I'm just far too distracted by Juri and Masami's lips being so close together in that picture... (yes that boyish person in the middle IS UENO JURI. Like Nodame Cantabile Ueno Juri).

What caught my attention about this drama initially was Nishikido Ryo and only Ryo. So I decided to download the first episode of it to see what it was all about.

Ho, I was surprised.

The start of the show was slow and all but at the end of the first episode, it got me really interested.

Now first impressions I had of the show was "wow, nice opening video. And this looks mysteriously like Nodame Cantabile 2....."


And that was because 3 out of 5 of the main cast were formerly in Nodame too. Ueno Juri, Eita and Mizukawa Asami.

And then for the first half of the show, I was about to give up on this really pretty but boring show. That's when Nishikido Ryo starting SLAPPING AND KICKING his girlfriend in the show.


Wow. It's kind of creepy how convincing he is huh? Who really knows....

See what intrigues me about this show is how it deals with such a dark topic instead of all the normal sickness/car accident kind of plots. Domestic violence is pretty much a new tv topic.

What intrigues me even more is how they've decided to cast Nishikido Ryo for the violent individual. Usually the "antagonists" of the show are... less hot. This is a smart move on the producers' side to make the audience more interested in his role, rather than immediately strike him off as the bad guy and decide to hate him. Also, Ryo's role in the show is a really confusing one. By day he's a gentle child welfare officer. By night he's a wife beater? That's tough acting right there.

That said, it'd be interesting to see where this brings Ryo. It's a good career move I'd say, if he was going to focus on acting. But as an idol, I'm guessing not so much. Though there are girls I know who would pay to get kicked by Ryo like that. Tsk tsk.

The show seems to want to touch on other social topics, like fear of sex, being bullied at work and such. Should prove to be interesting. Finally a drama that is trying to portray something other than puppy love. THERE IS HOPE FOR JAPANESE TV YET! Worth the watch. It might be a little slow-moving (okay, VERY slow-moving) in the beginning, but it gives really decent food for thought.

Labels: Eita, Mizukawa Asami, Nagasawa Masami, Nishikido Ryo, Ueno Juri