODE BLUE, is that pointing to the blue uniform worn by doctor heli?

By following this series, I did recall the time when I wanted to take medical major after graduating from high school and suddenly I changed my mind because realizing that I always feel like throwing up and fainting everytime I see so much blood ^^; and that horror feeling does come back to me when watching some of the scenes.

Abarenbo Mama

I knew this dorama from “downie” one person who commented on my hanakimi post before. After quite sometimes, finally some people uploaded this dorama in d-addicts. After watching five episodes, I think this is a good dorama and I am still waiting for the next episodes to be subbed.

Ueto Aya plays Kawano Ayu, a 22-year-old girl, raised as a daughter of single-parent sailor who just got married to Kawano Tetsu (played by Oizumi Yo, honestly this is the first time I see him playing in dorama but according to wikidrama, he won best supported actor for his role as Tetsu). Kawano Tetsu is a one-time divorced middle-age man (in Japanese one time divorce is known as batsu-ichi, two times divorces is batsu-ni, and so on) who works as a barber at his own house. They are so happily married until one day, Tetsu is found being lied about the fact that he does have a son from his previous marriage. The lie is found when Yuki-kun comes to Tetsu and Aya’ house and called Tetsu, “papa”. Since that day onwards, Aya in sudden has to take the role as the mother of five-year-old Yuki. The role includes all house chores from preparing lunch box, taking to and picking Yuki up from kindergarten, getting into various conflicts with other mothers whose children attending a same school.

The story is very heart-warming, funny, and the same time entertaining for all-ages especially to see the growing relationship between Ayu and Yuki from two strangers to mother-son relationship. Unfortunately there is not so much chemistry between Ayu and Tetsu, perhaps that is due to the age gap between two of them. For me they are looked more like two bestfriend or brother-sister-bond.

Anyway…if you are a fan of Ueto Aya and you like kids, I think you will not be disappointed.

Sailor Moon Live Action

Moon Prism powaaa…make up!!!

Do you still remember that shout? If you do…I think we have something in common (still). This was one of the dorama that my fellow friends had never approved on because simply it was a way too eccentric. Therefore they couldn’t believe their own eyes when they caught me watching the series almost everyday and all night long. If I am not mistaken, it was during my double degree time in Sweden (around year 2004/2005). I spent my long snowy winter at home watching  five Japanese girls in Sailor Warrior’s uniforms and  wearing colorful wigs fighting against people in fake monster costumes.

(the attached pic above is taken from other website since I don’t have the series anymore in my PC :p ).

When I was only 12 years old, I was once a big fan of Sailor Moon anime that was broadcast on local television. I had a set of collections related to Sailor Warriors merchandises ranging from the collector cards, the mangas (Japanese comics), articles, to the figurines of each sailor. Wondering if past time memory has affected my interest on this live action version…to be honest I bet it did.

Anyway…same as my friends, at the first time, I was thinking the series was so drop dead ridiculous and only produced to fool younger audiences. In the end, I did watch it till the end at least until the four guardians of queen Metalica have been defeated.

So anyone who has ever heard of or even has watched the series too..feel free to share your comments.

Hiyashi Chuka

While being bored of waiting, I accidentally watched Boku dake no Madonna (English title: You’re my only Madonna/and I love her…) and finished it in three days (I took my time :). It is a dorama from Summer 2005, that was very popular at that time because Takizawa Hideaki and Hasegawa Kyoko played as a couple there. Even in Jdorama.com, it is still in the top 50 of the most voted dorama ever. One of my best friends said that Hasegawa Kyoko as Surumi was the most beautiful Japanese girl that he has ever seen in a dorama. Without realizing, she was playing as Kimura Takuya’s younger sister, Sanae, in Karei Naru Ichizoku. She is older than Hideaki but still none can deny that they are very compatible as a couple.

As summer is coming again in the Netherlands (even until now the temperature is still around 15 to 20 degree celcius), I suddenly recall this cuisine that was repeatedly eaten during the airing of the dorama (even most of the times, it was the ready-eat one from supermarket).

