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The script was written by the popular Kitagawa Eriko. Kimura Takuya who plays a beautician and Tokiwa who plays a disabled librarian. Will the two ever find love? Will Kimura Takuya who is used to seeing beauty love a woman who is disabled? Prepare to watch a romantic drama with a bombshell ending. -- For those who missed the first episode, Kimura is cruising through Tokyo on his motorcycle, slowing down for a red light, when a curly-haired dingbat, in a sports car as red as her dyed hair, sticks her hand out the window to check the weather and nearly knocks him off the road. She is so busy yakking on her cell phone she does not even notice what she has done until he gets her attention by yelling "obasan." Just who are you calling an auntie, she demands to know and as the light changes they speed off sneering at each other. Little do they know it but they are both headed for the library and another clash, when he maneuvers his motorbike into the small space next to her parking spot. She forces him to move aside, unpacks her wheelchair and zips off. They meet again at the library services counter where he is looking for a book on chemicals. She is suspicious. "What are you doing? Building a bomb?" "No," he shoots back as he takes a closer look at her bushy head, "but your hair is already exploding." And so the dialogue proceeds in a quick-paced, witty fashion. Later, when he needs a model for a hair cutting contest, he naturally thinks of Tokiwa. She hesitantly agrees to let him re-create her and, delighted with the result, agrees to pose for a magazine spread. The magazine photos feature her wheelchair as much as her hair and Kimura wins the contest amid charges that he used her. By the end of episode one, this hurdle has been overcome and the romance begun. The producers are promising a straightforward love story that will leave viewers feeling good about life. That should be a nice change. Kitagawa gives the characters more than the usual dose of depth. Tokiwa is cheerful, sharp and cynical and quite capable of getting around on her own but yet very vulnerable on some levels. She does not want sympathy, but she expects it and is thrown off guard by Kimura, who does not offer any. He does not seem to care a bit that she is disabled or treat her differently because of it and is willing to stoop down to see what life looks like from the 100-centimeter level. As the relationship develops, he does begin to discover the rest of Japan is still far from barrier-free. But back to our story, Kitagawa seems to have done some thorough background research before she wrote this one. Even the dialogue between Tokiwa and her fellow librarian has a note of authenticity to it, as they check the due date on Kimura's book and wait anxiously all day for his arrival, only to find he has dropped it in the overnight return slot. Of course, the danger in starting off so well is that the series may not have anywhere to go from there but down. TBS, thrilled at having a real winner for a change, tried to minimize the danger by making the ratings bonanza major news on its daytime shows at the beginning of last week. The network could not contain its glee and kept replaying scenes of Kimura cutting hair all day long in hopes of attracting even more fans for episode two. [TBS Synopsis]: Kyoko, a young woman with an unhindered spirit despite being physically bound to a wheelchair due to illness, and Shuji, a stylish and popular fashion magazine hairstylist, are brought together in a fateful traffic incident. Despite their confrontational meeting, they soon find themselves falling in love, with Shuji drawn to her courage and enthusiasm and Kyoko attracted to his ability to look beyond her physical limitations and into her heart. However, Kyoko's protective older brother and her worsening condition begin to test the bounds of their love for each other and threaten to end their beautiful life together. STARRING:
Kimura Takuya, Tokiwa Takako, Mizuno Miki,
Ikeuchi Hiroyuki, Matoba Koji, Watabe Atsuro, Hara Chiaki,
Nishikawa Takanori [TM Revolution], Koyuki and many more. From the first story to now, this is a wonderful drama! Also, as of March 2000, it has entered the Japanese drama books to be the second most watched drama ever in Japan. It received a 41.3% rating. The #1 drama was back in 1983 with a 45.1%. PLEASE WATCH THIS DRAMA! Addition: Just because this drama scored hit ratings because in my opinion, the two talents (Kimura and Tokiwa), I won't say that it ranks that high on my list of personal best dramas. It's a very good drama but I enjoyed "Long Vacation" and "Love Generation" way more than this drama. So, experience the drama yourself, you may like it, you may not, you may think it's overhyped but the thing is, it has great talent and a good storyline (not great but good). - KNDY Copyright � 1993-2011
Japanese Dorama Database. |
