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.

Recommended: Rebirth

I feel like I'm recommending everything at the moment! I must be stricter with my reviews. Or force myself to watch some rubbish.

This film from 2011 is about a child abduction. A woman, Nonomiya Kawako (played by Nagasaku Hiromi) steals a baby, Erina, and goes on the run. We then see the effect this has psychologically on everyone concerned. The mother who cannot hope for a long term relationship with the child she's raising, the child who constantly moves and can't make friends, and the real mother who never really gets back the daughter she lost.

It's told in a non-linear style, and the storyline hops between the present (Erina as an adult, played by Inoue Mao) and past (Erina and her not-mother) and also a couple of scenes in a sort of middle ground, where Erina is a child back with her real parents, unable to make sense of her new surroundings. This is an interesting way of telling the story, as both time-lines converge on the same place: The place where Kawako was finally arrested and Erina separated from her "mother".

It's very touching and well acted. Nagasaku Hiromi is fantastic as the loving abductor. I'm quite relieved because after Cast Me If You Can and Dirty Mama, I was starting to worry that she'd never been in anything good. Meanwhile, Inoue Mao is equally excellent in the role of Erina who finally faces the events of her childhood that she's tried so hard to repress.

It's a very sad story, as you'd expect, and after two and a half hours watching Kawako and Erica bonding as mother and child, the moment of separation is very painful as the cruelty and selfishness of the crime really hits home.

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.

Avoid: Cast Me If You Can

Recently I noticed that I’ve been writing a lot about TV series that involve mysteries or crimes to solve. So I made an effort to look for something a bit different. I think I may have started on the wrong foot with this mis-shapen lump of a romantic comedy.

The performances are poor, with most of the cast sleep-walking through their lines. Nagazaku Hiromi (Funuke – Show Some Love You Losers) adds a bit of zing to her scenes, but it’s a hopeless case. The writing, too, is poor with one disjointed scene following another with no flow and seemingly no progression at all. The viewer is given no time to get to know the characters, with the result that nothing they do makes any sense. The main character is an actor who is frustrated by always being in supporting or minor roles. So when a pretty woman recognises him, his reaction of dismissive disdain  is baffling. He could at least smile.

In one scene outside a hospital, Hiromi gives her phone to the lead male role (played by Masukoa Toru) so he can enter his phone number into it. He looks blank for a second, and then walks into the hospital while still carrying it. This is just a way of getting her to meet his father who is a famous playwright. At the end of the scene he gives her the phone back without a word of explanation.

I made it through the first hour, waiting for it to get better, but then I gave up. I think the most appropriate criticism is to point out that when looking for attractive or interesting screenshots, I decided to use a bit of the title sequence. Mind you, it is a very nice title sequence. Shame about the film that came after it.