Nodame Cantabile SP-MOVIE

Nodame Cantabile SP (Movie)

GYABO!

The 2008 movie special released soon after the drama ended picks up where the drama left off, with Chiaki-kun and Nodame leaving for Paris together.

This is Chiaki's chance to prove himself as a conductor, and before he can meet with his life-long coach, he needs to enter and win a competition.

The pretentiousness aside, this SP turned out to be as good, if not better than, the drama from which it sprang. Fast-paced, ricochet dialogue meant to help cram a ton of stuff into less than two hours worth of film.

Takenaka Naoto as Franz Strezemann (Milch Holstein) appears at the end to drop another portent onto our unsuspecting couple, too. "Prometheus of the Desert" as he refers to this latest order.

The original cast have returned as well, though their on-screen time is very limited - relegated to Mine's father's tiny restaurant, where they meet for drinks, reminisce, and shout the ganbatte stuff again and again, esp. for their hero, Chiaki-kun.

Chiaki-kun goes up against two of the greats in conductor-dom, and he remains confident, precise, and overbearing as he behaved in the drama. He's at the top of the heap one minute, sinks to the depths of despair the next, and then with Nodame's flighty help, rises back to the top bigger and better than before.

In this movie, she's more flirtatious, evoking more of her feminine side, which is a good thing except that Chiaki-kun and his one-track mind aren't interested in anything other than winning the conductor's competition so that he can face his old Senpai with dignity, and with his head held high.

Yah! Whatever, dude. No one ever listens to me when I try to tell them that GETTING LAID helps in stressful situations. No one in Asian Dramaland cares to listen, though.

Didn't quite know what to make of Wentz Eiji as Lantoine Franz, but he wasn't on screen that often to make a fair judgement anyhow.

More important than the cute guys, this time around I felt that Ishii Masanori as Katahira Hajime nearly stole the show. He played one of the contenders for the conductor crown, and he did a great job.

Ah! And, a mystery from the drama is solved!

"...a chicken shit" but whatever. I knew something wasn't quite right with the original interpretation, so there.

Speaking of subs, they were great, then mediocre, then good, then dumb, then great again (depending on who subbed which parts, I think).

They continued to use the word Concerto, too, instead of just Concert.

Not sure how or what to say about the scenery here, either. Being fooled into thinking I'm actually there when in reality I'm not has made me a little gun shy about reporting such things in this blog. Perhaps the stills were real, and glimpses of the inside of buildings as well. Even when they visited the monuments of Paris, I got the sneaking suspicion they were filmed, but that the actual scenes were done in a Japanese studio and not on-sight.

Okay, so now on to the second part of this SP ...

Part 2 of the SP Movie ...

It's Nodame's turn to shine. Chiaki has earned his wings, isn't too afraid of airplanes now, and has signed on with Franz Strezemann as an assistant. They tour Europe and Asia, and while Strezemann does a majority of the conducting, Chiaki-kun is left to assist him.

Meanwhile, Noda is left to her own devices in Paris and finds out the hard way that kawaii doesn't always cut it in the real world. She's got a terrific ear and pitch for music and can play well when she wants to, but she hadn't applied herself too well to the technical side of the music world and now suffers in these advance classes.

However ... music wasn't her initial goal in life. She wanted to teach kindergarten, and then she met Chiaki-kun and wanted to become his wife.

It was toward the end of the drama that Chiaki-kun realized that Noda completed him, and I think this SP Movie was meant to highlight that aspect of their relationship.

One might consider this sexist, and in Japan, there is no such thing, really. In Korea it's macho, and in Japan it's about power. In both cases, men possess each while women are expected to go along for the ride.

At least Noda made her debut in one of the greatest of all European Castles (if we can believe that) - at least we got to get an outside glimpse of the place. She did great, made Chiaki-kun shed tears, and he even finally kissed her afterward.

this appeared twice, and I think the subber got it backwards. 

In this scene, she's become a little fish in a big pond.

always enjoyed and adored the goofy graphics peppered throughout the drama and the movie

case in point ...

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ギフト / Gift

GIFT

1997 11-episode, Fuji-TV comedy/thriller of sorts that starred (drumroll please) Kimura Takuya as Yukio/Takehiro - a hot dude with long, sexy hair he wears back in a ponytail while delivering things to clients, and then when the job is done, he removes the band to let the glorious mane fly free ^^;

I couldn't find a decent image of this drama to post here, so I found a pic of him from around that time period (he looks pretty much that way in the show).

