Saturday, February 11, 2012

Jdorama ramblings 11/2/12

SHIAWASE NO KIROII HANDKERCHIEF 


Watched it some time ago and wanted to write a long post on the dorama special vs the movie but I kept getting sidetracked by other doramas that I wanted to write about. Long story short, not as good as the movie. The writer obviously didn't want to do a direct remake and changed things for the worse. I don't think the movie is that great either but its very watchable. Of note in the original movie is Takakura Ken in Abe's role and Kinpachi sensei as the comedy relief.


Let's just say the first half of the dorama special sucks cause Abe was hardly in it and the writer changed the structure of the first half. As for the second half, anything with Abe and Natsukawa Yui is bound to be good.

TSUKAHARA BUDOKEN

The thing that got me watching was that I wanted to see the story of the guy Japanese think could have beaten Musashi. There's a reason why the story is not as famous and that's because its not a good story. Firstly, its a 'chosen one' story. The kami chose him when he was young and he was destined for greatness blah blah blah. Plus he is a goody two-shoes who fights for his deity and to spread the fame of his sword style and hometown.Secondly, he doesn't have a Kojiro. Musashi's story is nothing without Kojiro. I don't care about Musahi's story after he beats Kojiro.Batman is boring without Joker and there's no 'last boss' for Tsukahara Budoken to face.


The fight scenes are ok except that for some reason, when they do certain actions in slow motion, they literally do it in slow motion. So you have two actors slashing their swords at 5cm/s trying to make something look cool and all I could think of was why couldn't they just use a high speed camera and slow it down? I think even slowing down your usual 23 frames/s video would still look better than telling the actors to slash slowly. It could look choppy but at least it doesn't look funny. Come to think of it, only comedies use people actually moving in slow motion for a reason.

KARE, OTOKO, TOMODACHI


Ok watchable show but I just have to make one comment which is the acting during this scene above is atrocious. The father's anger and everything felt so fake. I would expect a lot more from two veteran actors. Its like they didn't have time and just wrapped after the first take. Watching the first episode of Shokuzai probably magnified it. Slightly better than average because of Maki Yoko and Kaho but ultimately doesn't go above watchable.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

i've heard of the shows you mentioned and they're actually in my hard drive. reading your ramblings, it looks like i have no desire to watch it anymore.

@ Jesus

Honjitsu is actually fun to watch.

Antspace said...

I've seen all three. That probably means I'm watching too many dorama's : )
I only liked Kare, Otto, Otoko Tomodachi. the other two we're not very good. Even Natsukawa and Abe couldn't save Shiawase no Kiiroi Hankachi. And Hamada Gaku was really, really annoying in it! Tsukahara Bokuden was a bit better, story wasn't too exiting and the direction was sloppy. Kare, Otto, Otoko Tomodachi had an interesting story and a great cast! Especially Yusuke Santamaria excells as the psycho husband of the oldest sister. I also liked Kaho very much in this. Never seen her before, but that will change. There were a few annoying plot holes, but I would still recommend it for it's feel of humanity and the good acting.

Anonymous said...

hey, thanks a lot for ur review..but i hope u can make a label for each drama because if just like this it's quite hard to find a complete review of the drama..

Sonna~ said...

Honjitsu is OK, but I'm in it mostly for Kurokawa Tomoka (my other crush).

Kare etc. is pretty good and I found the theme song addictive. I thought Yusuke's anger/fighting in it felt fake compared to Nishikido Ryo in Last Friends. He scared the fvck out of me in that, it was like you could see the anger and creepiness rolling off of him.

Akiramike said...

Q, you can always use the search box on the top left. I don't want to label each dorama cause there would be too many labels.