パパとムスメの７日間 (Seven Days of Father and Daughter)

Image Copyright Tokyo Broadcasting System

Title: Papa to Musume no Nanokakan
Genre: Comedy
Episodes: 7
Broadcast network: TBS
Completed Airing?: Yes

Kawahara Kyoichiro (Tachi Hiroshi) is your average salaryman, going to work in a large company, coming home, going to work, coming home. The light of his life is his daughter, Koume (Aragaki Yui). Every evening he sits and watches videotapes of his adorable daughter playing on the beach and saying that she loves him. In reality, however, his teenage daughter no longer speaks to him beyond what is absolutely necessary, and Kyoichiro does not know how to approach her. He can only watch the tapes over and over and over. This changes suddenly one day, when, after a trip to visit Koume's grandmother, there is a terrible train accident and father and daughter cling together. They awaken in the hospital, very alive but also in the wrong bodies! Father has become daughter and daughter has become father. Keeping it from Mama is the least of their worries, not when Kyoichiro faces getting fired at work if his project fails and Koume has tests and love at school to worry about!

I will tell you right now that I'm slightly biased about this drama, as I am one of the people translating it. I originally started watching it thinking that it would be nothing more than amusing, but I found it quite charming, actually, and volunteered my translating services since I developed a soft spot for the drama.

If you hadn't guessed from the summary, this is indeed a Japanese drama version of Freaky Friday. The storyline is pretty predictable, and it's certainly not something that we've never seen before. However, I really liked that it was a father and daughter that made the switch, not the overdone mother and daughter. The main attraction of the drama was watching the two as the opposite sex. What is Koume to do when Mama wants some action and thinks she's curling up to her husband? What is Papa to do when Kenta-senpai ("senpai" is the term for "upperclassman") wants to go on a date with "Koume?"

Watching Aragaki Yui walk and talk like a middle-aged man is amusing enough, but it is Tachi Hiroshi who steals the show. There's something that will never fail to be amusing about an old man texting on a pink, blinged-out cell phone and bouncing around the room squealing like a thirteen year-old, only to have to pause in mid-bounce as Mama enters the room.

Admittedly, some parts of this get boring. There is the requisite Moral Lesson every so often, and the parts at Papa's company aren't the most interesting. The whole part about the affair is also pretty serious, and I would have liked to see a lot more comedy. The ratings for this show were average, nothing spectacular, and a lot of people said that they weren't going to bother watching it. But it's cute, it's short, and you could be watching a lot worse dramas.

Papa to Musume no Nanokakan Official Site

花ざかりの君たちへ (For You in Full Bloom)

Image copyright Fuji TV

Title: Hanazakari no Kimitachi e
Genre: School, Romance, Comedy
Episodes: 12
Broadcast network: Fuji TV
Completed Airing?: Yes

If there's one thing to be said about this drama, it's that it's strange in almost every way possible. If you want something serious and heart-wrenching, this is certainly not the drama for you. There are certainly serious moments where the drama goes a little bit overboard, but the main appeal of Hana Kimi is the comedy.

Ashiya Mizuki (played by Horikita Maki) is a Japanese girl growing up in the U.S. who idolizes a Japanese high school athlete named Sano Izumi (Oguri Shun). "Idolizes" might not be the correct word; stalks is probably more like it. So enthralled by the teenaged high jumper is she that Ashiya hops on a plane to Japan, cuts off all her hair, dons a male school uniform, and enrolls in the all-male Ohsaka Gakuen. She winds up in the same class as her idol, only to discover that he doesn't have the greatest personality. Basically, he's quit high jumping and become a ball of emo. Still, she doesn't let this deter her, determined to see him jump once more, even if she has to push him into it. Surprise surprise, the two of them are roommates, giving Ashiya more time to get closer to Sano. But how long can she keep the fact that she's a girl a secret, when she's surrounded by boys?

If you don't let the fact that Horikita Maki looks absolutely nothing like a boy deter you, this drama is one of the most amusing things I've ever seen. The characters overact, which can be annoying, but it's so ludicrous that it's hilarious. I spent a lot of the drama watching all the other, nameless students in the back of the shots making the strangest faces. Then again, the main characters provide plenty enough amusement on their own, especially Nakatsu Shuuichi (Ikuta Toma). Poor little Nakatsu finds the (supposedly) male Ashiya attractive, and he can't for the life of him figure out why. He spends most of the series having a serious mental crisis that includes a number of hilarious mental asides as he thinks things over and gestures to himself.

Of course, this is also a romance drama, though it never gets overly heavy-- could be due to the constant cross-dressing, lie detection machines, and strange school contests. This is one of those dramas that is so far-fetched that it's impossible to even imagine ever being real, and if you even try to take it seriously, you'll just get annoyed by the overacting and so-stupid-it's-funny jokes. Then again, you should know that any drama that begins with the disclaimer, "This drama is fictional, so please excuse us," is going to be silly. It's also not for the homophobic, as boys in dresses and gay jokes abound; two of the regular characters are obviously gay, more are highly suspect, one is worried that he is, and even the straight ones sometimes look better in a dress than I do.

The music for this drama was nothing overly special, and while I am partial to the opening song, the ending song drives me crazy and I can't stand listening to it, though that could just be me. Also, the last episode's ending was longer than the end of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, and that's saying something. It's a given that Ashiya would say her farewells to the main characters, but when she literally says goodbye to every single one, it gets annoying and I stopped caring after about five people. I think it was supposed to be emotional, but for myself and the person watching it with me, it had the opposite effect.

This is also not the first time the drama has been adapted from the manga. In 2006 it was aired in Taiwan and ran for 15 episodes, though I haven't seen that version so I can't vouch for it. But if you're a fan of the series, it might be worth looking into.

