Shiroi Kyoto eps 1-10

This being a very bad season of jdoramas, its time to dig into my stash of doramas to watch if only I had time. Shiroi Kyoto is a twenty two episode dorama that came out in 2003 and garnered good ratings and awards. Shiroi Kyoto is a hospital political dorama about two very different doctors Zaizen Goro (Karasawa Toshiaki aka Kenji from 20thCB) and Satomi Shuji (Eguchi Yosuke aka An-chan from Hitotsu Yane no Shita).


Zaizen sensei is an assistant professor in surgery and is a very pragmatic person. He is aware of the politics and is bidding his time to become a professor. He is always in control, saying and doing the right things. Satomi sensei is of course, the idealistic internal medicine doctor. One would say too idealistic. It was hard in the beginning to emphatise with him because there are always reasons why certain policies are implemented in hospitals and Satomi sensei seems to see the world in too much black and white like when he put Zaizen sensei's career in jeopardy just because he didn't like secret surgeries.

How could the perfect actress at playing innocent girls end up with an idiot like Oshio Manabu?

Zaizen sensei is the more likable character. He is flawed but his pragmaticism makes him fun to watch and the audience can discern the motives behind his decisions unlike Iki in Fumo Chitai. I guess it is a necessary evil that they be slightly extreme opposites of each other to contrast their personalities.


For the first ten episodes, who have two story threads, Zaizen sensei's fight to become the professor of the first surgical department and Satomi sensei's idealism in the workplace. The hospital politics part is fun to watch. Its even better than Fumo Chitai. Everyone's sending messages by saying not what they want to say, money is thrown around and alliances are made and broken. There's no good or bad guy. Its all grey area characters though Azuma sensei is default villain I guess for not being able to admit that he has no rational reason for hating Zaisen sensei.

I want to remember Kuroki Hitomi for roles like this instead of boring stuff like Real Clothes.

Zaizen's bid for presidency is supported by his very entertaining father in law Matachi who throws his power and money behind the politically inexperienced Goro and helps him recruit allies to their camp. The first two episodes of Shiroi Kyoto is basically and election dorama and the price that must be paid in order to win. Democracy may give everyone a voice but there is a huge cost involved in getting enough votes to win. Its like a promotion is something that must be bought instead of earned.

Do you honestly need any more reasons to watch Shiroi Kyoto?

Satomi sensei's story isn't that exciting since he's Mr Nice Guy except his got two bijin ladies in his perfect wife Michiyo (the lovely Mizuno Maki) and Azuma sensei's daughter Saeko (Yada Akiko) who may have a thing for Satomi. Here's hoping something happens with Saeko later because it would be such a freaking waste. I'm not referring to Yada Akiko's loveliness but rather the time spent on her character. She's like this innocent ojousan who has no idea what the outside world is like. I liked what Kikukawa said to her about her being old fashioned in that she is too dependent on her parents.

Lucky bastard.

Actually, all the characters in the show have no life outside of hospital politics. Even Satomi's wife Michiyo doesn't seem to have any friends and the less said about the professors' wives club the better. A bunch of middle aged women having fake conversations and associating with other all in the name of protecting their husbands' positions. Its even scarier than suburban housewife politics and really made me cringe. I just don't see this professor wives thing as work but rather women leeching on their husband's success.

Come to think of it, the two main characters have two girls in their respective lives.

His role is to serve a reminder of what Zaizen sensei was or could have been since they were once close friends. Though they can never see eye to eye, Satomi sensei respects Zaizen sensei and Satomi sensei is Zaizen sensei's real friend. After all, every relationship and act that Zaizen sensei has, has been all for the purpose of becoming a professor. The mamasan Keiko (Kuroki Hitomi) is his only other real relationship except he only uses her to escape from his reality and rarely shows her his true face.

I wonder who'll be the first one to get them to do a menage toi?

So far, Shiroi Kyoto has been awesome and helps eases the pain of only having two shows to watch this season. Definitely a must watch show.

