pash
Italy
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"Supokon" at its best!!!
As I've already confessed in a previous review, my favorite sport is baseball.Of all different sorts of baseball, Japanese "yakyuu" is my favorite (in a nutshell: no doping - or at least much much less than in the MLB; less muscles and more brains; nobody munching tobacco and spitting it on the field, etc. etc.).
And of all different types of Japanese "yakyuu", my favorite is precisely high school baseball.
Why? Because it's poetic, pure, epic...it's Sport with a capital "s", sport as it *should* be.
Now, the Japanese have a whole genre dedicated to sports-related stories, called "supokon", and since baseball is (one of) the national sport(s), you can guess that the vast majority of "supokon" are about baseball, and particularly about high school baseball, 'cause Japanese *love* it and the Koushien's final game is basically the Japanese equivalent of the Superbowl in the States!
So does all that mean that there's nothing really new in this story? Could be, yeah.
Does that make it any less fabulous? Hell no!
A good recipe doesn't necessarily need any fancy ingredients to make for a delicious dish; more often than not, it's precisely the simple, good old ones that are the best of the lot!
As is the case with this "Gekokujo Kyuji": all the tropes of the genre are there, but still, you can't help but enjoying *every single minute* of it! Marvelously written, acted, directed. Production value reached Himalayan heights. The message conveyed was simply beautiful.
Jeez, I finished watching it before Christmas, but I'm still getting goosebumps thinking about it now, so good it was!!! ^______^;;;
Highly and wholeheartedly recommended! Perfect 10 all the way!!!
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Terrible script
I decided to watch this dorama since Tanabe Momoko, whom I had really liked both for her looks and for her acting skills in "Yuru Camp", starred in it. And indeed, she didn't disappoint me; she was absolutely gorgeous-looking in this "Konna Mirai wa Kiitenai", and she also did very well acting-wise, given the totally lousy material she had to work with (I'll elaborate more on that in a moment). The rest of the cast was also ok, with the exception of Noro Kayo (she had me climbing the walls every time she was on screen...and whenever she'd ad-lib some of those überlousy "rap lines", I seriously felt the urge to throw something at the display).The seaside setting (my other reason for watching this, btw) was nice, but apart from the opening and ending credits, it wasn't used much, unfortunately.
The big problem this dorama had was the script, which was as terrible as they come. It reminded me of an exercise I'd have my students do in order to show them how bad a script turns out to be, without the proper planning (the exercise consisted in having them write a story where every single students could contribute only with a few lines, and what's worse, every student could only know the few lines written by the previous one, not having the slightest idea about the rest of the story; of course, with those premises, the stories turned out to be plainly terrible, lacking all coherence and structure! Well, that's totally how this dorama felt: a bunch of extremely poorly written scenes, chaotically thrown together without any logic nor any sense of how to write a script - and should I add, without any respect for the viewers. 2/10
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And I'm happy to be able to say that it's been an extremely satisfying journey from the very first minute to the very last!
The plot is very intricate but the writer(s) managed to wrap everything up nicely, all doubts were resolved, all questions answered - which is a lot more that can be said of many such dramas which instead tend to lack dramatically in that aspect.
The cast did a pretty good job, as a whole.
The "packaging" (production value, music etc.) is top-notch, period.
Perfect 10 as far as I'm concerned!
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That is not to say that it's absolutely perfect, alas. Indeed, the script had its moments but also a coupla sloppy passages (like for example the übertrite subplot involving the ML's ex). The cast did well as a whole, but we're honestly not talking of award-granting performances. As for the production value / "packaging", the level was completely fine, but at the same time nothing worth calling home about it.
A decent 8/10 in my book!
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Back in the Golden Age of J-dramas it was possible to make a drama with such a politically incorrect title (it roughly translates as "Badmouthing the Wives" - but don't get it wrong, at least 80% of the times - if not more - the badmouthing husbands aren't portrayed as being right at all in doing so!) and with such tridimensional characters, so full of faults and yet - or rather, precisely because of that! - so tremendously humane.
The script doesn't take sides "a priori" (OK, today it's Latin Day, bear with me, please), but rather shows two main characters who are right or wrong depending on the situation. They argue, they fight, they yell, but at the end of the day - and that's the lovely message conveyed by this old comedy - both are made better people by being together and learning from each other and from their mistakes, day in and day out. There are no *perfect* couples, but rather *functioning* ones, that are so exactly because they know that they're not perfect and *accept* it! (compare that with the current trend of demanding nothing short of *perfection* from your partner, and any failure to comply to that impossibly unrealistic demand leading to a divorce...>_____<).
