Drama Review: Pride (Fuji TV, 2004)

The Iceman Cometh
(…and ohhhyes, is he smokin’ HOT!!!)

by Ender’s Girl

[Related Post: E.G.’s Top Halu-Aki Moments (in progress)]

The Cast:
Kimura Takuya, Takeuchi Yuko, Sakaguchi Kenji, Ichikawa Somegoro, Sato Ryuta, Sato Koichi, Nakagoshi Noriko, Megumi, Ishida Yuriko

In a Nutshell:
Pro hockey player Satonaka Halu meets Aki, an “office lady” from his company. The two fall in love amid the challenges of their personal and professional lives.

(SpoilLert: Extremely! I’m going for the whole schmear!)

[Recommended companion track: WHAT ELSE -- “I Was Born to Love You” by Queen]

For Love of the Game: The Nitty-Gritty of Sports Fiction

There’s something about SPORTS in general (and transitively, sports shows) that appeals to our primal nature. Nothing can unlock our raw, pent-up emotions or vicariously slake our bloodlust the way a live game, or match, or race can. Just picture this: hordes of screaming fans watch a handful of players battle it out in the arena using the most fundamental of human instruments: their bodies. (Plus a few other accoutrements, like say, a basketball, or a hockey stick.) Yes there are rules to follow, lest things degenerate into a complete free-for-all, but as each split-second ticks by on the shot clock, it is pure instinct that edges out rational thought, and a game’s final outcome —victory or defeat— is often decided in a single heartbreaking instant.

Regardless of country of origin or athletic category, sports movies and dramas almost always conform to a universal template, as is characteristic of any genre. The following clichés have become the hallmarks of the sports drama paradigm (I can think of only ten, but there may be more):

1) The gifted but emotionally conflicted HERO who, after a series of failures and much soul-searching, must DIG DEEP to unlock that SOMETHING inside of him — and only then can he go on to win that elusive CHAMPIONSHIP;

2) The seasoned COACH/MENTOR/SENSEI who pushes all the Hero’s buttons, but who understands his athlete like nobody else can, and is instrumental to the Hero’s eventual triumph — in his sport as well as in Life;

3) The loyal TEAMMATES who, together with the Hero, must overcome the odds stacked against them through sheer grit, determination, and even personal sacrifice;

4) The LEADING LADY who stands by our Hero through thick and thin, and who serves as his moral compass and emotional recharger throughout the story;

5) The arrogant hotshot STAR PLAYER of the RIVAL TEAM, who jealously defends his reigning championship title and who may (or may not) engage the Hero in a battle for the Leading Lady’s affections;

The Devolution of Yamashita Tomohisa – Parts Two and Three

The Devolution of Yamashita Tomohisa
(A Fairy Tale)

by Ender’s Girl

Part Two: A Happy Childhood

As Johnny’s new Heir Apparent, YamaPi was given everything his heart desired. (And since he did not desire much, it worked just as well for the Goblin King.) Safe inside the castle keep, YamaPi grew to be a fine young boy–fit as a fiddle, in the pink of health–while the lands across the Evil Empire continued to wither under the fulvous heat of the sun, while the drudges moiled in vain for gold in the near-empty strip mines on the far reaches of the desert, and while the grunt armies sweat blood and pus as they labored to complete the Goblin King’s latest monument to his greatness (a five-hundred-foot obelisk adorned with a statue of him carved from the finest imported mudstone). And like the other weanlings, YamaPi was strictly forbidden from venturing forth beyond the castle’s outer walls, so he had no inkling of the unimaginable horrors that lurked just outside the impregnable stronghold in which he had dwelt his whole life. Safe inside the castle keep, he lived, and he grew.

