Televiews / Ryoki-teki na Kanojo (My Sassy Girl) Japanese adaption

April 24, 2008 by Dennis Amith

In the latest Televiews column by Wm. Penn for the Daily Yomiuri, Penn wrote, “The extremely popular 2001 South Korean movie My Sassy Girl is a romantic comedy about a mild-mannered college student and a complex, sometimes abusive, young woman.”

“A U.S. adaptation of the film will be released later this year. The Japanese TV version Ryoki-teki na Kanojo (TBS, Sundays, 9 p.m.) debuted on April 20 with Tsuyoshi Kusanagi and Rena Tanaka in the starring roles.”

“It is highly recommended only to those who would enjoy seeing Kusanagi used as a punching bag, university professors depicted as dunces and cute cetaceans making cameo appearances. One can feel only sympathy for Kusanagi, a usually capable actor who can even speak Korean, trapped in this vehicle with an over-emoting supporting cast and a logic-defying script full of inside jokes that add little to the story.”

“South Korean dramas are definitely addictive and even the sillier ones are usually held together by strong acting and solid, fast-moving scripts. They have an enticing quality that has seldom been successfully adapted to the Japanese small screen. Yet I did have high hopes for this one because the Japanese script was written by Yuji Sakamoto, recently named the recipient of the 26th Mukoda Kuniko Award, the prestigious scriptwriting prize, for last year’s Watashi-tachi no Kyokasho. His career began at 19 when he won the first Fuji TV Young Scenario Grand Prix. He was still in his early 20s when he penned Tokyo Love Story, the first of the popular “trendy dramas” of the 1990s.”