What dramas are you currently watching?

How can there be a discussion of the best Japanese actors without mentioning Yakusho Kôji?

Hiya Tu_triky

Kimura? I like an awful lot of his work... but I can't put him in with the big boys yet. He's still in the matinee idol phase of his career. But he has shown signs, here and there, that he's got a lot more to offer than has been required of him on TV.

Abe? The cool thing about Abe Hiroshi is that you can look back at the awful stuff he was doing 15 to 20 years ago... when he was every bit as bad as his material. Just a tall, pretty boy, in a costume, picking up a pay check.

And then you can zoom up to today and watch something like "Aoi Tori", where his strength, subtlety, and craft simply blow you away. [/i]

Geezer wrote:Abe? The cool thing about Abe Hiroshi is that you can look back at the awful stuff he was doing 15 to 20 years ago... when he was every bit as bad as his material. Just a tall, pretty boy, in a costume, picking up a pay check.

And then you can zoom up to today and watch something like "Aoi Tori", where his strength, subtlety, and craft simply blow you away. [/i]

Some of the cool 40-ish veterans these day 'grow up' from being 'pin-up' boys to serious actors like Abe. Karasawa Toshiaki, Eguchi Yosuke, even Sanada Hiroyuki for instance. But that's what we call improvement. :)

^ I second this. "Improvement" is the operative term. ;) Even Motoki Masahiro made his bones as a Johnny in the '80s, so I hear. (Keanu Reeves voice: "Whoa.") Watching DEPARTURES, I never would've guessed it. :mrgreen: J-Ent seems to be vastly limiting in terms of career trajectories, that one always has to start via the Idol route and slog their way into RealActorLand by dint of hard work and lucky breaks.

I suppose any actor can get better with time--if they pick the right projects, and Work It! like a fiend. Maybe 2035 will be the year that "YamaPi Goes to the Oscars!" :mwahaha: I won't be holding MY breath, but I'm not shutting the lid on his coffin just yet--or anyone's coffin, for that matter. :sweat:

ralphm1999 wrote:KimuTaku... has the same kind of chemistry that Cary Grant portrayed, a slight movement of the eyes, a miniscule turn of the head and an incredible transmission of emotions come into play...

I see what you mean. :victory: Great screen icons--Cary Grant, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise--possess that in-your-face charisma that's so hard to shake off, even when they're portraying a role. This isn't a diss on their acting talent, though, but that's precisely why they're movie stars, and not character actors.

IMO Kimura isn't the best J-actor around (and I agree, his turn as Mr. Brain was a spotty rendition at best :usuck:), but as a Leading Man, he's Master of the frickin' Doramaverse. :metaldevil:

But, well. As my best friend put it, "It's hard to be KimuTaku: forever being overestimated and forever being underestimated." :shakehead:

***

All this talk about KimuTaku, tsk. :hehe: (Quite timely, though, as tomorrow is his *ehem* birthday. :naughty: )

Ender's Girl wrote:

But, well. As my best friend put it, "It's hard to be KimuTaku: forever being overestimated and forever being underestimated." :shakehead:

Very wise words! :victory:

OT: I'll check out the first episode of Unstoppable tonight.

Ender's Girl wrote:^ I second this. "Improvement" is the operative term. ;) Even Motoki Masahiro made his bones as a Johnny in the '80s, so I hear. (Keanu Reeves voice: "Whoa.") Watching DEPARTURES, I never would've guessed it. :mrgreen: J-Ent seems to be vastly limiting in terms of career trajectories, that one always has to start via the Idol route and slog their way into RealActorLand by dint of hard work and lucky breaks.

I suppose any actor can get better with time--if they pick the right projects, and Work It! like a fiend. Maybe 2035 will be the year that "YamaPi Goes to the Oscars!" :mwahaha: I won't be holding MY breath, but I'm not shutting the lid on his coffin just yet--or anyone's coffin, for that matter. :sweat:

Agrees and :lol:

Ender's Girl wrote:I see what you mean. :victory: Great screen icons--Cary Grant, Julia Roberts, Tom Cruise--possess that in-your-face charisma that's so hard to shake off, even when they're portraying a role. This isn't a diss on their acting talent, though, but that's precisely why they're movie stars, and not character actors.

