Yoshiwara Uradoushin is my favourite show this season along with Petro no Souretsu and surprisingly both remain unsubbed. Yoshiwara is the famous red light district from the Edo period that jdoramas fans would have seen in Jin and also in the movie Sakuran. Watching Yoshiwara Uradoshin makes me want to replay Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! but I've got to finish Ao no Kiseki before Sen no Kiseki II comes out end of September on top of watching all the interesting jdoramas this season.
Koide Keisuke and Kanjiya Shihori play childhood friends Kamimori and Teijo. Teijo's dad got into gambling debt and had to marry her off to an abusive husband. Shades of a Yamada Yoji movie, Kamimori runs off with Teijo and they end up going to Yoshiwara for Teijo's brother. I was getting a strong OMFG it feels like a Yamada Yoji dorama from episode 1! Something happens in Yoshiwara and Kamimori ends up working at there as a doushin or policeman.
Yoshiwara Uradoushin is just right up Ozaki Masaya's alley and plays to his writing strengths. Similar to his Tokumei Kakaricho Tadano Hitoshi and Tokumei Tantei series, its basically short stories about beautiful women living in a harsh world and a hero or in Uradoushin's case a couple who help these women.
Its a bleak world where girls are sold to brothels at a young age to pay their fathers' debts and must work of their contracts with most dying of disease. Its a world where women are used as property and are never to leave Yoshiwara until they pay off their debts or get bought by a rich dude. Uradoushin is not a gritty realistic show though it still portrays things from the Edo period like any suspect is bound to get tortured. Its a feel good show with equal parts comedy and drama that is set against a harsh backdrop and that makes for interesting stories.
I love the casting and how beautifully its shot. The only complaint I have is the fighting which can be pretty bad. We have stupid unnecessary wirework in the first episode and the group fight in episode 5 was poorly choreographed with boring camera angles and people waiting their turn to run at our hero with arms in the air. The swordplay can look very fake at times and I'm not talking about the lack of blood. If only the fighting were more consistent..
Ability to read simple kanji is a must for Uradoushin. Its all in old Japanese and they've got words that I could not even find in my Japanese to English dictionaries like 妻敵討ち (megatakyuchi) which doesn't sound like what the onyomi is suppose to but you can get the idea from the individual kanjis.
I really love watching Yoshiwara Uradoushin. The stories for 5 episodes have been great fun. You can't go wrong with a feel good show about a cop working in a prostitution zone and the various characters that live in it. I love this show more than I should but I'm usually partial to Ozaki Masaya's writing. Plus one cannot have enought Kanjiya Shihori. :)
Hopefully the 2nd half of the show is just as good and the fighting gets better.
Retimed Japanese subs are available here.
sorry to bother you mike, but whered you get the raws for this? the places i go to dont have this yet :(
ReplyDeleteEps 1-4 are available from d-addicts or you can google dramaoverloaded01.
ReplyDeleteAh I just realized what I did wrong. My searches didn't pop up anything since I just copy pasted your title post. There's a skip between ura and doushin
ReplyDeleteGlad that Kanjiya shiyori is getting more roles. She needs more lead roles. Hopefully someone subs this but I doubt it. :(
I know you don't like Kyoko Fukada, so I recommend Namonaki Doku from episode 6 onwards. Her story arc is finished and the second story arc has nothing to do with her.
ReplyDeleteI'm a big fan of Kotaro Koizumi but he's never had a role that I've remembered. I hope he gets to do more quality shows like Petero.
@dgundam: Somehow I still believe someone will subs this. I heard Earthcolors has just begun subbing Gin Nikan, which shared the same slot (and even seemed much more unlikely to be subbed than Uradoshin).
ReplyDelete@dgundam: Earthcolors has just begun subbing Gin Nikan, which shared the very same slot and was considered much more unlikely to be subbed due to obscure actors starred in and Kansai dialect, so chance of this show getting subbed is still there. I hope it'll be Earthcolors again.
ReplyDelete@kondthol thank goodbess for earthcolors. I love their subs and the shows they choose even the time they lut in making notes for shows like kodoku gurume and amachan and such.
