miss_sanggojae

Evening's Greetings, Everyone!

So, I haven't been posting much because I've had so much Uni work to do. And it's not (s'not... snot... hahaha :-p) like Uni is too overwhelming or anything, but it's more that I'm actually trying to get the best grades possible because I dearly want to get into Honours and go to Japan. And... I got an HD (High Distinction) in my vocab/grammar/kanji test last week YAY! YAY! YAY! So it will all pay off, hopefully. Just have to keep working hard.

So, a few weeks ago I finished watching 東京湾景 - Tokyo Bay, which also goes by the title "Tokyo Wankei - Destiny of Love", and yes, the overly dramatic title is appropriate. This is THE MOST DRAMATIC DRAMA I HAVE EVER SEEN! It's done in the style of say, 'The Bold and the Beautiful' or 'The Young and the Restless', except that Tokyo Wankei is more full-on because it has 1hr (rather than half-hour) episodes. There is little to no humour, and no comic-relief-sidekick characters. It is very much a drama about LOVE and LOSS and THE SINS OF THE MOTHER RE-VISITING THE DAUGHTER and OMG I CAN'T MARRY YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE JAPANESE OMG! issues.

There will be many spoilers ahead, so be warned. And if you want to see someone's incredible effort at compacting 11-episodes worth of story into a ten-minute video, see here.



Basically, Mika Kimoto, a high-flying woman with an impressive career in publishing, falls for a blue-collar worker, Ryosuke, who teaches calligraphy to children in his spare time. HOWEVER, she is "Korean" and he is Japanese, therefore her father won't allow them to be together. I put Korean in "_" because even though Mika was born in Japan, AND her mother was born in Japan, her grandparents are Korean, therefore she is Korean - like, with a Green (Korean) Passport and everything. Now, this was a cultural eye-opener for me, an ignorant Westerner who thought: 'well, wherever you're born, you are a citizen of that country. NO WAY JOSE! That is apparently a very Western, post-WW2 way of thinking, and in the East, blood runs much deeper than soil.

So, that's Layer 1 of drama. Layer 2 revolves around the fact that Mika's now-deceased mother ALSO fell in love with a Japanese man and their love was forbidden by HER father! OMG SO DRAMATIC! We find this out because... Mika's mother's diary (and a painting of her in a hanbok - traditional Korean dress) is discovered in some random guy's attic and he wants to fictionalise the love story. And... wait for it... the guy Mika's mother fell in love with is..... Ryosuke's father!!!! ZOMG! Yes, you heard right. 

And then, we find out via the diary that he DIED (well, obviously he faked his own death) so that Mika's mother could marry the Korean man her parents chose for her.

And then there are about fifty more layers, with Ryosuke's suicidal (wrist-cutting) ex-girlfriend, the perfect Korean man Mika's father wants her to marry (who becomes a quadriplegic after an accident directly involving Mika - ZOMG!) and then there's a scare about Mika and Ryosuke actually being brother and sister, which was actually kind of gross because they had already had sex. Yuck.

Anyway, the point of all this is that if you really like your drama laid on THICK, you'll love Tokyo Wankei. I hadn't seen any of the actors in any other dramas, so I can't really compare with other roles, and even though it was filmed in 2004, this series has much more of a mid 90's feel. I don't know why... it just does.

And, to point out the drama to those who may not have understood from the title, here is the poster:



So, I will attempt to post again within the fortnight. Because I never seem to post about what I SAID I would post about in the previous post, I won't say what I'm going to post about in the next post here. Is that ok with everyone? ^_^

Wishing you all a glorious week,
~Sophie

今晩はインタネト人！！！
Good evening, good people of the Internet ^_^

Two weeks into Uni and already I am preparing:

• to give a presentation on the orthography of Korean vowels
• to write an essay arguing that Israeli Hebrew is not 'Hebrew Revived', but is instead a Semito-European hybridization of Hebrew and Yiddish as spoken by Ashkenazic Jews (this guy is my lecturer - the epitome of language-nerd cool :-p)
• for a test on the twenty kanji we have learned in the last fortnight. Apparently they are easing us into the new semester - after the test it will be to learn 20 kanji per week!!!

So what with all this going on, and about a million hours of reading to do per week, I haven't been watching that much drama. I have to re-times the subs for the last four episodes of Secret Garden, and Tokyo Wankei is just too.... dramatic at the moment. But I will give it a proper review once I've finished.