The gooey cocoon from YamaPi’s amniotic state had sloughed off a few days following his first public appearance as a weanling, and the wrinkly brown skin had eventually smoothened out to a nice, even complexion. His tiny appendages, which at the onset had been no more than rudimentary buds, germinated into small but sturdy arms. Only his legs remained rather spindly, but they did not seem to deter him from scampering up and down the mildewed stone stairs as he explored the endless warren of corridors and backrooms that gnawed deep into the keep, mindless of the retinue of silent, gray-garbed minions who followed the princeling’s every move and made sure the child did not slip into some dark hole from which there was no returning. YamaPi’s eyes were strangely vacuous as ever, which somehow offset the open sweetness of his smile, or the sheer delight ringing in his laughter. For YamaPi loved to smile–at everyone and everything. Even the most inconsequential things amused him–a mealy bug crawling lugubriously across a moss-covered windowsill, or the droppings of the spiky-plumed vultures wheeling high above the outer courtyard, or even the congealed grease-slop that was served at dinnertime. While the other neotenic weanlings his age would have squashed the mealy bug or run screaming for cover from the vultures or flicked the greasy gunk at each other’s faces with even greasier spoons, YamaPi continued to smile, and everyone around him wondered why.

The Devolution of Yamashita Tomohisa – Part One

The Devolution of Yamashita Tomohisa
(A Fairy Tale)

by Ender’s Girl

Part One: An Augury in Pink

Deep in the heart of Johnny’s Evil Empire, the Goblin King’s fortress loomed over the blighted land, a hulking obscenity built from rough-hewn volcanic rock and twisted metal. It threatened to blot out the dull red sun while casting its grotesque shadow on the desolation below, over the fetid marshlands dotted with charred tree stumps and peat bogs, over the gasping dust bowls that encroached insidiously on the swamps. A dozen or so crooked spires jutted upwards from the blackened walls of the stronghold, stabbing at the sky like inverted fangs. A heavy pall hung about the place, one that mirrored the barrenness of the terrain around it. Its deathly stillness was marred only by the flurry of vultures that circled the tallest of the towers and watched the land with a greedy eye, ready to swoop down on the occasional traveler who had managed to survive the fens and the desert, ready to harass the weary straggler until he stumbled, fell, and rose no more.

And so the castle was silent, as it had been for many years. But today, however, was different.

Drama Review: Orthros no Inu / Dog of Orthros (TBS, 2009)

Bad Doggie!

by Ender’s Girl

The Cast:
Takizawa Hideaki, Nishikido Ryo, Mizukawa Asami, Sasaki Kuranosuke, Takahata Atsuko, Yaotome Hikaru

In a Nutshell:
One death row convict with a healing touch! + One good-hearted teacher man with killah instincts (literally)! + One hawt lady detective! + An assortment of drug-dealing kids, corrupt cops, ruthless politicos, and other stock baddies! + One too many lame-ass allusions to Greek mythology! = A drama whose bark is (sadly) a lot worse than its bite.

(SpoilLert: Very. Lots of… dying and healing and stabbing and more healing and dying, ad infinitum.)

Gather ’round, children. Once upon a time there was a dog whelped by the monster Echidna of the Greek myths. Now this creature was something of a genetic freak (two heads, tsk), though arguably less so than his more celebrated littermate, the three-headed Cerberus, Hound of Hell. But this two-headed pooch faithfully guarded the famed red-skinned cattle of his master Geryon, before getting himself iced in epic Greek-hero fashion by Heracles himself. And Bingo was his name-o.

No, not really.

It was Scooby-Dooooo! *roll eyes*

Fine, enough chaffing. Of course the feared hound in question was Orthros, though for the life of me I cannot see any strong thematic connection to its eponymous 2009 TBS dorama. Oh–oh– *gasp of realization* …So the bicephalous nature of said mythical canine is supposed to represent the duality of powers over human life shared by the two brothers in the drama, Ryuzaki Shinji and Aoi Ryosuke, who, when combined, make up The Two Hands of God?!?!?! Oh wow wow wow!!!