Shiroi Kyoto 2019 Episode 1

Once upon a time, there was a jdorama called Shiroi Kyoto starring Karasawa Toshiaki and Eguchi Yosuke and it was good. If you asked me what are the two must watch medical jdoramas, they would be Shiroi Kyoto and Iryu.... and the first season of Doctors.

Now 16 years later, Fuji TV are remaking the series again, this time with Okada Junichi and Matsuyama Kenichi. Typing that 16 years later really makes me feel old. Happy to see Mimura is in it but it seems like a very small role as a nurse. :(

Anyway, I have vague recollections of the 2003 version of Shiroi Kyoto. Of course I remember Zaizen sensei and his father in law who in the new version is being played by Kobayashi Kaoru. I really loved Nishida Toshiyuki's performance in the original and if anyone can bring depth and enjoyment to the role of the maternity clinic owner, it would be Kobayashi Kaoru.

I am happy that Zaizen's wife is being played by Koho but not too sure about Sawajiri Erika playing the mistress because I have a feeling her role is going to overshadow Koho's. To be fair, I do not remember whether Kuroki Hitomi or Wakamura Mayumi had the bigger role in the 2003 version but Wakamura's performance as the wife had a bigger impression on me.

So far for episode 1, I don't think its deviated from the 2003 version much. Zaizen and his father in law are still in pursuit of the professorship while navigating the political landmines of the hospital.

Way too early to judge but I enjoyed the first episode plus as long as they stick with the story and the friendship between Zaizen and Satomi, it should be fine. Plus the cast is absolutely freaking loaded. I don't think anyone is subbing Shiroi Kyoto but it definitely needs to be subbed.

If you've never seen the 2003 version, I wholeheartedly recommend it.

Shiroi Kyoto eps 11-22

Truly an epic dorama. I can only hope that Fumo Chitai at least achieves the same standard. I would say Shiroi Kyoto is a must watch dorama. However, it is not in the classic dorama category because of one very huge flaw.

Are you a hatarakiman?

The flaw is basically lawsuit which drives the second half of the series. You've got a lawyer, Sekiguchi who is very experienced in medical malpractice suits but there is no discussion of strategy or legal arguments. No freaking legal maneuvering of any sort or intelligent cross-examinations. Its as if the writer decided to strip the court case of any semblance of legality to better fit it in the story.

Reason to go to work everyday...

It makes the lawyer, Sekiguchi look like a simpleton. Not to mention the fact that he never explains his plans to his clients/audience. How can he criticize Zaizen for failure to explain options to his patients when Sekiguchi himself does not do so? Can't believe Kamikawa Takaya won an award for his portrayal of Sekiguchi. Nothing wrong with his acting but his character is so poorly written its not funny.

The overacting housewives are almost as bad as the legal stuff....

Is the standard of legal doramas in Japan as bad as police shows? Come to think about it, I haven't seen any legal jdoramas. Majo Saiban doesn't really count since its more of a jury tampering show and Aishiteru is more about juvenile crime. Is it really impossible for Japan to do a dorama about the uncovering of evidence and applying legal principles to argue facts? Bottomline is, the court case serves to stretch the story and allow characters to make certain points but procedurally, it could have been much better. The fucking ratio dicidendi was about public policy. Nowhere during the case did Sekiguchi argue about the case setting a precedent which would benefit the public.

Except for Mizuno Maki of course...

Sekiguchi could have grilled Yanagihara more about the white out notes. Who cares if the opposing counsel pointed out that using whiteouts was normal. Sekiguchi could have pointed out the huge amount of whiteouts used in the reports and tried to make Yanagihara crack. Sekiguchi should have been disbarred for being an idiot.

Why do idealists have to be oblivious to beautiful women?

Then we have the appeal. Sekiguchi appeals claiming new evidence when he has none. His definition of new evidence is trying to get his own expert witness to testify that Zaizen was wrong. Stacking the odds against Sekiguchi creates instant empathy but watching him flying blind completely erodes most emotional attachment I have for the parties. Of course in the end a witness shows up and evidence is uncovered. The big twist in the end is that Sekiguchi argues that Zaizen was negligent in not informing Sasaki of his other treatment options.

brother and sister in 20th Century Boys...

