In all my years of watching jdoramas, I never thought one day I would type the words: Kamenashi Kazuya did a decent acting job in Shoutai! Every since Kame came on the jdorama scene long time ago, his bad acting and being in bad jdoramas had me avoid everything that he was in. I think the last thing I saw him in was the horrible One Pound Gospel.
Good news is Shoutai is a WOWOW production so automatically the acting and story is better than the rest. I would say Shoutai is the best fugitive type jdorama I have seen in a long time. The last one I saw was Toboui F which was so bad it defies belief.
So Kame has been sentenced to hang for killing a husband and wife but manages to escape. Luckily he is not a surgeon so he doesn't have to do an operation every episode. Shoutai is about Kame escaping from the law and trying to find the truth and in true fugitive fashion also help some people.
I really like the first episode about him doing hard labour with Ichihara Hayato and helping the labourers with some worker rights issues against their bad employers. There are not enough people about Japanese people on struggle street. If they exist, they are mostly horrible written shows like Fukakyon's Silent Poor. I really like how Shoutai showed how day labourers had no protection when injured and contractors mistreat them because they have no other jobs. Wage theft is a horrible thing and the average Japanese cop with service zangyou.
The second episode has the marvelous Kanjiya Shihori and Mr Iryu Sousa. Episode 3 has Hotta Mayu and all the characters come together for a great episode 4. Have to point out that Kuroki Hitomi has reached the age where they can cast her as an old lady with alzheimers.
Has Kame become a decent actor or is this the WOWOW effect of having a strong script and strong supporting actors around him? Maybe I should check his other jdoramas out or maybe not. I don't think he has done any WOWOW shows before this but he is good in this role as a fugitive on the run.
What you should be doing is checking Shoutai out. Its sitting somewhere between watchable and must watch. I really like Shoutai more than I should and am tempted to give it a must watch. The script is tight and the four episodes pass by in a flash. One of the best jdoramas of 2022 and a big thank you to miawmaw subs for subbing and thank the jdorama gods for WOWOW.
Johnny keeps giving him some of the worst rom-com scripts I have ever seen in my entire life, so I don't think he can do much about it. I think he can finally get some mature roles in Wowow drama because he simply passed the age of playing heartthrob roles in romance (Kattun loses members and popularity is also a big factor). Anw, please avoid that romance drama he did with Kyoko Fukada, it's so bad.
ReplyDeleteYamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge is one of the most forgettable drama that I ever watched, I couldn't remember anything about Kame as the main character. 😂
DeleteCheck Jikou Bukken, tho this role doesn't require Kame to act, the movie by itself is amusing
ReplyDeleteI saw you've only review only 2 episodes of Nobuta wo Produce, I thought Kame was decent in that drama. I couldn't remember other drama that I watched with him as the main character, and I only watched few bits of One Pound Gospel episode 1, I couldn't finish it because how cringe his acting was. 😂
ReplyDelete@Faiz Ikari: I can't believe you actually watched Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge! lol.
ReplyDelete@Akiramike: It's been ages ago, when I was in high school, and I'm really into Johnny's and KAT-TUN at that time. Yeah, that drama suck ass. 😂
ReplyDelete