Original and funny!
The absurdly funny premise reminded me of a creativity-enhancing exercise I had been taught to use when I had studied scriptwriting (and then taught myself when I found myself teaching the same subject a few years later): you'd have to take a few sheets of paper and randomly write, on one of them, 10 characters (for example: a killer, an accountant, a nurse, a truck driver, etc.), on another 10 objects (like: a dagger, a Mayan idol, a bottle of scotch, etc.), on a third one 10 places (a school, an elevator, a back alley, etc.) and on a fourth one 10 genres (mystery, comedy, horror, etc.). Then you'd fold the sheets, pile them together, and pierce through them with something sharp. At the end, you'd just unfold the sheets and select the different elements which were closer to the holes, at which point you'd have to create a plot with whatever you ended up with (which could mean something as weird as "a drug dealer, a secretary, an ancient scroll, a Playstation, a dance school, a diner, SF and romance", LOL).Now, I honestly don't know whether the same exercise is being taught in Japan as well, but if it is, then we could guess this dorama's writer came up with "an interviewee, a detective, a love hotel, water, time-leaping and comedy"...^_^;
However the funny premise originated, though, the good thing is, it's been then pretty nicely developed with some endearing characters, a good cast (particular praises to Ohara Sakurako - too bad her singing career is making her filmography relatively short, 'cause she's not only cute as pie, but also knows how to act), some hilarious scenes (I think there's at least one or two in every episode where you'll end up laughing out loud - at least, so did I), a lovely jazzy score, and last but not least, some nice messages.
Too bad there were also a coupla weaker episodes, plus the usual portrayal of foreigners as weirdos (so common in Japanese comedies, alas) which I honestly could very well live without; otherwise I'd have given this an even higher grade!
It's still a solid "8" as far as I'm concerned, though! ^___^
Don't be discouraged by the weird premise, and for Heaven's sake, don't think - not even for a millisecond - that there might be anything remotely lewd in the "soaking wet" part, 'cause there isn't, it's a quite tasteful drama instead.
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Keihan Ensen Monogatari: ko Minka Minpaku Kizunaya e Yokoso
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A beautiful and original mix! ^____^
The first two characters of the original title (京阪) can actually serve as a perfect symbol of what this dorama is. How so? Bear with me a little, I'ma explain that right away...^_^;For those of you who are unfamiliar with "kanji" (the "Chinese" characters used in Japanese together with the native hiragana and katakana), those two characters are actually the first kanji of "Kyōto" and the second one of "Ōsaka" (I'll spare you the lengthy explanation of why the hell they are not read as "Kyōsaka" then, but rather as "Keihan", LOL), the two cities connected by the eponimous railway line and named at the very beginning of every episode, where they point out how different they are: on the one hand, the traditional, calm and refined Kyōto, and on the other hand, the modern, lively and more down-to-earth Ōsaka. And in the middle, the fictitious Kizunaya inn, with its lovely humane staff, a weird but oh-so-nice house rule, and the various guests with all their stories and their problems.
And that's just it: this dorama stands in the middle between many opposites, and manages to perfectly mix so many different ingredients and turn them into an original dish: you'll find some comedy and some drama, some deep moments and some silly ones, some calm and some tension, some jazzy, lively music, and some relaxing, classical pieces, etc. etc....and in the end, if your taste is anything close to mine, you'll end up being totally satisfied by the original mix!
Honorable mentions to the script, to Konishi Sakurako and, most of all, to the kid actress Niitsu Chise who was so impressively good! (to be able to act that well at that young age is kinda scary, seriously! ^_^;...)
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Just like that other movie, though, this one as well suffers from some silliness and some exaggerations...so the script is very good but not perfect.
The cast is great, and refreshingly so imho due to the absence of high-school-aged idols, LOL (particular mentions for the always great Toda Keiko and Nishimura Masahiko!)
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Such a pure, refreshing little masterpiece!
What a lovely dorama! In the short span of four episodes, the authors managed to craft a wonderful, heartwarming, delicate, touching and poetic story that deals with deep issues like loss, guilt, tragedy, family, friendship, love. The main character is often called a "ghost picture detective", but "soul detective" would probably be a more precise definition. I literally loved every single minute of this hidden gem! Perfect script, great acting, nice score...such a pure, refreshing little masterpiece, as far as I'm concerned!Was this review helpful to you?
This review may contain spoilers
After this, I feel like I desperately need the soul equivalent of a long, warm shower!
I'll start with a warning: there was no way for me to properly review this dorama and explain why I loved it at first and ended up hating it (and believe me, I don't use this word lightly), without some spoilers.So, before you keep on reading, let me ask you a question: have you watched "Full Metal Jacket"? If you haven't, then maybe play it safe and stop reading. But if you have, here's one more question for you: would you say that Sergeant Hartman was a fine educator or a rotten S.O.B.?