Hhhmm, the original lawsuit was about Zaizen been negligent by purposely ignoring the possibility of cancer in the lungs and the appeal is about doctor's failure to give full information. I know next to nothing about Japanese civil law but the fact that one can sue another party under the general heading of negligence and argue every single possible negligent act under the sun is very scary.

Yamato Nadeshiko..

Don't be alarmed by the amount of negative comments I have written about Shiroi Kyoto. Its much easier to point out the bad than the good unless its transcendent show like KDO. The lawsuit aside, Shiroi Kyoto has pretty much been a fun show to watch. My favourite bit is the friendship between Zaizen and Satomi. They have the opposite of each other yet they have the utmost respect for each other. It reminds me of what Griffith said in the Berserk manga; a friend is not someone who follows me but someone who can stand against me.

I remember when I first saw Kuroki Hitomi in Majou no Jouken and wondered why they cast a 30 year old as the mom only to find out her real age..

I always hate idealistic characters but goddamit Satomi showed that he had balls by being willing to sacrifice everything for his ideals. I was shouting at Satomi for barely showing any hesitation or being troubled by his decision. When is the cost of doing the right thing too high that it is not worth it? I wish Satomi would have wrestled more with his decision. Gotta respect Satomi for having the courage of his convictions.



Sadly, nothing happened with the Satomi-Saeko side story. Its just something to give Michiyo more screentime (can't complain about that) but I would have loved to see it go slightly further. Satomi of course has to make the right decision but why couldn't the writer let him to tempted? No righteous man cannot at least think twice about cheating on his wife for Yada Akiko.


As I said in the beginning, Shiroi Kyoto is a must watch dorama. Its on par with Karei Naru Ichizoku; flawed brilliance that deserves your time. At least the flaw with this one isn't a Johnny who can't act.

Shiroi Kyoto 2019 jdorama review

I wrote about the first episode of the 2019 remake a long time ago. I think I might have watched episode 2 but I never finished the series for some reason. Recently I have been thinking I need to revisit the 2003 series because I think watched the original show from HK dvd rips where they combined 2 episodes together into 1 dvd and I should download and rewatch in 1080.

Shiroi Kyoto or White Castle refers to climbing to the top of the university hospital hierarchy. Being the professor of the surgery department means that every morning you can lead a stupid procession and look at the charts of every patient without looking them in the face.

Our main character is super ambitious super surgeon, Zaizen Goro played by Okada Junichi. The lucky bastard married into the Zaizen family with Kaho as his wife and for some reason he spends all his time with his mistress played by Sawajiri Erika. 

I understand that no man can resist Erika-sama but at the expense of Kaho? And Kaho who plays the wife is hardly in the first half of the 5 episode series. The 2003 Fuji TV show is 22 episodes so TV Asashi has gone the opposite route and made a lean 5 episodes cutting a lot of the fat but it is the fat that makes a steak taste good.

On the other side of the coin is Zaizen's friend Satomi who is a doctor dedicated to his patients and his research. As Erika-sama aptly puts it, Zaizen saves lives to further his ambitions and Satomi saves lives because he cares for his patients. FYI Japanese fans refer to Sawajiri as Erika-sama. lol

Iitoyo Marie plays the daughter of Professor Azuma, the once mentor to Zaizen and Satomi who has a thing for Satomi. The casting of this remake is excellent and not to mention Mimura in a small role as a nurse.

The most entertaining role for me is Kobayashi Kaoru as Zaizen Mataichi, Goro's super rich father in law who wants a professor as a son-in-law and will use his wealth and connections to get Goro to the top of the white tower.

Shiroi Kyo has been remade many times because the story is excellent. It is hard to compare with the 2003 series because it has been ages since I have seen it but my sense 2019 remake is not as good. Not enough episodes to show the friendship between Zaizen and Satomi.

Not enough Kaho until the second half and maybe too much Erika-sama? Hard to fit everything into 5 episodes. I enjoyed it but non the the episodes gave me a must watch feeling. It felt like Zaizen got to the top really quickly and the fall in the 2nd half was a bit slow in pacing and had a tad too much overacting.

