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"Supokon" at its best!!!
As I've already confessed in a previous review, my favorite sport is baseball.Of all different sorts of baseball, Japanese "yakyuu" is my favorite (in a nutshell: no doping - or at least much much less than in the MLB; less muscles and more brains; nobody munching tobacco and spitting it on the field, etc. etc.).
And of all different types of Japanese "yakyuu", my favorite is precisely high school baseball.
Why? Because it's poetic, pure, epic...it's Sport with a capital "s", sport as it *should* be.
Now, the Japanese have a whole genre dedicated to sports-related stories, called "supokon", and since baseball is (one of) the national sport(s), you can guess that the vast majority of "supokon" are about baseball, and particularly about high school baseball, 'cause Japanese *love* it and the Koushien's final game is basically the Japanese equivalent of the Superbowl in the States!
So does all that mean that there's nothing really new in this story? Could be, yeah.
Does that make it any less fabulous? Hell no!
A good recipe doesn't necessarily need any fancy ingredients to make for a delicious dish; more often than not, it's precisely the simple, good old ones that are the best of the lot!
As is the case with this "Gekokujo Kyuji": all the tropes of the genre are there, but still, you can't help but enjoying *every single minute* of it! Marvelously written, acted, directed. Production value reached Himalayan heights. The message conveyed was simply beautiful.
Jeez, I finished watching it before Christmas, but I'm still getting goosebumps thinking about it now, so good it was!!! ^______^;;;
Highly and wholeheartedly recommended! Perfect 10 all the way!!!
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Iine! Hikari Genji-kun
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Living no Matsunaga-san
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That is not to say that it's absolutely perfect, alas. Indeed, the script had its moments but also a coupla sloppy passages (like for example the übertrite subplot involving the ML's ex). The cast did well as a whole, but we're honestly not talking of award-granting performances. As for the production value / "packaging", the level was completely fine, but at the same time nothing worth calling home about it.
A decent 8/10 in my book!
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Kamisan no Waruguchi Season 1
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Back in the Golden Age of J-dramas it was possible to make a drama with such a politically incorrect title (it roughly translates as "Badmouthing the Wives" - but don't get it wrong, at least 80% of the times - if not more - the badmouthing husbands aren't portrayed as being right at all in doing so!) and with such tridimensional characters, so full of faults and yet - or rather, precisely because of that! - so tremendously humane.
The script doesn't take sides "a priori" (OK, today it's Latin Day, bear with me, please), but rather shows two main characters who are right or wrong depending on the situation. They argue, they fight, they yell, but at the end of the day - and that's the lovely message conveyed by this old comedy - both are made better people by being together and learning from each other and from their mistakes, day in and day out. There are no *perfect* couples, but rather *functioning* ones, that are so exactly because they know that they're not perfect and *accept* it! (compare that with the current trend of demanding nothing short of *perfection* from your partner, and any failure to comply to that impossibly unrealistic demand leading to a divorce...>_____<).
Back to the drama: the script is wonderful, managing to be at the same time hilarious and thought-provoking. The acting is top-notch, with virtual standing ovations for both leads. The "packaging" might feel dated to younger viewers, but those who appreciate "oldiesbutgoldies" won't have any problem with that.
No surprise it was so successful it got a second season (alas, not yet subbed, if I'm not mistaken...?), not really a common occurrence for comedies.
Oh, a last side-note for my countrymates - who'll get the reference: this is basically the Japanese version of "Casa Vianello", LOL! ^_^;;;
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First of all, the message is so deep that it simply humbles at least 90% of other dramas (and basically every Western series ever - but well, that's easier).
The script works like a Swiss clockwork, seriously; and seeing how this drama consists of 40 episodes of around 45' each, that alone is quite a feat! You laugh, you cry, you learn, etc....the whole nine yards! Or rather, Yin & Yang and all 24 solar terms!
The characters are so well-written and tridimensional that when you finish watching the series, you feel like you're saying goodbye to a group of friends!
The acting is simply superb. At this point I usually give three "honorable mentions" but here it's hard to name just three, one would want to praise *all* of them with a virtual standing ovation! Anyway, traditions must be kept, so let's say I'll stand a little longer for Jiang Shan, Zhao Lu Si and my beloved Dai Lu Wa.
The music is just lovely and adds greatly to the viewing pleasure.
As for the "packaging" (direction, editing, photography, etc.), that's top-notch too.
