TELEVIEWS / Promising new drama season: Can it be true?
Wm. Penn / Special to The Daily Yomiuri
I am an eternal optimist at heart. Since at least 2003, I've been ranting that the Japanese continuing-drama genre is in serious trouble. Last month, even Za Terebijon magazine echoed that sentiment in an article subtitled in English: "Drama Crisis: Did the Serial Drama Die?"
And yet, I still greet each new TV season with the unrelenting hope that this quarter will be different. By Episode Two, reality usually sets in and it becomes apparent that the crisis continues. But for the fortnight when the new dramas debut, optimism reigns.
This quarter's prospects begin with the NTV offering Juyon-sai no Haha (14-year-old Mother) starting Oct. 11 at 10 p.m. Mirai Shida, who was excellent as the perplexed student in Joo no Kyoshitsu, has the title role.
The teenage mother scenario has gotten very little TV attention in Japan. The first major plotline came in 1979 when caring teacher San-nen B-gumi Kinpachi Sensei dealt with the issue in his middle school class. Actress Kaoru Sugita played the pregnant 15-year-old in that series. Her career and personal life have been a roller coaster ride ever since. In her most recent appearance, she was fielding wide show questions after paparazzi caught her coming out of a castle-shaped love hotel last week.
In this 21st-century version of the teen pregnancy tale, the young mother-to-be will not only have to cope with her parents and school, but a teacher who doesn't want to get involved, her boyfriend's own single mother (now a successful entrepreneur) and an aggressive journalist who wants the exclusive story for his weekly magazine.
Norika Fujiwara stars in the romantic comedy Damens Walker (TV Asahi network, 9 p.m.) starting Oct. 12. Based on a manga by Mayumi Kurata, the title comes from the heroine's proclivity for always getting involved with "dame otoko" (bad men) or, in its Japanese-English katakana corruption, "damens."
In another new series, SMAP's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi continues his quest to challenge Takuya Kimura for the title of best actor in the SMAP pack. He plays an autistic man in Boku no Aruku Michi starting Oct. 10, Fuji network, 10 p.m.
Rina Uchiyama has the title role in Kiraware Matsuko no Issho, based on a best-selling novel that was just made into a movie this spring. Matsuko's niece discovers an aunt she never knew and sets out to learn how the happy 23-year-old woman in a family photo ended up dead in a dingy apartment at 56. The search reveals the men in Matsuko's life and leads to a school, a soapland (a bathhouse that offers sexual services) and a prison. It starts Oct. 12 at 10 p.m. on the TBS network.
If this sounds dramatic but just a bit too grim, try Fuji's Dr. Koto Shinryojo 2006. Airing in the same time slot, it takes us back to Japan's westernmost island--Yonagunijima in Okinawa Prefecture--to discover whether nurse Hoshino (Ko Shibasaki) will finally win the doc's heart this time around.
Certainly, one of these shows has to be a winner, right? Eternal optimists just never give up.
If you don't like cacophony with your coffee, you may not like NHK's raucous new morning serial Imotakonankin. NHK definitely needs to quickly change its annoying, dizziness-inducing intro--although if you keep staring at it, you may soon be hypnotized into actually liking this series. At the very least, it's different and it will definitely wake us up.
Imotakonankin has a hard act to follow, as last week's final installment of Junjo Kirari, starring Aoi Miyazaki, provided one of the best morning drama finales since Oshin in 1983.
Minors, Crime and Euphemisms Dept.: Network news recently reported a 16-year-old Tokyo girl and her friends stole more than 14 million yen by repeatedly threatening an elderly man at knifepoint.
In the vernacular reports, the girl was referred to as a "shojo" (young girl) and she admitted to "yowai mono ijime" (teasing or bullying a weak person). It's time for the media to toss out the euphemisms. In the plain-talk lexicon, wasn't the girl an armed robber? And 14 million yen, wouldn't that be grand larceny?
