Not watching: Dirty Mama

When I started this blog, I told myself that I wouldn't watch things just so I could review them. Instead, I would simply write about what ever caught my interest at that time. So, although I turned off episode eight of Dirty Mama halfway through, I had plans to finish the series. Unfortunately, ten minutes into episode nine I realised that the only reason I was watching it was to write about it, and stopped there and then.

Episode eight was the real death blow. One of the police officers has a son who doesn't respect him and is hanging out with a bad crowd. So unconventional detective Maruoka gets him involved in some criminal activity. At first, he's delighted at how cool it all is, but then it turns scary and once the gang find out his dad is a cop, they hold him hostage.

I'm going to guess that it ends with his dad (until now, a desk-bound middle manager) rescuing him heroically and so he finally learns to appreciate his father for who he truly is. I will never know. I think it's a safe bet, though.

And after that I couldn't take any more. I don't mind if a show is daft, or doesn't make much sense, but when it's as bland as this I can't forgive it.

Still watching: Dirty Mama

I was quite surprised when I took such a liking to this show after episode one. However, like a badly mis-judged relationship, now the initial attraction is over, all I can see are the faults.

Nagasaku Hiromi is fine as the unconventional detective (it helps that I think she's very pretty) and, surprisingly, the former Quiz Hexagon regular Kamiji Yusuke is good in his role as the policeman disillusioned by his girlfriend's sudden rise up the ranks.

But apart from that, not much else makes sense as this drama drags from one pointless scene to the next. The methods used by the detective Maruoka Takako are more absurd than unconventional, and there never seems to be any implications. For example, faking a shooting in a public place should have landed her in trouble for the psychological damage done to the people who saw it. In fact, after it's over, the whole set-up isn't even mentioned.

The crimes, too, aren't really given much time. The fact that Takako's son makes a "Da" noise whenever someone lies is too convenient to be believable. Sometimes there are occasional moments where they do some proper detecting, but mostly the crime is solved by getting the suspect to confess by Takako's amusing methods of threatening them.

By now, the viewer knows the relationships between all the characters and the situation they're in, so either that has to develop or the detecting has to be more entertaining. At the moment, the show is just treading water.

Currently watching: Dirty Mama

Considering how few Japanese dramas get picked up by English-speaking markets, I suppose they can get away with a title like this, but anyway...

If you really enjoy stories about a jaded detective who doesn't get on with their naive idealistic newbie partner, and you don't live in Japan, you may want to consider moving. This is another drama based along those lines, and I really wasn't going to watch it if it weren't for two things. One, the subs seemed to come out quite quickly and that caught my eye. Two, it stars Nagazaku Hiromi who I remember as being the only good thing in the otherwise godawful Cast Me If You Can.

As it turns out, I found that I really enjoyed this. At first it's very generic sensible cop/rebel cop stuff, but about halfway through I decided I really liked the lead character. Hiromi was great in her role as the bad cop: pretty enough that you can see how she charms people when she wants, but old enough that when she acts rudely she doesn't look like a grumpy teenager. Karina, meanwhile, is relegated to the role of the sensible one, and she does okay.

But to be honest, after Perfect Report I'm a little worried about saying how great a series is after only one episode. But, I will say this: About half an hour after I saw Dirty Mama I was wondering what to watch and I seriously considered watching it again. Now that's got to be a good sign.

Just finished: Watashi ga Renai Dekinai Riyuu

When we first met the three main characters of this series, they were all single and moving into a shared house. As the end, they're all still sort of single, and are moving out of a shared house. But at least they had hope for the future, which they didn't have before. One was just about to enter into a relationship with a single father, and another had finally told the man she loves how she felt about him and discovered that he feels the same way about her. The third one got a job. Not so romantic, but she seemed happy.

However, there was a passiveness to the story that I didn't much care for. Yuko's character, the virgin, just went from one relationship at work to another and then to another. Karina's character, the tomboy, had two opportunities to further her career but didn't take either. She also let her newly acquired boyfriend go to America for work, while she preferred to stay behind.

Finally, Yuriko's character, the hostess, was never going to get a happy ending since she was having an affair with a married man. But at the end, she seemed pleased that she fell in love at all. None of the three women really got what they wanted, but they all ended up satisfied with what they got. Maybe that's realistic – what you want and what you need are two different things – but it was a little dull as a story. They let things happen to them, rather than making things happen.

Currently watching: Watashi ga Dekinai Riyuu

This drama follows the love lives (or lack-of-love lives) of three young single women. There’s the hostess bar worker who’s cynical about love, the bloke-ish lighting technician who’s forever stuck in the friend zone, and an over-serious virginal office worker.

The three of them share a house and give each other advice about their attempts to find love. It’s all quite innocent and naive, but still quite compelling. The three main actresses are well cast in their roles: Karina’s basically playing a less obnoxious version of the character she played in Parade, which is no bad thing. Yoshitaka Yuriko is perfect as the alluring hostess who oozes confidence but can’t actually get what she wants. Meanwhile, perhaps because she’s been in AKB48 for so long, Oshima Yuko makes a very convincing virgin.

There is a fourth main character, if the opening titles are to be believed, although she hasn’t appeared much so far. She’s the wife of a man that almost had a fling with Yuriko’s character. Quite how she’ll fit into this is still not clear, although episode four saw the two of them becoming friends unaware of the link between them.

This is an enjoyable soap opera-type drama, where almost every conversation between a man and a woman has a sub-text and if a woman says "I'm over him," you can expect him to turn up at awkward moments for the next few episodes.

Recommended: Parade

Another film review, but this was nothing to do with the Zipangu Fest. I just happened to watch it recently.

This film from 2010 follows the lives of four people (two male, two female) who live in the same apartment. It could almost be called the opposite of Last Friends. While that was heavy on the emotions, this is more distant and cooler. There are no romantic ties between the housemates and, because that isn’t a concern, the film can tell a more original story.

There are two mysteries running through the film. One is about a series of murders that have happened in the local area, and the other is about what their secretive neighbours are doing. There are other storylines, and they overlap, get dropped, and then picked up again in a very naturalistic, flowing way of story-telling. Sometimes I wondered if any of this was improvised.

The acting’s great. Keisuke Koide is unrecognisable from his role as the big-afro’d timpani player in Nodame Cantabile, Karina convinces as a slobbish fag-hag illustrator, Shihori Kanjiya is perfect as the passive, forgotten girlfriend of a mostly absent boyfriend. And Tatsuya Fujiwara impresses in his role as the uptight one. I’ve seen him in Death Note, Snakes and Earrings and now this. He’s building up quite an impressive body of work.

Perhaps this film appeals to me because I was a part of generation X, and grew up with Nirvana, Love & Rockets (the comic, not the band) and Slackers and this film has exactly that quality. It’s somewhat emotionless (but you still like and care for the characters) and it avoids all the usual cliches of storytelling such as falling in love or loud arguments. Instead it prefers to give the viewer a slower, perhaps more disturbing, realisation of what’s really going on.