Southern All Stars fans need to be vigilant TV watchers next week

October 31, 2008 by Dennis Amith

In a recent televiews column by Wm. Penn for the Daily Yomiuri, Penn wrote:

Welcome to the Televiews Halloween party! Grab a costume and join the festivities, but you’ll have to work hard to come up with outfits to outdo all the costumes the denizens of Japan’s TV world have been donning this month.

Leading the Halloween costume parade is quick change artist Aya Ueto, who is modeling dozens and dozens of fashions in Celeb to Binbo Taro (Tuesdays, 9 p.m. Fuji). She plays a poor little rich girl who asks an impoverished widower with three kids to serve as her limo driver and fake fiance.

It’s completely predictable, as is Oh My Girl (Tuesdays, 10 p.m., NTV), the story of child actress An (Riko Yoshida), who models some pretty crazy costumes herself. She has been abandoned by her ambitious actress mother Hinako (You) on the doorstep of her “uncle” Kotaro (Mokomichi Hayami). Hinako and Kotaro are not blood relatives but their late parents’ marriage has made them relatives on paper via the koseki family register. An’s manager (Rosa Kato), Kotaro and a very cute sheepdog all end up moving into An’s luxury apartment creating a de facto family for her.

Both these light-hearted romantic comedies serve to make Tuesdays nights the most relaxing drama night of the week this autumn. Ueto’s sitcom-cum-fashion-statement even managed to debut in the drama ratings top 10.

And wait until you see how they have disguised Takeshi Kitano for his role as Gen. Hideki Tojo in the World War II drama Ano Senso wa Nan Datta noka, which TBS will broadcast this winter. With round spectacles and a little moustache, Kitano really manages to look the part. Still, never did see Kitano looking more serious and subdued than he did last week when he was interviewed about his career for a half hour on CNN’s Talk Asia. Harumi Edo is dressing up as Harumi Edo to star in the Edo Harumi Monogatari (Nov. 7, 7:57-9:49 p.m. Fuji), based on her own autobiographical essay collection. Now, that’s quite a one-woman show.

Next in the costume parade lineup are two rather intelligent new programs masquerading as variety shows. TV Tokyo’s Japan All Stars (Fridays, 8 p.m.) focuses on Japanese distinguishing themselves on the world stage. The catch is that most of them are not that well known at home, where comedy skits and distinctive gags now seem to be the quickest route to national celebrity. The show’s first episode provided an interesting profile of pianist-composer Yuki Kuramoto. Virtually unknown at home, he’s a superstar in South Korea, where many of his compositions serve as background music for hit South Korean dramas.