If your answer is the former, then stop reading and start watching this dorama, there's a high chance you'll love it! But if your answer is the latter, then you might want to keep reading - spoilers included - so as to avoid wasting 9 hours or so of your life (over 12 if you include the SP) on this.
And now I'll proceed explaining why I think so (spoilers from now on, consider yourselves warned):
I was captured right away by the thought-provoking premise, and it kept me thinking and (probably over-)thinking for the first few episodes. I even thought, for a brief moment, that maybe the scriptwriter had had an incredibly prophetic view of his future (and our tragic present), thus using this dorama's distopian classroom to portray a society where those in charge seem to have loads of evil fun pitting us "commoners" against each other and even unleashing chaos - the only thing they care about being that we obey, don't think and follow their rules which are more and more absurd each day - and clearly counterproductive, at that. Ok, I was seeing too much into it, LOL, but that's just to show you how intrigued I was!
Slowly but progressively, though, the story kept getting sillier and sillier with every episode. Short after the middle of the series, I started suspecting where it was heading: to an utterly insulting ending where they'd say that this monster (Amami Yuki's character couldn't deserve titles like "teacher" or "educator", and sorry if you disagree, but this is my informed opinion as someone who's worked in this field!), I repeat, where they'd say that this monster had actually been a "good (hell, even great) teacher", that it had all been just some "tough love" and that it had all "turned out well after all".
And that's where I started hating it.
Because I believe that if you treat people badly (Akuma-sensei - sorry, Akutsu-sensei - pun intended - traumatizes her pupils day in and day out, and her behavior sums up to psychological torture in my book!), I repeat, if you treat people this badly, no good *whatsoever* could *ever* come from that. To even imagine such an idiotic development is total BS, sorry.
If you treat people like this, some bad sh*t is bound to happen instead! Just like with Sergeant Hartman and Private "Gomer Pyle" in "Full Metal Jacket", you know...?
Approaching the end of the series, each episode unfortunately confirmed my suspicion, and I was more and more disappointed, and then really *disgusted* by the lousy, idiotic last episode (*every single scene* of it felt like an insult to my intelligence: the commercial-like family scene, the fight with the punks - nani sore?!? Where the hell did those crawl out from? A Chuck Norris movie maybe?!? And then again, the 180° U-turn from monster to ideal teacher / hero, even lecturing the kids on how it's wrong to hurt others - true, of course! But....how dare *she* say that?!? You gotta be f***ing kiddin' me, c'mon! And I could go on and on but I guess you got the picture...in one word: "BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAD!!!").
After watching Arimura Kasumi no Satsukyu" I had felt...cleansed, that's the word!
After watching this series to its end...I feel like I desperately need the soul equivalent of a long, warm, scrubbing-all-over shower! Such a terrible feeling it has left me with!!!
The acting was good (I mean, the kids' acting, as Amami Yuki's character being the expressionless monster she was, the poor actress couldn't show her acting skills, unfortunately. And the rest of the cast, alas, were little more than extras, so it's hard to judge them - except to praise Kaho for her adorable "onee-san"). The music was okay. I'll go with a 4/10, also considering that to correctly asses the "rewatch value" I'd need negative numbers...
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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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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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This review may contain spoilers
Very delicate and nicely original take on the old trope "high school student + teacher love", this "Sensei Sayonara" positively surprised me for its beautiful script, the good to great acting performance by the main cast, and a totally decent production value / "packaging" (direction, photography, music commentary etc.).Hard to explain the originality of this little drama (and most of all, why you might wanna give it a chance even though you might be turned off by the premise) without spoilers, so here we go, consider yourselves warned and if you don't wanna get any of those, stop reading now!
The afore-mentioned originality lies in the fact that the drama constantly juggles two different storylines: on the one hand, in the past, we get to see the beautiful-yet-tragic love between the ML (then a high schooler himself) and his homeroom teacher (played by Kita Kana who's nothing short of brilliant here, her last scene literally gave me goosebumps!); on the other hand, in the present, we see the sweet (and rest assured, completely chaste) love between the FL and the ML, who's now become a homeroom teacher (and a widow). In both cases it's the student who initiates everything, and it both cases the relationships are portrayed in an absolutely pure, not-in-the-least naughty way.
So why don't I give this a perfect 10? Well, honestly, Kita Kana and Watanabe Shota both did really well, whereas the rest of the cast (even more so in comparison to the Himalayan heights reached by those two) was good but nothing more (most, like Hayashi Meari, are pretty young so there's still a lot of room for improvement of course, ganbatte kudasai!)
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