Katagoshi no Koibito / 肩ごしの恋人

Over-the-Shoulder Lover


Summer, 2007, JDorama that was a romantic comedy about two thirty-ish females with opposite personalities who, despite that fact, have been life-long friends.

Hayasaka Moe (Yonekura Ryoko) was raped and now has this sub-conscious aversion to commitment, and with little faith in men.

She's a working chick at a cross-roads in her life when a sixteen-year old runaway (Sano Kazuma as Akiyama Takashi) enters her life in the most unexpected way and ends up living with her in a platonic fashion for the most part even though he's instantly infatuated with the tall beauty who likes to drink, smile, and bear the brunt of everything bad that comes her way.

I especially liked the way her life actually came full-circle, but I'm not sure many noticed or even cared about that interesting yet realistic twist to the plot.

Her ditzy friend, Takaoka Saki as Murono Ruriko, begins the show by introducing that ear-piercing, helium-sucking whine of an Asian female voice tone that made me want to pick something else to watch ... but, I just covered my ears instead and decided to bear with it since I knew she wasn't the star and might not be onscreen for a majority of the nine instead of eleven episodes.

WRONG!

Still, the bar scenes where she gets drunk and acts like a total ass-bitch were tolerable because by then, I was sucked in completely and wanted to find out what would happen to each of the interesting characters.

Ruriko gave the impression of being a mindless twit with nothing but her looks to sustain a shallow presence in life, but she sometimes said things that actually made sense or caused our doubtful Moe to think twice about what she was currently undergoing.

Ruriko truly believed that marriage was the answer to all of life's woes; especially for a woman, and that Moe needed to figure that out if she wanted to find happiness.

Moe wasn't totally against marriage or dating even, and she had indiscriminate sex rather frequently for a former rape victim - but, I guess that could be beside the point, who knows.

What she couldn't do start to finish was to commit, and that was what this drama was about - commitment.

She lived in a totally cool apartment despite her meager income and the eventual loss of her go-nowhere job, but I didn't mind.

She hooked up with a hot guy who attended Ruriko's wedding, had sex with him that afternoon, and then kept meeting with him even after discovering he was married.

He introduced her to two, interesting characters at a gay bar in a gay district of Tokyo, and one of the gays was Ryo (Kaname Jun) - a brooding, young man who worked at a porn shop up the street.

The other guy, Bun-chan (Ikeuchi Hiroyuki), owned the bar, and even though he carried his military service with him; wearing fatigues and keeping his head shaven, he had a nasty thang for the guy Moe seduced, leaving the viewer to wonder for a few episodes if he was bi.

I'll let y'all find out the truth on your own.

Ruriko finds out that her husband is having an affair with a nasty piece of work from the office, and at first she's willing to make concessions for his behavior, but eventually, her third marriage ends in divorce.

She moves in with Moe and run-away Akiyama Takashi, but it seems imperative that we sort out their lives: finding a man for Moe, returning Ruriko to her wayward hubby, and forcing Takashi to see the error of his childish, misguided ways.

When Ruriko finds out about Ryo, it is then that she decides she wants nothing more to do with her cheating husband, but Ryo isn't going to change his ways for the whining, pushy female and remains as gay as the day is long despite Ruriko's annoying efforts to work on him her female charms.

Does the handsome, wealthy man forsake his snobbish, wealthy wife for Moe?

Does Ruriko return to her repentant hubby?

Will Takashi ever figure out what life is all about and do the right thing?

WHO is the father of Moe's baby?????????????????

I liked Katagoshi no Koibito, and I think you will, too.

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流星の絆 / Ryusei no Kizuna

Ties of Shooting Stars


This was a two-fer in that Kazunari Ninomiya AND Nishikido Ryo star in this 10-episode, 2008 JDorama about three siblings who sneak out of the house late at night in order to watch the Leonid meteor shower (despite the pouring rain and their father's stern warning to forget about it and go to bed), and when they return home, they discover the brutal slaying of their parents.

Of course, the three are sent off to an orphanage, but at least they remain together, and because Nino's Ariake Koichiis is the eldest, it is his responsibility to look after his younger siblings, who all vow to one day find and kill the perpetrator.

Fourteen years later, and when the statute is about to run out on the murder case (not that way in the States), Koichiis, his younger brother, Taisuke (Ryo), and their little sister, Shizuna (Erika Toda), have already set in motion their attempt to find the culprit and have him slain.

Koichiis works at a diner, Taisuke at a video rental place, and Shizuna in an office until the unreasonable harrassment by a senpai forces her to quit.

She wants revenge on the office manager, and with the help of her brothers, they manage to swindle him, which came a bit, too easy, so they start to swindle others who had swindled the sister.

All the while they continue to work the case of their murdered parents when, after more than fourteen years, and with the expiration date fast-approaching, the siblings have little, if any, confidence in the investigator in charge since that fateful night long ago.

What I picked up on and appreciated was the writer's sensibility in that he/she allowed us to see the adults through the eyes of or at least from the perspective of the Ariake children, who still believe what they perceived to be the truth without the benefit of growing up in understanding and knowledge of their parents true nature.

Also, there was plenty of great, Japanese food in this one - though they did regard the dish as Western fare (hashed meat, curry stew, or Shichūkarē).



An added bonus (for me) was that Kaname Jun also starred as Togami Yukinari, a rich kid whose father owns several, Western-style restaurants but Yuki-chan is in search of the perfect Shichūkarē recipe for the restaurant he is soon to be in charge of once opening day arrives.

Yuki-kun also falls for the little sister, whom he invites to the restaurant and serves her a curry rice dish based on a recipe he found among his father's personal belongings - and when she tastes the dish, it brings tears to her eyes, reminding her of the dish her late father used to prepare in a tiny but popular Western-fare restaurant he ran before his untimely death.

Turns out that Yukinari's father had a falling-out with Ariake-san, who loved to gamble and usually ordered take-out from Togami-san's food stall up the street.

Ariake told Togami that his food was awful, and that he had no right preparing Shichūkarē if he wasn't going to do it right.

All roads seem to lead toward Togami-san as the killer, which devastates poor Yuki-kun and completely confuses Shizuna, but the two brothers are determined to find out the truth and take their revenge.

There is a plot-twist at the end that I didn't see coming despite a few warning signs along the way, which always makes me very happy - when the writer can stump me.

If you haven't already, I recommend you give Ryusei no Kizuna a try - I think you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

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