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Mukaida Kuniko no Aibun (Kuniko Mukaida's Love Letters)

A drama based on the love letters of Mukaida Kuniko. Kuniko died in 1981 in an airplane accident to Taiwan and her older sister Kazuko wrote a story about Kuniko. The story is a drama that should touch the hearts of women. Yamaguchi Tomoko plays the character of Kuniko.

[Excerpt From Wai Wai, July 30, 2004]: Fallen starlet lacks the sparkle to shine again
By Ryann Connell, Staff Writer

Tomoko Yamaguchi. Japan's 90's TV Drama Darling of the Decade Tomoko Yamaguchi shocked fans after going into semi-retirement upon marriage, but her recent forays onto the small screen have hinted that the leggy actress may not be the nation's choice of the Noughties, according to Shukan Shincho (8/5).

Yamaguchi made a rare appearance in late July on Fuji TV's top-rating "SMAP x SMAP," a cooking and variety show named after and hosted by members of the country's most popular all-boy band.

Yamaguchi also used the show to plug a collection of essays she released a couple of days after it was screened.

"Fuji showed just how much it owes Tomoko Yamaguchi by letting her virtually take over the entire program," a sports newspaper desk editor tells Shukan Shincho. "It treated her like a superstar."

Yamaguchi may well have once been the dominatrix of the drama, but time has moved on.

"Giving her so much air time may have seemed a bit strange for today's viewers. Yamaguchi may still be making a decent quid with all the TV ads she makes, but it's not like she's a full-time performer anymore," the hack says. "I'd say half the people who saw her on the show would have either forgotten who she was or wondered who she was."

Yamaguchi was once a fixture on Japanese TV, drawing in ratings most other thespians could only dream about.

In 1994's "29 sai no Kurisumasu (Christmas at 29)," and again two years later in "Long Vacation," in which Yamaguchi played the lead actress for Fuji TV, ratings regularly topped 20 percent. In the final episode of "Long Vacation," in which Yamaguchi appeared alongside SMAP heartthrob Takuya Kimura, ratings soared to an almost unheard-of 36.7 percent.

But the first sign the 39-year-old actress may not have snared hearts the way she once did came with her comeback drama on TBS earlier this year, "Mukaida Kuniko no Aibun (Kuniko Mukaida's Love Letters)," which only rated a comparatively paltry average of 14.1 percent.

"A lot of time and care went into the preparation of the show, considering it was (Yamaguchi's) first drama appearance in eight years, but it still didn't get great results," an advertising agency manager tells Shukan Shincho. "TBS had marked the show down as one of its 50th anniversary commemoration programs, too. Even if the network felt 20 percent ratings were impossible, it still would have liked ratings of about 17 to 18 percent. Yamaguchi's talent agency pushed for her appearance on the SMAP show because it's worried their star is losing her luster."

Writer Chiaki Aso forecasts an increasingly bleak future for Yamaguchi.

"She's not the type to give in to men, which makes her popular among women, but I still can't see her getting too many leading parts in TV dramas from now on," Aso says. "I doubt there's even a scriptwriter who could come up with a story Yamaguchi could carry while playing the part of a housewife in her 40s or a middle-aged career woman."

A movie producer sums up Yamaguchi's flagging fortunes.

"Yamaguchi simply isn't sexy enough," the producer tells Shukan Shincho. "When an actress reaches her mid-30s, she should be able to play a prostitute or a loving mother equally as well, but about the only role Yamaguchi is really good at is playing the scatter-brained housewife. I've never heard of a movie director who wants to use Yamaguchi in a film, and it's because she simply isn't sultry enough."

Starring: Yamaguchi Tomoko, Nishida Yuriko,
THEME SONG: 
NETWORK: TBS
DURATION: January through March 2004
REVIEWS:


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