Hana Kimi Official Site

ライアーゲーム (Liar Game)

Image copyright Fuji TV

Title: Liar Game
Genre: Psychological thriller
Episodes: 11
Broadcast network: Fuji TV
Completed Airing?: Yes

Kanzaki Nao is one of those sweet, giving, and above all honest people—so honest, in fact, that people often describe her as “stupidly honest.” She wouldn’t know how to lie to save her life. Unfortunately, it looks like she is going to have to learn, and learn fast. One day she returns home to find a black box sitting outside her door and in it is one hundred million yen (about $870,000) and a video tape explaining to her that she has entered into the Liar Game Tournament. It is now her job to fool her opponent, her former teacher, and steal his money from him. If she wins, she can keep the money; if she loses and her money is stolen, she will be in debt—lots of debt. She goes to her teacher for help, and he easily tricks her out of her money. Nao suddenly finds herself in a very bad situation and the police won't help her at all. With nowhere else to turn, she hunts down the swindler Akiyama Kenichi on the day he is released from prison and begs him for help.

That is where the real game begins.

This drama is absolutely fascinating. It was ranked as the second most satisfactory drama according to a survey done by Oricon Style (a magazine similar to Billboard Magazine), and for good reason. There is something about this drama that hooks you and refuses to let you go right up until the end. A lot of the fun is wondering what you would do if you were in this situation; I almost felt like I was in the game myself while I was watching it. There were a lot of times that I could predict what was going to happen, or at least understand the reasoning behind things that the people in the game were doing--and more often than not, I figured this out, oh, about ten seconds before it was explained. Still, even if I could get a lot of the little pieces, I had no idea whatsoever what was going on overall, and it made the week-long wait until the next episode almost unbearable at times.

It does start to get a little repetitive, especially when they take a while to explain something you've already figured out, and some of the characters are downright annoying and they just won't go away. Still, the soundtrack is absolutely wonderful and you can easily distract yourself with the odd lighting effects and colors. The final episode was extended to three hours as opposed to the usual one, and I was rather annoyed with the fact that almost two hours of that was recap of what had happened in the rest of the series, with a little bit of new footage in between. Still, overall this series is completely worth the time it takes to watch it. Every week I would try to get my roommate to come watch it with me, and nothing from asking to begging to bribing would get her to. Lo and behold, a few weeks ago she randomly watched the first episode and immediately IMed me demanding to know why I hadn't made her watch it while we were in Japan. My reaction was three simple words: "TOLD YOU SO!"

This is a drama that will keep you guessing right up until the end, and I fully maintain that every single person I know should be forced to watch it. What would you do if you were in that situation? How would you cheat the others out of their money? How would you manipulate everyone so that you were able to win? Would you exit if you had the chance, or would you continue on in the tournament with the goal of getting even more money? And why does the man who explains all the rules to the players look like the dude from Saw?

Some things we'll never know.

Liar Game Official Site

Irasshaimase!

Irasshaimase and welcome to Dorama Suki! This blog is intended to offer information about and my opinions on various dramas. Since I am studying Japanese, most of the things reviewed here will be from Japan; however, I am also a fan of Koran dramas and occasionally watch Taiwanese dramas, so reviews of those may sneak in from time to time, and possibly movie reviews as well.

Japanese dramas in a nutshell:

Just as with American dramas, there are various genres of Japanese dramas, from the “soaps” to those targeted at a younger audience. This blog will deal with the latter, the trendy/post-trendy dramas. These are dramas different from their predecessors. They emerged starting around 1990, often dealing with love, home life, and social issues. They are named “trendy” dramas because they are about people living glamorous lifestyles and doing glamorous things—in other words, these are dramas that target a fairly young core demographic.

Other types of Japanese dramas:
Asadora- lit. “morning drama.” These dramas began on NHK broadcasting channel (similar to PBS, only on a much larger scale). Targeted toward the middle-aged housewives, these dramas run every morning for 15 minutes and can go on for years. A very famous one is called Osshin, which ended after 294 episodes.
Jidaigeki- lit. “period dramas.” These dramas generally take place in the Edo period, from around 1600 to 1868. Sort of like Westerns only with samurai.
Tokusatsu- lit. “special effects.” These are the dramas with superheroes, monsters, and giant robots. Think Power Rangers.

There are four three-month seasons in Japanese dramas: Spring (April-June), Summer (July- September), Autumn (October-December), and Winter (January-March). While Japanese trendy dramas tend to run 9-12 weeks, one episode per week, Korean dramas usually run between 16-24 episodes and air twice a week. Surprisingly, new episodes of Japanese dramas are filmed only two to three weeks before they are aired, which means that scripts for dramas are flexible and often change based on audience reception of the drama. Ratings are important to dramas, and some have argued that the golden age of dramas is over; rarely does a current drama get above 20% ratings. Still, the selection of actors for and the music in a drama play a large role in achieving good ratings. It is rare for a Japanese drama to have a sequel, though this happens more often with dramas from other East Asian countries.

Asian and Korean dramas especially are rapidly gaining popularity not just in Asia, but all around the world. The other year there was even an article in the CSU newspaper about Korean dramas and how more and more people are beginning to watch them. Overall, people find them less violent and racy than American dramas and the like, generally more about true love than having sex every two seconds. With many of these dramas available either on the internet or for sale and the large number of people who volunteer their time to translate these dramas for the rest of the world, it is no surprise that their popularity continues to spread.

If you have thoughts or comments on any of the dramas I review, or would like me to review a specific drama, just let me know! :)

In the meantime, I leave you with a Bobby Lee MadTV parody of Korean dramas: