For those who don't know the story. This is what I gathered from the website:
Yutaka Takenouchi is Nishijima Sho, a henchman for Kazuma Ryuichiro, the president of a successful corporation but also, unknown to the public, a mafia boss! However, what the mafia group doesn't know is that Nishijima Sho is actually undercover police detective Kaneyama Takumi. He enters the underworld (the mafia) under the orders of his boss, Detective Isaki Yoshihiko and also because his father was killed in South Korea, which he believes was the work of the mafia.
One day, Sho and his friend go to a bar and find a Korean woman being harrassed. He helps her out. The woman is Choi Yoo-na (Choi Ji-woo), a woman who comes to Japan with her sister in search of their father, who went to Japan and never came back. Yoo-na also seems to draw the unwanted attention of Kim Young-jae, a Korean underboss of Kazuma's mafia group summoned to Japan from Korea for "work."
Also in the scene are Kazuma Ryugo, Ryuichiro's son who is set to inherit the corporation (and the mafia), Kazuma Kotomi (Yui Ichikawa), Ryuichiro's daughter who likes Sho (but the love is unrequited), and his Korean aide/secretary for business (and mafia) affairs, Song Gyu-hwan.
certainly looking forward to watch this dorama... noted the actors and actresses (which are all my favourites) Yutaka takenouchi, Choi Jii woo, HAYAMI MOKOMICHI...... i really gonna watch this one....
Yeah, even without the whole Korean/Japanese angle, the STORY looks really cool. The title, Rondo, makes complete sense given the storyline, too. A Rondo is a form of classical music in which a main theme alternates between one or more contrasting themes. Similarly, the characters alternate between different identities, though it is probably more uncertain which is their "main" identity.
HOLY CRAP! I finished the first episode, and it was like a movie! The quality of this production is probably the best I've ever seen. I wonder what the budget on this was. It was probably high.
The story is really intriguing and the acting is great. The miscommunication between the 2 leads created some funny situations, which kind of breaks the tension of the very serious subject matter.
This didn't disappoint at all. The first episode definitely lived up to the hype, and the intro and outro songs, both by unknown artists (a Japanese singer and a Korean one) are really good and suit the drama.
Did anyone feel like the script heavily played up on Korean's dislike of Japan? At every chance, normal things would issue a, "Japan is a horrible country," or "Never trust a Japanese," or "This is why you can't trust Japanese men," or "Though I may be doing business with a Japanese, I wish to speak in Korean because I am proud to be Korean" from any Korean actor on the screen. Did anyone think that this was stereotyping or overkill? I definitely felt like it was. Meanwhile, the portrayal of the Japanese was varied and multifaced. I hope this changes in episode two, giving Koreans more than just being poor, downtrodden emigres or gang members.
I was also surprised to see that Choi Ji Woo's normally OVER-THE-TOP acting style was toned down by the "film-like quality" (somene mentioned that here, and the budget DOES seem big, doesn't it?! :D) of RONDO. The ending scene with Takenouchi and Choi gazing off into the sky was all too Korean-dorama-esque for me, but at least it wasn't the entire time.
Takenouchi is an extremely good actor, and it was nice to see that Choi could keep up, even if a bit awkward somehow in some scenes.
The sister of Choi's character, Yuna, is completely negligent for me, haha. Couldn't care less about her. Though I realize her necessity in the whole plot of things.
Was anybody else confused by the first scene and thought that Takenouchi's father was a gang member???
At times it did seem more like a Korean drama than a Japanese one. I think the Japanese are just as bad as the Koreans in this one, like the club owner that cheated Yuna out of her money and of course the Kazuma family, which is the ultimate evil in the storyline. Yuna and her sister seem to be the innocent ones caught in this inter-generational crossfire between the police and the "senku" mafia, (though I think there is much more to their story than meets the eye. Their missing father may yet have something to do with the at-large plot).
And there's DEFINITELY something more to Sho's father than meets the eye. From my POV, he was either undercover like Sho is now, or he was a cop working for the Senku.
yeah, i agree that choi's usual maudlin, overly emotional acting style was alittle more controlled here, but man, yutaka takenouchi has so much screen presence, he totally stole every scene that they were in together. between choi and takenouchi, its blantantly obvious that he is by far the superior actor.
jdramas are usually alot more subdued and less "in your face" than kdramas are, so even though choi has toned down her melodramatic acting alittle, she still comes across as somewhat out of place in this drama. rondo does have alot of kdrama sensibilities though, from the way the scenes are framed, to the music, to the ways that the characters interact -- everything just seems alittle more melodramatic and overthetop than your usual jdrama.
Divinefish wrote:yeah, i agree that choi's usual maudlin, overly emotional acting style was alittle more controlled here, but man, yutaka takenouchi has so much screen presence, he totally stole every scene that they were in together. between choi and takenouchi, its blantantly obvious that he is by far the superior actor.
YOU GOT THAT SOOOO RIGHT! hahaha. He RULES the screen. :applaud:
Linked dramarinbukyoku
2006 · TBS · 15.51%
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