However, what I have been watching is... film! I take full advantage of the fact that the house I currently live in has Foxtel (the Australian version of cable TV) and so once a week I scroll through the World Movies channel and record anything out of Korea or Japan ^_^ I watched the South Korean film 김씨 표류기 - 'Castaway on the Moon' a few weeks ago, and the Japanese film 空気人形 - 'Air Doll' last night, and because the two have such similar themes presented in very different ways, I wanted to reflect a bit on them here.

So, starting with Castaway on the Moon. First of all, I LOVED IT! Essentially, it is the story of a guy, Kim, who tried to commit suicide by jumping off a bridge into the Han River (the GIGANTIC river that is more than 1km wide and runs through the middle of Seoul). However, he doesn't die, but washes up on the banks of an uninhabited island in the middle of the river, designated as a bird sanctuary. From this island he can see the city... but he has no way of getting there! For a while the film is quite reminiscent of the Hollywood movie 'Castaway' (in that he has to find food and shelter and tries not to go insane), but with one significant difference - a reclusive girl (also called Kim!) obsessed with taking photos of the moon spots him with her telescope! And so begins the most unlikely of romances.

Regardless of they type of films you usually like, here are a few reasons why I recommend this film as a 'good film to watch' (you know what I mean!)

1st: There isn'tt a lot of dialogue. This is good because it means you don't read a lot of subtitles!
Ok, I know that makes me sound like a lazy philistine, but honestly, you watch some films where all the characters talk really fast, and they have this witty banter going (French films *cough*), and the subtitles can't possibly reflect all the nuances of the language they are using, AND you can't pay full attention to the visuals because your eyes are distracted by the subtitles you have to read! Having said that, I love foreign films because they are a window into places I may never get to see or experience for myself, and I would never not see a film just because it has subtitles. However I know many people who will shy away from seeing foreign films because they say its just too hard to concentrate on the film because of the presence of subtitles. I tell them to watch Everything Is Illuminated ^_^
In conclusion: because there isn't a lot of dialogue, the acting really stands out, making this film a 'stand-out' film!

2nd: The uniquely Korean location/situation/setting
The majority of the filming took place on Bamseom Island, so the views of the bridge and the city during the day and at night are beautiful. Also, although the girl is a recluse, she takes photos of the only other scene that reminds her of the tranquility of the moon - that time of the season when the city has an air-raid drill and the streets of Seoul empty completely. Reminiscent of when Times Square was emptied in the film Vanilla Sky...
In conclusion: this film will give you a unique perspective on Seoul that you won't appreciate from that other type of film Korea is so adept at producing - the horror/thriller/slasher/blood-and-gore film ^_^

So, this post took me twice as long to complete because I lost half of it when I accidentally used a keyboard shortcut to activate the 'Back' button and lost all that I had written :-'( So for the next entry I will write a little bit about Air Doll and why I think that Japanese and Korean films are the best when it comes to portraying the idea of being lonely in a world (like Seoul or Tokyo) where you are always surrounded by people.

Well, it's time for 晩ご飯 (dinner)! ^_^

Stay safe, eat fruit, and enjoy your day/evening

Love from
~Sophie

 Ohayou, Internets!

Guess what? I passed my Japanese test! WOOT WOOT ^_^ This means that as of Tuesday I have five hours of Japanese lessons per week, and who knows how many hours of homework :-p Plus Phonology. Plus Kaurna. Wow. I won't be bored this semester, that much I know.

Therefore, in the next few days I want to finish up a few of the series that I'm half-way through, and just now I (finally) finished ランチの女王 - ranchi no joou - Lunch Queen!

Turns out Lunch Queen isn't a favourite of mine. It was pretty slow for the first 6 episodes, then it got really sad, then it got REALLY interesting, and then the ending left about a ZILLION unresolved questions! Regardless, if you have a spare day and don't feel like doing much except eating lunch and drinking お茶 (tea) in front of the telly, it's not a bad option.

In summary, the drama is about a young woman (23/24?) who hasn't got much going for her in life except a killer body, a pretty face, and love for lunch. She decides to help out a complete stranger by posing as his fiancée so he can go see his family and not be ashamed. Fair enough. THEN the guy - Kenichiro - takes the family's money and does a runner, leaving Natsumi behind with his THREE brothers. 

