JDrama: The season wrap up (spring ‘09)

It felt as if during the past season there haven’t been as many good and interesting series as their used to be. But maybe that’s just my imagination. I might think so because the first three I started watching from the current summer season instantly got me hooked. But let’s take a look back first…

Read Full Post »

JDrama: The season wrap up (winter ‘09)

Arifureta Kiseki
Every time I see a dorama featuring Nakama Yukie I have the feeling that at some point she will either put on a red training suit or she will talk to the camera and say “fight-o!”, that’s how much I like the Gokusen series. This one is different though, a lot more serious that the silly stuff that goes on in Gokusen. Nakama plays a young women who works at a cooking school and finds herself at the train station one day observing a man (Jinnai Takanori) who is behaving strangely. As the train approaches the station the man moves forward to the edge of the platform and looks like he is trying to throw himself in front of the locomotive. Just as Nakama’s character tries to stop him a man (Kase Ryo) rushes past her and pushes back the suicide attempting man. That’s how their life’s cross and the story of the dorama is how they slowly start to cope with each other. A very slow moving story with great acting from great actors. (7,5/10)

Read Full Post »

JDrama: The season wrap up (fall ‘08)

Ryusei no Kizuna
Seems to be this season’s big shot with the likes of Ninomiya Kazunari, Nishikido Ryo and Toda Erika playing the lead roles of three syblings whose parents were murdered when the kids were out watching shooting stars one night. Soon after the incident the swear to kill the person who did this to them. For that purpose they hide from the police that they still meet today. The statue of limitations is running out and so they have little time to find the murderer.
This is a serious story with a very light way of telling it. A lot of comic relief, especially in the form of the character played by Nakashima Mika, who also sings the title song. The cast is wonderful with lots of familiar faces. And the in-series short movies about the swindling are a huge laugh. All in all highly enjoyable, although it’s nothing special. (7/10)

Read Full Post »

JDrama: The season wrap up (summer ‘08)

Monster Parent (モンスターペアレント)

This one is rather hard to understand and I think I haven’t been able to figure out what this will lead up to in the end yet. Yonekura Ryoko plays a successful lawyer who works with big shot clients at a huge law firm. She gets a notice from her boss that she is supposed to help out a friend who is working for the School Board. What she ends up doing is helping the School Board with cases of so called “Monster Parents”,

Read Full Post »

JDrama: The season wrap up (spring ’08)

CHANGE
Seems to be the big thing in this season as it is yet another Kimura Takuya drama. This time he plays the son a member of parliament whose father and brother die in an accident which leaves him as the natural successor. Problem is that he hates politics and wants to continue teaching at an elementary school. But he gets persuaded, wins the by-election and through some misfortunes and accidents becomes the new prime minister of Japan. This is rather unrealistic, of course, and the message the series is trying to bring across is rather blunt. But the way they portray the new prime minister as someone who listens to the people and cares for their sorrows and worries is done very nicely and not too obvious.

Read Full Post »

JDrama: The season wrap up (winter ’08)

Bara no nai Hanaya
A very heartwarming story about the owner of a flower shop who lost his wife when she gave birth to his daughter. The father of the mother seems to hold a grudge against the man and sets up two of his underlings to destroy the quiet but happy life of the florist.

Read Full Post »

Smalltown Canada with a little muslim twist

This …. is brilliant. Wonderful. Great. I was introduced to this series at a wedding of a friend of mine. Her husband is from Canada and so was half of the crowd there and one of those guys talked to me about this series. It’s set in the small (fictous) Canadian town of Mercy, Saskatchewan and the viewer is introduced to the problems and struggles a small muslim community is facing when it is trying to establish a mosque – in the parish hall of a church.

Read Full Post »

JDrama: The season wrap up (summer ’07)

Well, well, well, I don’t know what to make of this season. Sure, there were your usual top class series with lots of stars in the leading roles, but it seems that the big shot drama with a good story was missing this time. A bit too much humour, I think. Let’s wrap it up anyway…

First Kiss
This is your typical heart warming drama in which the little sister, who has a heart disease which causes her to have an operation at the end of the summer, goes back to Japan to visit her brother who sought out to become a photographer but ended up to be a lousy assistant. Inoue Mao, who was so good in both “Hana Yori Dango” seasons, plays the little sister and she does it with style.

Read Full Post »

JDrama: The season wrap up (spring ’07)

So the current season is coming to an end this week and it’s time to get in shape for the next one, the summer season.

I wasn’t really thrilled with what was shown in the past three months, maybe I am a bit spoiled by what was offered in the past seasons. There was so much quality that there had to be a letdown sooner or later. Let’s face it, you won’t get series like “Hana Yori Dango” or “Haikei, Chichiue-sama” in every season. So this is what I thought of the past one:

Read Full Post »