What is hiyashi chuka? If you are googling at it, it will give you a definition as Japanese cold noodle or Japanese cold salad, which is consumed during summer time.

Summer in Japan is apparently very hot every year. Not like in Netherlands, even we say now is summer time, the temperature can change dramatically. In one time you can have a sunny warm beautiful day and just in another couple of hours, it becomes a windy cloudy day. Yeah…welcome to Holland!!

Anyway, because it is very hot during summer, that’s why hiyashi chuka is consumed when it is cold for body-chilling purposes. The noodle is served together with various fresh toppings such as long-tiny-sliced scrambled eggs, thin sliced ham, cucumber, carrot, bean sprouts, (Japanese) red ginger, and so on.

Interested? You can try checking the following link from wikia not wikipedia :p Hiyashi Chuka’s recipe
.

Kimura Takuya no CHANGE

In the moment when Barrack Obama and Hillary Clinton were fighting to be Democratic party’s candidate for taking the position of president of the United States, this dorama is kind of picturing Japanese version of Barrack Obama, with his Change campaign in Japanese parliamentary system.

From an ordinary basic school teacher….

to….

Asakura Keita (Kimura Takuya) is just an ordinary fifth-grade teacher, whose nickname is Mojakura (given by his students) as he has a thick rounded curly hair. Until one day, he hears a news that his father, Asakura Makoto and older brother, Asakura Masaya, who are both politicians, were killed on an airplane crash in Vietnam. Asakura Makoto (also known as Asakura-sensei) when he was still living is a member of Lower House who is currently on the running to be a parliament member. Therefore in order to continue with the election process, no matter what, Miyama Rika (the secretary of Kanbayashi-sensei, member of Lower House of diet-played by Fukatsu Eri) is assigned to find the successor of Asakura-sensei. If Asakura-sensei had no more successor, Miyama has no choice than having Takae-san, wife of Asakura sensei, take her husband’s position.

Two of Asakura’s election committee members accidentally spit the fact that Asakura-sensei still has another son, who has been practically disowned by Asakura-sensei because some different views between father and son. With all of her mights, she comes to Keita’s workplace and forces him to take his father’s place in the election. Keita strongly refused the idea of entering politic world as that was the reason why he was fighting with his father. In the end, Keita agrees with one condition that Miyama will never bother him anymore if he loses in the election.

So be it, with Miyama’s strong will, a help from super election planner Nirasawa (played by Hiroshi Abe), and unexpectedly Keita’s charisma, Keita beats his opponent and becomes the parliament’s member of Seiyu party.

The story moves on. The current prime minister gives up his seat as he is hit by sexual harassment scandal and leaves the position open for all political parties in Japan.

Kanbayashi-sensei who is seemed having waiting for becoming the prime minister, plots a tricky scenario by using the fact that Keita is a new parliament member and yet still a newbie in politic. He pursues other senior Seiyu party’s members to give their supports on Asakura Keita to join the election by proposing an argument that the society needs a fresh look and change in the government. Keita will suit the fresh image as he is young and attractive, moreover just a while after he won the election he gains a title as “kokukai ouji” or prince of parliament. Those would ease him to get mass’ sympathy if he runs for the election. Soon after Keita becomes the prime minister, senior members of Seiyu party including Kanbaya can use and even overrule Keita to make their ambitions come true. In the end, the plot is finalized by overthrowing him from the position and elect Kanbayashi as the new prime minister. That should not be a difficult thing to do according to Kanbayashi as Keita is a newbie in politician world.

Nevertheless Kanbayashi never predicts that Keita is such a unique simple minded person who is very dedicated in everything that he is doing. As a teacher, he goes all the way to find the answer of his student’s joking-question, why Tanuki-udon is called Tanuki-udon (tanuki=racoon and udon=Japanese thick noodle). As well as when he becomes the prime minister, Keita due to his nature is not easily affected by people’s requests and opinions until he finds the reason by himself. Therefore it becomes harder for Kanbayashi to do his plans. While on the other hand, Keita will face more and more difficult temptations from fellow politicians who want to overthrow him.