Long story short, all three brothers fall in love with her. Yep. Not kidding. And the three other brothers, like the oldest brother, have the most amazingly old-fashioned names. In order - Kenichiro, Yujiro, Junzaburo, Koshiro. I mean, JUNZABURO? Junzaburo-kun is a mouthful! Kinda like Sebastian, a name I never liked because on Home and Away there was a bad character called Sebastian... Wow, that was a LONG time ago.

I don't think any one actor carried the show. The actress who played Natsumi, Takeuchi Yuko, wasn't all that remarkable. The plot-line tried to make her out to be a bad-girl-turned good with the appearance of a VERY BAD AND MEAN AND NASTY AND VIOLENT old boyfriend, but she didn't really make her old life believable (unlike, for comparison, Nastuki of Buzzer Beat, whose character really WAS flawed, but interesting). What made me stick to watching Lunch Queen was the actor who played Jun-kun, Tsumabuki Satoshi.

So CUTE!

Really, he is the kind of romantic lead I have been waiting for in J-Dorama. The hopelessly-in-love boy with no mean-streak or pride-issues etc etc. My favourite scene with him:



Such PASSION!!!

And just for no reason, here are a few more of my favourite scenes from the series.



Eita *fangirl-squee* dishing out love advice to his buddy, Jun. Mmm, Jun's body rivals Yamapi... (who, incidentally plays youngest-brother Koshiro!)




And no, even when watching the show, you never really figure out why he - Yujiro - wears the towel around his head like a nun, or why he starts eating it...

So, that's all I have. I gave myself half-an-hour to write this entry and time is nearly up. If you have any fascinating information about any of these actors, or any recommendations for other series featuring Eita (even in a bit-part, I don't care!) or Satoshi, let me know ^_^

I hope everyone out there has an excellent day/night. Next entry will probably be a round up of K-Drama Secret Garden. Woot!

Love
From

~ Sophie

Hello / 안녕 Internet!

So, even though I was just getting into the stride of learning 한국어 (Korean language), going to classes every Thursday for the last month (my only classmate being a high-school student who is obsessed with K-Dramas), I now have NO LESSONS FOR 2 WEEKS :-( It's officially school holidays here, so Alex (high-schooler) wanted to have a break and enjoy 'sleeping in'. Seeing as our classes aren't until 4:15pm, I'm kind of annoyed. And with only 2 people in the 'class', 이선생님 (Teacher Lee) decided we should just pick up where we left off in two weeks time. Aigoo!!!

Therefore, I have decided to re-watch from start to finish my favourite favourite drama pretty-much-ever-in-any-language: 개인의 취향 - Gae In's Taste. ^_^ For this drama, I won't so much 'review' as just try to shed some light on some of the ambiguities/nuances in the drama/subtitles that can be quite confusing. Unfortunately I am merely an obsessed fan of all things Korean, and therefore I do not presume to know even an iota of what actually living Korean, with all the culture & history, is like, therefore I will probably ask you, the reader, as many questions as I answer in these entries.

Firstly, full disclosure: I am completely biased towards this drama ^_^ but at the same time I am also completely un-biased because this was the first K-Drama I ever watched and therefore I have not seen any of these actors play any other roles. I have heard that 이민호 - Lee Min Ho, who plays the male lead, has also lead a spectacular cast and production in Korea's adaptation of the Japanese adaptation of the manga, Hana Yori Dango (Boys Before Flowers). ^_-

Also, the female lead played by 손연진 - Son Yeon Jin - is apparently extremely famous and highly regarded as an actress and model in South Korea. And after watching her performance as Gae In, I officially and whole heartedly concur ^_^

Quick Synopsis: Park Gae In is a furniture designer and the daughter of a renowned architect. She lives by herself (her friend/house mate moves out in the first episode) in a hannok (Korean traditional-style house) called 'Sanggojae'. Jeon Jin Ho is a budding architect with his own firm. When the opportunity arises for him to become house mates with Park Gae In (because she is under the misapprehension that he is gay, and therefore it would not be too socially unacceptable/weird for her, a single woman, to live with him, a single gay man) and actually LIVE in the architecturally significant Sanggojae, how can he say no?

