The Third Annual November 8th Awards

Has it really been three years since I started this blog? My goodness. As is usual on this day, I present my round up of what I've been watching for the past twelve months. And remember: this is about what I've seen since last November, not about what has been released so that the new has to battle against the old.

Best drama

Ai no Nedan
Shokuzai
Furuhata Ninzaburo
Suzuki Sensei

It is unfair to throw a classic in amongst the newcomers, but those are the rules. As it is Furuhata Ninzaburo wins handsomely with its cleverly structured murder mysteries, all set up and solved in under an hour. Shokuzai was a beautiful piece of writing and directing with a powerful storyline. Ai no Nedan was the surprise of the year: almost no publicity but it was a smart mystery based around life insurance claims. And Suzuki Sensei was another clever story, with an excellent cast.

Best comedy

Toshi Densetsu no Onna
Kekkon Dekinai Otoko
Kagi Kakatta no Heya
Tokkan

Difficult to be unbiased here, since I subbed two of these series. In the end, though, I think that Toshi Densetsu no Onna made me laugh more often than the others, so it takes this prize. Kekkon Dekinai Otoko was a great piece of slice-of-life comedy, while Tokkan mixed tax regulations with Inoue Mao's physical clumsiness. Kagi Kakatta no Heya's interplay of the three main characters that was the show's real attraction.

Best film

A Pierrot
Moteki
Rebirth
Jiro Dreams of Sushi

Golly, what a line up. I still haven't written about A Pierrot (Gravity Clown), but it I enjoyed it's mix of family secrets and crime solving. Jiro Dreams of Sushi is an excellent documentary, made with care and attention. Watching Rebirth was a powerful experience and very moving, but it's the almost-musical Moteki that wins, simply for reminding me what is good about film-making. Very life-affirming.


Best Actor

Hosshan (Renai Kentei)
Sato Koichi (Kagi Kakatta no Heya)
Tamura Masakazu (Furuhata Ninzaburo)
Hasegawa Hiroki (Suzuki Sensei)

Did I watch the wrong stuff, or was there a lack of interesting roles for men this year? Hmmm, maybe it was just me.

Although Tamura Masakazu is perfect in his role in Furuhata Ninzaburo, I think that Hasegawa Hiroki was another piece of inspired casting as the all-knowing teacher in Suzuki Sensei. Meanwhile, Hosshan was great as the god of love in Renai Kentei and Sato Koichi stole plenty of scenes as the vain lawyer in Kagi Kakatta...

Best Actress

Nagasawa Masami (Moteki)
Nakatani Miki (Seinaru Kaibutsutachi)
Koizumi Kyoko (Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi, Shokuzai)
Inoue Mao (Rebirth, Tokkan)
Nagasaku Hiromi (Rebirth)

Nakatani Miki's performance as the cold, calculating head nurse was Seinaru Kaibutsutachi's main attraction, Nagasawa Masami held my attention like never before in Moteki, meanwhile Koizumi Kyoko demostrated her range in two completely different roles this year, as did Inoue Mao. But it is Nagasaku Hiromi who takes the plaudits with her inch-perfect performance in Rebirth.


Best game show

Running Man
Nazotoki Battle TORE!
Vs Arashi
Game Center CX

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't separate the two winners, so we'll just have to make do with a tie. And they could hardly be more different: Running Man's high-concept, CGI-laden physical challenges compared to Game Center CX's low-budget retro battles. But both of them are essential viewing, and to chose one over the other would be too cruel. Meanwhile, Nazotoki Battle TORE! and Vs Arashi offer up the same thrills and spills as they always do.

Best album

TaeTiSeo “Twinkle”
Shugo Tokumaru “Port Entropy”
Jambinai “Différance”
Taru “100 per cent”

While for most people 2012 will be the year when Kpop burst onto the scene with Gangam Style, for me it was the year when Korean artists put out some great albums. Singer-Songwriter Taru's album was a lovely collection of ballads, and Jambinai's album was an occasionally extreme (but still melodic) post-rock aural adventure. But it is the eighties disco overload of TaeTiSeo that wins. No other album has been in my mp3 player as long as this. Meanwhile, Shugo Tokumaru represents Japan in a dry year, with his charming clockwork anthems.

The Safe Pair of Hands Award

Nagasawa Masami (Moteki, Toshi Densetsu, Yasashii no Jikan)
Toda Erika (SPEC: Shou, Kagi Kakatta no Heya)
Koizumi Kyoko (Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi, Shokuzai, Adrift in Tokyo)

This award is for the person who always seems to choose good things to be in, and this year it was an easy choice. Koizumi Kyoko never put a foot wrong all year, and each one of the three things I saw her in was excellent. Nagasawa Masami appeared in three things (four, if you include a cameo role in a dream I had) and each one was very good. Toda Erika, too, had two very different but very enjoyable roles.

Just watched: Adrift In Tokyo

If you're feeling depressed that an actor as good as Odagiri Joe should end up in an ill-fated series like Kazoku no Uta, you can take some comfort in the fact that his 2007 film Adrift In Tokyo has finally been released on DVD.

It's directed by Satoshi Miki, and if you've seen any of his other work then you know what to expect. A storyline that meanders from event to event, with a surreal sense of humour. In this film, Joe plays a student deep in debt and Tomokazu Miura pays the thuggish debt collector who's demanding repayments. Then one day, the collector pays the student one million yen to walk with him across Tokyo. But he won't say why.

As the two men walk from one peculiar event to the next, they start to bond, and in the end they have to pretend to be part of a family. While all this is happening, we also see the co-workers of the debt collector's wife becoming increasingly worried about her absence. But, unable to believe that anything really bad has happened, they never take the situation seriously.