At the start, the theme song took me by surprise when I heard Bryan Ferry & Roxy Music doing Tokyo Joe - nice touch!

But, then I began to resent the way, too long intro ten minutes into every episode but the last.
Also had viewing issues with this one at aznv.tv, which forced me to risk a computer virus having to watch this at disgustingly scary dramacrazy.net.

Pop-up paradise that website, and ad-laden to the hilt, too!

Every five, danged minutes (your movie will appear in 30, 29, 28 ...)

EF YOU!

I hate having to abandon aznv.tv, but for KimuTaku, I'll do anything  (*^.^*)

Anyway, if you haven't seen this one, or you've forgotten what it was about after all these years (LOL) - the story begins when a woman who's just stolen billions from some research facility is tracking down her boyfriend, who appears to have absconded with the loot.

When she arrives at his place, she follows a trail of blood to his room, opens a closet door, and out falls a naked and badly beaten (damn, that guys got amazing skin, huh?) Yukio, who now has amnesia and can't remember anything about his past, including his own name.

She takes him in and gives him the delivery job, all the while hoping he'll get his memory back and tell her where her long-lost lover has run away to, but 3 years pass where Yukio can't recall a thing still.

Each episode has him delivering a new and interesting item to a new and interesting character, but it isn't until the very end that we realize what each of those encounters is supposed to mean to Takehiro (his real name).

Someone at aznv.tv wrote a totally snarky comment about this being Japans sleazy way of offering soft-core to Take-kun's adoring fans, and as per usual, I couldn't DISagree more.

Yes, he was shown in black briefs and falling out of that closet numerous times, but c'mon now - do you honestly believe that was ALL they were trying to convey?

Grow up and get a life.

I know it's old news, and I know everyone is like WAY over him now, but ....... I LOVE THIS GUY!

Still haven't heard him sing, yet, though.

Anyway, Yukio eventually gains back his memory, and it isn't pretty what he discovers about his past, but the ending is a good one!

Here's a brief article I found while searching for a decent image of the drama, and I think you'll get a kick out of what he has to say.

Takuya Kimura
Written by Jack Herbert
The sexiest man in Asia
Takuya Kimura Actor/singer/TV star Takuya Kimura, popularly known as "Kimutaku", is a member of pop-group SMAP and Japan's biggest male star. He is regularly voted Asia's best-looking man and is a major sex-symbol in Asian gay culture.

However, he is an atypical heart-throb. In his frequent acting roles, he performs his own stunts, which hospitalised him after he fell onto some rocks in 1998.

The hysteria surrounding him might be dangerous, especially given his talent for "bad-boy" roles. His use of a butterfly knife in 1997 TV drama 'The Gift' allegedly prompted a spate of copycat attacks by disaffected teenage fans on teachers and other students.

Despite a macho image (by idol standards), he seems to have a curious fascination with cosmetics, which frequently feature in his TV commercials. He's also rumoured to carrying a bag of make-up at all times, and wear platform shoes to compensate for his teeny (167cm) stature.

In 2000, he married singer Shizuka Kudo, to the dismay of millions of Japanese girls (and a slightly smaller number of Japanese men). They have 2 children.

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ラブシャッフル / Love Shuffle

2009 JDorama that is supposed to be about a young man who went from nothing to something after falling in love with and becoming engaged to the daughter of a prominent businessman.

He's got an office job at the in-law's corporation, but the fiance's aniki is constantly harassing him and threatening him with a lay-off if he doesn't get his act together.

He's Tamaki Hiroshi of Nodame Cantabile fame, and I've yet to watch that, so this is a first for me after having gone over his career record.

Anyway, before I stray too far off-topic, let me get back to the show.

What this is really all about is Usami Kei and his inability to let go of the woman who dumps him at the start of the show.

He lives in this swingin' pad in a ritzy complex somewhere in the city, and on a stormy evening when he and his neighbors board a glass elevator together, they get stuck inside due to a lightning strike power failure.

They've shared the same floor of the apartment complex for awhile but are only now meeting one another.

They exchange business cards and learn that one is a psychiatrist, another is a fashion photographer, and SHE is a translator for a television station.

Since he's just been dumped, and the girl is wavering with a latent lover of her own, and the photographer tends to screw all the models who pose for him ... the topic easily turns from awkward introductions to sex.

They decide then and there to play a game they call Love Shuffle - where they get their partners to agree to go out with each of them for a week at a time, and that if by the end of the month, when original partners return to each other, if there is still a connection then great - if not - oh well then.