Authors Note: Sanggojae is the MOST AMAZING HOUSE IN THE HISTORY OF TELEVISION! Yes, yes it is. It dwarfs all those huge 'designer' houses in The OC and the perfect apartments in Gossip Girl. I now have this idea that one day I too will live (for a period of time) in a hannok as amazing as Sanggojae, and have my husband and children and grandchildren and cats and dogs all living there too and we would be one HUGE family and it would be crazy and fun and never boring ^_^ Oh dear, I seem to be losing my grip on reality the more drama I watch...

Anyway, if this sounds like the drama for you, watch it! Read on for helpful hints ^_^

Hint #1: Hyung
형 - Hyung/Hyong loosely means 'older brother'. This translation accommodates all the nuances of a male addressing another male who is the same age or older. Is used ONLY by males (99% of the time).
The reason I include it is because at numerous points during the first episode, Tae Hoon calls both Jin Ho and Sang Joon, 'Hyung' - literally, with 'Hyung' being written in the subtitles. This was VERY confusing for un-learned me, who knew nothing of Korean name structure, formalities, and was just beginning to identify which character was which, then all of a sudden there were two characters named 'Hyung'!?

Hint #2: Oppa
Oppa is the term girls use to mean 'older brother'. HOWEVER, it is also what girls call their boyfriends. Obviously, this can get a bit confusing for the uninitiated (i.e me) who thought it meant only 'older brother'. So, in one of the first scenes where Jin Ho wakes up to find Hye Mi in his bed, and Hye Mi calls him 'Oppa', (meant as a term of endearment to the boy she likes), I got a bit confused as to why she would wear lingerie and sleep in the same bed as her older brother...

For an more comprehensive look at the complications and nuances of the use of 'Oppa' go to dramabeans' excellent glossary entry.

Hint #3: Aigoo
Aigoo is like oh dear/oh my/*grumble*/geez all rolled into one word. It's an word you use when you are completely at the end of your tether with someone or something. Like your mum would use Aigoo with: 'Clean your room! It's so messy, Aigoo!' This word will also often appear in subtitles.

Lastly, this excellent drama goes by many names on the Internet, so here are some:
Gae In's Taste
Gae In's Preference
Kae In's Taste
Kae In's Preference
Personal Preference
Perfect Match

And here is a promo pic for the series:


As always, I presume to know exactly nothing about everything (except TCP/IP - I know a lot about that *grumble stupid Cisco grumble*) so please leave comments with more information/corrections/encouragement ^_^ about anything I have written here.

Stay tuned for more next post!

Stay cool / Stay warm (depending on whether it is the height of summer or the middle of winter where you are) ^_^

~ Sophie

あなたは私のほんのイチブしか知らない...
Anata wa watashi no honno ichibu shika shiranai...

The song gets under your skin, in the best way ^_^

Well, I finished watching ブザー ビート a few weeks ago, but what with FINISHING TAFE (ZOMG! Happiness!!!) and enrolling in Uni (Japanese/Linguistics - ZOMG! Happiness!!!) I have not had time to update :-'( So here we go.

I watched Buzzer Beat on a recommendation from nalty7, and it has definitely moved into my top 5 J-Dorama list ^_^ Basically, It's the story of struggling-basketballer meets struggling-violinist and they encourage each other never give up on their dreams (there is much use of the words 夢 - dream, and がんばれます - do your best/go for it!). Also, many of the characters in this dorama had popped up in dramas I was currently watching/had watched, so it was really good to see some of them stretching themselves to completely different roles, while some play a bit of an archetypal role, but do it really well.

The male lead, Kamiya Naoki, was played by the very talented Yamashita Tomohisa (who also goes by Yamapi) and WOW this guy can act ^_^ I had seen him (a much younger him) in ランチの女王 - Lunch Queen, where he played the over-confident high school-idol-girl-magnet character. But with Buzzer Beat, Yamapi plays a more withdrawn, more humble character. Naoki is a talented basketballer, but he often lacks confidence and doesn't like to step outside his comfort zone. This inability to believe in himself at crucial moments (like when he is taking a free throw... and misses) leads his girlfriend, Natsuki, into the arms - and bed - of bad-boy team mate Yoyogi Ren.

