WHAT IS THE SILENT SERVICE ABOUT?
The US and Japan secretly co-develop this nuclear sub called Seabat. It is so secret that in order to get a Japanese crew onto the Seabat, they stage a fake accident where a SDF submarine captained by Captain Kaieda sunk and the crew were declared dead but were in fact transferred to Seabat.
Kaieda commits mutiny, does not follow the original plan and declares Seabat to be an independent nation called Yamato which is the old name of Japan and FYI Yamato Nadeshiko refers a perfect woman from old Japan. Yamato is now seen as a terrorist and Kaieda seems to have a plan.
WHAT IS GOOD?
+ When I saw the Silent Service on Prime, I was excited to see what Prime money can do for jdoramas. Your normal tv stations don't have the money needed to tell a story of this scale.
+ Amazing cast with Osawa Takao as Kaieda and Tamaki Hiroshi as Kaieda's former crewman who is now Captain and does not trust Kaieda. You have Eguchi Yusuke as the Cabinet Secretary, Natsukawa Yui as Defence Minister, Mizukawa Asami as Tamaki Hiroshi's XO and Santamaria Yusuke as the sonar listening expert.
+ The show is about Japan's relationship with the US.
+ We get to see some nice submarine action scenes.
+ The pacing is pretty quick and I was eager to move to the next episode. However..
WHAT IS NOT GOOD
- Took me a while to understand what the hell was happening.
- I don't understand why someone who stole a sub is treated like a hero by this show and I still have no idea what his plan is. Kaieda is cool, calm and collected but what he did was wrong. Just because the Americans are trigger happy does not make him right.
- I just could not buy the story. Why people were acting the way they were. It did not feel real. The world and characters did not feel real. I kept waiting to find out why Kaieda thought stealing a nuclear sub would lead to world peace and how did the convince his whole crew to go along with whatever his plan is?
- I was expecting some great tactical manoeuvres from Captain Kaieda but the sea battles do not hold a candle to LOGH.
- There is political intrigue, commentary on US-Japan relations, the role of superpower nations in the world but the script is just not smart enough and seems to dumb thing down.
SUMMARY
I finished the 8 episodes quickly but I am left with an empty feeling. I love the look and effort they spent on this show but I am not that excited for season 2. Maybe I should watch the anime or read the manga to see what the story is about. It seems to be a popular manga so there must be a good story there. Then the question is what did they get wrong with the adaptation? The Silent Service is between meh and watchable because of the production values and the cast. I don't mind watching season 2 but would not care if season 2 never happened.
New money in Japanese drama may not be what people imagine.
ReplyDeleteJDrama has for years run on the smell of an oily rag and it story telling and style has been tuned to those super tight conditions. Money brings the expectations of larger dramas and more expansive gestures. Something that is way outside their comfort zone.
Beware of what you wish for.
I would watch this just to see Natsukawa Yui as Defence Minister. Do women ever rise this high in the national government in real life?
ReplyDeleteThere have been two female ministers of defense in Japan!
ReplyDeleteThe first is current Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko who was defence minister for one month and the second had many scandals!
ReplyDelete@Anon: You are correct in that more money may not mean better stories. Ryu ga Gotoku Beyond the Game is horrible but I think of shows like Mikkoku wa Utau where the story is good but the shoestring budget doesn't help with believability.
ReplyDelete@Akiramike - JDrama is not the land of big dramas but instead is choc full of little dramas that hit hard. One of the last political Jdramas that felt like it had scale for me was "FENCE". It still was clever in how it controlled the scope. However, where Jdrama really shines is dramas like "Jashin no Tenbin Koan Bunseki Han" and "Tokyo Hinkon Joshi" or even "ERRIE" that from their small personal lens reveal a universal. I can't imagine Jdrama pulling off SKorean "Kingdom" or Chinese "The Rebel". But then I can't imagine those spawning a Yuru Camp.
ReplyDeleteThe big payoff has been that halfway house of Japanese movies. What that industry produced on meagre budges is breathtaking. "Shoplifters", "I am a Hero", "Godzilla"....
If Japan can produce high-concept anime/manga and execute them more than adequately I don't see why they can't do the same with their dramas except due to budget. Alice in Borderland is a good example that they could make these immersive and believable 'big scale' shows given they're supported by the budget but it's thanks to Netflix money rather than industry incentive and it's pretty sad that AiB is the only example I could think of.
DeleteI'm not that much into anime, or manga anymore.
ReplyDelete1. I do think Japan's lack of success with many dramas, compared to South Korea, is that the mangaka has, more or less, become the screenwriters.
It would be like a majority of the books would be turned into dramas in West.
It's often said "The book is better than the drama."
What I miss is real screenwriters, they're becoming fewer and fewer. Today 90% of the dramas are "Adapted from a manga."
2. Real actors, and actress vs tarento, musicians (comedians, entertainment personalities, idols)
3. The quality of the entire OST. Not just the theme song, or ending theme.
Maybe dramas have overall become shorter 8-4 episodes to be able to spend more money on it, or more dramas, more profit.
DeleteIn terms of quality, maybe specials and movies are better?
I don't know if it's just me, or are the majority of Japanese movies high school oriented?
I wonder if South Korea has more mixed movies. Or maybe it depends on what are being subbed the most.
@Keiko: 1. Manga comes with a built in audience so easier to justify spending money because manga is successful.
ReplyDelete2. Tarento and musicians are cheaper than real actors and idols come with their own audience. It all comes down to money. I like how WOWOW has shorter episodes depending on the story but less episodes means less advertising revenue compared to money spent. So many movies a high school oriented because the audience are high school girls and young working women who want a movie about a HS girls meeting a yakuza/policeman etc played by a Johnny.