I'm not all that great at Japanese, but a running theme in this one was word-play, and that word was PANDA.

Yay, Panda!

The end of one word is pan, while the beginning of another is da.

I can't, even begin to think how we'd play something similar in English, but oh well, it was really kawaii and something I wish I understood better.

The sexually manipulative photographer is none other than Matsuda Shota from Hana Yori Dango fame and (for me, anyway) LIAR GAME.

He's grown up in both height and talent, I must say - and his deep, resonant voice is a mismatch, but oh well!

His Sera Ojiro character plays all the ladies at the start, but as the story unfolds, we discover he's not, quite the heartless jerk-ass we were led to believe about him.

Tanihara Shosuke plays Kikuta Masato, the psychiatrist who doesn't include his lover, but a patient of his - a wack-job 19 yr old artist who insists she'll commit suicide on her 20th b.day.

He was also the dorky senpai in Shiawase ni Naritai.

I must admit that from about ten minutes into the first episode, it became obvious that our leading man would end up with the leading lady (because, well, that's just the way it ALWAYS goes in a drama or movie, right?)

She is floating through life as a shadow, unable to let go of the past and a certain incident that left her unable to commit or fall in love.

Her partner, however, (and again, in my own opinion) nearly stole the show.

DAIGO is Oishi Yukichi, a nerdy guy who wears horn-rimmed glasses and carries a briefcase filled with fake money as a way to impress people and buy their affections.

He seems to be as in love with his girl as our lead, Kei, is for his flippant fiance, Mei, but once again, things are NOT always as they seem.

Yukichi quit school when he couldn't take being bullied anymore, and via a home computer, he learned the stock market, where he winds up becoming a billionaire trader buying up all the corporations where ex school mates who bullied him now work.

He doesn't fire them, and he insists he holds no grudge, but the whole point of his buying those corporations is to keep the bullies guessing on a daily basis about their future job prospects.

He appeared in episode 8 of Stand Up! but, I don't recall, and it seems he's rather new to the business, but I look VERY forward to seeing more of what he has to offer, sho nuf!

For a reason that escaped me, all the ladies are first drawn to the timid and calm doctor - who ALSO ends up not being quite the mild-mannered gentleman with a huge brain as we were led to believe.

Actually, it made sense toward the end of the show - but, if I explain that to you here, it'll give away too much of the plot, and I don't go there, so .......

Does Kei end up with Mei or the leading lady?

Does Yukichi finally get what he really wants out of life, and will she commit suicide on her 20th birthday?

Who ends up with whom, why, and how?

This received a paltry 8.7 viewer rating in Japan, and that comes as a huge shock to me.

WHY?

What was wrong with this one that no one wanted to watch?

I, for one, loved it - and the standings at aznv.tv clearly indicate that I'm right about this one being a hit, too.

Go figure.

Of course, 2009 was a banner year for JDorama, so I wonder if that had anything to do with it?

Something even better than this was airing at the same time maybe.

If you didn't watch because of bad reviews, don't be silly and give this one a go ... see if you agree.

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Egao no Hosoku / 笑顔の法則

Living Today for Tomorrow

2003 JDorama that stars Abe Hiroshi as an eccentric (kind of) anime artist and a young girl in search of a job.

She's late for an interview after attending a friend's wedding, and while still in a pretty, red kimono, she ends up getting the rented garment stuck inside the door of a van in front of the office tower where she's supposed to have the interview.

Abe happens along and is immediately reminded of a pet goldfish he once had that liked to race around the bowl before leaping to apparent freedom.

Natch, the interview doesn't go, too well, but when Abe's character sees her trying to leave the building, he insists that she be the one to assist him on his latest endeavor - which is to leave the city and hide out for about 3 months at a quaint Onsen so that he cannot be persuaded to work for anyone else since everyone in the publishing industry is dying to contract with him, and he can't say no.

She tells them she will do the job if they book a room at the Onsen her brother (head chef) works.

I must quote the synopsis for this drama:

Yumi (Yuko Takeuchi) is a 23-year-old office worker. Out of the blue, she is fired from her job. A few days later, wearing kimono, she is rushing to an interview for some part-time work at a publishing company. She was at a friend's wedding that went on a bit longer than expected and she has no time to change from her kimono.

In another room at the publisher, popular comic book writer Reijiro Sakurai (Hiroshi Abe) is having an editorial meeting with some staff. He is planning to lock himself away at a hot spring for the next three months to concentrate on his next project. Yumi stumbles into the room, looking for somewhere to change out of her kimono. Sakurai comments that if Yumi were to join him he wouldn't mind being away for so long...