Impression

What else can I say? It is really an interesting series so far. I would say that Kimura Takuya now is into more serious doramas such as his roles in Karei naru and Change. Still in every dorama that he plays, it becomes the audiences’ favorite. As usual, when Kimura Takuya has a role, almost hard to find any boring scenes (even when he played as the crow’s voice in Food Fight :p).

He has a difficult role here especially when the story relates to the word “politic”. It is not easy to portray a cool politician. Everyone knows the politicians and their politic world are a highly sophisticated and yet exclusive environment where only super duper very important (old) necktie people can enter AND the world that most of people including me think that it is a difficult world to understand EXCEPT the publicity of their hot scandals and dirty tricks played by the members that are revealed on daily newspapers. It also happens a lot in my country, Indonesia though!!

So I think that is the point of producing this kind of dorama (maybe). It is somewhat criticizing the nowadays’ government and presenting a dream of having an ideal picture of what a country representative should be.

Furthermore, CHANGE is also presenting and supported by Japanese dorama’s familiar faces both as regular roles or just as starring guests such as Hiroshi Abe, Morimoto Leo (he played in Proposal Daisakusen and Boku dake no Madonna), and Nishimura Masahiko (even he never plays the main role, he has been in Yamato Nadeshiko, Nodame’s piano teacher, or lately he appeared in Osen episode 3).

Last one, I was so surprised that Madonna’s song, “Miles Away” from her new album Hard Candy becomes the ED theme of this dorama. I found it strange at the first time but it fits the ending scenes perfectly. Guess what Madonna even watched the first episode of CHANGE…

Hereby the link for the video

My Doramas watch list

Gomen.. that I am abandoning this site more than a month. Currently busy with my working stuff and my office just blocked all personal websites including blogger and wordpress (-__-!)…so sad!! But it is all about corporate confidentiality something that I can’t argue about when I am working at a company.

Even though, I am currently still following doramas. Hopefully I am not too out to date yet..Hereby three of some Doramas that may interest you:

Zettai Kareshi

The story is based on manga with same title. A triangle love among one temporary office lady, one young playboy boss (played by Nanba-senpai in Hanakimi), and a robotic lover (I would call him as the live action of male-chobits). The producer of the dorama decided not to fully adapt the manga by changing the live of, Izawa Riko, a high-school girl into a temporary worker who is pursuing her dream as a pastry-chef.

Riko is not a lucky girl in finding a boyfriend. Until one day a research organization called Kronos Heaven is looking for a voluntary to test their new creation 01 (read: Zero One), a well-built and flawless male robot, which is expected to be a perfect replacement for a human boyfriend. Riko is accidentally chosen by Namikiri, the creator of robot lover, when she finds herself at a bar drinking and at the same time feeling desperate from having no attention of her admired product manager.

The day after her meeting with Namikiri, Riko gets 01 sent to her house and in order to active the robot Riko has to kiss 01 on his lips. The robot wakes up, walks around naked, and calls Riko as his kanojo (read:girlfriend). In the end Riko ends up living together with 01, who later on is named Tenjo Night (read: Tenjo Naito). At the same time, the boss where Riko works as a temp, Shoshi, starts having interest in Riko’s talent as a pastry critics and her ability to make a delicious memorable choux cream before in the end he starts paying attention on Riko as a fine attractive woman.

As the story is developing and after six episodes have been released, I get the impression that Riko never cares about Naito as a person. Most of the time she treats him no more than a handy, effective and useful appliance. On the other hand, Riko is being attracted to Soshi’s charm and changes in his characteristic from a slacking playboy boss to a more determined and hard-working one. (Picture will come later).

Osen

A story of young Okami (a Japanese mistress) who is running a well-known traditional Japanese restaurant in the middle of globalism era where everyone prefers fast-cook and modern cooking to slow and traditional way of cooking.

C.H.A.N.G.E

Finally, Takuya Kimura’s dorama of the year YATTA!!! and guess what Abe Hiroshi is here as well. Takuya plays as Asakura Keita, the second son of Asakura Makoto, a famous politician who is running in the election to be the next prime minister of Japan (please correct me if I am wrong). Keita has to take over his father and onii-san’ place after the plane crash in Vietnam that costs the life of his father and his onii-san.

