0.5 no Otoko Episodes 1~3

I really can't remember the last time I saw a WOWOW family drama. WOWOW has been the go to channel for suspense, corruption, murder and legal shows but family shows not much. From writer director Okita Shuichi who made No Con Kid and Fruits Takuhaibin, too shows I really liked is 0.5 no Otoko where Matsuda Ryuhei plays a 40 year old hikikomori living with 3 generations in one home.

Masaharu (Matsuda Ryuhei) does not work and games all day which is what I want to be when I grow up. Its the ultimate dream not having to work for a living. His sister played by Usuda Asami moves back home with her husband and two kids and as Masaharu learns to deal with these new disturbances he slowly learns to open up.

0.5 no Otoko straight away reminds me Going My Home by Koreeda Hirokazu. Its when a network gives a movie director enough time and money to develop what they want. I noticed how different it looks from your usual jdoramas. There is more of an art in the framing of shots.

For example the beginning of episode 2 has a one cut family morning scene that made me say wow. They constructed this side cut of the house for 0.5 no Otoko and it really makes for some nice scenes. 

0.5 no Otoko also feels a bit like KDO lite. People look down on Masaharu and maybe he's got something to teach others as he slowly learns to integrate himself into society.

0.5 no Otoko like Going My Home is also a very slow burn show but I don't mind because the acting is good and pacing is deliberate.  Of note is Fubuki Jun's acting as the grandmother. I love that scene when she sees Masaharu doing the bug dance. The director knows how to capture those small moment beautifully.

Very, very watchable family dorama. WOWOW should do more of them because they know how to do it better than the other networks. Big thanks to earthcolors for subbing this wonderful show.

List of winners for Best mother prize

 

In case you didn't know the big recent Japan entertainment news is the Hirosue Ryoko (winner of best mother 2022) adultery scandal and the husband Candle Jun poured even more gasoline on the fire with a recent interview. I don't care about scandals, I just want good jdoramas to watch but Japan loves their stupid prizes like best mother and best jeanist. (Yes, for wearing jeans) 

I saw this tweet from teyandei and I thought I should translate the list of winners for best mother prize brought by the Nihon Mothers Association.

2009: Imai Hiroko (Speed) = affair and divorced

2010: Esumi Makiko = affair and retired

2012: Tsuchiya Anna = divorced

2013: Hasegaya Kyoko = divorced

2014: Ogura Yuuko = divorced

2017: Goto Maki (Momusu) = affair (did not know this)

2019: Kichise Michiko = divorced

2021: Shinoda Mariko = affair

2022: Hirosue Ryoko = affair

Best of luck to best mother 2023 winner Nakama Yukie. This stupid award is just for celebrities to get their faces out there when they should giving the best mother to a mother who works two part time jobs while taking care of two kids trying to make ends meet. 

The other big news is Nagayama Kento, brother of Eita getting busted for cannabis. Tokyo Revengers movie is not getting cancelled. I really disliked how Pierre Taki got cancelled from Judge Eyes after he got busted for cocaine. 

Shouri no Houteishiki

Shouri no Houteishiki is a lawyer dorama with a bit of a twist. Shida Mirai plays a former child actor turned lawyer who failed to protect her friend from a murder charge and is no longer practicing law. Kazama Shunsuke plays a writer who uses Shida Mirai's name is write a blog pretending to be a lawyer who never lost a case.

Shida Mirai is forced back to being a lawyer and the hook of the series is Kazama Shunsuke is a genius writer who writes scripts in court for Shida Mirai to follow and bring victory. I like the child actor bit because Shida Mirai was a child actress as well.

The concept for Shouri no Houteishiki is very weird. This genius writer who is not a lawyer can predict the future and write scripts for Shida Mirai to win in court. I can accept the premise if it leads to great stories but the stories are not good.

Usually when watching Japanese legal shows you have to shut off your brain. I feel like the writer has no idea how to make the show smart so it tries to hard to be moving to the point of stupidity.

I really wanted to like this show because I am a fan of Shida Mirai and Kazama Shunsuke and Kitano Kie is in this! I should have stopped watching earlier in the series but I kept thinking maybe it will get better.

I didn't even bother to finish the last episode. I kept thinking they are in a court room but they are just doing whatever they want and nothing makes sense. It feels like whoever thought about this concept of didn't think about what sort of stories the concept would be able to tell. The actors tried their best but nothing can save a bad script. Do not watch.