Still enjoyed this version of Shiroi Kyoto. Makes me want to rewatch the 2003 version so I can make comparisons. Maybe I won't like the 2003 as much after all these years?

If you have not seen Shiroi Kyoto, watch the 2003 one first unless 22 episodes is too much for you or you are a fan of Erika-sama. Very watchable.

Black Pean Episodes 1-6

Black Pean is a big budget hospital dorama that is a cross between Shiroi Kyoto and Iryu Team Medical Dragon. How do I know its a big budget show? Because the first scene they show is 'look how cool it is when we have 200 hospital staff in a room watching an operation!'

My response to Black Pean is if a hospital can have 200 staff wasting their time, then they must either have no patients or are neglecting their patients. I bloody hate when jdoramas do this huge number of people in a room/hall for no reason at all. What sort of stupid viewer gets impressed with that crap?

Anyway, the only Johnny I like Nino, plays Tokai, a doctor with no teamwork or communication skills. He loves wasting people's time but not telling them about his plan until the end probably hoping people would be impressed and tell him he's so smart.

The truth of the matter is, he is wasting resources as the other doctors could have been using their time to tend to other patients. Plus, he thinks he is so great because he can tie knots really quick and hold a gun with a steady hand. Tokai is just an annoying brat who gets away with everything because his colleagues suck at their jobs. Tokai is not even fit to hold Asada Ryutaro's shoelace.

Speaking of gun, Koizumi Kotaro plays this doctor who is in love with this stupid miracle gun he calls a Snipe. He is like this pharmaceutical company forcing experimental drugs on people so he can write a stupid paper with bullshit results so he can sell this Snipe.

I used to like Koizumi Kotaro but I am starting to realise that he can only act one way and it is getting annoying. Perhaps he was just very lucky to get Namonaki Doku and Petero no Souretsu?

Uchino Masaaki is Dr Saeki, this doctor who loves the world 'impakuto fakuta'. Its like when a kid first learns about swear words and doesn't know how to stop. He is the only decent surgeon besides Tokai and he is in some political vote buying race with another doctor but I don't give a crap.

Truth of the matter is while watching Black Pean, all I can think about was how fucking cool Iryu is versus the very boring operations in Black Pean and how much more interesting Zaizen sensei was as a political character in Shiroi Kyoto.

I tried very hard to like Black Pean. I really did. 6 not so fun episodes is all I can take. At some point I had to push the delete button and admit I'd rather rewatch Iryu for the third time. Meh.

The downside of watching jdoramas with Japanese subs

 

We are living in the golden age of jdoramas. If I wanted to watch something with Japanese subs, I would have to download the subs from jpsubbers and then retime them which was a pain because the timing would go off everytime there was a commercial break.

Everytime there was a CM break, I would have to figure out how many more seconds to adjust it again until the next break. It was annoying but Japanese subs help me understand what was going on a lot easier and I uploaded a few retimed Jp subs to d-addicts.

Later I got too lazy to pause and retime and started using the VLC player shift subtitles shortcuts to change the timings on the fly. Soon all the magicstar uploads came with Japanese subs and it was glorious! Japanese subs make it so much easier to understand.

However, I have noticed something recently, especially when I was watching the latest Shiroi Kyoto remake: my eyes were darting straight to the subs instead of listening to what was being said. I was reading first and not really listening. I think the listening was helping me to read.

Shiroi Kyoto was full of medical and legal jargon and Japanese subs while it helped me understand what was being said, it did not help me improve my listening. Another time Japanese subs really help is when there is an old man mumbling away. Maybe I should learn to listen instead of using Jp subs as a crutch? I feel like it an reading subs instead of watching a jdorama. It is actually 'cheating' because I am not really reading the sentence out loud in my brain; I am just picking up with kanji or words to understand what it is about and filing out the rest with my listening.

It is the same when I watch Japanese news. It is so easy to understand because there are words everywhere. I glance at the screen and there are plenty of words to tell me what is going on. When I am listening to a new podcast (shout out to Round up World Now!) I need to really concentrate or I get lost.

