First Kiss / ファースト・キス

2007 Summer drama from Japan that starred Hideaki Ito (my favorite Japanese actor!)

I thought I already blogged about this one when I first watched it a couple years ago, but I can't find it, and since I watched it again, I'll blog again.

He was so smokin' hot in this show, it kills me.

First Kiss rates up there in my top FIVE all-time favorite dramas, and watching it a second time made me feel as happy, excited, and enthralled as I was the first time I saw it, too.

Everyone in the whole world knows the story about a bratty girl with a heart condition who had to undergo risky surgery that might kill her, (in an American hospital where everyone had an Aussie accent) so she decides she wants to return to her brother in Japan and find her first love ~

(well, it took a second watch to realize that what she actually wanted was to reconnect with her big brother - her first kiss, her best friend, and the only guy who truly cared about her - )




~ so I won't blog about the details here, except to say Ito makes a great, big brother and I wish he was MINE!

Well, not a brother - a lover I mean - but even as a big brother, I'd be totally down with that.



The theme song is an all-time favorite of mine as well, and if this works, here is the upload since I can't get the actual song to play on my blog:

Kokoro by Kazumasa Oda

(its my understanding that the lead actress really liked his music at the time, so it must have made her really happy to have one of his tunes as the theme song!)

Ok, so I'm totally in love with this guy, I wish I could see him in person, even from a far off distance vantage point, and what I wouldn't give to get close enough just to memorize his scent.

(sigh)

So, I'm browsing the net to get more info on the drama, when I ran across this old but totally hilarious and interesting article about him:

Hideaki Ito spotted with heavily intoxicated woman

(courtesy Japan Today) Saturday 30th January, 08:21 AM JST

"Just after 2 o’clock in the morning on Jan 16, a couple was seen coming out of a Nishi-Azabu multitenant building. The two were tottering, or rather, the man had his arm tightly around the woman’s waist as though to keep her from falling. Passersby turned around to stare at the tall man, who was actor Hideaki Ito, 34.

While some curious onlookers whispered to each other if the woman could be the actor’s new girlfriend, Ito ignored the questioning look of bystanders and held the attractive woman who had a model-like figure.

In the past, Ito was rumored to be in a relationship with Fuji Television newscaster Minako Nakano. So could this woman be his new girlfriend?

It was obvious that the woman was heavily intoxicated and could hardly stand on her feet by herself. Ito escorted the woman into a taxi, which delivered the two to a high-end condominium in Minato Ward that appeared to be the actor’s home. Ito first came out of the car, followed by the woman who collapsed on the pavement. Helping her up, the actor hugged her close and took her into the building.

Shukan Post inquired with Ito’s agency to find out about the nature of the relationship between the two. “The woman in question is an acquaintance of Ito, and they are not ‘involved’ in any other manner. It is our understanding that the two were joined later at his home by other friends who had been drinking with them in Nishi-Azabu,” was the reply."

At first, they made it sound like he was wasted as well, but when you read the article, it sounds more like the 'friend' was smashed and needed help getting around.


What a gentleman.




So anyway, here are the pictures I captured while re-watching one of my favorite dramas that stars my favorite, Japanese actor.

so bummed when his hair went from this to -


this

and then I found some OTHER interesting things to show you, too.


like this - a swing in the middle of the city!


and a really cool reflection on a glass building - it looks like a background, but its not



and these beautiful lights! (yes, the lights, not him!)


and the cool apartment building where I want to live some day



THE END!

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Favorite Dramas Currently Airing

Right now, I'm watching three dramas simultaneously - and they are

Buzzer Beat

Dream 2009

and

Yako no Kaidan

Of the three, I'm having the most fun watching --- Buzzer Beat.

It stars Yamashita Tomohisa, Ito Hideaki, Aibu Saki, Kitagawa Keiko, and Ogi Shigemitsu.
Kaneko Nobuaki (かねこ のぶあき) also stars as an off-beat character, and the more of him I see on film, the more of him I like.

He's not homely, but Yamashita isn't as exciting a man to look at (for me anyway) as my all-time favorite, Hideaki Ito, and he's the reason I became interested in the Basketball drama to begin with.

Yes, it's a sports-theme drama, but - HIDEAKI ITO!
I'll watch anything this guy stars in, I swear.

DREAM stars Joo Jin mo and Kim bum - and again, Jin mo is ten-times hotter (to me) than bum.
I figured Kim Sang bum was popular with teenagers because he's from a KPop band or something, but I guess not.
He starred in Boys Over Flowers (didn't care for it).
Joo Jin mo is sexy-handsome, and he's the reason I'll be watching the rest of Dream as each episode is uploaded.

This is another sports-theme drama, but from Korea instead of Japan, and instead of basketball, it's about kickboxing.

Lastly, there is YAKO NO KAIDAN, which stars Naohito Fujiki - a guy on par with the likes of Hideaki Ito imho.
This, too, is an exciting and intense drama, but the uploads for this on Aznv.tv are way, too slow.

Naohito is in several dramas this year, but the quality of the uploads on Aznv.tv are far greater than on Mysoju, so it takes them longer to upload videos.
This is fine with me, though!
So, I'll watch Yako no Kaidan first, then go on to the other dramas he stars in later on.

In Yako, he's a popular hairdresser who is under suspicion of murder, and the detective on the case is the voice-over who tells the story.
He's never looked hotter or more suspicious to me than in this drama, and I can't get enough of Yako no Kaidan!