There's also a great cameo from Yoshitaka Yuriko as a schoolgirl who is convinced that the two main characters are father and son, and also Koizumi Kyoko (Saigo Kara Nibanme no Koi) as the schoolgirl's aunt who is also part of this pretend family.

It's a slow, dreamlike film and Satoshi Miki's signature use of logic runs throughout. Not a great deal makes sense, but once you get over that, it all makes sense.

Just finished: Saigo kara Nibanme no Koi

Because I started watching this series so late, I sped through all the episodes in the space of two weeks, and a lot of fun it was too. The initial rush of excitement at meeting new people in new places and watching events unfold was slightly lessened by the end of the series. More and more, the story needed coincidences to keep things moving which was a shame.

But all the same, I really enjoyed the banter and comedy. And the final message that explains the title of the show is pretty uplifting. At least it is for someone old like me. You should approach your next love as if it's your second to last, then you can relax and enjoy it more instead of thinking "this is it! This is the last one!" and getting all uptight about it.

So, this was certainly worth watching, especially for the performance of Kiozumi Kyoko and Nakai Kiichin the lead roles, Uchida Yuki as the skittish sister who's always dressed as if it's deepest winter, and also Jun Miho as the potential marriage partner who finds herself competing against her daughter for a man's attention.

Plus, I should mention that song (not the main theme, but the one that keeps appearing throughout the show with the refrain "Go go go go go to the river") is by Yael Naim and you can see the video for it here. It took me ages to find that, since every search for "Saigo kara Nibanme no Koi song" came up with the theme song by Hamasaki Ayumi. But worth the effort, I feel.

Currently watching: Saigo kara Nibanme no Koi

When I started watching Japanese dramas about four years ago I made a special effort to remind myself that this was not a realistic representation of Japanese life. For the most part, it was easy. I was pretty sure that time didn't stop just before death, nor that university lecturers were solving clever mysteries. Even programmes that talked about everyday issues, such as Anego or At Home Dad, seemed too exaggerated to be taken seriously.

So now I've just started watching this show, and I find myself thinking "Is this how things really are?" This drama follows the life of a single woman in her forties as she buys a house outside Tokyo, and how this effects her life, work and friendships.

It's very well written and acted. I can't quite express how nice it feels to have a show which would rather have small things happen naturally than big things be forced into the story. The subplots are quirky enough to be unexpected, but small enough to be easily accepted. For example, a daughter inviting herself to her mother's o-miai meeting for a prospective husband. Or setting up fake profiles on dating agencies to see how popular your real profile is in comparison.

Plus, it's very refreshing to have a series about people my age talking about the kind of things that people my age talk about. I recognise some of these conversations from my life, despite the different culture in which they're set. Koizumi Kyoko is a lot of fun to watch and completely different from her lead role in Shokuzai. The rest of the cast are good too, but to list them would take too long. I'm yet to find a bad performance. This is a very enjoyable show, and I wish I'd started watching it sooner since the torrents are quite old now, and not as quick as they could be.

Recommended: Shokuzai

* spoilers... *

One for the film students, this. Of course, everyone else can enjoy it, too.

This short drama ends on an episode that reveals that the murder in episode one was itself meant as a means of revenge – to get the mother to atone for a misdeed she'd done in the past. And while the drama held my attention, I found myself appreciating all the neat little touches that added to the look and feel of the show.

As the story unfolds, the director, Kurosawa Kiyoshi, makes great use of colour and light to illustrate the scene. The events of the present day are washed out and grim – almost shot in black and white, flashbacks to the past are in full colour, and the moment of revelation around which the final episode is based is shot in a glaring blast of dazzling white light.

 Plus, there's a recurring theme in the last episode of empty institutions. The former training centre, abandoned and desolate, or the police station barely half full while work is being done on the building. This seemed to fit in with the theme of how the things we rely on are transient, like family and marriage. And how fragile the concept of revenge really is. Even us, as viewers, have spent the past four episodes seeing the mother as the wronged character only to find ourselves having to adjust our ideas.

This is, I think, the best looking Japanese TV series I've seen. It shows how important it is to take a little care with composition and an idea of what each scene is trying to say and getting that across in the camerawork and the photography. Perhaps a couple of scenes early on jar a little –sometimes people's reactions seem to be more about moving the story on rather than being about what that person is really feeling. But overall, the way the events move from one to the next towards the final confrontation with the murderer is fascinating.

Currently watching: Shokuzai

Now, this is why I watch Japanese dramas. After a run of nice but unremarkable detective shows and historical dramas, it's been a while since anything's really made me sit up and take notice. The publicity for this drama certainly caught my eye with its high quality cast and interiguing storyline. And at least the first episode has justified the hype. Thank God someone subbed it. I did try watching without subs, but halfway in I gave up. This isn't the kind of show you can watch and it's okay if you just get the gist. It's too subtle for that.

The story is about four women who witness a murder of a classmate when they were children, but are unable to remember the murderer's face and so he is never brought to justice. The mother of the victim has promised revenge for this.

Episode one follows one of the women in the present day. She is now a nurse, but still lives under the shadow of the event fifteen years ago. She has difficulty relating to people and when she meets a man who seems to understand her, and he asks her to marry him, she agrees.

Whatever marital bliss she was expecting is short-lived, as things start to go wrong in a most unexpected way. And it all seems to be linked to the murder. But how much influence the victim's mother has is never made clear. Is she deliberately setting things up to fail, or has she just sown the seed of mistrust in the woman's head and waits for it to take its course?

The show looks very nice. It's directed by Kurosawa Kiyoshi, who also made the film Tokyo Sonata, and the two have a very silimar feel. Very thoughtful composition, and very cleanly shot. The acting’s great and the story walks the fine line between unreal and unrealistic, never becoming so odd that it just seems absurd.

It’s still early days, but so far, so perfect.