Doctors Saikyou no Meii Final 2023 Special

After 3 seasons and various specials, it is time for the last episode of Doctors Saikyou no Meii. If you have never heard of it, Doctors is a very good series about two doctors: Sagara played by Sawamura Ikki who is your typical can do everything doctor and Moriyama played by Takashima Masanobu who's family has been running Dogami General Hospital. 

Moriyama is a spoiled brat, mummy's boy who is selfish, does not care for others and is easily manipulated. The hook of this story is while Moriyama is the bad guy he has an enormous potential to do good if he could only grow up. The fun of the story is watching Sagara manipulate Moriyama to do the right thing.

In the Final Special, Moriyama is now the Director of the Dogami General hospital. In the beginning of the special Moriyama loses at this God Hand competition to Sagara and hits on this grand plan to buy a robot surgery machine so he can be better than Sagara at one thing.

Moriyama approaches his bank for a loan and their condition is that Sagara is made the deputy director of the hospital. The bank's thinking is that if Moriyama causes any problems, Sagara will become director by default. 

Moriyama has no choice but to agree because he wants his robot surgery.

Moriyama gets his robot and meets Kanno Miho at the robot company who is Minagawa sensei's sister.

Moriyama is smitten with Kanno Miho, his mom finds out and arranges a meeting with the Minagawa sisters. 

Suffice to say, unexpected things happen at the meeting.

However, Moriyama starts to feel threatened by Sagara. One slip and Sagara is director. He needs to get rid of Sagara quick. Love this shot of Moriyama and his cronies.

I won't spoil what happens the rest of the special but there are plenty of laughs. Its a rehash of a lot of the old storylines but its been so long it feels so fresh.

Most importantly, the 2023 special brings the main stories to a close. It also reveals why Sagara keeps working at Dogami General Hospital.

Very, very satisfying ending for me. Just give the people what they want and pay off 3 seasons and 4 specials worth of storytelling. I need to track down the other specials because I think I have only seen the 2015 special. This special is not subbed as far as I know but is pretty easy to understand. If you have not seen Doctors, season 1 is a must watch and Moriyama is one of the best jdorama villains ever created.

Ishi Tsubute Episode 5 spoiler review

What a great episode! We had four episodes of our heroes collecting every single scrap of information they could find on Manase (Kitamura Kazuki).

Everyone is thinking this is over. Manase is a stupid corrupt idiot who got too greedy and there is no way he can escape this. Accept he's not really an idiot because he has an answer for everything.

Manase knows all the numbers and he has gone through them so that his story about his inheritance and transferring money to his account for work purposes matches the numbers in real life. Suddenly the good guys are getting answers to their questions that they never anticipated.

Manase has not just spent his life amassing a large fortune, he is has his life creating the perfect defence to his corruption. The higher ups may be panicking but Manase is cool as a cucumber.

I loved the joke as Akane (Matobu Sei) went to pick him up with 'tsutome gokurosama' which is usually said when yakuza leave prison.

Manase has nothing to fear because he has gone through every scenario and Ishi Tsubute really sells us on what will happen to our main characters if they fail so the audience 100% wants them to bring Manase then.

Like all good interrogation stories, at the last minute our heroes find a clue to the one question that Manase never considered.

We have a Slam Dunk joke before they finally break Manase. What a great episode. Can't wait to see what happens next. I want to this Ishi Tsubute a must watch but let's see what happens in the final 3 episode.

Ishi Tsubute episodes 1~4

 

My current favourite show to watch now is Ishi Tsubute which means stone throwing. The subtitle name of this 2017 WOWOW dorama is very straightforward as it says 'The men who exposed the secret of the Department of Foreign Affairs'. I would like to point out that since there was a female on the team played by Iitoyo Marie they should have used detectives instead.

Episode 1 was sort of bewildering as there is a lot of information to process and had to figure what was going on. The gist of it is that our main characters work for the information gathering division of the police. They look out for intel on corruption and then pass it on to the 'numbers' who are the section 4-6 of the police who take care of the interrogations etc. 

Once I get my bearings, Ishi Tsubute is a brick by brick account of how to uncover corruption. There is a lot of leg work involved since this is set in the 90s and I think this is based on a true story like The Journalist. There is a lot of distrust between the different departments in the police and among colleagues because there have been leaks.

It is also interesting to learn how the bad guy played by Kitamura Kazuki has been doing the corruption and how eager some people in Foreign Affairs and police are happy to protect him. 

Ishi Tsubute gets better and better with every episode. We have all seen corruption jdorams by WOWOW. The thing is the devil is in the details and WOWOW knows how to do the details very very well. This is basically a men in suits talking jdorama but I am hanging on every word in the dialogue and just enjoying watching this team of investigators try to piece together Kitamura Kazuki's money trail. I also like the details to show this is the 90s like how many ash trays are in the room above.