Drama & Film Review: Densha Otoko / Train Man (Fuji TV, 2005)

Beauty and the Geek

by Ender’s Girl

The Cast (drama):
Ito Misaki, Ito Atsushi, Shiraishi Miho, Toyohara Kosuke, Horikita Maki, Oguri Shun (hehe)

The Cast (film):
Yamada Takayuki, Nakatani Miki, Kuninaka Ryoko, Eita (hehe)

Directed by Murakami Shosuke; Adapted screenplay by Kaneko Arisa / Toho Company, 2005

In a Nutshell:
Guy meets Girl on a train. (Except that our Guy is your Ultimate Akiba Geek–a bespectacled, backpack-lugging, action figure-collecting, Tokyo Anime Center habitué who lives in his tiny cubicle of a room and has never scored a date in his life, while our Girl is a 6-foot-tall, Benoist tea-drinking, angel-faced goddess who was raised in luxury and is more or less genetically predisposed to being, oh, PERFECT. DOES OUR HERO HAVE A SHOT IN HELL????)

(SpoilLert: Very! But it doesn’t matter because anyone who’s ever been online knows this fairy tale by heart–and how it ends.)

[Recommended companion track: What else? “Twilight” by the Electric Light Orchestra]

“I Choo-Choo-Choose You!”
- Valentine’s Day card given by Lisa Simpson to Ralph Wiggum, The Simpsons Season 4

Otaku Rising

Otaku of the world, unite! You have nothing to lose but your Evangelion action figures, Nintendo joysticks, and Pokemon hand puppets! Hahahahaha

But seriously, never before has the geek counterculture enjoyed so much social acceptability as it does now. The Information/Technology Age IS the Age of the SuperGeek: Geek chic is the new cool, nerdishness is practically mainstream. Oh, the old stereotypes are still there–the gadgetry and gizmos and the gawkiness and the geekspeak esoterica and a hundred-and-one other oddities, and they aren’t really expected to go away anytime soon in media and pop culture. But with society’s growing dependence on technology and all its fringe benefits, and with a thriving film and TV drama niche dedicated to advancing the Cause of the Nerd (and the Revenge of the Otaku!), comes this one inescapable truth: “Blessed are the geeks, for they shall inherit the earth.”

But first, to disambiguate: The term “otaku” is probably closer in meaning to “geek” than to “nerd.” Although both terms connote a conspicuous lack of social skills, geeks are distinguished by their “eccentric devotion to a particular interest,” while nerds are usually perceived to be “intelligent, single-minded experts in a particular technical discipline” (Oxford Dictionary of English). But the otaku spectrum is an eclectic one, and anywhere within its ambit you will find the audio/videophiles, gamers and techies, manga/anime junkies, cosplay enthusiasts, “technosexuals” and “infornographers,” seiyuu groupies, mecha collectors, maid café regulars… and maybe an actual Trekkie or two. But for the most part, geekhood is mostly a harmless, if rather arcane calling. Geek extremism, however, is never pretty: on the fringe of the fringe you have the otaku as sociopathic killer (take the 1989 Miyazaki Tsutomu kidnap/murder case for instance, or even the more recent Akihabara Massacre), as well as the crazies who actually marry video game characters in webcast ceremonies officiated by actual freakin’ priests, ugh.

Film Review: Departures / Okuribito (2008)

Life in a Pine Box

by Ender’s Girl

The Cast:
Motoki Masahiro, Yamazaki Tsutomu, Hirosue Ryoko, Yoshiyuki Kazuko, Yo Kimiko, Sasano Takahashi

Directed by Takita Yojiro / Shochiku and Regent Releasing, 2008

In a Nutshell:
A newly unemployed cellist moves back to his hometown with his young wife in tow, following the sudden disbandment of his city orchestra. While scouting for a temporary job, he mistakenly answers a classified ad for what turns out to be… a funeral service agency.

(SpoilLert: Lots of dead people!)

