Eyeyore

A dentist so lonely that she has to find company with a tortoise.
A female colleague who couldn't let go of a past relationship.
A gynaecologist who smirks on wrong occasions lost his job as a result, meets an ex-cabin attendant who lost her job because she couldn't smile .
A cousin who quarrelled with his girlfriend over an old car.
A widower and a retiree trying to make themselves useful.
Two second generation gentlemen who took over their fathers' profession.
Sounds boring? It was in the beginning.
I thought it was a winter drama, deadpanned script dealing with how to cope with grief. But there were very funny moments in their interaction. It's all about people encountering their crossroads in life and taking courage to start a new beginning.
Still sounds boring? Well, skip this then.

The viewership rating in 2008 didn't do justice to this drama. Had it been shown after March last year, many would have given it a second chance. In fact some would have hoped this myth becomes a fact and faithfully worship the deer as the redemptive deliverer from earthquakes.

A talking and un-kawaii deer doesn't appeal to me. The first episode taught me. Enjoy it, don't ask why and don't ask how. At first glance, the puppet looks as eerie as the moose head mounted on the wall of some American homes. The witty dialogues + colourful characters saved the story perhaps. An old chauvinistic deer anoints a hapless dole-eyed melancholic laboratory researcher to be the 'deliverer'. I would rather call him the delivery man. He is saved from disaster by two women, a gallant kendo expert and a history teacher who sounds like a museum headphone. Am I being sensitive? The writer seems to dig on the fact women are underemployed in Japan when they could do the job better.

We have seen enough of Tokyo and Kyoto on TV, but Nara is really new to me as a foreigner. Those glimpses of the old capital and archaelogical sites around Nara did stir my curiosity.

Ayase proves she is a comedian. Every move she makes reminds me of Hotaru. The deer steals the show whenever he encounters Ayase. Again, don't ask why, otherwise we all be wondering why couldn't they use Facebook to recognise each other? It could have solved all their problems.

Shinya Shokudo is adapted from a manga by Yaro Abe. How much does this screenplay differ from the manga, I do not know. It's a heartwarming drama to wind down after a working day. It doesn't promise a good ending to every episode because real life doesn't work out this way. So long as the customer is alive, his ups and downs continue. Each episode peers into the background of one/a pair of interesting customers and is accompanied by a dish much cherished by that customer. Nothing is mentioned about Master, the owner of the eatery. He is just a host, a man of few words and an occasional advisor.

The four SPs will reveal the inner world of the main characters and how they reconcile with their past traumatic experiences. Roles and responsibilities have evolved since 1999. Some are still on the career track (Sōgōshoku) while others have either given up or have been relegated to the non-career track (Ippanshoku). Laws have not changed though. The delinquents are well awared that they are not subject to the same punishments imposed on legal adults.

A fashionable wardrobe is never a priority in detective dramas, so if the crimes involved are not intriguing or if the lead detective has no charisma, the show doesn't sell.

In this case, I can't watch Deka Wanko on a black and white screen. Her lolita wardrobe and room setting are a feast to my eyes. After all, lolita fashion is peculiar. Having Wanko to run with platform shoes is unbelievable because we know even Lady Gaga topples over hers. But she needs those shoes to look taller than her 5 foot 2".

I cannot recall what criminal cases were involved or who her monotanously-dressed colleagues were. But I do remember her main rival is a german shepherd. How funny can it get when she sniffs like her rival, and gets called by her colleagues the same way you would call your dog's name.

It's almost like magic.People who knew nothing about Haute Couture Chinese dining or basic cooking suddenly whipping up Peking Duck,handmade noodles and shark fins. This show is entertaining and delicious if we all put aside our logic and reasoning.

This is a remake of the 1979 TBS version. Fumo Chitai is basically an autobiography of Ryuzo Sejima who was the Chairman of Itochu Corp from 1978-1987.The story incorporates the history of Itochu Corp from a textile trading firm to a major trading firm. Since Fumo Chitai is not an official biography, all the names have been changed (but the fictional names do rhyme with the real ones and it's not difficult to guess). Like all Yamazaki Toyoko's works, it promises excitment, revelation, lessons all rolled into 19 episodes that will keep us at the edge of our seats. Is there any plot that will spoil the drama ? Yes, Koyuki-san. I'm sorry but I believe a good drama doesn't require a pretty vase to enhance.

Before Ghostbusters, there were already similar horrific creatures in Mizuki Shigeru's manga, GeGeGe no Kitaro. Having lost an arm during the Second World War,he returned to Japan and started his life as an manga artist.The story began when his parents decided to find him a wife outside of Tokyo.As his wife came from a well-to-do family,his impoverished life in Tokyo wasn't what his wife has anticipated. The plot encircles the hapless encounters in his career and his ever-enduring wife by his side.

When Eliza Doolittle left Prof Higgins' house to marry Freddy, there is this song sung by Prof Higgins which I thought fits the mood of this story:

"I've grown accustomed to her face
She almost makes the day begin
I've grown accustomed to the tune she whistles night an' noon
Her smiles, her frowns, her ups, her downs
Are second nature to me now
Like breathing out and breathing in

I was serenely independent
And content, before we met
Surely I could always be that way again, and yet
I've grown accustomed to her looks
Accustomed to her voice
Accustomed to her face

But I'm so used to hear her say "Good morning" every day
Her joys, her woes, her highs, her lows
Are second nature to me now
Like breathing out and breathing in

I'm very grateful she is a woman
And so easy to forget
Rather like a habit one can always break and yet
I've grown accustomed to the trace
Of something in the air
Accustomed to her face"

AND I HAVE GROWN TO ACCUSTOMED TO THE FRONT PORCH AND THE FIREFLIES........

Suzuki Kyoka's presence as the mistress was awesome in comparison to her miget rival. The music score is great

I just feel the drama didn't do as well as Shiroi Kyoto which also carries a controversial theme and was also written for a different era, a trademark of the authoress. The film set, make-up and costume setting were too modern for the 1960s. Taking Shanghai's coastline as Tokyo in the 1960s added to the distraction in this whole drama because that coastline is unmistakenably Shanghai's famous landmark !

This is the first time i see Takuya in so many monologues - tough job but nonetheless, this is Takuya's best piece.

My palms are sweaty everytime there the music reaches a climax.too intense.

BTW, the opening scene of Karei is so captivating that I suspect HK-TVB's new drama, The Drive of Life, did a copycat of Karei in their opening too.

There seems to be quite a number of dramas on fathers this year. If you think fathers are distant creatures like those in Yasashii Jikan or Papa to Musume no Nanokaken, then Uzaki-papa is the opposite. Sure he is irritating (so are the rest who tried to act cute). He is ubiquitous. He is intrusive. He tells everyone in his workplace about his daughter. He sings his displeasure with his guitar for his daughter when she breaks that dumb 7pm curfew. Any daughter would rush to get married just to get him off her back. But at the end of the show, i have only one thought of this relationship - envy.