There is this hanko scene in episode 4 which is such a good payoff. Stories don't need too many twists and turns to be satisfying. They just need good set ups and pay offs.

Big thanks to HPriest for subbing and uploading Ishi Tsubute. If you like investigative stories that show you step by step how a case is built, then Ishi Tsubute is for you. Very, very watchable. I can't wait for next episode because it is only at the half way point.

Japan 2023 Day 18: Goodbye Japan

Last day in Tokyo before I fly out and the big new is kabuki actor Ichikawa Ennosuke's parents found dead and he was unconscious at home. I don't think I have seen any news about what actually happened.

Quick stop in Akihabara, found Slam Dunk volume 8 and this SDF Macross Polo shirt! I can wear this at work and no one will know this is anime merch.

 

The night before was my last night at Grand Bleu and mama said that she would treat me to lunch before I left and said I could have anything I wanted.  She asked if I wanted yakiniku and I felt guilty because I can eat a lot and I said sushi. Just killing time before I met her at Grand Bleu I went to the furuiichiba or old market in Shin Koiwa. I am sad that the old game shop at the main shopping strip is gone but at least this is still here.

Complete One Piece set for 22460 yen. Good luck fitting that in luggage or posting it back!

I did not know there was a Gantz 0 manga! Loved the Netflix anime.

Cat sitting down next to Grand Bleu. I went in and Mama was cleaning up and she said they had been drinking until 4am.

Cat frowning as we were leaving it started drizzling so we brought umbrellas.

She brought me to this place called Natori sushi.

I got the omakase lunch sent 9 pieces. The first thing the sushi guy said to mama was its rare to see you in the afternoon.

Its one of those places where they make the sushi in front of you and put them on your plate one by one. Mama saw how much I love the maguro that she ordered a few more for me. They had two people doing the sushi and one lady doing everything else. Since it was omakase ie leave it to the sushi chef, I got to try a lot of different sushi I would not normally get.

I was drinking with this taxi driver Taka-chan last night and he gave mama a pack of cigarettes to pass to me. Thanks Taka-chan!

I told mama that I was looking for Slam Dunk new edition no 20. She brought me to the bookshop south of Shin Koiwa station and found the final volume! I thanked mama for the great lunch. It was not cheap. We promised next time would be tebasaki gyoza which I don't think I have had before.

Goodbye Shin Koiwa. Can't wait to see what the station looks like when it is finished.

At the anime goods section of Narita airport.

Going home is always very sad. On the other hand my wallet is extremely light. I exceeded my budget and had to withdraw some cash. Not being able to share hotel rooms anymore increased the cost.

Security robot at Narita.

Saw this hakata ramen shop at terminal 3. Foolishly decided to give it a shot.

It was so bad. Lesson learned. Do not eat ramen at airport because chances are it is crap. It is like the lottery, you will never win because chances are astronomical. I think there is supposed to be a very good one in terminal one though. I think there a Matsuya at terminal 3 and I should have gone for good old trusty gyudon or yakinuki. Nooooooo.

Goodbye Japan. Hopefully interest rates and inflation will go down so I can come back. Before the trip I was worried about connecting flight delays, covid and not being able to catch up with anyone because of golden week. Glad I was able to catch up with 3 friends and everything went ok except my connecting flight back was delayed by 1 hour. Somehow avoided covid and did not infect anyone, to my knowledge.

One thing I learned is if you are thinking about buying something, just do it. There's this Gameboy Advance Perfect Catalogue book that just came out when I was in Japan in 2019 and I thought I didn't really need it. 

Throughout this trip I was on the lookout I never saw the Gameboy Advance Perfect Catalogue in bookshops. After the trip I started looking online and realised it is selling for over 10000 yen! A 2400 yen book that just came out 4 years ago quadrupled in price because demand was high and it was rare!

With the Mugen no Juunin new print edition, I had to order the whole series online because it is impossible to get 8-15 individually. I tried looking surugaya, book off, yahoo auctions and in the end getting the books individually was too difficult. I would have been missing 2 volumes and spending too much time hunting for them online. Unfortunately I had to pay zenmarket to dispose of volumes 1-7 so that was a waste.

Finally I have complete Slam Dunk manga collection!  

Really like Mazakatsu Katsura's art on the covers.

Movie pamphlets from cinemas. Did not end up watching Oshibudo movie. I could be wrong but I don't think all cinemas were showing it. Thanks for reading. It has been fun looking back at the trip now that I am back to the real life grind.