Posted 18 October 2007 - 06:04 PM
From Wm. Penn at Yomiuri:
Osaka, Tokyo drama connects more than 2 cities
The Shinkansen runs between Tokyo and Osaka, but the two cities' cultures move on very separate tracks. That theme is at the core of Hatachi no Koibito (Sundays, 9 p.m., TBS network). It is also an issue for Chiritotechin, the new NHK morning serial, which started out well in the Kansai region but garnered only 17.1 percent (Video Research Co.) in the Kanto region.
Having tried three times unsuccessfully to sit through a full 15-minute episode of Chiritotechin, I have to vote with the Kanto region on this serial.
Hatachi no Koibito, on the other hand, is pretty good.
Akashiya Sanma aces the opening monologue in which Inoue (Sanma) relates to his bored staff for the umpteenth time the 20-year-old story of his college romance with a Tokyo beautician named Eri, the personification of that popular Southern All Stars song "Itoshii no Eri" (Ellie My Love). They attended Yumi Matsutoya concerts together and later, he took the Shinkansen to Tokyo every weekend to see her. But when he proposed to her she refused, saying she couldn't live in Osaka. So he went home and married a Hanshin Tigers fan he met while watching Randy Bass hit a home run. Now, they have two kids. All these details help take this Noriko Yoshida script one level above the usual fare.
Modern-day section chief Inoue still commutes to Tokyo once a week but for business meetings where the widespread use of katakana English drives him to distraction. At his Tokyo hotel, he runs into Ryu Moriyama, a friend who used to mooch off him in Osaka but has now morphed into a rich romance novelist. He lives in the hotel, turning out very lucrative bestsellers.
Then along comes design student and part-time hotel housekeeper Yuri Sawada, 20, played convincingly and coquettishly by Masami Nagasawa. She looks just like the long-lost Eri and mistakes Inoue for Moriyama.
Her fellow maid is a big fan of Lee Byung Hun dramas, but Yuri has been on the lookout for a way to meet Moriyama. The design office that pledged to employ her has just reneged. She hopes that if she gets to know Moriyama, his connections might help her find work.
Her beautician mother (Kyoko Koizumi) is a single parent who can't continue to support her.
It is easy to see where the plot is going from here. The odds are good that Inoue and Yuri will be linked by paternity tests before this series is over. Better than expected and worth a glance--at least two stars.
Posted 20 August 2007 - 11:23 AM
