Once upon a time, someone saw Nishijima Hidetoshi and Kagawa Teruyuki together in Double Face or Mozu and decided they would make a good father-son time travel duo. If I were to describe Ryuusei Wagon in one sentence, it would be an inferior version of Tonbi mashed with an weaker version of Suteki na Sen Taxi.
Hidetoshi's father is dying, he has been jobless for a year, his wife has left him for another man and he lets himself get beat up by his son. One day, another father son duo who passed away 5 years ago appear in a time travelling wagon appear and take Hidetoshi back in time to important stages of his life leading to his current predicament along with his dad from the past.
Ryuusei Wagon is not working for me. Hidetoshi's acting is just off, the script explains everything too much all the resentment that Hidetoshi feels for his dad turns out to be sappy misunderstand. Plus, the only person who's having fun with the time travel bits it the dad. I just don't have empathy for the Hidetoshi character.
The time travelling also has very limit effect, ie Hidestoshi's actions have very little effect so it looks like its more about Hidetoshi learning about his mistakes than seeing where different decisions in life leads Hidetoshi. The only fun thing for me is watching Teruyuki play the dad out of time who is the same age as his son. Besides that, I basically skimmed half the show. I find Ryuusei Wagon to be a meh show.
I was quite disappointed that this drama goes downhill Ep by Ep. It's so frustrating when we the ordinary audiences can see a clearer picture of Hidetoshi's family problem than the heroin himself, and the heroin keeps being stubborn and self-centered. I am fine with the excessive explanation of Hidetoshi's feelings since his facial expressions are so limited. But can the conspicuous placement advertising be stopped? How much money TBS had received from Seiko & Uniqlo? :(
ReplyDeleteUnless the character development has huge development in Ep05, otherwise I will give it a pass. Just can't tolerate the character of heroin, and his father as well.
I think Hidetoshi's got more expressions than some actors but Ryuusei Wagon clearly suffers from excessive explanation syndrome.
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