ENGINE

Spring 2005

I'm hoping to finish one more drama before school starts. For me watching dramas comes in spurts; once you get hooked, it's hard to stop. I just watched four dramas in less than two weeks. I don't think I broke any records, but I did enjoy the experience!
The series that I just finished watching is called Engine starring Kimura Takuya who plays Kanzaki Jiro. He is a talented circuit racer who is a bit brash and immature. He gets fired from his racing team overseas and returns to Japan only to find a younger and faster racer that took his place on his old race team. He also returns to his home after being away for six years. His father runs a foster home with several kids of different ages who have various personal issues. Jiro never liked kids, but as he tries to get his job back, he inadvertently helps them deal with their own problems as well.

Recommendation: This was a pretty good drama, but I say this really only because Kimutaku is in it. Replace him with any other actor and I don't know if I would give this series a good rating. There are some good actors that I was surprised to see like Ueno Juri and Toda Erika, but they were still young and didn't have huge roles. Koyuki was good, but not great in my opinion. I watched Sakai Masato in a samurai movie called "When the Last Sword is Drawn" or "Mibugishiden" and I thought he was pretty descent in this series. Overall though I would watch this just because of Kimura Takuya. I enjoyed the story, but it was a bit predictable. After the first episode I knew that Jiro would be involved in solving a kid's problem every episode. Still it was worth it and I do recommend this series. By the way, my favorite kid was the fat one that gave Kimutaku the evil eye.

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

4.0 Out Of 5.0 Crowns