Sunday, October 25, 2009

Love Shuffleラブシャッフル – Release Jan 09

Kumo Japan Drama sneak!!

Japan Drama Story:
Four couples decided to get together and shuffle their partners to find out their true love. This is the game suggested by the psychiatrist name Kikuta Masato (Tanihara Shosuke) 谷原章介 when he and three other apartment neighbors stuck in the elevator during a power failure. The three other neighbors are Aizawa Airu (Karina) 香里奈, Usami Kei (Tamaki Hiroshi) 玉木宏 and Sera Ojiro (Matsuda Shota) 松田翔太. All of them have some trouble with their current relationship. They hope to find solution and answer to their problem by shuffle their partners with each other.

Feelings and comments:
This drama mainly focuses on the interaction of the 8 main casts. There are 4 men and 4 women. You can just feel the different chemistry when they are pair differently. The first thing that you’ll witness is their definition of love is totally different. This drama sure makes a good lesson in teaching what love is. There seems to have 3 different type of relationship. First is the lover type where romantic feeling comes in. Second is the husband type where security and kids come in. The third one is friendship type where you are able to open your heart and have conversation about anything. Perhaps there may be a lot more different ways to love a person. You just have to find the kind of love that suits you.
We don’t actually have to try this “Love shuffle” method of find true love. All we have to do is go out there and meet people. The effect is just the same. Part of the process to find true love is to find ourselves first. That means understand who we really are and what we actually need and hope for.

Things that caught my eyes:
The corridor right in front of the elevator seems to be a nice place to hang out. It looks more like a living room for having breakfast and supper. It’s one way to hang out with your neighbors without showing them your room. If you’re able to get friendly neighbors, perhaps you can hang out with them that way.

Japan Drama Rating:
Nice to watch. It just feels like taking a lesson about love. The game of love is always interesting because the results are unexpected and surprising.

Purchase:
Original Soundtrack, 2009 Japanese Drama : Love Shuffle w/Eng Sub

Drama Theme Song: Fantasy by Earth, Wind & Fire

Japan Drama Preview:

Japan Drama NG Scene:

Sunday, October 18, 2009

Atashinchi no Danshiアタシんちの男子 – Release April 09

Kumo Japan Drama sneak!!

Japan Drama Story:
Mineta Chisato (Horikita Maki) 堀北真希 is a “homeless” that lives in the park and takes her bath in net café. Her mother died when she was young and her father ran away leaving a huge debt. One day as Mineta Chisato (Horikita Maki) 堀北真希was chase by the debt collector, she was rescue by a rich man name Okura Shinzo (Kusakari Masao) 草刈正雄. Okura Shinzo (Kusakari Masao) 草刈正雄 offers to settle all her debt, in return she has to become his wife for one month. As soon as Mineta Chisato (Horikita Maki) 堀北真希 signs the agreement, she found herself stuck with an old man with only a month to live. Plus, the agreement that she signed includes other details that acquired her to become mother of Okura Shinzo (Kusakari Masao) 草刈正雄’s sons for three month. There are six of them and each of them has different personality which doesn’t get along well.

Feelings and comments:
This drama is all about homeless and family. It started out with Mineta Chisato (Horikita Maki) 堀北真希as a homeless girl with huge amount of debts and ended up with a big family of six members. There are a lot of crazy jokes and scenario but all stress on the important of family. There is couple of things that I think is well said and important. First of all blood line related is not necessary important in justifying as family. There are a lot of families with bloodline related but still act as strangers and killing each other because of money. Sometimes friends are closer compare to family members. I suppose we considered it family when group of people help each other and experience life, work, fun or worst time together. Another thing is the place call funfair. I use to think funfair is a place where the whole families can have fun. Turns out it’s a place for families to hang out and discover different faces or identities that mom and dad never expose within busy days. Perhaps that‘s the fun and treasure that kids are looking for when visiting funfair.

Things that caught my eyes:
The crazy invention and the mansion is the most interesting part in this drama. It must be fun to have those inventions around. The mansion might not be a good place to live but it sure is a fun place to hang out. By the way, the six guys always in sauna with just towels on.

Japan Drama Rating:
Fun to watch. There are a lot of crazy stuffs in the drama. It’s good for a laugh.

Purchase:
Original Soundtrack, 2009 Japanese Drama : - Atashinchi No Danshi - W/ English Subtitle

Drama Theme Song: Infinity by GIRL NEXT DOOR

Japan Drama Preview:

Sunday, October 11, 2009

Arifureta Kisekiありふれた奇跡 – Release Jan 09

Kumo Japan Drama sneak!!

