Spring 2012

Managed to watch four spring doramas: Kagi no Kakatta Heya, Mikeneko Holmes no Suiri, 37-sai de Isha ni Natta Boku & Toshi Densetsu no Onna. 

Lucky Seven, Honjitsu wa Taian Nari & Strawberry Night

I decided to watch three Winter doramas this year. 

"Lucky Seven".

"Honjitsu wa Taian Nari".

"Strawberry Night".

Mystery/Thriller genre <3

Among these three, I probably enjoyed Honjitsu the most... Lucky Seven was..hmm.. I guess the plot didn't work so well with me. I do have a favourite character & it's not MatsuJun's character. (:P)..  I don't really like how he portray his character - was it trying too hard..? Or maybe I saw some gap in his character that doesn't complement each other...? It was somewhat a complete opposite to Eita's performance. Now I know why I wasn't Jun-baited during HanaDan days :P ... I actually loved Jun's Kindaichi (another mystery dorama) - it felt like he wasn't afraid to look dorky/uncool at that time.. now seems different.. *sigh*

I was surprisingly a bit disappointed with "Strawberry Night". It wasn't bad..but it wasn't exceptionally good either (at least to me, it felt that way). In general, there were some interesting cases (bizarre & gruesome) & superb acting from guest stars such as Sugimoto Tetta..  Ishiguro Ken was amazing in the last three episodes!... with some exception... Oomasa was predictably bad (somewhat unnatural expressions... I hope she doesn't appear much in Mikeneko).. Kimura Tae was fine but I find her voice annoying (happened out of blue! I was surprised too) during the scene in the interrogation room, I had to fastforward that scene (hopefully I didn't miss anything essential :P) so that I could finish that particular episode. The regular cast was good too.. though I was kinda annoyed with Gantetsu the whole time... sometimes with Reiko too.. After watching a full-length series, I realise that I don't really like Reiko.. I'm not convinced with this intuition thing (though I believe in intuitions) incorporated in her character. I enjoyed seeing her chemistry with Kikuta, but I wasn't expecting anything to develop between them... Takashima Masahiro & Endo Kenichi were unexpectedly charming in their characters. Watanabe Ikkei's character was annoying too.. actually I'm more annoyed at how Watanabe played his character..or maybe it is the character itself...??  I've always loved Namase's acting...even if it's only a minor role, he always nails the character down. His character in Strawberry Night included.. sometimes I wished he wasn't so clingy to Reiko.. XD


But I'm satisfied with both "Lucky Seven" & "Strawberry Night" endings... especially "Strawberry Night".. *still impressed by Ishiguro-san's performance*

Untouchable

http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Untouchable

My Rating : 3.5-4 stars


I didn't have any expectations when I started watching this two days ago. I usually have faith in any Nakama Yukie dramas despite the TV ratings. Anyway. Though, to be honest, I was expecting it to be more to the comedy side... the beginning episodes felt just like that. I was kind of impressed that though they have different "journalist assignments" (case) in each episode, actually the whole drama was about one big mystery only - the identity of "Anonymous".

As the story progresses, it became more scary & less comedic. Can you imagine a world like that? What if the charity, for-good-causes campaigns you see around the world are behind the violence that recently is on rampage? Sigh. I'm glad that it's only fiction (or is it not?).

Anyway. I thought the story starts to lag as it reaches its end. I actually made the mistake of checking on spoilers on the drama's forum on DA. Argh. I really regret that. But I managed to finish anyway by basing my curiosity on "Why him?".

My favourites:
(1) Chemistry between Ryoko (Nakama Yukie) & Takafuji (Sato Tomohito).
(2) Ryoko's outfits!
(3) The way Nakama Yukie pronounce "Anonymous". -Actually there's nothing special about it but it brings her character in Trick, Yamada Naoko, to mind. Repetitive names. "Kami no zou no zou.." XD
(4) How the ending theme song blends in with the scenes in the drama.