Running through the fabric of our lives are these little seams that go unnoticed–or, if ever seen, receive no more than a passing glance. Our days whiz by in a fevered blur of faces and deadlines, and it is only when we have actually lost someone precious–perhaps a family member, a lover, or a dear friend–that this mad hustle of life comes screeching to a halt. The death of a loved one is perhaps the single biggest disruption in a person’s life, an event one can never prepare for enough. And when this happens to you, society now expects you to play the part of “the bereaved,” and your dead loved one, “the deceased”–as if an entire life could be folded and tucked away into these neat little labels. You find yourself floundering in the deep end, for the first time trying to figure out what to do, who to call, which arrangements to make–even as you sort through your own jumbled emotions of grief and loss, even as you grapple with the inner turmoil and unanswered questions still weighing on your mind like an oil slick. And you are only too relieved to have Them–the undertaker, the embalmer, the funeral director–take over for you, these grave-faced professionals in somber dark suits who have made death their business. As they politely but firmly usher you through this whole ordeal, you comply without hesitation–and even draw unexpected strength and comfort from their presence. Only then do you finally notice the little seams in the tapestry and realize how indispensable they are, how these overlooked seams are actually what hold the entire fabric of life together.

Departures is about one of these seams, these little obsequies we pay the dead that help bring meaning in the midst of tragedy, and validation to our lives. Traditional funeral rites in Japan carry an elegant simplicity that is hard to find elsewhere, and perhaps it is the formality of Japanese culture that helps underscore the solemnity of death and bring dignity to the mourning process. There is deep reverence accorded the departed, which ironically seems commensurate to the stigma still attached to those working in the Japanese funeral industry. But Departures delves into these social mores with utmost sensitivity, these points of overlap between the broader, more universal aspects of death and bereavement, as well as the special rites of passage that are uniquely Japanese.

Drama Review: Hong Gil Dong (KBS, 2008)

Jazzing Up Ye Olde Sageuk

by Ender’s Girl

The Cast:
Kang Ji-hwan, Sung Yu-ri, Jang Geun-seuk, Choi Ran, Jo Hee-bong, Kim Ri-na

In a Nutshell:
This is a re-imagining of the life of Hong Gil Dong, Korean folk hero: a man who rises from obscurity to liberate his homeland from an evil monarch and help restore the rightful king to the throne–and in so doing, becomes the very stuff of legend.

(SpoilLert: Shockingly benign!!! No spoilers AT ALL!!! Because I am wise and compassionate!!! But mainly because I do not wish to deal with the PAIN by revisiting *certain* parts of the drama! In fact, I’d much rather pretend they never happened at all!!! Yes, yes, that’s it! That must be it! There are NO spoilers, because the “events” in question never happened at all!!!! *maniacal laughter*)

At first glance, the bare bones of the story are elements of a more traditional period drama: a low-born Hero with a Hidden Destiny! an Evil King! corruption and treachery at the highest echelons of power! secret cabals and shady netherworld dealings! high adventure and derring-do!… But don’t be fooled!!! You realize early on that this ain’t your garden-variety sageuk… How in the world can it be–with the pop-tart dance routines! the snazzy camera shots! the trendy tinted glasses! the blaring house music and heavy metal riffs! the anime-like sound effects and MTV-inspired editing! the hip (???) costumes! and let’s not forget… the FOG MACHINES!!! The opening sequence alone is straight out of some noontime variety show, replete with break-dancing extras, pounding club beats, and, well… uninspired shimmying from Sung Yu-ri, if I may say so (wow, hard to tell she used to be part of a girl band, with her stiff, Vogue-strike-a-pose “dance” moves).

The first act of Hong Gil Dong feels like a light and breezy romp in the park. I immediately took to the rollicking, madcap humor, the witty dialogue, the outrageous, tongue-in-cheek situations, and the assortment of truly nutty characters. In short, I was enjoying myself TREMENDOUSLY. Act One lays the groundwork for the whole story, and primes the viewer for the character-molding domino sequence of events to come in later episodes–by starting out with the kind of man Hong Gil Dong was before his journey from, er, Zero to Hero.

