Thursday, August 16, 2007

Wonderful Life ep 9


Whatever happened to feel-good Japanese shows like this? Cliched, yes but contains all the necessary elements to a good dorama and most importantly, fun to watch. I blame it on the influence of Korean dramas and their trademark of a crying scene every 15 minutes. Not to mention Johnny's getting lead roles without first paying their dues and getting the training from playing supporting roles.

Moe~~~~~

Moriguchi Yoko plays this teacher who comes in to cleanse the school of students with bad results, ie the Jaguars. Of course Kirishima is smitten with her and Mizuki is insanely jealous. You know what's gonna happen but the beauty of it is that its so fun to watch. Moriguchi Yoko is one of those actresses who I want to see in a juicy role. I loved her characters in Yamato Nadeshiko and Salaryman Kintaro and am intrigued to see how good she really is.

All they need now is two sailor fukus! :)

One of the requirements of a good dorama is giving the supporting characters the chance to shine. In this episode, its the principal. Show the audience that he is more than a comedy sidekick and irritant. It keeps the main characters fresh and prevents them from overexposure. His spiel in the end was simple and moving. No milking of the moment.

The 'guy oblivious to girl's feelings' comedy never gets old.

Next episode looks to be very exciting. We're finally getting to the Kirishima + Mizuki story. To me, this is more like an old school dorama. Have a concept but build up the characters to the payoff and keep the pacing with supporting characters and humour. Contrast this with a lot of recent shows which have good concepts but fizzle out because their just milking the concept/gimmick instead of developing the characters to tell the story.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

You are a kdrama hater! I hate you!

I don't know why, but I stopped watching this after 2 eps... even with Hasegawa. Oh I know why. I couldn't stand the disgruntled-japanese-kids-who-don't-trust-adults repertoire. Do these writers don't know how little kids really behave? Ugh. Seriously, I would've put up with Sorimachi doing another GTO role, but the kids were the deal breakers...

Haha what a useless comment I just wrote.

Akiramike said...

I can't stand the disgruntled-japanese-kids-who-don't-trust-adults thing either. Why can't they ever have a high school show without it. That said, the show didn't push the issue much and it was more of Sorimachi's story. The only role he does well is the GTO role and no one else can do it. Hotman is like a half baked, sanitised GTO. He really needs to get back to what he does best.

I basically dislike 99% of shows with crying from beginning to the end so that probably covers 99% of kdramas. :)

Anonymous said...

What is wrong with you hating Johnny's???? Everyone in Japan loves them.... ^^ (well, the girls, women and grandmas do) XD

I think most Johnny's can act...and they're extrememly popular..and they always save the show's ratings!! That is why they always get the lead roles in dramas.. Stop being a hater, yo!! and It's weird that all you talk about in your reviews are girls.. and you completely ignore the rest of the lead male characters... Try to be less bias...it'll make your reviews more enjoyable to read...