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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婚カツ！ / Konkatsu!

Marriage Hunting!


I just finished watching this 11-episode 2009 drama from Japan, and while it received mixed reviews at aznv.tv, I thought it was fabulous and I recommend it!

In all fairness to the show, a lot of the lukewarm reviews had to do with the fact that Ueda Tatsuya as Amamiya Kuniyasu had a bit-part and wasn't the lead actor.
Another thing some people did was to assume this was a food drama when its title clearly represents itself as Marriage Hunter material, nothing more.
I blame this confusion on the dramas billboard that has all of the actors holding chopsticks with tonkatsu on them.

Nakai Masahiro as Amamiya Kuniyuki is the son of a tonkatsu owner, and he hates the fried pork meal almost as much as he hates his life.
He's a bad-luck kid in the sense that everything he hopes will go his way doesn't until he ends up not even trying anymore.
At 30, he's become a drone who ends up making one, last seemingly bad decision to quit his job when the economy crashes the very, next day - leaving him unemployed for awhile.
His baby brother is Kuniyasu, a hair dresser who pops in and out of the show from time to time, and granted, the boy has a very, pretty face and awesome hair but - I think it was a wise decision to give him a bit part, because he needs more experience before he tackles a lead role.

Sato Ryuta as Fukazawa Shigeru nearly stole the show, but not quite.
He's one of Kuniyuki's buddies and works as the proprietor of a liquor shop directly across the narrow alley from the tonkatsu joint.
He's big, loud, and upbeat, always insisting that to smile is the answers to a majority of the worlds problems.

The konkatsu topic arises when Kuniyuki applies for a part-time job with the city planning commission in their 'low birth rate' department - with one of the conditions for being hired that he be married.
Needing the job, Kuniyuki tells a fib and makes everyone think he's currently engaged but in need of a job & money before taking that inevitable, final step in his life.

This is where we meet a few, more key players in the show: namely, Tanihara Shosuke as Nihei Takumi and Kohinata Fumiyo as Amamiya Kuni0.
Takumi grew up in the same neighborhood Kuniyuki ends up trying to save and he's been relegated to the 'shameful' position of head of the low birth rate department.
Kuniyuki and 60-something Amamiya Kunio work for and with Takumi to find ways for their prefecture to increase the number of marriages in that area in order to increase the birth rate.
It's a tiny area on the Tokyo border, and its also a dated place with a majority of the businesses already shuttered due to lagging foot traffic in the area.
Kuniyuki and Amamiya bump into each other at a konkatsu, where they both hope to find a woman to marry before their boss (the city president) discovers their lie.
After attending several of these arranged get-togethers for single men & women, the two begin to learn the strategies involved in that, particular business while also becoming closer in work and friendship matters.

As it turns out, the President hired another man, Kitamura Yukiya as Ito Masaru to find a way to revitalize the section of her prefecture in most need of a face-lift, and that happens to be the neighborhood where Kuniyuki grew up.
Masaru is a cold-hearted man with $$ for eyes, and he uses people to get what he wants as well as to move up the corporate ladder of success.
He cares less about the three, hapless men in the storage room low birth rate department and turns down every request they make of him to halt, slow down, or at least hear their side of the story about why its important not to go ahead with his proposed plans to level the area and replace it with a bunch of new, improved shops.

There are some interesting and unusual love stories, there is a lot of food, though most-often tonkatsu, and there is also just as much comedy in this drama.
And though I wasn't, too excited about the leading man, he still managed to capture my interest enough to want to see his plight through to the very end.
His hair style reminded me of the top of a soft-swirl ice cream cone.

Does she get the man of her dreams?
Does he manage to win her heart?
Will the bad guy see the error of his ways in time?
And, will the town be saved or demolished for renewal?

These questions can be asked of more than just, one character in Konkatsu, and without giving anything away, there are enough twists & turns involved to keep the story from going stale.

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