Thursday, September 06, 2007

Jotei Ep 1-5


" If you want to be a first-class woman, sleep with a first class man!"


The above quote from the first episode of Jotei illustrates what midnight doramas are all about. Crudely written dialogue that's hilariously bad yet somehow amusing as prime time doramas can never get away with it. What I enjoy about midnight doramas besides the eye candy is that I can expect the worse and will always be pleasantly surprised when they do something well. As ho-hum as Liar Game's ending was, the series as a whole was so much better most of the jdoramas. 2nd House and Shimokita Glory Days were both enjoyable just for the ladies and jokes.

I can't believe the director/make up artist didn't realise that her forehead was too big. Unless there's a new forehead fetish going on in Japan? Someone cast her as Martian Manhunter in the JLA movie...

In Jotei, Kota Rosa plays Tachibana Ayaka, whose aim is to be the empress (Jotei) of hostesses and gain revenge on those who have caused her mother all the hardships. One thing I really hate in doramas/anime is main characters who are always telling everyone 'I want to be the strongest/Jotei/king of the world etc'. Its fine in the beginning to establish a character's motivation but to do it over the course of 3 or 4 episodes? The funny thing is those characters who help her just because she proclaimed that she wants to be Jotei. They should be telling her to learn how to crawl first before telling everyone she wants to fly.

I'm glad I'm free of that baka Kanzaki Nao. I like my women with more brains...

My 2nd big gripe with the show is Kota Rosa's forehead. All she has to do is not tie her hair up. From her other pictures I've seen, she's decent looking with her hair down but her huge just doesn't look pleasing to the eyes. Perhaps she uses her forehead to hypnotise people into helping her.

If only they've cast Maeda Ai as the main Ayaka....

Matsuda Shota looks like he's sleepwalking through his role as the Yakuza guy who for no reason at all decides to help Ayaka. Can't blame him, especially after he did the excellent Liar Game. He's not menacing enough to play a yakuza though. Still, its not as lame as Fujiwara Tatsuya's lame potrayal of a yakuza in Moonlight Jellyfish.

Need any other reason to watch this show?

When watching this show, just be prepared for the very worst. Beer helps a lot. Get ready to cringe/laugh at some of the worst lines ever written. The eye candy sucks in the first 3 episodes. Ozaya Maju who plays Ayaka's 1st rival is so ugly. If they'd cast a decent looking gravure idol without a huge forehead, this show would be so much bearable. Maybe I'm just a sucker for punishment and putting myself through this series will make me appreciate the average jdorama more. Only for dorama-addicts.

hhmmmm :)
EDIT: Ooops, didn't realise that this was not a midnight dorama. It even says on the first pic that its a 9pm show. I think the horrible acting/writing led to assume that it was. That would explain why Kota Rosa was wearing a shirt instead of a bra when Matsuda Shota ripped her dress at the beach. It would also explain why I have not seen any full frontal nudity in 5 episodes. Thanks to whoever pointed out my stupid mistake!

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Erm.. Jotei is not a midnight dorama. It airs on Friday 9pm.

Anonymous said...

I got creeped out after watching the gramp and the Rosa scene.. eeww... I pulled the plug after that. lol

when I saw her in another dorama, I thought she was pretty. But man, she just looks so weird in this drama... and now I know why. Her forhead is indeed big... I blame this on the director.

Haha speaking of low budget dorama, I'm kind of enjoying Boys Este. There's only one eye-candy. But oh man, what a sweet one it is!

Anonymous said...

Jotei isn't good, first kiss is full of cliche, bad acting and bad story in Yama Onna Kabe Onna, Papa to musume no nanokakan was dissapointing and you have to be a 17 year old girl to like Hanakimi... Is there a drama to save this season ?

Anonymous said...

Currently 'Juken no Kamisama' is the only drama I'm following deligently every week, so you may want to give it a try. 'Life' is also getting good rating and word of mouth despite being a late night drama (it out-rated 'First Kiss' last week), but it's too dark and depressing for my taste. Finally, even though the taiga drama 'Fuurin Kazan' is technically not this season's drama, it's one of the best taigas I've watched in years (some really fake battle scenes notwithstanding).

Akiramike said...

Thanks for the recommendations. Yeah, this season is pretty bad. I haven't watched Life or Juken no Kamisama yet though. Dark and depressing is right up my alley, except they always have crap endings.

Its kinda depressing that I ended up rewatching KDO on the weekend.

lzyData said...

I highly recommend Hotaru no Hikari :)

Anonymous said...

^die!

j/k

Yeah LIFE is not bad. It starts off strong, but I think they made the whole ijime stuff too extreme. I guess it's a late night series for a reason... school girl bondage, girl on girl physical abuse, etc. lol

I watched two eps of Juken no Kamisama... and it didn't have any bite. But maybe I'll have a second look since this season is just atrocious.

Anonymous said...

Regarding 'Life', I haven't watched the drama itself but had read a few volumes of the manga on which the drama is based. Based on other people's comment, the drama has toned things down a lot from the manga. Since the drama will end before the manga, it'll probably suffer from the same problem as 'Liar Game'; i.e. the writers will have the come up w/ an original ending.

Regarding 'Juken no Kamisama', I've a feeling it'll probably resonate more w/ people who had gone thru similar cut throat schooling systems in Japan (eg Hong Kong, may be Taiwan, etc.).

Anonymous said...

like one of the ppl said, jotei is NOT a midnight drama.... its primetime, when the kids are watching! its written on the picture u posted!!! on firday 9 pm!! i guessd u cant read japanese
but bfore u judge a show on how its a midnight or whatever check if it truly is one!!!