Tsuki no Koibito 月の恋人 [series]

Yeah yeah yeah you hate the Chinese girl, we know we know.

I know everyone hates this one, everyone hates everything Kimu Taku has done since 2010 onwards but if you don't compare it with before, you might actually like this drama. 

His character is the bastard, not the actor. Just because he is not playing some smooth or funny or quirky likable guy, or love to hateable guy even, you cant blame him for this drama being boring. 

And actually I dont think it is, I think it is mature and slow paced and ...actually a little bit odd, like two dramas in one, but its not what I would call boring. 

I've read so many bad reviews of this show, and heard so many people say they dont like anything of Kimu Taku's work post CHANGE, which I loved too or MR BRAIN which I also adored with all the bananas in my heart. But why does those dramas being so good mean this one is automatically bad?

I don't really care, I'm not going to beat this drama down like everyone else, Im not going to sing high praises either but I liked it at the time, I don't want to be swayed by other people's weird opinions of Lin Chi Ling, and Kitagawa Keiko with her brilliant gyaru bitch whining. 

So many comments from Japanese viewers saying they were annoyed by Ling's broken Japanese language skills... when that was how the character was meant to be like.... I dont really understand how she was annoying but whatever. 

I thought she was a pretty strong character so I can only assume it was due to either racism or just rooting for Shinohara's character to steal her man. 

I cant really outline the plot too well because this was, what, 4 years ago now? Yeah 4 years ago this month in fact. I cant remember all that much but I will scrape together what I can from my withered old memory. 

Whatever way you look at it Hazuki Rensuke is a bastard you don't really want to be around, let a lone work for. Certainly not one you want to fall for. 

He is the president of Regolith, a furnishings company. 

He started off by making his own pieces by hand, building his cared for designs with attention to detail and always thinking of their function and users. 

The warm touch he once had is long gone and he only wishes to increase his market share in the world and expand as much as possible. 

To add to his unlikable traits he ends up finding himself a Chinese trophy wife who he took away from a bad situation and turned into a model - and isn't he oh so proud of himself for doing so. 

She rebels against him as much as she can eventually when he begins to treat her like less than a person, but its a long road out of the box she becomes trapped in. Throw in a transvestite brother in heaps of debt and you have yourself a sh*te situation nipping at your heals. 

I think one of the main reasons viewers did not Xiu Mei is that they didn't realise she was meant to be such a pivotal character as they started watching. She became highly important and not just a side story to Rensuke and Ninomiya's relationship. 

Ninomiya had known him since forever and watched him grow into the unlikable guy we meet at the beginning of this drama. We know she loves him, he is obviously oblivious and uses the friendship to his own ends. She is feisty though and doesn't take is crap like everyone else, well she takes it but she isn't quiet about it. 

We have a whole bunch of interesting characters come in and out... I just looked on drama wiki and it said there were only 8 episodes. I cant believe that. There's no way! So much happens; it really travels through time from one crazy situation and another. It cant be 8 episodes long... Apparently it is though. 

I like his ultimate downfall, but I think the journey to that point is also interesting. He becomes a much more likable person when it has all fallen to pieces ...but still a bit of a moron. 

Shinohara wins the whole show really, I thought at the time how she stole every scene. 

I think if you havent seen it already you should give it a fair chance. Its a great cast and a slightly unusual story, I don't think it deserves the slating it received. If nothing else but for Shinohara's frustrated face. 

I will end with a cast list as the cast was all anyone seemed to care about when this drama aired.

Main cast:

Kimura Takuya - Hazuki Rensuke 

Shinohara Ryoko - Ninomiya Maemi 

Lin Chi Ling - Liu Xiu Mei 

Matsuda Shota - Sai Kazami/Cai Feng Jian 

Kitagawa Keiko - Onuki Yuzuki 

Watanabe Ikkei - Kijihata Togo 

Hamada Gaku - Maehara Tsuguo 

Mikami Kensei - Koizumi Keiichi 

Nishiyama Maki - Eruka 

Mitsushima Hikari - Anzai Rina 

Nakamura Yuri - Kasahara Yuki 

Abe Tsuyoshi - Min 

Nagatsuka Kyozo - Onuki Shogen 

Nukumizu Youichi - Tokita Ikuzo 

Takenaka Naoto - Maruyama Tetsuji 

Kabira Jay - Mineoka Yasuyuki

I'm pretty sure that one set was the same place they shot some of Sailor moon. I noticed once when I was watching Kitagawa Keigo doing cartwheels to kill rubber suity bad guys. 

