kurosagi クロサギ [series] [movie]

yamapi fowning lots with watery piercing eyes, what else could you possibly want to watch?

kurosagi is in my top 3 favourite drama series. im a little reluctant to do this review as i it doesnt feel like its something i can put into words as to why i liked it so much. but i feel i want to get it out of the way somehow. i have seen kurosagi about 4 times now so in real time that would equate to once a year, its not far off how many times ive seen nobuta. i know i will go out of my way to watch yamapi in anything but it doesnt stop me being able to see if a drama is good or not.

at first i thought it was a shame that horikita maki's character was so irritating but after the first time round she didnt annoy me anymore, i think i just prefer her when she has funny roles to play.

kurosaki is a young guy who loses his family to the tragic circumstances surrounding his fathers debt. bitterness towards swindlers turns him into a vigilante con man who seeks out those who professionally con money out of naive people and turns their tricks against them. kurosaki becomes kurosagi - sagi meaning swindle (sagishi - swindler)

im not going to explain anything more of the plot because it would be better to have it unfold as you watch it. i knew nothing of kurosagi when i saw it and had no idea what to expect and im glad of it.

yamapi gets to play lots of different characters in this drama and its great fun to watch his manerisms change to encompass a new persona. effortlessly crying on cue, looking jaded and tormented by his past, and having different hair every five minutes, we still get to see yamapi doing his ad libbed clumsy moments and geniusly-funny subtle facial expressions.

it has almost everything i need from a series. it even has koyama keiichiro (fellow member of news) in one episode  kyaa! i tell ya i nearly wet myself when he suddenly came on

i didnt know he was going to be in it at all and he gets all upset and shouty looking at yamapi with his fingers through the fence and yamapi looking back at him all sad and koyama is all about to cry oooh squeeeeeeeeee he's so great.

its pretty sad much of the way through and you totally root for kurosagi to win out over all the bad guys. as i said i found horikita's character a pain in the ass at first but it was great to see those two back on tv together again. there are some really good suporting cast and guest actors some of which come back for the movie.

the film that follows the series felt a little different from the drama, the pace or tone was somehow weird. it annoyed me a little that things were still open ended as i thought the movie would wrap things up completely but if they ever want to make another one to finish it all off then i would be first in line to see it.

it happens a lot in japanese movies where things dont always end smoothly but actually i really like that. life doesnt end in the middle, stories carry on after one part has played out and its only western cinema that seems to be attached to the wrapped-it-up-nicely-so-you-dont-have-to-think notion that means you dont have to wonder about what happened to the characters next. 

i think with kurosagi its just that i would have been happy to have this series carry on for ages at least in the way that a comparable drama 'liar game' had two series and a film. i feel kurosagi could have done that length the same sort of justice.

so on to the music. the sound track is absolutely lovely. obviously everyone knows the daite senorita theme tune yamapi released but im talking about the actual sound track, if you can get hold of it i assure you it is really pretty so grab it.

i think yamapi's eyes should be given their own title in the credits you know.

   クロサギ  -   山下智久
   *stare*   炯々 -   山下智久の目

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