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feeling: ...
listening to: Road of Major - Shin'ai Naru Anata e...
I'm stuck. That about sums it up. So, here are three more drama reviews before I give up for the night.
Love Shuffle
Honestly, I only decided to watch this one because Daigo (a.k.a. Daigo Stardust, a.k.a. that guy who kissed Miyavi *cough*) plays a lead role, but I ended up liking it quite a bit. The premise is a bit confusing at first, or seems like it could lead to a lot of confusion: there are four romantically linked couples, totaling eight main characters. Each one is experiencing some kind of dissatisfaction in their respective relationship, so all eight of them agree to participate in a game they call Love Shuffle, in which they basically switch partners each week. In the end, they might finally see the charm in the person they were originally paired with, or they might find that they were fated to be with someone else.
Sound confusing yet? Four men and four women leads to several possible outcomes and several weeks of switching partners back and forth... all in the course of 10 episodes. But it's pulled off very well; it's got just enough of both realism and drama to make it intriguing, and the plot twists mold together slowly, gradually, rather than springing at you out of nowhere. It's a little more grown up than a lot of the popular dramas out there, with less intensity and more subtlety, but fun and engaging. The cast was amazing too; popular names like Tamaki Hiroshi, Matsuda Shota, and Daigo were probably its biggest draws, but all eight of the leads were very well-played. And on a random note, I was illogically giddy over this drama's idea of playing little blooper reels during the end credits of each episode. Ingenious and adorable.
Proposal Daisakusen
I put off watching this one for a long time, but when I kept seeing so many mixed reviews about it, some full of acclamation and others condemning it as one of the worst dramas in modern history, I couldn't resist anymore. >> And you know... I'm kinda torn. Technically speaking it wasn't that good. But it was cute. And fun. And addictive. Darn it.
The plot itself could be a turn-off for many: Iwase Ken and Yoshida Rei have been best friends since 3rd grade, and it didn't take long at all before Ken fell in love with Rei. But all through school and even college, he never told her, and so at the start of the drama he finds himself standing in the reception hall as a guest at Rei's wedding, kicking himself for letting her slip away. Then all of a sudden, a fairy (yes, a fairy) appears and sends him back in time to replay some of the key moments in Ken and Rei's past, giving him a chance to start over and win her heart.
Sounds silly, and it kind of is. It's also very predictable as each episode follows the exact same pattern: he starts at the wedding, watching a slideshow chronicling Rei's past, sees a picture that he's in with her but where she looks angry or sad, feels a pang of regret, goes back in time to that moment, fights to fix it, returns to the present to see whether the slideshow picture has changed, and then the next picture comes up and it starts all over. But at the same time, somehow, it's an interesting twist on the typical flashback method of storytelling... and yeah, for all the angst, it's still a cute story of love and friendship.
Technical details... good acting for the most part, except, ironically, for the main character. >> Iwase Ken is played by Yamashita Tomohisa, and yeah... I understand now why his "haters" have given him the nickname Dead Fish. He was good as Akira in Nobuta o Produce, but in ProDai... he's totally flat. Even when he's laughing his head off or crying his eyes out, it's like he has zero emotion. Kinda creepy. The other characters make up for it though, and there are some great side stories. Oh, and one thing this drama does have going for it is a brilliant soundtrack. The BGMs, the insert song by an Okinawan rock band, and oh, the main theme by the legendary Kuwata Keisuke... absolute love.
Nodame Cantabile
God, this drama was so massively hyped. All the rave reviews and fangirling and fanboying and geez. The synopses I saw never did much for me - serious classical music student Chiaki Shinichi crosses paths with the crazy-slob-but-piano-prodigy Noda Megumi (a.k.a. Nodame) and hijinks ensue - so I put it off for a long time. But after seeing dozens of reviews saying it was one of the best dramas ever and one of the funniest things ever made, I finally gave it a look. And uh... I ended up kinda torn.
Overall? It's fun, yes. And definitely original. Well, ok, the "odd couple" premise of two exact opposites who end up falling for each other isn't original at all, but the presentation was original, and the musical academy setting and common thread of classical music made it more interesting (if you can get into classical music). And I can see why it was acclaimed as a comedy, but yeah... the biggest elements in its comedic repertoire didn't really amuse me at all. The famous German(?) composer with the idiotic accent, Chiaki's habit of comically beating on Nodame, and the flaming gay timpanist with an afro the size of an Omni-kin ball just kind of rubbed me the wrong way, I guess. That kid who was obsessed with Nanba in Hama Kimi was a much better gay stalkery character. ¬.¬
Anyway... maybe it was just me, because apparently everyone else found all those things absolutely hilarious, but yeah. It wasn't a bad drama though, not by a long shot. The classical music theme was really unique, Nodame's almost-creepy goofiness was actually really cute, and Mine Ryutaro (played by Eita!) was just plain awesome. ♥ Oh, and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue has been stuck in my head ever since I started on the first episode a couple weeks ago. orz
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dragged from Becky's stream of consciousness at 5/26/2009 01:34:00 AM
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