I like the settings and different areas they shot in for this series. Almost as gorgeous as Shinohara. Nothing quite beats Matsuda Shota's horrible hair style though - oh my god that was bad.

Just watching it back to get some screen shots I remembered the banter between Rensuke and Ninomiya, it was really bickery like siblings, I enjoyed that. It was different to other relationships in dramas I guess because he stayed a po faced moody git until the very end and didn't really change all that much. I still wanted them to end up together though. I think they worked well together but I think maybe people just didn't like Rensuke enough. He is hard to love lets face it. 

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Tokyo Dogs 東京DOGS [series]

after watching arakawa... this was weird

i say after arakawa - which is truly very strange, but i dont mean that this show was weird exactly. it is just that Oguri Shun plays such a normal character here that it is quite a leap from Soncho.

im currently watching rich man poor woman so i thought it might be a good time to review tokyo dogs. 

Oguri Shun has recently got married and is still getting great roles, i always enjoy watching him, ever since Binbo Danshi. (when he met his wife, squeeeee!)

now, im going to get confused as to which series im reviewing here. im not doing arakawa, im going to wait until after the movie (yatta!) and im not doing rich man poor woman, just yet.time to focus on tokyo dogs. if i can remember anything about it. 

ah yes, Mizushima Hiro and Yoshitaka Yuriko feature along side Oguri Shun in this drama. Mizushima and Oguri are unlikely partners in the police force (paired together despite their complete dislike for each other) and Yoshitaka plays yuki, who is not only the love interest but the most important piece of their puzzling police case.

Marou (Mizushima) is a bit bizarre. he was kind of a yankii in his younger days and now he is a detective who doesnt really know how to do much but fight and shout a bit too much, he is obsessed with pretty girls (until he meets yuki) and offers the majority of the comedy to the show, the character allows Mizushima to let out his quirky weird tendencies at every given moment.

Takakura (Oguri) saw his dad get shot when he was just a little kid, he trained in the US and became an elite New York City cop determined to catch his father's killer. He is stern and hard, with only that purpose in mind. 

The two policemen get paired up to finally try and bring this killer to justice and in comes Yuki, all memory-buggered and watery eyed, not knowing what the hell is going on or how she is involved, but tangled in it all the same.

They all look f*cking fabulous in this drama, as you can tell from the screen shots. gorgeous, the lot of them. all the characters are good, their banter is hilario, that was meant to be hilarious but spell checker suggested hilario so im keeping it as that. :) 

i thought it would be a bit boring, like a grown up version of shibatora without the premonitions, but it turned out to be really really good. i raced through the whole series in two days and totally enjoyed it - i think even without any sort of premise i could just watch those two idiots bickering with each other for hours.

there is a long question of who did what and bla bla bla - as you get in this sort of story, youre not sure whose side some people are on, there is danger and death on every corner, and lots of Takakura being a total dick to Yuki and making her cry - which is great because Yoshitaka is beautiful when she has tears in her eyes. and she basically looks that way the entire show.

I love how Oguri Shun can be so funny when he is playing such a straight character. it was an inspired choice to cast these two together. It was a bit like hana yori dango pairing him and trout mouth Jun together - but with a better story to show chemistry between good actors. 

It is worth mentioning some other side characters, or rather, their actors; Katsuji Ryou from shouni kyumei, atsu-hime, sore wa totsuzen arashi no you ni, etc etc. i like him a lot, i think his role was adequately stupid and odd. this drama also had wonky jaw woman Tomosaka Rie from samurai pastry chef movie chonmage purin. Mikami Kensei from deka wanko, beck, hanawake, bloody monday, and yamapi is an undertaker - i mean - saikou no jinsei no owarikata. and playing detective Majima, the wonderful Otsuka Nene from tumbling, saigo no yakusoku, iryu, tokyo tower, kurosagi, hero, and a million other things. Majima was a great character with a nice little story arc of her own. 

Yeah this wasnt really the most interesting review ive ever done but blogspot keeps deleting big chunks of stuff i write for no reason so im simplifying my life by cracking this out in a few minutes. 

the series is better than i make it sound. i fail at my job. but im too busy enjoying Oguri Shun's new drama to give a sh*t. 

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