Teppen

The only competition I have found so far is Teppen (Thursdays at 9 p.m. on TV Asahi network). Maki Sakai plays Teppen, 25, a denizen of a Hong Kong slum who supports herself by snatching the designer shopping bags of Japanese tourists. She is not an especially lovable character, but Sakai is an expressive actress willing to do away with fashionable wardrobe, makeup and hairstylists to show us what she can do with sheer talent alone.

The Teppen scenario comes from that well-established genre known as "the search for long lost parents" which, if we are to believe the plethora of early prime time shows that are busily reuniting and searching for long lost relatives, may be a more valid, realistic genre than previously thought.

However, this story is not highly realistic unless you can believe that poor Hong Kong street people can run around absolutely fluent in Japanese with the skill to discern between the real and the fake in such diverse categories as designer handbags and ancient Chinese art.

But anyhow, Sakai does a good job of portraying a "rough around the edges" but highly intelligent and ambitious young woman, who meets up with Naoki Hosaka, a corporate vice president whose uncle owns the company. They meet when he connives to evict her grandmother and friends from the back alley barracks land that his company is so eager to take over.

When her grandmother collapses during the eviction, she confesses she found Teppen on the street as a baby and her real mother is a Japanese woman who has written her Japanese name on a necklace--a modern day equivalent of the "omamori" amulets of Edo period samurai dramas.

STARRING: Sakai Maki, Hosaka Naoki, Hinagata Akiko, Hiromi, Endo Kumiko, Sugimoto Tetta, Tanaka Yoshhiko, Kohashi Kenji, Kiki Kirin, Tanaka Hiroko, Yamazaki Senri, Satoi Kenta, Nagamine Naoko, Akaza Miyoko and more.
NETWORK: TV ASAHI
DURATION:  July 8, 1999 through September 1999
THEME SONG: "sekai wa kono te no naka ni" but Aikawa Nanase
REVIEWS: 

I watched the first two episodes and I really enjoyed it.  I appreciate an actor who would cut her hair (similar to Faye Wong's "Chung Express" hairdo) and the beauty to take this part.  Also, a cool storyline.