Friday, October 17, 2014

55-sai Kara no Hello Life


Thanks to Rootabega for reminding me about 55-sai Kara no Hello Life. Its not been uploaded to d-addicts but direct download links can easily be found through google. 55-sai is a collection of five short stories running at about 55 minutes each about 5 people who are 55 years old as they deal with retirement and their next stage in life. I'm guessing the title is also a play on Hello Work, the famous employment agency we see in jdoramas all the time.


The first story is about Lily Franky buying a camper van to travel around Japan, the second story is about a housewife and her dog and the third about a divorcee looking for her next marriage partners. I found the first two episodes not bad but nothing to shout about. The third one felt a bit long and wasn't as funny as it should have been.


Kobayashi Kaoru aka Namakemono from Woman aka Mr Shinya Shokudo steals the show in episode 4 as the lonely truck driver who buys 100 yen books. Its such a funny and moving story and Kobayashi Kaoru really shows his acting chops in this one. Let's just say I didn't even think he was serious when he gave the advice to the young dude.


The last one is about a guy with a bad back who runs into someone from his past. I really enjoyed this episode as well as its an uncompromising look at reality for older people who have to keep working and have been discarded by society. The other thing I liked is that each character makes a small cameo in the next story but Kobayashi Kaoru's is the best.


The Japanese is pretty straight forward and I'm going to upload the Japanese subs to d-addicts after this. While I consider the last two episodes as very good, I can't give it a must watch as a whole. Very watchable, especially the last two episodes.

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