(Oct. 7, 2006)
Wm. Penn / Special to The Daily Yomiuri
I am an eternal optimist at heart. Since at least 2003, I've been ranting that the Japanese continuing-drama genre is in serious trouble. Last month, even Za Terebijon magazine echoed that sentiment in an article subtitled in English: "Drama Crisis: Did the Serial Drama Die?"
And yet, I still greet each new TV season with the unrelenting hope that this quarter will be different. By Episode Two, reality usually sets in and it becomes apparent that the crisis continues. But for the fortnight when the new dramas debut, optimism reigns.
This quarter's prospects begin with the NTV offering Juyon-sai no Haha (14-year-old Mother) starting Oct. 11 at 10 p.m. Mirai Shida, who was excellent as the perplexed student in Joo no Kyoshitsu, has the title role.
The teenage mother scenario has gotten very little TV attention in Japan. The first major plotline came in 1979 when caring teacher San-nen B-gumi Kinpachi Sensei dealt with the issue in his middle school class. Actress Kaoru Sugita played the pregnant 15-year-old in that series. Her career and personal life have been a roller coaster ride ever since. In her most recent appearance, she was fielding wide show questions after paparazzi caught her coming out of a castle-shaped love hotel last week.
In this 21st-century version of the teen pregnancy tale, the young mother-to-be will not only have to cope with her parents and school, but a teacher who doesn't want to get involved, her boyfriend's own single mother (now a successful entrepreneur) and an aggressive journalist who wants the exclusive story for his weekly magazine.
Norika Fujiwara stars in the romantic comedy Damens Walker (TV Asahi network, 9 p.m.) starting Oct. 12. Based on a manga by Mayumi Kurata, the title comes from the heroine's proclivity for always getting involved with "dame otoko" (bad men) or, in its Japanese-English katakana corruption, "damens."
In another new series, SMAP's Tsuyoshi Kusanagi continues his quest to challenge Takuya Kimura for the title of best actor in the SMAP pack. He plays an autistic man in Boku no Aruku Michi starting Oct. 10, Fuji network, 10 p.m.
Rina Uchiyama has the title role in Kiraware Matsuko no Issho, based on a best-selling novel that was just made into a movie this spring. Matsuko's niece discovers an aunt she never knew and sets out to learn how the happy 23-year-old woman in a family photo ended up dead in a dingy apartment at 56. The search reveals the men in Matsuko's life and leads to a school, a soapland (a bathhouse that offers sexual services) and a prison. It starts Oct. 12 at 10 p.m. on the TBS network.
If this sounds dramatic but just a bit too grim, try Fuji's Dr. Koto Shinryojo 2006. Airing in the same time slot, it takes us back to Japan's westernmost island--Yonagunijima in Okinawa Prefecture--to discover whether nurse Hoshino (Ko Shibasaki) will finally win the doc's heart this time around.
Certainly, one of these shows has to be a winner, right? Eternal optimists just never give up.
If you don't like cacophony with your coffee, you may not like NHK's raucous new morning serial Imotakonankin. NHK definitely needs to quickly change its annoying, dizziness-inducing intro--although if you keep staring at it, you may soon be hypnotized into actually liking this series. At the very least, it's different and it will definitely wake us up.
Imotakonankin has a hard act to follow, as last week's final installment of Junjo Kirari, starring Aoi Miyazaki, provided one of the best morning drama finales since Oshin in 1983.
Minors, Crime and Euphemisms Dept.: Network news recently reported a 16-year-old Tokyo girl and her friends stole more than 14 million yen by repeatedly threatening an elderly man at knifepoint.
In the vernacular reports, the girl was referred to as a "shojo" (young girl) and she admitted to "yowai mono ijime" (teasing or bullying a weak person). It's time for the media to toss out the euphemisms. In the plain-talk lexicon, wasn't the girl an armed robber? And 14 million yen, wouldn't that be grand larceny?
(Oct. 7, 2006)