With the exception of the latter, Buzzer Beat and Dream are uploaded via ViiKii.

ViiKii sucks, I'm sorry.

It's run by teenagers who use English as a second language, or by western Asians who are as uneducated as the rest of the western population.

At the site, and underneath each episode you work on, is a place to leave comments, and for an entirely unknown reason, those comments appear at the top of the video screen!
It's gay, it's insane, and it's totally frustrating for someone who is trying to read the translation, watch the show, and try to ignore the garbage printed at the top of the screen.

"OMG! He's so cute!"
"WTF? She so ugly!"
"kekeke, so cute when he smiles!"

It's juvenile annoyance I can do without, that's for sure.

As I've said before, I tried working for ViiKii during East of Eden and Kingdom of the Winds.
I'd change things like spelling errors, incorrect phrasing, and ubiquitous nonsense like "...", and double-type, like "...but but he's not ggoing..."
things like that.

and Every, single time, someone came behind me and put back whatever it was I changed.

It's not a question of sour grapes, either.

I don't know about the rest of the interested world of Asian cinema, but if the folks in dramaland want to make a profit on DVD sales, then they need to get serious about the quality of their subtitles.

Don't get me wrong, because without fansubbers, no one could have as much fun watching a brand new drama from Asia, but if they want to sell the DVDs to these things (and yes, I'd be willing to buy them), then it's wrong for the company to use such groups as ViiKii, With S2, SARS, and Band o Nuts that destroy the quality of the $65-$250 DVDs.

I'll continue to watch online for free and illegally, and just keep hitting the pause button to re-read what's written and make my own judgment calls about what's actually said.

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Kodoku no Kake / 孤独の賭け

This was a Japanese drama that I purchased online through Amazon.com, and which came as a special bonus on Christmas Eve, along with the Laurel CD that I also ordered.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!

Before I even watched Kodoku no Kake, I knew that I'd like it because it stars one of my all-time FAVORITE actors, Hideaki Ito.



sigh ... drool ... moan ... dream-on
S.E.X. gOD!!!

Anyway, after the holiday travel, I returned home and watched my DVD.

This is what I found ...




Turns out the subtitles were created by a Chinese person translating Japanese to English.

YAH! That makes WAAAY sense, huh?
So AGAIN I got burned ordering a DVD online.
It was $30 I could have used on anything else, TRUST me.
Still, I can't find many of his movies or dramas online, so for $30, I got to stare at him for three days (the amount of time it took me to watch the entire drama), AND, I got to capture a ton, more of his awesome images for my bulging ITO HIDEAKI pics folder!

He was exceptionally sexy in Kodoku no Kake because of his super-hot LONG HAIR!



The title theme, Kodoku no Kakera is sung by Angela Aki, and though to me she appears frumpy in street wear & nerd glasses, she possesses a beautiful voice.

The drama is about a young, successful businessman with a huge chip on his shoulder who is out to destroy everyone with the billions that he's made after climbing from the depths of poverty & despair.

KnK also stars Sakai Masato 堺雅人, whom I thought to be really cute, always grinning (especially his laughing eyes).




speaking of horrible subtitles ...

Here is the rest of the cast, in case you are interested ...


I enjoyed the mature theme, the mature content, and (thank you!) the mature ACTORS!
Not into the sappy, sweet, ditzy, airhead, bubble-gum chewing, kawaii sh*t that has inundated this market AT ALL.

Ito's character, Chigusa Teijiro, had a lot of sex at the beginning of this drama.




He's leaving a bar one evening when Inui Momoko (Hasegawa Kyoko) falls in front of his car and Chigusa gets out to see if she is ok.
We find out a lot later in the drama that he recognized her almost immediately as a character from his past; the daughter of the man who ruined his father.

Momoko has revenge on her mind too, though.
She believes that it was her uncle who ruined her life and caused her father to commit suicide.
Her older brother hung himself when he failed a college entrance exam, and since their mother was counting on him to raise the family back up in social status, she decided to set the house on fire.

Sakai's character ran into the house, and after getting his leg crushed by a falling china cabinet, he managed to drag a young Momoko from the burning home, saving her but gaining a bum leg in the process.

Sakai's Makita Jiro character takes over as the big-brother in Momoko's life, though he's crazy in love with her.
He lectures at a local university, but he always manages to find time to check in on Momoko and make sure that she isn't trying to ruin her own life any time soon.

Anyway, Momoko recognizes the gorgeous Chigusa from an earlier television broadcast about his latest business venture in America, and she tells him that she wants a boat-load of cash to compensate for the accident with the car.
She offers her body in exchange, too.

Momoko is a budding fashion designer who wants to make enough money to buy back the home she thinks that her uncle stole from her parents.

Jiro is naturally disappointed after Momoko tells him about the sex for $$$ deal that she made with Chigusa, but the smiling gimp only encourages her to change her mind before it's too late.

Lots of twists & turns in this drama, but again, to me the best part was getting to stare at my lusciously sexy Hideaki for three days straight.





I absolutely adored this necklace!


His apartment was pretty sweet, too.


I SO love Japanese cherry tree blossoms!


This guy was scary ...


He TOTALLY ruined the ending for me!!!

I'll leave you with what I can find of the WORST of the subtitles.

??? Is that even a number ???

??????????

s-s-s-say WHAT???

eeeeeeeeeew!

um ... WHAAAT???

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