tuanglen wrote:You JDrama experts are the perfect ones to ask.
I'd like to improve my Japanese by finding good models to emulate. I'm hoping that you can suggest dramas where the male leads communicate in a way that conveys:
o Adulthood
o Intelligence, education
o Likeability, warmth, social grace
o High class (not the popular "scuzzy but good-hearted" type; not snooty or condescending; just casually good-mannered)
o Competence, reliability (not a flaky, aloof, eccentric genius; just a professional who feels reassuringly approachable and yet highly-skilled)
Have you been watching the current drama "JIN"? I think it might fit almost all of the criteria that you posed here.
tuanglen wrote:You JDrama experts are the perfect ones to ask.
I'd like to improve my Japanese by finding good models to emulate. I'm hoping that you can suggest dramas where the male leads communicate in a way that conveys:
o Adulthood
o Intelligence, education
o Likeability, warmth, social grace
o High class (not the popular "scuzzy but good-hearted" type; not snooty or condescending; just casually good-mannered)
o Competence, reliability (not a flaky, aloof, eccentric genius; just a professional who feels reassuringly approachable and yet highly-skilled)
Hmm, Shindo-sensei in Kyumei Byoto 24 Ji series comes to mind, although not in the beginning of Part 1. The qualities you mentioned above are more evidence in Part 3 especially.
shin2 wrote:Personally, I don't think you'll find many male characters in dorama who fit your criteria because that's not the type of character the people who make dorama these days are looking for. Their preference is for youthful, vapid, shallow, talentless fangirl mannequins.
If you're looking for male characters possessing those criteria you listed, look at Japanese movies, both gendai-geki and especially jidai-geki films.
You pretty much took the words right outta my mouth.
tuanglen wrote:
o Adulthood
o Intelligence, education
o Likeability, warmth, social grace
o High class (not the popular "scuzzy but good-hearted" type; not snooty or condescending; just casually good-mannered)
o Competence, reliability (not a flaky, aloof, eccentric genius; just a professional who feels reassuringly approachable and yet highly-skilled)
Thank you all very much for the thoughtful suggestions. I'm starting to work through them to see what I can find. One thing I'm noticing is the characters I've looked up in these suggestions so far have all been of roughly retirement age and/or stiffly formal. It may be that contemporary Japanese dramas portray men as being in one of three stages: shallow pretty boys looking for love, clownish working adults, and old codgers on their way out who aren't NECESSARILY clowns. If so, to meet my "adult, non-clown" specs, you may have had no choice but to suggest polite grampas who use "wareware" for "we". Or maybe I inadvertently implied it.
Unfortunately, I'm not ready to start calling myself "washi" just yet, so this isn't quite the language model I'm hoping to find. Once again, I'm aware that, given the limited selection and the way JDramas are written, what I'm looking for may not exist, but would your suggestions change if I changed "adult" to "young adult"? I'm thinking of a man in his prime (could be as young as college age) who talks like a normal, likeable, respectable, educated native speaker with a good personality. Eliminate the pretty boys, the non-verbal types, the clowns, the eccentrics, the scuzzy, the prim, the ones who rub people the wrong way until you get to know them, the old-fashioned whose days have passed, characters from jidai-geki or SF or other situations far removed from the ordinary conversational style of contemporary Japan....
And is there anyone left? Likeable, modern, young professional (or pre-professional) men who make a good impression on similar young women, on employers, on clients, on most people they encounter? Characters like the young doctors in the early "E.R." show (US) before they were replaced by people who didn't seem as though they could really be doctors, most of the male characters in Numb3rs, the lead men in many American thriller movies (think of Harrison Ford in various serious lead roles)...?
tuanglen wrote:Thank you all very much for the thoughtful suggestions. I'm starting to work through them to see what I can find. One thing I'm noticing is the characters I've looked up in these suggestions so far have all been of roughly retirement age and/or stiffly formal. It may be that contemporary Japanese dramas portray men as being in one of three stages: shallow pretty boys looking for love, clownish working adults, and old codgers on their way out who aren't NECESSARILY clowns. If so, to meet my "adult, non-clown" specs, you may have had no choice but to suggest polite grampas who use "wareware" for "we". Or maybe I inadvertently implied it.
Unfortunately, I'm not ready to start calling myself "washi" just yet, so this isn't quite the language model I'm hoping to find. Once again, I'm aware that, given the limited selection and the way JDramas are written, what I'm looking for may not exist, but would your suggestions change if I changed "adult" to "young adult"? I'm thinking of a man in his prime (could be as young as college age) who talks like a normal, likeable, respectable, educated native speaker with a good personality. Eliminate the pretty boys, the non-verbal types, the clowns, the eccentrics, the scuzzy, the prim, the ones who rub people the wrong way until you get to know them, the old-fashioned whose days have passed, characters from jidai-geki or SF or other situations far removed from the ordinary conversational style of contemporary Japan....
And is there anyone left? Likeable, modern, young professional (or pre-professional) men who make a good impression on similar young women, on employers, on clients, on most people they encounter? Characters like the young doctors in the early "E.R." show (US) before they were replaced by people who didn't seem as though they could really be doctors, most of the male characters in Numb3rs, the lead men in many American thriller movies (think of Harrison Ford in various serious lead roles)...?
You might wanna check out Muri na Renai... An adult romantic comedy without the fanboy/fangirl fluff. :victory:
tuanglen wrote:You JDrama experts are the perfect ones to ask.