A real shock to the system came from Natsuki, played by the previously domestic/docile Aibu Saki (of Zettai Kareshi fame). There could not be more of a difference between her two characters. In Zettai Kareshi, she was deferential, humble, naive, and completely unprepared for the advances of her 'ideal boyfriend'. However, in Buzzer Beat she plays a assured, independent young woman who wants more affection from her man than just a gentle kiss. Therefore, she goes to find it between the sheets with the most scrumptiously-evil-looking Yoyogi Ren (played by Kaneko Nobuaki). Previously seen in Bartender, Nobukai plays pretty much the same character in both - macho (even though he's built like a beanpole), blunt, no-holds-barred sort of character. It's in the eyes I tell you, those eyes follow you....

And then there's the violinist's best friend, played by Kanjiya Shihori (with a much better haircut), also of Bartender fame. And then there's the mother of Naoki, played by the gorgeous Maya Miki, also from Zettai Kareshi.

And then there's Riko, Naoki's 'number one fan' and friend. She doesn't wear make-up when she's around him, and she will yell at him from the bleachers if it looks like he's losing confidence during a basketball game. She's just... excellent. The actress Keiko Kitagawa is so cute... And she works in a bookshop (YAY! Booksellers of fiction and reality UNITE, for we are special ^_^).
__

Wow - long post! Anyway, I highly recommend this series. I would however advertise discretion with younger viewers (say 10 and under) because unlike Nodame Cantabile and Yamada Tarou Monogatari, the main characters do on occasion sleep together. Otherwise, this series is rich, interesting, and extremely well acted. Excellent viewing ^_^
__

In other news, I'm so glad it's holidays ^_^ Three weeks of just-about non-stop drama - woooo! My partner Daniel is apparently coming to a rather crucial point in his honours thesis research, something to do with dark matter, Jeans Algorithm, black holes, gravity and orbits, which means he sits in his study all day and doodles in Greek on his whiteboard (much like Sheldon in Big Bang Theory ^_^) and I have the whole house to myself! At the moment I'm watching the anime, "Kaichou wa Maid-sama", as well as K-Drama, "Secret Garden", as well as finishing Lunch no Joou. Next on my list is Kurosagi (also featuring Yamapi) and Tokyo Wankei.

I hope everyone out there has a wonderful day.

じゃ！
~ Sophie

 Hi Internetizens ^_^

Sometimes I really hate being at the butt-end of the world. Down here in down under, we don't take telecommunications infrastructure seriously - this resulted in my being cut off from my Internet connection for 全部 先週!!! - all last week!!!!
Apparently, because it has been raining recently (this is Adelaide in winter, of course it will rain!) the wires in the exchange down the street fritzed, so goodbye phone and Internet! :'-( NOT HAPPY TELSTRA!

Anyway, because I haven't been wasting time wandering around the Net, I have done heaps of school work. And because I've done heaps of school work, I figured I was entitled to watch some drama! I finished Absolute Boyfriend (plus the special), and I have one ep left of 東京フレンズTokyo Friends.

Tokyo Friends is pretty unbelievable, as far as the story goes, but pretty cool. I mean, uber-cool Rei (not Reiko. Rei. No 'ko'.)  moves to Tokyo and instantly gets a job, an apartment, and a gig as lead singer for a band. How cool! This is the ad for the place she ends up working at:
"Want to work in a fun-fulled bar?
How hiring people with nothing!"
^_^
And the fact that she gets the affection of Eita (sorry, this time he's called Ryuuji) means that there are many scenes where I couldn't help but have a fangirl *squee* moment. The episodes were well structured, but they each run for about 1hr 15min (one ep was 1hr 4 min), which seems pretty odd. I mean, was it originally intended to be shown as a 1.5 hr show with ad breaks? Or is the 1:15min length usual for what I guess could be called a miniseries? The series was made by Fuji TV, but was never aired (it went straight to DVD). Hm. There is also a movie that follows on from the last episode...
Lastly, the music seemed to come from an early 90's daytime-American-drama, a la The Bold and the Beautiful; lots of trumpets playing a mysterious tune...

Anyway, I highly recommend it, especially if you have a long cold winter's day ahead and you have prepared a thermos of tea and a toasted sandwich and don't feel like getting off the sofa for 5.5 hours ^_^ 

And to wrap this all up, a shout out to my new   フレンズ on LiveJournal: nalty7and blueocean80, as well as groups hedgehogs and kyungtae_bl  - you guys are awesome and have helped me embrace my new found love for asian drama ^_^ you are so important to me, you get the most formal, most gracious form of thank you I know: どうもありがとうございます

I will write again after my TMG test on Thursday. (Ugh. Firewalls)
- Sophie

 Excellent beginning! I watched the first episode of Absolute Boyfriend over breakfast this morning and it was very entertaining.