ReplyDelete@JCS Ya I know of what what your saying. But hopefully she can do a shinohara ryoko route and become female lead material again in her 30s. I've been watching all the shows she's been In but a lot of the support shows she doesn't get to show her talent. She's probably also from a weak agency. I actually enjoyed her detective mystery show kimi hannin ja na yo ne with kaname jun (Kamen rider g3x)
@kondthol thank goodbess for earthcolors. I love their subs and the shows they choose even the time they lut in making notes for shows like kodoku gurume and amachan and such.
ReplyDelete@JCS Ya I know of what what your saying. But hopefully she can do a shinohara ryoko route and become female lead material again in her 30s. I've been watching all the shows she's been In but a lot of the support shows she doesn't get to show her talent. She's probably also from a weak agency. I actually enjoyed her detective mystery show kimi hannin ja na yo ne with kaname jun (Kamen rider g3x) plus even though she was just a supporting character in keibuho yabe kenzo she's the main lead in my mind since she's the one solving the crimes lol
@dgundam: You're right, Kanjiya represents a relatively unknown agency, she's up there just because her skills are cut-above. Anyway, is it only me who realize agency powers, especially involving major artistic and thespian movies, are becoming much too overpowering? It has become like what would happen if, every single year, a movie studio released precisely three films each starring Batman, Superman, Hannibal Lector, Spider-man, and Iron Man, with the same actor in the lead role of all of them. I'm sick of this monopolistic mentality.
ReplyDelete@kondthol oh I know. The jentertaiment industry is too screwed up with powerful agencies always getting their talentless stars lead roles. And some of these stars get to star in dramas yearly even with barely any talent. Like burning with emi takei and gouriki Ayame. Plus all those johnnies and akbs. It's only if you're really good at acting that you get to star in shows if you're in small agencies. Or your really cute and good looking. It's unfortunate and I don't see it changing anytime soon :(
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of Kansai dialect doramas, Meoto Zenzai is the no.1 show that needs to be subbed.
ReplyDeleteThe sad thing about the JEntertainment industry is not powerful agencies pushing talentless people but rather great Jdoramas not drawing ratings or attention.
t's an old but interesting discussion. why the agencies with their power. Why the real actors as secondary cast in series, supporting the idols. But then, when an interesting project comes along, the real actors appear. Like say, Soredemo. I'm the type of person who counts his blessings. I think when creative forces come together to pull off a masterpiece, they'll start looking for real actors. Luckily in Japan there are many examples of these projects finding producers and working out. In my country, The Netherlands that's hardly possible. Modern masterpieces like Villain, Like Father l, Like Son, Permanent Nobara, Ai no Mukidashi and some of the Kitano Takeshi movies have not been produced in Hollywood : ) Series like Soredemo, Moteki and Magerarenai Onna aren't either. I like these type of movies and series. That's why I'm a J-Dorama addict : )
ReplyDelete@akiramike the general japanese audience are to used to and like their detective and doctor dramas. they probably dont like watching something unique not part of their comfort zone
ReplyDelete@antspacec same. thats the reason why i dont watch western tv at all(except for elementary and game of thrones).
@JCS ya their in so many cms and shows i bet their overworked. i heard also the reason companies keep on hiring them is because their both cheap.
Yup it's no secret that pushing talentless "actors" is very calamitous and no way it is ethical. However, putting after reviewing a lot of those "masterpiece" and thespian shows, the monopolistic practice is still there, of course in this case it is also fellow talented actors who are the culprit. These shows are also putting the same set of cast, they just shuffle them in next shows. The producers, though talented, are just equally inept and even less likely to take risk. They know these actors are talented, though they know plethora of others who are just as good, they just extremely reluctant to get them into the projects.
ReplyDeleteNo wonder all we had is shrinking pool of not only talented but readily available thespian actors. You guys are (and I also was) just pampered by fact that they are good and they do make the show a must-watch, technically. But this very picky mentality has already kills heaps of talented actors, almost as just destructive as overpushing talentless gori-oshis.
The monopolistic nature of J-entertainment in this regard is even perilous when it comes to development of young talents. I've noticed the last 5 years is different since they manage to nurture ample number of talented young actors/esses. But hey look what they've done, it's only Ai Hashimoto and Nikaido who are trusted nowadays to pull any meaty young girl roles. Such an enormous waste since there are lots of those at the same caliber. I made a simple analysis and found that in that niche, fitting 6 different young actresses for all thespian young girl roles is an ideal condition. The same thing applies on other age niches.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete