Wednesday, November 15, 2006

Kazoku: ~Tsuma no Fuzai, Oto no Sonzai~ ep 1-4


Not another family dorama. And I never thought Takenouchi Yutaka as a great actor. He's above average but his characters have never been compelling. Well its got Ishida Yuriko so I gave it a shot. And after 4 episodes, I must confess that I'm bloody enjoying this show.

Although I'm hating Ishida Yuriko's character(Satomi). Actually a woman who will not bleed her husband dry from spousal and child maintenance does not exist. Its kinda hard to symphatize with Satomi. She just comes off as too stubborn.

Portait of a happy kazoku, not.

To be fair to Satomi, this show is about Ryohei and Saeki's pseudo father son relationship so I guess you can't go showing everyone in a sensitive light. Kimura Tae plays the poorly written Shiori. She's Satomi confidant but somehow you get the feeling that she's a bit cold blooded and sometimes she's awkwardly sensitive. In order words, its hard to work out her agenda. One minute she's telling Satomi to bleed Ryohei dry and the next that Ryohei's not as bad as she sad. Or perhaps she's conflicted between acting as Satomi's friend and lawyer.

Yes, anyone would be so happy in the morning if they could bonk Ishida Yuriko every night.

The lack of time for Shiori is irritating, given that her story is interesting. The biggest mystery is why I enjoy this show. Its not different from other kazoku doramas yet I'm hooked. Maybe its the pacing. The show is about divorce and family life in general but so far every episode has tackled the issue from different angles.

Gotta get me one of those bengoshi pins........

The main problem is the ending. If this is one of those ones where in the end everyone says, 'I've gotten stronger, blah blah', and go their separate way aka the no-ending I'm going to feel so ripped off. And most likely that's the way its going to go with them not giving enough time to the kindergarden teacher, played by Eiji's kanojo from KDO.


I think ultimately the fun of the show is watching Ryohei cope with life. He is probably the most symphathetic father ever in jdoramas. Or maybe just the very low expectations I had with this show. But do give this a try. Sometimes, simple doramas are best.

6 comments:

  1. I've solved your mystery.

    You're enjoying this show because you cannot resist Takenouchi Yutaka's shaved face...

    Hrmm I'll give this one a shot. I didn't even know Takenouchi Yutaka was in it. Yum...

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  2. Sometimes, simple doramas are best.

    Heh, I agree - I too seem to have "accidentally" fallen in love with it, seeing how I look forward to every episode. "On paper" Kazoku seems to be a very ordinary family drama, but I still appreciate its nuances.

    For instance, in episode 4, see how Satomi briefly adjusts Ryohei's tie as he's going out. Then later see how she blows up in front of Shiori, demanding she speed up the divorce & custody proceedings. My theory is that when Satomi came back to the house and saw that her husband's now able to do pretty OK bento, how he relates to Yuuto, and how he supports her going out to work, she felt a pang of compassion for him and the family. When later she adjusts his tie, almost out of habit, it scared the hell out of her. "If I don't stick to my stand and see this through, I'll never be able to summon the courage again!" She's trying frantically to eliminate those second thoughts. I don't think she'll succeed because, as Shiori observes, Ryohei's not a bad person after all.

    Or I may just be overanalyzing it :)

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  3. Anonymous4:18 am

    Same here...totally love the show. Didn't expect anything from it and was good enough to continue. As I keep watching it, it just keeps getting better and now one of my favs this season. I deleted the first 2 episodes cuz I thought it was't worth keeping, but I redownload it.

    The drama does seem unfair to the wife, but she's just trying to make it on her own and the show generally only concentrate on the father and son. In reality, he would still be a guy who don't care.

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  4. Jung: I thought Rondo was crap.

    data: or like when Saeki san is talking about is deceased wife and what he said could be said about Ryohei's life.

    Its not like the series is different from any other family doramas. Can't wait for ep 5 though.

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  5. Anonymous6:27 pm

    I'm downloading the episodes but will refrain from viewing until someone verifies that the ending does not suck. I so want this thing to rock, but I've previously been burned so often by the genre that I'm not going to get my hopes up.

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  6. joeboygo: I'm expecting the ending to suck. A lot of signs point in that direction unfortunately.

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