What's not to like? Perfect 10! Goes instantly into my top-5 of all times! ^_____^
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Pan to Bus to 2-dome no Hatsukoi
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1) The GREAT ones, stuff like the "Kazoku wa Tsurai yo!" trilogy, or "Umimachi Diary", or many many others, all magnificent examples of what makes Japanese culture so unique and fascinating
2) The SILLY ones, titles like "The World Sinks Except Japan" or "Oppai Volleyball" and many others; in a decent portion of these, the silliness is actually pretty funny, making such movies still enjoyable
3) The YAWNFESTS, or what I tend to refer to as "Victims of the nefarious influence of French 'Nouvelle Vague' and 'Cahiers du Cinéma'..."; pompous and artsy, painfully slow, with horribly thin (or even non-existing!) plots, unappealing dialogues etc.
4) All those which cannot fit in any of the previous (hey, I did warn you I was oversimplifying it! ^___^;;;.....)
Unfortunately, this "Bread & Bus Etc." fits in the third category. It took me FOUR DAYS to finish it, because I literally couldn't stand watching more than half an hour of it in one go (and usually my eyelids would start feeling horribly heavy already after ten or fifteen minutes...>____<).
The whole plot could fit on the back of a postage stamp, and if it had been done as a short movie (like, five minutes, tops) it might have been okay. But at close to two hours, it's almost unbearable.
Too bad, because Fukagawa Mai (the reason why I've watched it!) possesses a pretty nice acting talent. But it just couldn't shine in this yawnfest, alas.
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Cette critique peut contenir des spoilers
After the first episodes I thought I was gonna give this "Shimobee" a pretty high grade, 'cause it started very well, managed to be really hilarious here and there, and was altogether very entertaining.The second half of the series, though, was more or less the fair of déjà vu (the "terminal illness" trope can produce gems like "1 lt. no Namida" or "Neko", but it can also result annoyingly trite and cheesy, as it was the case here, imho) and that made me lower the rating considerably.
Still, both Shiraishi Sei and Yasuda Ken deserve a standing ovation: the former is not only a gorgeous woman, but also a marvelous actress; and the latter is simply amazing, I honestly don't know many actors who would've been able to pull this off!
The music was also really nice.
Overall, and despite the not-so-great script, a pleasant watch.
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I really disliked it, sorry...>___<
I should've trusted my guts and dropped this immediately, after all....>__<It had some (few, waaaay too few) good moments, but those were literally drowned in a plethora of frustratingly terrible, poorly written scenes.
I've sometimes used food metaphors while praising some drama (writing stuff like "it masterfully manages to mix so many different ingredients and ends up creating an original, delicious flavor" or something like that), but here it's just the opposite: the clueless screenwriter (whom I'm adding immediately to my personal blacklist!) came up with a painfully uncohesive story, filling it with idiotic characters and mixing up genres and styles in an obnoxiously chaotic, incoherent way (back to food metaphors: mixing something sweet with something sour is perfectly fine if you come up with, say, a delicious plate of Sweet&Sour Chicken...but here it's as if she'd dropped a spoonful of strawberry jam on a tomato, and then covered the whole thing with mayonnaise, cocoa powder and wasabi...sorry, but I'll pass! >____<)
All this imvho, of course.
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Cette critique peut contenir des spoilers
Wakui Emi is absolutely PERFECT (no surprise here, LOL), but also most of the remaining supporting cast did a wonderful job, from Matsushige Yutaka to Sato Megumi, from Watase Tsunehiko to Katsura Kichiya, from the lovely Miyajima Mai to Kato Toranosuke, from Kabira Jay to Kimura Yuichi etc. etc. - seriously, it's easier to name the very few exceptions, i.e. the moronic uncle (Kyomoto Masaki is 20 years older than Hara Sachie and the layers of makeup and flashy clothes he wears are supposed to make him look younger, but he ends up giving a strong 50-something-drag-queen vibe; you'll forgive me if I don't find realistic that Natsuko-san falls for him, ne?), the clichè-but-mostly-useless-grandma (I don't like when the elderly are written in scripts as mere ornaments, really; compare this with Churasan's obaa-san and you'll see the difference: now, THAT's an obaa-san, not this ghostly presence!) and the annoying new apprentice, Kososo. Furthermore, rakugo makes for a very interesting and refreshingly original topic (though "Tiger & Dragon" wins hands down there...but that's another story) and throughout the whole dorama, music is an extremely pleasant accompaniment ("Furusato" and the opening credits music most of all!). So why "only" 7/10? Well, sorry if I'm too blunt, but I found both Kanjiya Shihori (whom I also didn't like in the otherwise great movie "Swing Girls") and Aoki Munetaka extremely annoying - and as much as it pains me to write this (me being a Hanshin-fan and whatnot), I have to admit that so was the constant use of Kansai-ben (seriously, now that I've finished watching this, I don't wanna hear another "-hen" nor "-han" for at least six months, LOL!). Anyway, Aoki's character's stage name happens to be perfect for summing up 151-episodes worth of dorama in just two syllables: So-So! :/ Cet avis était-il utile?
Mou Ichido Kimi ni, Propose
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