I just finished watching the first episode and looking forward to the next episode and where the story will flow.

Proposal Daisakusen Special

Instead of having a happily ever after ending, the dorama ended with two things
A left-behind runaway bride

AND

A hopeless groom wannabe pushing a run-out gasoline taxi

What is more dramatic than this kind of ending……? unless there is something to follow up the unclear ending.

Therefore I was so happy when I heard a rumor that a special sequel would be produced. It did come true…and even better it has been subbed YAY!! *big thanks to the subbers.*

Ken(zou) is still the male leading role but the center of the story is more about Tsuru and Eri who are about to get married. I won’t tell much about the story since it is quite interesting, romantic, and somewhat quite predictable. So I suggest you to watch and to enjoy it by yourself.

I can only tell there are so many lessons taught about life. Hereby some that I can outline:
First, never runaway from your problems. Runaway can never give a way out and only brings more endless uncomfortable feelings.

Rei left her wedding because of Kenzou. Fortunately this is not a Bollywood movie where the bride is running away with her secret lover and they live happily ever after in a place where no one knows. Kenzou is currently facing a dilemma because he dare not to meet Rei’s parents after indirectly ruining her wedding ceremony.

Secondly, run after the things that we are expecting to have in life as long as there is time. Even in the end, we don’t get what we want, at least we have tried. People say opportunity only comes once, there is hardly a second chance, don’t let it slip away without even trying to catch it.

third, do not jump too quickly into a conclusion. Sometimes we need to be more patient and to trust the person we love in order to know the truth behind.

I think I will stop here first before making myself looked too melancholic.

Please enjoy some of the scenes below :p

1 Pound no Fukuin

Lately, there have been bunch of doramas that took their stories from manga (Japanese comics). But it isn’t really a matter as long as the casts and the story are still enjoyable and adaptable to what I call “real life situation.” For example just like this dorama that talks about a boxer and a sister from monastery. The manga itself, from the graphic, I think it is quite an old-style manga (somewhere in year ’90s). The drawing does look like “Ranma 1/2” style.

I just finished watching this dorama, which has an English title One Pound of Gospel.
Kamenashi played so well here. I always thought that Kame can only play cool-style roles that like what he has portrayed in Nobuta and Tatta Hitotsu no Koi. In this series, Kame plays as a boxer named Hatanaka Kosaku who falls in love at the first sight with a sister from local convent. Hatanaka Kosaku is young talented light-class boxer who is very simple-minded person. He cannot control his appetite and truly believes that sister Angela (played by Kuroki Meisha) is his only true love. He never cares even Angela explains to him that she is a sister and cannot marry for the rest of her life.

In every episode you will see that Kosaku trains very very hard in order to loose his overweight.Everytime there is a competition coming, he always gives the manager and people around him a difficult time to keep him going on a strict diet and to keep him away from any food temptation.Apparently, most of the time, Kosaku falls more into the temptations than keeps his diet program going smoothly.
Until one day, he meet Sister Angela who seems very caring for him and always encouraging (perhaps due to her nature as a God servant) Since then, Kosaku has been highly motivated to be a Japan Champion for Angela’s sake including being discipline with his diet.

Such a simple story line but yet very entertaining. I can stop laughing while watching Kosaku chasing his dream as a champion and at the same time chasing Sister Angela to be his wife. Comparing to other doramas, this can be one of the shortest ones with only 9 episodes aired. Maybe if the story had more episodes, it would become boring and monotone. So 9 episodes are just sufficient to sum up all the conflicts.

I personally think Kamenashi has been a sportsman during the whole the dorama. You will see him working out a lot, many running scenes, exercising, doing lots of sit-up, hitting sand bag, and of course the boxing views in every episode. I don’t think those are things that cannot be faked even in the acting except the hitting scenes that end up with wounds all over Kame’s face.

Well worth to watch.. 🙂