Sounds totally creepy and a bit on the hentai side, don't it?

If this is what kept you from watching (like me) then forget it because THAT is not quite how the story goes.

From start to finish, I enjoyed nearly every second of this show.

The storyline was credible as well as refreshingly different - the characters were believable - and the director didn't stray or even dwell too long on aside characters issues.

The whole point of the story was about acceptance, change, and tolerance, which the writers tackled with finesse and made things all the more entertaining as a result.

Abe will always be one of my favorite, Japanese actors, and this is twice now where I've enjoyed Yuko's performance.

Give it a chance and see if you don't agree. ^^

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めだか / Medaka

2004 Japanese drama about a woman slowly but surely going nowhere in life and still thinking that she'll find a man, get married, and settle into the life she was born to live.

Instead, she ends up teaching night school at a nearby high school, where she encounters a host of misfits, scholars, and drifters.

I figured after the first episode that each, subsequent episode would spotlight one of her students private life while also keeping us updated on the heroines personal problems, and I was right.

Eita is in this, and he happens to be a guy from her elementary school days, which shocked her at the start, but then they became good friends, and for eleven episodes I hoped they would get busy, too.

It wasn't a bad or boring drama, even if no one spectacular starred, and some of the storylines brought tears to my eyes while others made me groan.

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ロング・ラブレター / Long Love Letter

漂流教室 / Drifting Classroom

As strange as this 2002 Japanese drama turned out to be, I still found it captivating enough to watch clean through and not go to bed until after midnight.

Lately, a lot of the stuff Yamapi-kun has starred is has begun to show up in the 'what people are watching' category at aznv.tv, and I can never resist checking out the choices to see if it might be something I'd want to watch as well.

As long as Yamashita Tomohisa is starring, I really care less about the content, and with Long Love Letter, I was both startled and spellbound for the duration of this eleven-episode acid trip that took us on a strange journey through the mind of a handsome teacher at a crossroads in his young, adult life.

He is Kubozuka Yosuke as Asami Akio, a guy who graduates from college and runs into this woman, Tokiwa Takako as Misaki Yuka, and they strike up this semi-interesting conversation at an open-air coffee shop where she poses this '...what if' type question that makes Akio think.

...and think he does.

But, we're not, entirely privy to that notion at the start.

See, what we know is that the two exchange numbers, he sits on a bench that night thinking about her, and a tranny sits beside him, offering him a bag of sweet potato chips.

When the tranny walks away, Akio realizes he's been robbed and now has no way of getting in touch with the pretty woman again - and since they just met, he hasn't memorized her number.

A year passes and he is now teaching at a local high school - quantum physics for dummies, I think - when the girl, who works at her father's flower shop, goes to the school to collect money from a crazy-bitch teacher in lust with one of her students (Yamapi-kun's Otomo Tadashi).

Boy and girl meet again, and the lack of proper communication ensues with him not being able to explain the circumstances surrounding his inability to get in touch with her, and her sticking up her nose while insisting she cares less and never, once gave him a second thought after that day anyhow.

So, he follows her to the flower shop, they talk for awhile, and then he leaves.

She has to return to the school to try and collect the money wack-bitch teacher owes for the flowers she sent to Tadashi, and as she is leaving, she turns to Akio and begins to tell him that she tried calling him several times the night they first met when suddenly there is this earthquake of sorts.

It's an off-day at the school, with only a few students there to take tests, serve detention time, etc., which means the staff is rather light that day as well.

The dude who played King, the G-dog gang leader from Ikebukuro Westgate Park, is asking if she is alright, and she is staring in shock at a vast wasteland directly outside the school gates.

It and they have sunk into the abyss of the earth, leaving a massive hole in the center of the town.

From there, things got really strange, and for eleven episodes, you're left to wonder what the hell really happened, WHY, and how in the world they're supposed to survive, or if they will ever return to reality again.

Whoever wrote this one has a vivid, if not morbid sense of reality, and believe it or not, it ISN'T based on a manga, either!

It's science-fiction meets romance meets wtf thriller all rolled into one, giant cliff-hanger complete with 'yea, right' moments, tear-jerking scenes, and a few annoying situations when you have to wonder why the writer would take license at all.

Like I said - Yamapi and Kubozuka together were why I chose to watch this, particular drama, and despite the weirded-out storyline and 'lecture' commentary on global warming, I was captivated by this, and I hope you will be, too.

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