Wow i finally get what my gripe has been all these while. I prefer character actors over movie stars!!! :victory:

Ender's Girl wrote:But, well. As my best friend put it, "It's hard to be KimuTaku: forever being overestimated and forever being underestimated." :shakehead:

Personal preference i guess. This guy just rub me the wrong way somehow. Maybe he is one of those people whom you either like or dislike. There's nothing in between about him. *shrugs*

OT: Not watching ANY dramas at the moment. TOO BUSY with real life. Still at Episode 2 of Yankee BNK. :sweat:

yeah well ABE,,,, he initially came into the the scene as a male model, then he gradually went into acting.
so yeah i agree his earlier works were quite simply,,not good
BUT his more recent works like Kekkon Dekinai Otoko has been absolutely fantastic! :applaud: :woot

Ender's Girl wrote:


But, well. As my best friend put it, "It's hard to be KimuTaku: forever being overestimated and forever being underestimated." :shakehead:

Your BF put it well. Isn't that true for almost all great leading men/women actors or screen icons such as Marilyn Monroe. :doh:

But, well. As my best friend put it, "It's hard to be KimuTaku: forever being overestimated and forever being underestimated."

very wise indeed, i agree with this :applaud:

Geezer wrote:
Hiya Tu_triky

Greetings, Geezer. Nice to hear from you.

KAZdoramma wrote:BUT his more recent works like Kekkon Dekinai Otoko has been absolutely fantastic! :applaud: :woot

Yes Hiroshi was amazing in that show. His performance was spot on.

Tu_triky wrote:

Yes Hiroshi was amazing in that show. His performance was spot on.

YEY :woot: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing:

KAZdoramma wrote:

YEY :woot: :dancing: :dancing: :dancing:

One of my favorite dramas, seriously.

Tu_triky wrote:

One of my favorite dramas, seriously.

yeah the chemistry shown between abe and natsukawa yui was something special :applaud:

KAZdoramma wrote:yeah the chemistry shown between abe and natsukawa yui was something special :applaud:

They're also paired up in the movie Aruitemo Aruitemo. :victory:

bmwracer wrote:
They're also paired up in the movie Aruitemo Aruitemo. :victory:

Sitting on my hard drive awaiting viewing.

bmwracer wrote:
They're also paired up in the movie Aruitemo Aruitemo. :victory:

cheers bmwracer, ur the one that recommended kekkon dekinai otoko and it was great :bow:
so gonna check this out too :woot: :woot: :woot:

Tu_triky wrote:Sitting on my hard drive awaiting viewing.

I think the Times reviewed it pretty recently: it aired at some arthouse in L.A....

Takenouchi Yutaka has as much charisma as any actor i've seen. I've only seen him in Ruri no Shima, but it fairly jumps out of the screen.

OT: Shomuni ep. 10

A "Star's" job is to sell tickets. To put butts in the seats. To get the viewers to turn on their TVs to the star's program, regardless of what the show is about.

They do their job by being likable, compelling, sexy, beautiful, or funny. And 99% of their work is done before the show even starts. That last 1% is simply a question of delivering on what the audience expects to see from them in that performance.

But don't underestimate that final 1%. Once the Star fails to deliver on being sexy, or likable, or funny... they cease to be a star. (And when the audience drops a star, they do it with a vengeance.)

The "Actor's" job is to create a character within a particular story. They bring the character from the writer's imagination... to the screen or the stage. And they drive the story.

The audience's preconceived notions about who the actor is, or what he or she should look like, or behave like, have little or nothing to do with anything. Because "actors" are different every time. They are not being "themselves". They are not being the carefully crafted character that they play time after time.

They are different, but one isn't really any more important than the other. If the "Star" doesn't have decent actors around him people are just going to get bored and wander off. If the "actors" don't have a draw to get the people into the seats... it really doesn't matter how artful or talented they are. A show without an audience is like that tree falling in the forest with no one to hear it.

bump.