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Last Christmas [Excerpt from Televiews, October 21, 2004, Wm. Penn]: Last Christmas (Mondays, 9 p.m., Fuji network) is not likely to hold my attention until this Christmas. Yuji Oda is excellent, as always, but there is something about the script, his costar Akiko Yada and the supporting cast that just doesn't click. The story begins on Christmas 2004 with Haruki (Oda) in Yellowknife, Canada, trekking out alone to watch the aurora with a present in his pocket. (Haruki is an office worker and a nice guy still not married at 36, whose last fiancee left him when she found out his mother was in a long-term care facility.) Then the plot suddenly jumps back a few months and we find Yuki (Yada) moving into the apartment next to his in the company housing complex. There just happens to be a door between their two rooms and it allows them to peak into each other's private lives. While Yuki is dating his friend (and boss), Haruki can see he is just one of a long line of eager suitors. Her complicated past also includes membership in a "ladies" motorcycle gang and she still throws a pretty powerful punch. Haruki discovers Yuki does have a soft side. When a drunken Yuki kicks a video through the door, he can't resist playing it. Several years old, it reveals she is divorced and shows her talking to herself the night before entering a hospital to face a life-threatening illness. Now flash to another 2004 scene where we see her back at the hospital. Her doctor is holding a wrapped package similar to the one Haruki sported in the first scene. On her instructions, it is to be delivered to someone later on. Is she still sick? Is she Haruki's soul mate? Is it worth sticking around to find out? Can't answer any of those questions yet. Viewers will definitely get an aurora at the end but so far no stars except the always able Oda. STARRING:
Oda Yuji, Yada Akiko Copyright © 1993-2004
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