I'd like to improve my Japanese by finding good models to emulate. I'm hoping that you can suggest dramas where the male leads communicate in a way that conveys:
o Adulthood
o Intelligence, education
o Likeability, warmth, social grace
o High class (not the popular "scuzzy but good-hearted" type; not snooty or condescending; just casually good-mannered)
o Competence, reliability (not a flaky, aloof, eccentric genius; just a professional who feels reassuringly approachable and yet highly-skilled)
Another one to add to the list is Kaneshiro Takeshi in Golden Bowl
tuanglen wrote:
And is there anyone left? Likeable, modern, young professional (or pre-professional) men who make a good impression on similar young women, on employers, on clients, on most people they encounter? Characters like the young doctors in the early "E.R." show (US) before they were replaced by people who didn't seem as though they could really be doctors, most of the male characters in Numb3rs, the lead men in many American thriller movies (think of Harrison Ford in various serious lead roles)...?
Maybe you can have a look at some dramas by Kashiwabara Takashi or Oda Yuji. I thought they were both very good already in their early-mid twenties. The ones I could think of are:
Mahiru no Tsuki
Big Wing
Their characters were not in specialised professions though.
Okane ga nai! is good too but you probably can't find it.
tuanglen wrote:Thank you all very much for the thoughtful suggestions. I'm starting to work through them to see what I can find. One thing I'm noticing is the characters I've looked up in these suggestions so far have all been of roughly retirement age and/or stiffly formal. It may be that contemporary Japanese dramas portray men as being in one of three stages: shallow pretty boys looking for love, clownish working adults, and old codgers on their way out who aren't NECESSARILY clowns. If so, to meet my "adult, non-clown" specs, you may have had no choice but to suggest polite grampas who use "wareware" for "we". Or maybe I inadvertently implied it.
Unfortunately, I'm not ready to start calling myself "washi" just yet, so this isn't quite the language model I'm hoping to find. Once again, I'm aware that, given the limited selection and the way JDramas are written, what I'm looking for may not exist, but would your suggestions change if I changed "adult" to "young adult"? I'm thinking of a man in his prime (could be as young as college age) who talks like a normal, likeable, respectable, educated native speaker with a good personality. Eliminate the pretty boys, the non-verbal types, the clowns, the eccentrics, the scuzzy, the prim, the ones who rub people the wrong way until you get to know them, the old-fashioned whose days have passed, characters from jidai-geki or SF or other situations far removed from the ordinary conversational style of contemporary Japan....
And is there anyone left? Likeable, modern, young professional (or pre-professional) men who make a good impression on similar young women, on employers, on clients, on most people they encounter? Characters like the young doctors in the early "E.R." show (US) before they were replaced by people who didn't seem as though they could really be doctors, most of the male characters in Numb3rs, the lead men in many American thriller movies (think of Harrison Ford in various serious lead roles)...?
Ah.. you just described my dream leading man.
This is hard.. but I think one character might have suit your criteria. The lawyer Naruse Ryo from the drama Maou. However, I'm not sure an avenging, slightly psychotic but polite lawyer would help you much in your language studies but he emulate all that you have listed in both your request comments.
I think Bambino! fits perfectly if you want to study about young Japanese in a new work place. Its about a young chef starting out in a new restaurant. He is flaky in the beginning but eventually grew into a reliable chef. It also showed how the Japanese waiters serve their customers.
If all else fails, try watching NTV Ichimen NewsZERO. You'll find the perfect model there.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdukoQK0eMs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am5If-7a2JM
There's even a subbing livejournal community called "zerocaster" who subs and discuss the news that was presented by our beloved newscaster. Hope I'm helping.
dianil5272 wrote:^
You're pimping them indirectly! :hehe:
I can't help but agree, if it's the truth at least for my eyes, why not let others know? :mrgreen:
my new avatar. it is very appropriate :P
but it fits what tuanglen asked for. its not my fault they are made that way.
It will take quite a while to track down your many good suggestions and check them out, but I don't want to wait that long to thank you all for taking the time to help me as much as you have. It has already helped in that I can tell that some of these dramas will be interesting to watch, even if the male lead doesn't work out as a good language model.
Here's a somewhat different question: what JDrama has a male lead that would YOU most like to be like (or be married to)? Try to put aside pure looks and life circumstances (rock star, billionaire, etc.), but keep personality and other factors that create the impression you want. Who's the ideal YOU (or husband, boyfriend) among male characters with lots of talk time in a drama (not extras who we don't see enough of to emulate)?
tuanglen wrote:
Here's a somewhat different question: what JDrama has a male lead that would YOU most like to be like (or be married to)? Try to put aside pure looks and life circumstances (rock star, billionaire, etc.), but keep personality and other factors that create the impression you want. Who's the ideal YOU (or husband, boyfriend) among male characters with lots of talk time in a drama (not extras who we don't see enough of to emulate)?
tuanglen wrote:Here's a somewhat different question: what JDrama has a male lead that would YOU most like to be like (or be married to)? Try to put aside pure looks and life circumstances (rock star, billionaire, etc.), but keep personality and other factors that create the impression you want. Who's the ideal YOU (or husband, boyfriend) among male characters with lots of talk time in a drama (not extras who we don't see enough of to emulate)?
That question is off-topic... I think there's a similar thread somewhere else.
EDIT: What G-Mark said above. :victory:
Replying needs an account. Registration opens soon.