So, so far the story goes that the unlucky-in-love Izawa Riiko is persuaded by the manufacturer/creator of a humanoid robot to take part in a 5-day take-home trial of his prototype - a robot programmed to be Riiko's absolute boyfriend! Stuff happens in the story, with Riiko taking the blame for a mistake made by the-workmate-she-has-a-crush-on. This workmate then says horrid things about Riiko-chan (and her excellent cooking) behind her back, which she of course overhears, but the robot-boyfriend comes to the rescue and punches him! It was all very dramatic. But later robot-boyfriend says he punched the mean guy 'with only 20% of his power' ^_^ Riiko decides to name him 'Night', because he is the one to rescue her. Don't know if the Japanese-use-of-english is all quite right there, especially because the prototype's instruction manual has on the front (in English) NIGHTLY SERIES. Shouldn't it be KNIGHTLY then? Eh, comme ci, comme ça...

Interestingly, the playboy co-vice-president (company owner?) of the dessert company Riiko work's for becomes increasingly interested in Riiko throughout the episode. Didn't see that coming, but it should be interesting. He even ate the cream puffs that Riiko had made for the mean co-worker that had FALLEN ON THE FLOOR! I mean, I'm all for the 10 second rule of it being ok to eat food that has fallen on the floor, but I was surprised to see it happen on J-TV. Hm.

Also, entertaining moments include the scene where Riiko is choosing the characteristics for her ideal boyfriend. When she was given the option of 'body type', the selections included 'Muscular', 'Skinny', 'Model', and 'Normal'. No offense, but what's the difference between Skinny, and Model? and for that matter, what's Normal as compared to Skinny? If someone out there could find me what the Japanese ideas of Skinny, Model and Normal are, (with pics of course ^_^) I'd be much obliged. I have already been exposed to Muscular, thanks to SBS's showing of Ninja Warrior (titled Sasuke in Japan) - my ideal Muscular is that fireman from Chiba ^_^ *dreamy look.......*

Oh, and the part where he says 'Hey Riiko, let's have sex' with such an earnest look on his face is hilarious!

Now, for episode two ^_^
xoxo
~Sophie

 Dear みんなさん,

I have just finished watching the "Last Glass" of the J-Drama バテンダ, starring the very cute 相葉雅紀 - Aiba Masaki and......... WHAT A MASSIVE LET DOWN!

So disappointing. The series only went for eight episodes, so I figured that at the end there would be come kind of big confessional speech from one of the two main leads about their feelings for the other - possibly concealed by a roundabout explanation of the significance of a particularly relevant/romantic/nostalgic cocktail. But no. WE WERE DECEIVED! Viewers of this series were completely and utterly denied a romance. COMPLETELY. There were no awkward falls that led to awkward glances, no awkward acts of drunkenness that led us to believe they may show the tiniest bit of physical-contact-but-in-a-restrained-Japanese-style way. No hugs, no kiss. No Nothing!

Grrr. ANYWAY, moving on from that fact, I will admit that right from the start there was no real physical chemistry between Aiba's character, Sasakura Ryu, and Kurushima Miwa. Miwa was played by the cute, but-sporting-a-very-unflattering-haircut-involving-a-flat-fringe-and-some-long-flyaway-bits, Kanjiya Shihori.

Is it because Aiba is in an idol band that he can't be seen to be romantically involved, even when he's playing another character on television? I remember being distinctly underwhelmed at the end of Yamada Tarou Monogatari because again, there was no end romance. And the two main characters in that drama (Kazunari Ninomiya and Sho Sakurai) are actually also members of the same band as Aiba - the band Arashi.

If anyone out there on the Internets has some insight into this matter, please drop me a comment. I am yet to visit Japan, so I would love to hear from someone who has experienced these pop-culture things first hand, unlike me, who is but a humble researcher...

Or is this all just in my imagination? Am I putting my Australian (loosely Western) ideas of what constitutes a TV drama onto an audience who has comeletely different expectations and desires for their drama? Hm. Guess I'll just have to watch more drama to find out ^_^

Think I'll start watching Absolute Boyfriend next. See how that goes.