Drama Review: Buzzer Beat: Gakeppuchi no Hero (Fuji TV, 2009)

Attack of the Killer Cheese Floss! The Giant Pecs of Doom! (And Other Hardcourt Horrors)

by Ender’s Girl

The Cast:
Yamashita Tomohisa, Kitagawa Keiko, Aibu Saki, Ito Hideaki, Kaneko Nobuaki, Kanjiya Shihori, Maya Miki, Mizobata Junpei, and Yamashita Tomohisa’s various muscle groups

In a Nutshell:
Hotshot hoopster Kamiya Naoki crosses paths with Shirakawa Riko, an aspiring violinist who has just moved into his neighborhood. Though they have little in common, the two become good friends and cheer each other on through their respective setbacks and victories. But love pulls a fast break–despite Naoki’s serious relationship with his cheerleader girlfriend, and Riko’s budding romance with Naoki’s head coach. Will Naoki and Riko ever make that slam dunk into love? Or will they only foul out at the buzzer? (And will I ever lay off the lame basketball puns? Not a chance! Hahahaha)

(SpoilLert: Major-league spoilers up ahead! I left all the good stuff in, sorry.)

The apartment complex. The neighborhood basketball court. The strains of classical music wafting from an open window. The friendship growing into love. The bouncing rubber ball… Now, where have we seen these before? Heh. But before all you Long Vacation fans wheel out your beat-up old pianos while warbling the “La La La Love Song” chorus and Cagnet medleys, before you start sobbing “Sena… Sena…” into your tattered Live Aid T-shirts… <oh, so was it just me doing that? lol> Chotto matte! This ain’t about Long Vacation. (Well, duh.)

Of course this is all about the drama Buzzer Beat starring “Mr. Getsu 9” himself, Yamashita Tomohisa–lest we forget that this whole production is really his vehicle. Interestingly enough, Buzzer Beat was co-directed by Nagayama Kozo, the same dude who shared credits for the two hottest Kimura Takuya dramas of the ‘90s, Long Vacation (1996) and Love Generation (1997). Same director, eh? That would explain Buzzer Beat’s obvious similarities to Long Vacation in setting, story, and atmosphere, as well as the few references to Love Generation (like the ubiquitous billboard emblazoned with <insert love proverb of choice>). I felt I had to address the LV and LG allusions right off the bat, these proverbial elephants in the room. (There are also the unavoidable comparisons to Kimura’s iconic 2004 sports ren’ai Pride, but more on that later.) I don’t know if the homage to LV was intentional, but given the same director, this “tribute” really did seem self-referential more than anything (i.e. “Let’s do LV all over again, but with sports+YamaPi thrown in to jazz things up for the Heisei generation!”) So yeah, I believe it was done on purpose.

But here’s where it gets sticky: Yes, there’s nothing wrong with Buzzer Beat riffing off familiar motifs from well-loved dramas. BUT when you’re watching Buzzer Beat and ALL you can think of is how it’s SO NOT Long Vacation, and how inferior the drama is to LV in terms of writing, direction and acting, when the drama’s flaws become even more glaring because the 1996 dorama was just so bloody wonderful, then Buzzer Beat no longer becomes an homage, but just this second-rate imitation, a fuzzy and forgettable throwback to the Golden Age of KimuTaku renzoku ren’ai. Just because it feels like Long Vacation doesn’t mean it’s as good as Long Vacation, or ever will be. To pay tribute to such an ICONIC and universally loved drama (even by non-Kimura fans) is a humongous gamble, one you should only be willing to take if you’ve got all bases covered, if you’ve dotted your i’s and crossed you t’s. And if you don’t merely rely on fan nostalgia, but have something new to bring to the drama, a fresh take on the old staples that will really make a dent on the viewers.

Drama Review: Byakuyakou / Journey Under a Midnight Sun (TBS, 2006)

Road to Perdition

by Ender’s Girl

The Cast:
Yamada Takayuki, Ayase Haruka, Takeda Tetsuya, Watabe Atsuro, Yo Kimiko, Yachigusa Kaoru, Kashiwabara Takashi, Izumisawa Yuki, Fukuda Mayuko

In a Nutshell:
Two children commit the unthinkable but manage to deceive the police–except for one homicide detective who stays doggedly on their trail. But old sins cast long shadows, and their original crime inevitably leads to the next, and to the next, and to the next…

(SpoilLert: Spoilers right off the bat! Tread carefully.)

