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Long Love Letter (By Wm. Penn, Daily Yomiuri, 1/17/02): Kubozuka plays a young teacher who is having a few qualms about his chosen career path, as young girls in loose socks and various states of undress keep throwing themselves in his path. He and Yuka (Tokiwa) meet and are working their way slowly toward an actual date. It also turns out Tokiwa taught at the same school two years before, but was fired for a violent incident in which she took credit--completely implausibly--for knocking out a half dozen young tough guys. She did this to save the real culprit from expulsion. But after her selfless act, the young man quit school anyway and is now training as a sushi chef while she works in her father's flower shop. In episode two, Kubozuka and Tokiwa cling together as the school collapses into a cavern that makes the Grand Canyon look like a wading pool. While family and friends peer carefully over the edge, those down under will spend the next 10 weeks trying to deal with the isolation of their new lost world. The school has sunk so deep even TV, radio and cell phones are useless. (Oh goodie, a whole script without a cell phone in an important supporting role! This alone makes the show required viewing for the keitai generation. Last week on Meitantei Conan, a cell phone was even used to stop a sword blow from slashing the intended victim.) Anyhow, on the momentous day when the earth is to crumble under their toes, Yuka gets a call from the apprentice sushi chef revealing he has just been allowed to roll his first seaweed rolls. I can't remember whether it was cucumber kappa maki or kanpyo (made with dried gourd shavings). But anyway, the guy is so appreciative of his former teacher's sacrifice he wants to meet her in the park to present her with this momentous, historic, mouth-watering token of his gratitude. But before she is scheduled to meet him, an errand takes her to the school and fate provides the life-shattering jolt. That is where the script left viewers dangling at the end of episode one. The preview for episode two showed Yuka yelling about how she had to get out of the hole in time to pick up her sushi. But it is going to take another nine episodes to recover the lost taste treat. I figure they ought to dig out in time to eat it under the cherry blossoms. Because of the unlikely scenario, lots of computer graphics are employed and much of the acting was done without a proper set, but T and K are up to all the challenges this script presents. Three stars. Quite likely to be the season's biggest hit. STARRING:
Tokiwa Takako, Kubozuka Yosuke,
Yamashita Tomohisa,
Yamada Takayuki,
Tsumabuki Satoshi, Ohsugi Ren, Nakajima Hiromi, Ishibashi Kei, Mizukawa
Asami and more. Copyright © 1993-2003
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