おやすみ
~Sophie

のだめ　カンタビレ - Nodame Cantabile






Released 2006
11 hour-long episodes
2 'Specials'
2 Movies
Important - WATCH IN ORDER: the series, the Specials, the Movies. They all follow on from each other. 

Nodame Cantabile is a Japanese-language live action drama, based on a manga of the same name by Tomoko Ninomiya. The main story follows 3rd year piano student,　野田恵 (Noda Megumi), and her classmates as they navigate the beautiful and brutal depths of classical music. The two main characters, Nodame, and Chiaki Shinichi (also a piano student), are like oil and water. Their relationship develops slowly, and is a joy to watch, and as their music matures, so does their understanding of themselves and each other.

Main Characters:

Nodame
Nodame, a piano student, has her heart set on becoming a Kindergarden teacher upon graduation from music college. However, an unplanned piano lesson with her senpai (upperclassman) who is also - coincidentally - her next door neighbour, causes her to reconsider her options and to 'face the music head-on'. Nodame's apartment is hideously messy. She often has the gas/electricity cut from her apartment because she hadn't paid the bills, and pleades with her next door neighbour to let her use his bath. Her exact words in Japanese elude me, but it goes something like 'You wouldn't understand this itchiness, and this feeling of dispair....'. Played by Ueno Juni, Nodame provides excellent comic relief in her scenes with the uptight and unforgiving Chiaki.

Chiaki Shinichi
The son of a famous pianist, Chiaki-kun spent his childhood in Europe attending concerts of great orchestras. Having to live with his mother after his parents divorced, the young Chiaki had to fly back to Japan and, when the plane had to make an emergency landing, he developed a (almost comical!) fear of flying. Coupled with a fear of drowning, Chiaki has been stuck in Japan for ten years - unable to study abroad as many of his classmates have done, and growing increasingly disenchanted with music. Although enrolled in the piano department, Chiaki aspires to be a conductor, and spends all his free time studying orchestral scores. Played by Tamaki Hiroshi (an actor whose cheek bones could slice steel as if it were butter) the development of Chiaki's character is slow, but by the end you'll be moved by emotion shown by this steely perfectionist.

Mine Ryuutaro
'The rock freak from the Violin department', Mine-kun is a 3rd year student who initally shuns classical music because it is too constrictive. Scenes with the electric violin are both entertaining and ear-splitting, and his father, who runs the local chinese restaurant, speaks with an excellent, if at times incomprehensible, accent. Played by an unrecognisable Eita (he bleached his hair for the part), Mine is loyal and kind, and one of the more inherently likable characters.

Othe characters include:
Miki Kiyora - violinist and concert master, Kiyora is talented and ambitious. However, the pressure of always being the best gets to her later in the series. Who will offer her a shoulder to cry on?
Okuyama Masumi - timpanist, gay, and with a gravity-defying afro, Masumi-chan provides much of the comic relief. He is secretly in love with 'Chiaki-sama' (i.e. Lord/Prince Chiaki) but has been too shy to ever talk to him.
Franz Strezemann - this guy has to be seen to be believed. That's all I'm saying. ^_^

Ok, so this was my first live-action drama and I LOVE it. Even now, on my 4th viewing of the season, the jokes are still funny and the music is still epic. The music is what sets this drama apart from all the TV I've seen before and since. The pieces Nodame works so hard to play according to the score, and the understanding Chiaki has of the orchestra is inspiring. It's a bit like how, a few years back, NCIS and CSI made forensic science seem absurdly cool, and (here in South Australia anyway) there was a massive spike in applications for forensic science in Uni. That's how Nodame Cantabile made me feel - I actually wanted to go out and buy a beautiful Yamaha piano and enroll in music at Adelaide Uni. Yes, I know it's just a dream, but at least the series introduces you to a world of music that can very easily be perceived as cold and elitist.

Favourite part: In the Special where Nodame plays Mozart's Variations of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. I did not know such absurdly epicly awesome music existed! ^_^

Opinions, comments, questions are all welcome. You can find heaps of info about this series on the net, but it is definitely best just to sit down and watch the first episode and see if it is to your taste ^_^ Well, it is now in the wee hours of the morning for me, so I will say adieu and oyasumi!

Love 
~Sophie