Japan Drama Story:
Nakashiro Kana (Nakama Yukie) 仲間由紀恵 met Tasaki Shota (Kase Ryo) 加瀬亮 when both of them sense a middle age man - Fujimoto Makoto (Jinnai Takanori) 陣内孝則 trying to commit suicide. Both of them successfully prevent Fujimoto Makoto (Jinnai Takanori) 陣内孝則 from jumping over the running train. The fact that both of them are able to sense the suicidal intention is because they too used to think of suicide. It’s a strange way for both of them to meet and they instantly generate good feelings with each other. They started to email each other and sometimes dated. They were able to help each other on curing their deep wounded heart. When they started to see each other, their relationship began to trigger conflicts between both their families. That’s because both families wanted the best for them and hopes that they can be happy.

Feelings and comments:
I have to say this drama is a bit depressing at the beginning. Most of the time it’s just about the expression of dark depression feelings and that covers almost half of the drama. The drama only starts to show a bit of sun light when the couple started to make their relationship work out. It just feels that everybody in the drama is trouble by something and most of the time they are depress with it. Still they are able to find happiness within they busy ordinary life.
It doesn’t matter if you’re happy or not, life has to go on. Sometimes we just can’t hope too much. Learning to accept what is available for you and satisfied with it might just be the way towards happiness. We cannot have everything goes as what we plan, but the effort might just enough to have most of them done. We just have to cherish what we have.
Miracles exist within life because we do not know what lies in front of us. We might just meet the one that we love any place, any time or any situation. As long as we keep on living our life, there is still hope that we’ll find happiness.
The story of this drama is simple but the acting is a bit difficult. It’s not easy to bring out the depression and fear towards life on screen. I think both main casts Nakama Yukie (仲間由紀恵) and Kase Ryo (加瀬亮) did a very good job in bring out the feelings within. Perhaps their experience and long acting career helps present this ordinary drama a miracle one.

Things that caught my eyes:
The title of this story is ordinary miracles. Not a surprise that everything in this drama is ordinary, including their occupation, life style and the people around. Finding each other in this ordinary world might just be the miracle. Thus I caught nothing with my eyes but I do feel the miracle.

Japan Drama Rating:
Interesting to watch, but it’s a bit depressing. It’s about how people deal with life after their painful tragic. The best cure is love and meeting the right people. This drama is able to present it nicely. By the way it’s a happy ending.

Purchase:
Arifureta Kiseki - Original 6 DVDs - 11 Episodes Japanese Drama (Eng)Arifureta kiseki (Japanese Edition)

Drama Theme Song: Dreams Are More Precious by Enya

Japan Drama Preview:

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Godhand Teruゴッドハンド輝 – Release April 09

Kumo Japan Drama sneak!!

Japan Drama Story:
Mahigashi Teru (Hiraoka Yuta) 平岡祐太 is the son of a famous brilliant surgeon name Mahigashi Kosuke (Terawaki Yasufumi) 寺脇康文. Mahigashi Teru’s (Hiraoka Yuta) 平岡祐太chest has a large palm press mark due to Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performed by his father. This happened during a plane crash accident when Teru is young. Mahigashi Teru (Hiraoka Yuta) 平岡祐太 is the only survivor. His father died right after saving his life. Years later Mahigashi Teru (Hiraoka Yuta) 平岡祐太 becomes the surgeon just like his father. As a newbie surgeon, Teru has potential but clumsy. He has a strong will not to let his patients die easily. He also posses the ultimate healing ability “God Hands”, which seems like his father gives him a hand when he faces difficult surgery.

Feelings and comments:
Every part in this drama looks logic except when Teru transform himself into a surgeon expert. The first thing that comes to my mind when I saw the “God hand” mode is Power Rangers or Kamen Raiders. The ability to transform, perform difficult surgery and maintain zero death record under his surgical sounds just like an act of a super hero. If you’re able to ignore special ability part and watch the rest of the drama, it is still consider exciting and interesting to watch. There are only 6 episodes in this drama. Perhaps that makes the story interesting as the best part of the story is selected.
Faith is a powerful thing. When we believe, many things will turn out just right. When we don’t believe, many things will just fall apart. Sometimes it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. As long as people believe, it gives the strength to keep on going, working and living.
It is true that health care is expensive. There are private hospitals that earn lots of money and there are government hospitals that provide almost free medical care. Either way we still need lots of money to train doctors, better medicine and medical research. Many places in the world still lack of doctors and medicine. Thus it is still highly debatable on the issue circle around money and health care.

Things that caught my eyes:
No doubt the best part of this drama is when Teru goes into God mode. Glowing hand mark on his chest transforms him naked and placing him into the universe with the ability to see through patient’s organs.

Japan Drama Rating:
Nice to watch. Medical drama is always interesting to watch but this drama just looks too much like the Kamen Raider.

Purchase:
Original Soundtrack, 2009 Japanese Drama : - Godhand Teru - W/ English Subtitle

Drama Theme Song: -

Japan Drama Preview: