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Gakkou no Sensei Dohmoto stars in a drama featuring him as a primary school teacher. From Daily Yomiuri (October 11, 2001 by Wm. Penn): Tsuyoshi Domoto gets an A+ for effort in his new series Gakko no Sensei (Sundays at 9 p.m. on TBS), but the show earns only a C- for overall presentation. Domoto plays Sentaro Sakuragi, a Kansai lad who heads off to Tokyo to face his first class of fifth graders. He is determined to make it the best class in Japan. In the first five minutes on the Osaka to Tokyo bus, he gives a nice performance. In my initial optimism, I thought this might be one of his better roles. His Kansai dialect is fine and he even manages to act in the jaunty cap and Larry King-style suspenders the wardrobe department has dug up for him. But then he has to get off the bus and come to grips with the script and the school. It's all over from there. The story greatly resembles 3 Nen B Gumi Kimpachi-sensei with some stereotypical characters tacked on. There's the hardheaded father figure, who is a ramen shop chef, his tough school teacher daughter (Yuko Takeuchi), who hates Sakuragi, and an estranged older sister, who dad has disowned. Dad is renting Sakuragi the estranged sister's old room. Takeuchi and Sentaro teach with a guy who has a huge Oedipus complex. We have seen it all before, but done better elsewhere. However, the real problem is not the scenario, but the school. It would be hard to find a less likeable class. The kids are all portrayed not as children, but as cold, cynical mini-adults. This trend has been growing ever since Kureyon Shin-chan hit the small screen back in the early 1990s. This group is the least appealing yet. They leave viewers feeling unnecessarily perplexed about the state of today's children. The only slightly interesting script twist in episode one was when what looked like a classic case of bullying turned out to be something completely different. Actually, it was just the little class loan shark trying to collect what was owed him. Arithmetic lesson 1: Even a small debt can zoom up over 100,000 yen at 29 percent interest. Half the kids in the class are indebted to the little fellow, so what does Sakuragi do? High step him to the headmaster's office? Make the borrowers take responsibility for their actions? Call their parents? No, he takes responsibility for the loans himself by going out and borrowing money from the boy's father, who owns a credit company. Even the mini loan shark is worried about the teacher now, having learned from his father that it's better to die than ever guarantee anyone's loans. Takeuchi tries to tell Sentaro it was a crazy thing to do, but he doesn't agree. His zeal to be an "onshi" (super teacher-mentor) is in overdrive. The show has very little competition in the Sunday 9 p.m. slot and with Domoto on board is likely to garner a significant audience of children to subject to its twisted lessons. It is an appalling realization. On second thought, make that a D-. STARRING:
Domoto Tsuyoshi, Takeuchi Yuko, Sakurai
Atsuko, Tanaka Naoki, Ikariya Chosuke, Shintani Mayumi,
Washio Machiko and more. "Gakkou no Sensei" is a lighthearted family drama that is different from other "teacher" dramas. For one, Domoto doesn't play a teacher who was once a delinquent nor does this drama focus on the students and major serious issues. This one is about Domoto who wants to be the best teacher from the Kansai region, who is living in a home/restaurant with another teacher (she doesn't really like Domoto's character) and her family. Each episode focuses on a student. As the first episode described above focuses on loaning, the second episode features a child who is obese and is hurt when the teacher he fancies tells him that he must lose weight and thus tries to lose weight. Another features a girl who keeps beating people up and so forth. In a way, I like this drama a lot because it's fun and so different from other teacher dramas. The drama is actually very touching and I was impressed. It's not to be taken seriously but it's very good. Also, Domoto Tsuyoshi and Takeuchi are cool actors and the adult characters are humorous as well as the kids. And that's so important. The Kids...they are great in this drama, not annoying. Check it out! - KNDY Copyright © 1993-2003
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