My Boss My Hero / マイボス マイヒーロー

2006 JDorama (sort of) that starred Nagase Tomoya as the 30-something son of a Yakuza boss whose father decides that before he'll promote Sakaki "Tornado" Makio to the 3rd 'something' in the clan, he must obtain a diploma, or said position will go to his younger brother.

"Tornado" because when he's pissed off, Makio-kun turns into a crazy fighting machine, with not even the toughest bad-ass left standing in his wake.

Early in this 10-episodes of silliness, Makio has to go from a dark-clad thug to a uniform-wearing teen, and the first thing he learns about the private institution his father has paid heavily to slip his son into is that there are only a handful of treasured 'purin' cups available to the more than 100 students of the academy, and that if he doesn't move his ass at the bell, it isn't likely he'll get his hands on the sugary confection he's so fond of.

There is a kindly, old nurse who is always on hand to offer warm tea and sage advice to the students, along with a shy boy and confused girl who quickly become Makio-kun's friends.

Makio wants desperately to take over his father's position, but his younger brother has returned from University in the states and makes no bones about his desire to have the same thing, so it's up to Makio to enlist the aid of that ever-present 'gambatte' spirit if he ever intends to succeed.

This was meant as a light-hearted comedy with a message, and it may have succeeded had it not been for Tomoya-san's overly acted and Jim Carey-esque antics that ruined it for me.

He was too spectacular in Ikebukuro West Gate Park, so my expectations for him were too high, I think.

Don't quite know what happened, but aside from Futari, I haven't seen him do anything worth bragging about.

However! his resume is impressively long, so there is still hope if I can find more of his work at aznv.tv.

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Futari ~ Watashitachi ga Eranda Michi / ふたり ~私たちが選んだ道~

2003 Japanese movie about a young couple who fall in love, get married, and start out their expectant lives together when tragedy strikes and they, along with their closest relatives, are left to face some interesting if not predictable and oft-times unrealistic decisions about the future.

Futari stars Nagase Tomoya as Kamagata Yoshiyuki, the husband, and Fukada Kyoko as Kamagata Mutsumi, the wife.

He's got an office job and she is a nurse at a hospital, and they live in a nice apartment.

On the eve of a much-anticipated weekend get-away in the country, Kamagata-kun gets into an accident on his motorcycle and ends up in a hospital other than the one where his wife works.

He's paralyzed from the waist down and will never walk again, and so our story begins here, where for about two hours we walk along at baby steps pace with our newlyweds as they struggle to come to terms with the twist fate handed them in a split second.

The only reason I chose to watch Futari is because of Nagase-san.

He may be old to a lot of you, but to me, he's fine as wine and oh, so easy on the eyes - even if he does remind me of Johnny Depp.

He's been around awhile, with an impressive list of film & drama credits to his name, along with the fact he's the lead singer of a group I have yet to listen to, so shame on me in the slacker department - gotta get my hands on some of their music and make a judgment call about his talent in Tokio.

I was wrong to pre-judge this film, and I appreciated the fact that the writers chose to remain realistic while also capturing just a tad of the sappy silliness no-doubt meant to take away some of the heaviness from the serious content of the storyline.

It's been around for awhile now, but if you haven't seen Futari yet, I recommend you give it a go and find out for yourself how simple yet complex, entertaining yet serious a Japanese movie can be.

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