I thought I'd take time out from my recent barrage of awful reviews, and try to write a good one. I'm not going to take any meds until a little bit later so before I settle down with Kamen Rider W and painkillers Im going to see if I can remember enough about this drama to review it properly.
The cast list is really long, so I didnt put in all the guests but most of the main characters are listed below:
Cast list:
Nagase Tomoya - Tora
Okada Junichi - Ryuji
Ito Misaki - Megumi
Nishida Toshiyuki - Hayashiatei Donbei
Shoufukutei Tsurube - Nakatani Ken
Tsukamoto Takashi - Nakatani Ginjiro
Takuma Takayuki - Hyuga Jun
Gin Pun Chou - Yanaka Sayuri
Abe Sadao - Hayashiyatei Donta
Nekoze Tsubaki - Yanaka Tsuruko
Shunputei Shota - Hayashiyatei Donkichi
Hoshino Gen - Hayashiyatei Dontsuku
Fukami Motoki - Hayashiyatei Donburi
Asari Yosuke - Hayashiyatei Udon
Aoi Yu - Risa
Kiritani Kenta - Takeshi-kun
Arakawa Yoshiyoshi - Jumptei Jump
Omi Toshinori - Ta-chan
Hankai Kazuaki - Hanzo
Takaoka Sousuke - Kaneko
Kitamura Kazuki - Tanabe Yasuo
Omori Nao - Boss Kataoka
Furuta Arata - Maruo
This is one of those dramas I looked forward to watching but did not expect it to be so enjoyable. I think it may have irreparably formed my love for Rakugo and I'm so glad I watched it.
Nagase is the man who got me hooked on Japanese comical dramas with My Boss My Hero, and I was interested in this one because he again plays a yakuza with another side to his personality.
This time he gets himself involved with a Rakugo family troop and learns the ways of traditional story telling. But of course, eventually, Tora's yakuza life catches up with him...
Tora (Nagase) wants to become a great story teller, and the head of the Hayashiyatei family's most gifted son, Ryuji (Okada) wants nothing to do with it.
The head of the house hold is a wonderful performer, able to convey all the subtle emotions and perfect sense of humour needed for truly enjoyable Rakugo.
He begins to train Tora to tell traditional Rakugo stories that parallel his own bizarre life, and we see him come to understand the tales in real life contexts and bring an entirely new spin on each story as we eventually see his version of it.
I love the way we see two stories run parallel in each episode, the same tale but told as the traditional story (while its being taught to Tora) and also watching it unfurl in his own life.
The way he sees it happening in real life is the way he chooses to convey it on stage, and his odd take on traditional stories becomes popular and intriguing to the public.
His aggression and general yakuza manor is something never really found on the Rakugo stage, and traditional performers become a little threatened and put out by his popularity.
Tora and Ryuji become odd comrades and through their polar opposing personalities find lessons and truths in each other they could not see in themselves.
It is a brilliant pairing. Okada and Nagase are really perfect together. The real gem for me is the head of the family played by Nishida Toshiyuki, he was just so warm and stupid, wise and flustered, so many conflicting but lovely personality traits. I just loved the chemistry between him and Nagase.
Their odd bickering, never really knowing who was in charge, the long journey they took together that was really very emotional and personal for them; it was a very sweet drama.
I learned a lot about Rakugo. Some of the stories were so funny, and I understood more of the punchlines than I would have done a few years ago.
It must be hard to really get Rakugo humour and meaning if you dont know much about Japanese culture. You almost need to have it explained and then it sort of loses its touch. But even just understanding the themes in general helps a lot.
There were a few I really got into and the odd one or two I didnt understand at all. Cultural contexts are often really needed for things like this. But I think you can enjoy this show regardless of understanding the stories.
And after one or two stories, you start to get the into rhythm and style of the stories and they become easier to understand.
I think its worth getting into because once you get used to this style of story telling it becomes like a little treasure you can enjoy.
I think the direction and writing on this drama was so good. I cant fault the show at all. Really different, interesting and happy, sometime very moving, and mostly warm and sweet for random bizarre reasons.
I highly recommend this one. I could definitely watch this again, even if it feels a little dated. Its almost 10 years old at the time Im writing this review. But I really loved it. All the jokes, all the banter, all the troubles, and especially the unexpected Enka performance.
Nishida Toshiyuki was a joy to watch, and there were so many guests in each episode that are really well established actors. Im glad it was so well thought out and delicately put together.
Nagase will always be a yakuza with a split personality to me.
That and a goat, but thats a whole other story caused by crack fic. I wonder if its possible to write crack fic in the style of Rakugo..? I really shouldnt give myself ideas like that.
~
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