[Recommended companion tracks: “Black Hole Sun” by Soundgarden; “Eclipse” by Pink Floyd]

“Long is the way
And hard, that out of Hell leads up to light;”

- John Milton, “Paradise Lost”

These two kids, how they break my heart.

What makes a murderer? Does it really boil down to personal choice? Or is it when circumstances beyond one’s control present both the means and the opportunity to make that choice in the first place? And when a person takes the life of another, what does it do to them? What if this person were just a child?

When a grownup commits murder, it seems almost ordinary by society’s standards, and perhaps the more sensational ones (like crimes of passion) will merit a passing mention in the local news. But when a child commits murder, why do we feel so shaken right down to our very core? We often overlook the fact that children are capable of doing a lot more than we give them credit for. They can fight, they can hurt each other, they can defend themselves or those whom they love, they can think and feel and react, they can lie and steal–they can make moral choices. It is modern society that blithely looks away from this reality, choosing instead to view children with rosy-tinted innocence while denying them any smidgen of personal accountability.

When an eleven-year-old boy sticks a knife in his own father’s chest, when a girl of the same age plots to gas her own mother to death–what does this do to them? And what does this do to us, as viewers? How do these young killers live with the implications of their crimes? What do they do to survive, and how do they deal with potential obstacles to their freedom?

Byakuyakou is the journey that these two children, Kirihara Ryouji and Nishimoto Yukiho, undertake together as they carry their burden of guilt and fear and shame through uncharted territory, hacking out their own road in this wilderness while leaving a trail of blood and lies and tears. For the story of Byakuyakou is also a journey deep into the human heart, this no man’s land of hidden valleys and dark, endless tunnels. There are more secrets to bury, more crimes to cover up before the statute of limitations expires–and beyond this, freedom.

Film Review: Rough Cut / Yeonghwaneun Yeonghwada (2008)

Rough Cut: One Smooth Ride, Coming Up

by Ender’s Girl

The Cast:
So Ji-sub, Kang Ji-hwan, Hong Soo-hyeon, Ko Chang-seok

Directed by Jang Hoon; Screenplay by Kim Ki-duk and Ok Jin-gon / Kim Ki-duk Film, 2008

In a Nutshell:
A chance encounter between a gangster and a movie star blurs the boundaries between their very different worlds–with somewhat disturbing consequences.

(SpoilLert: No whoppers, yay.)

I watched Rough Cut with my best friend, and it was totally worth the hypothetical dinero we would’ve shelled out had we gone and seen the film in theaters (which we obviously didn’t, because (1) we live in a different climate zone for Pete’s sake; and (2) downloading rawwwks, baybeh). But I can see why Rough Cut attracted Korean moviegoers and made a killing at the box office: it’s fast-paced and entertaining, with badass fight choreography and strong, solid (and not to mention award!!!-winning!!!) performances from Messrs. So Ji-sub (as the gangster, Gang Pae) and Kang Ji-hwan (as the movie star, Soo Ta).

The premise is a funny little switcheroo of sorts: think “The Prince and the Pauper” meets Wife Swap meets Trading Places. You have a gangster who secretly longs to be an actor, and an actor who behaves like a gangster–fanciful, yes, but interesting. And there’s a certain droll symmetry to the characters of Gang Pae and Soo Ta: on one hand you have this moody, dispassionate gangster with a strange code of honor, and then you have this reckless, licentious movie star whose gets embroiled in the consequences of his own actions. The movie is rife with point/counterpoint metaphors and visual imagery–black outfits vs. white, underworld vs. celluloid, real vs. reel, gangsta vs. film star–to an almost exaggerated degree (but then, with characters literally named “Gangster” and “Star,” I doubt the writers were aiming for any kind of subtlety here). Obviously this style was meant to underscore the contrast between their stations in life, as well as their respective ways of dealing with the repercussions of their choices, which inevitably spiral out of control as the story progresses. And by the time the movie’s climax comes to a head, you’re left breathless and transfixed.