Back to the drama: the script is wonderful, managing to be at the same time hilarious and thought-provoking. The acting is top-notch, with virtual standing ovations for both leads. The "packaging" might feel dated to younger viewers, but those who appreciate "oldiesbutgoldies" won't have any problem with that.
No surprise it was so successful it got a second season (alas, not yet subbed, if I'm not mistaken...?), not really a common occurrence for comedies.
Oh, a last side-note for my countrymates - who'll get the reference: this is basically the Japanese version of "Casa Vianello", LOL! ^_^;;;
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Crazy and hilarious? Yeah, you bet! ^____^
Huge congrats to Odagiri Joe in his triple role as actor, director and screenwriter! This "Oliver na Inu, (Gosh!!) Konoyarou" is exquisitely creative (starting with the usual "This drama is a work of fiction" warning, aptly modified as "This drama is a *great* work of fiction", LOL), without *ever* feeling pretentiously artsy.
The cast did an excellent job, with honorable mentions for Odagiri himself, Ikematsu Sosuke and Aso Kumiko (great actress AND screenwriter herself, BTW).
The production value is pretty high, and the jazzy OST simply fabulous (EGO-WRAPPIN'!...'nuff said! ^___-)
So why don't I give this a "perfect 10" rating?
Well, one of the (many!) reasons that made me choose Asian dramas over Western TV series is that with dramas, 99% of the time, you get to watch a complete series made of a finite number of episodes, with a beginning, a story development and a (more or less proper) ending, rather than the usual Western approach of "well, let's leave things hanging at the end of the first season; if it's very successful you'll get many more seasons and we'll ruin everything good we had previously done by the end of the second one; if it's unpopular, you'll never see how it ends; pray that it's only averagely successful so that you'll get a second season with some kind of ending".
Unfortunately, this dorama is left unfinished as is; I have no idea of the production circumstances or whether a second season or a SP is in the making or at least planned. Fingers crossed!
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Quality over quantity...simply brilliant!
I had already had the chance to deeply appreciate Kanai Junichi's refined skills as screenwriter/director in the short movie "Transferring" and in the dorama "Bishonure Tantei Mizuno Hagoromo", and I had already become a big fan of the FL, Konishi Sakurako, while watching her drama "Keihan Ensen Monogatari". It was therefore with some pretty big expectations that I approached this "Neko", and I'm very glad to be able to say that those expectations haven't been betrayed! Quite the opposite, it's even better than I'd imagined it would be! ^____^The script is absolutely brilliant, managing to touch topics like love, life and loss, in such a delicately beautiful way; at the same time, the depth it reaches in such a short time (six 20' episodes, basically the same length of your average movie) proves once again that quality trumps quantity.
The cast did a great job too, not only Konishi Sakurako but also the ML, Maeda Oshiro (whom I had only seen in minor roles so far and therefore not really noticed; I really hope he'll get more leading roles from now on!) and my beloved Sakai Wakana added some more value even by acting in a single episode (but what a great role! Once again, quality over quantity, right?)
The direction and photography are exquisite, and the music lovely throughout the entire series.
Perfect 10!
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I really disliked it, sorry...>___<
I should've trusted my guts and dropped this immediately, after all....>__<It had some (few, waaaay too few) good moments, but those were literally drowned in a plethora of frustratingly terrible, poorly written scenes.
I've sometimes used food metaphors while praising some drama (writing stuff like "it masterfully manages to mix so many different ingredients and ends up creating an original, delicious flavor" or something like that), but here it's just the opposite: the clueless screenwriter (whom I'm adding immediately to my personal blacklist!) came up with a painfully uncohesive story, filling it with idiotic characters and mixing up genres and styles in an obnoxiously chaotic, incoherent way (back to food metaphors: mixing something sweet with something sour is perfectly fine if you come up with, say, a delicious plate of Sweet&Sour Chicken...but here it's as if she'd dropped a spoonful of strawberry jam on a tomato, and then covered the whole thing with mayonnaise, cocoa powder and wasabi...sorry, but I'll pass! >____<)
All this imvho, of course.
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