Sunday, July 11, 2010

TSUKI NO KOIBITO



Spring 2010

I had strong mixed emotions about this drama. For one, I thought it was really hyped up because of the all star cast. I do believe that Kimura Takuya is probably the best in the business and Shinohara Ryoko is a favorite of mine as well. Lin Chi Ling, Kitagawa Keiko and Matsuda Shota were all good. I don't know how well Matsuda and Abe Tsuyoshi spoke Chinese, but I thought Lin Chi Ling did a good job with her Japanese.

Anyway, from the first few episodes I got this feeling that the plot was getting really messy. I didn't feel anything for Rensuke or any of the other characters, although I did appreciate the romantic buildup between Rensuke and Xiu Mei. I guess if the theme was romance, I wanted to see more development with all three women with Rensuke but it didn't really happen for me. It was a bit sudden and I felt it would have been nice to add one or two more episodes even though the last episode was quite long.

Recommendation: The last two episodes were enough to keep me satisfied with this drama. Kimutaku and Shinohara are polarizing. Because of these two actors, it is enough for me to recommend watching this series. It was too short and drastic for me to say it was a classic though.

STORY: 0.5
ACTING: 1.0
DIRECTING: 0.5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 0.5
EMOTIONAL FACTOR: 1.0

3.5 Out Of 5.0 Crowns

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

SUNAO NI NARENAKUTE




Spring 2010

Sunao Ni Narenakute stars one of my favorite (and in my opinion) versatile actresses Ueno Juri. I think that it is rare to find a drama that is great from the first episode all the way to the end. Unfortunately this drama was not that type of drama, but nonetheless it was good overall. It felt awkward when all the main characters met together in person for the first time after being friends on Twitter. I guess that was the intention, but as their friendships gradually grew stronger, I realized that I was also getting more interested in the story as well. This drama was sure enough filled with complicated human dilemmas but in some ways I felt empty handed partially because some issues were abruptly resolved and some subplots never reached closure. There were some heart stopping moments that I didn't expect which made this drama a pretty exciting one though.

Recommendation: Although I didn't think the acting or the story was particularly great, it wasn't bad. I felt like the series was building up to a climactic ending that never really emerged, but strangely I wasn't disappointed in watching this drama. In other words, it was like buying a nice puzzle, that never came with all the pieces.

STORY: 0.5
ACTING: 0.5
DIRECTING: 0.5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 0.5
EMOTIONAL FACTOR: 1.0

3.0 OUT OF 5 CROWNS