What I am saying is that Japanese subs are crutch don't doesn't help me improve my listening and I think I am going to watch most of my Jdoramas without Jp subs now. Jidaigeki's would be the exception and really fast talking shows like Saigo Kara Nibanmei no Koi.

I have been slowly redownloading my jdoramas so that the ones I want to rewatch are at least 720p and I don't want English hardsubs anymore in my collection. Why are there only a 480p version of Yami no Bansosha. I want to watch both series in 1080p.

I am rewatching Keiji to Kenji, Tokidoki Hanji without subs and am enjoying it more after watching the first season. Meguro speaking English all the time is not annoying anymore after watching his story with Imada Mio in S1. Not as funny as S1 but still fun to watch.

10 greatest jdoramas of all time

 

It is finally time to put pen to paper for this list. Since I started this blog a lifetime ago, I have always had this list in my head with the intention of doing this list one day. I roughly knew roughly the 6 that I wanted in but it is hard to narrow down the other 4 after years of watching jdoramas. There are way too many shows to wither it down to 10 and I feel like if I rewatch some old shows I will end up changing the list again. Here are my top 10 greatest jdoramas of all time in no particular order.

1. GTO: Great Teacher Onizuka (1998)

The original is the best. Sorimachi Takashi's charisma along with the chemistry with Matsushima Nanako and one of the best student talents ever. I could watch this every year and not get bored.

2. SOREDEMO IKITE YUKU

The Sakamoto Yuji masterpiece is so perfect, so good I've written so many posts about it and translated his interview.

3. OYAJI

The perfect family jdorama. Yes, even more than Kita no Kuni Kara. Tamura Masakazu is the perfect entertaining stubborn dad. The talent in this show is crazy and the theme song so good. Every family jdorama I compare to Oyaji. They tried to capture lightning in a bottle again with Otousan which sucked but I think Oi Handsome!! did a pretty decent job.

4. LOVE GENERATION

If I had to choose one dorama from the golden era, it would be Love Generation over Long Vacation and 101 Proposals. Kimutaku and Matsu Takako and Uchino Masaaki. Maybe Ozaki Masaya's second greatest work.

5. KEKKON DEKINAI OTOKO

Ozaki Masaya's masterpiece and Abe Hiroshi's greatest acting job ever. Everything is perfect from chemistry with Natsukawa Yui and Kuninaka Ryoko to Ken-chan. The easiest dorama to write reviews for because it is so fun to dissect the story and dialogue.

6. IRYU TEAM MEDICAL DRAGON

Greatest surgery jdorama ever. The greatest jdorama soundtrack ever. The amazing thing is they have  mostly kept the quality for all 4 seasons except season 3 was a bit meh. This show is so bullshit but its so cool. You will remember and love every character. Entlassen!

7. SHINYA SHOKUDO AKA MIDNIGHT DINER

The ultimate slow burn feel good show. The chicken soup of jdoramas.

8. SUZUKI SENSEI

The smartest teacher jdorama ever. I wrote 7 reviews for the whole series or rather the reviews wrote themselves because the dorama is just so well written. I need to do a rewatch one day.

9. LADY JOKER

The best WOWOW show? I actually place Samayou Yaiba pretty high up there as well along with Kenja no Ai. However when I think of WOWOW excellence, the first show that comes to my mind is Lady Joker. I think I have rewatched this 3 times already.

10. GAIJI KEISATU

Best terrorist/police thriller jdorama in a sea of crappy terrorist shows like Bloody Monday and Rondo. It is so good I wrote about what it does so well that other jdoramas don't. Watabe Atsuro at his best.

After thoughts: I really wanted to put in Manhattan Love Story/Tiger & Dragon and Mosaic Japan, The Journalist and Love Shuffle. Maybe one day I will revise the list. Maybe I should make put 20 shows in because there are too many good shows like Liar Game, Quartet, Kenja no Ai, Kita no Kuni Kara, Shiroi Kyoto etc.