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Kami no Shizuku
Sorry, I keep meaning to update, but I've found that things tend to pile up just when I make up my mind to blog more or less 'regularly.' This is also a bit of a stressful time as the scope of my responsibilities at work just expanded and I'm still figuring out the mechanics of the entire thing.
So my life is basically a 6-day cycle of work, work, work, though I set aside a specific block of time on Sundays to watch dramas (it is sad that I have to schedule these things).
My latest acquisition isKame Kami no Shizuku, the drama adaptation of the manga Les Gouttes de Dieu by Tadashi Agi (of Getbackers fame). Default icon features Kamenashi Kazuya, who actually did a pretty decent job of portraying Kanzaki Shizuku. I admit that I never got past Chapter 1 of the manga but managed to finish all nine episodes of the drama over the course of two Sundays. I think watching Kame twirling his wine glass with rapt expressiveness is much more edifying compared to reading inanimate speech balloons about the virtues of a certain vintage. I mean, drinking wine is a sensory experience, which one tends to appreciate more when one sees other people clearly enjoying it--or, in the case of Kame, conjuring entire fictional landscapes with a single sip.
Interestingly enough, his co-star Naka Riisa, who portrays Shinohara Miyabi, was nineteen at the time of filming and thus could not drink wine. She had to make do with grape juice. In an interview, she ruefully noted that she would have preferred to taste the real thing so that her own acting could go beyond the approximate into heartfelt.
Anyway I enjoyed the drama very much. Based on the ratings, it seems that I'm in the minority. But then I like a lot of exposition in my dramas, and Kami no Shizuku certainly had a lot of exposition, sometimes verging into pedagogical territory (What I Learned About Life c/o Japanese Manga, Lesson #896: Basic Wine Appreciation). It didn't have much by way of narrative tension, which is another thing I look for, but that's okay. Kame had enough conflicted moments to make up for it. I've always thought that he was really good at portraying distant and reserved characters with a touch of melancholy, a dash of wry humor, and an awful lot of soul-stirring emo. This is why he was effective in dramas like Nobuta wo Produce and Tatta Hitotsu no Koi and was awful in Sappuri, where he had to be jokey and flirty.
I will stop now.
So my life is basically a 6-day cycle of work, work, work, though I set aside a specific block of time on Sundays to watch dramas (it is sad that I have to schedule these things).
My latest acquisition is
Interestingly enough, his co-star Naka Riisa, who portrays Shinohara Miyabi, was nineteen at the time of filming and thus could not drink wine. She had to make do with grape juice. In an interview, she ruefully noted that she would have preferred to taste the real thing so that her own acting could go beyond the approximate into heartfelt.
Anyway I enjoyed the drama very much. Based on the ratings, it seems that I'm in the minority. But then I like a lot of exposition in my dramas, and Kami no Shizuku certainly had a lot of exposition, sometimes verging into pedagogical territory (What I Learned About Life c/o Japanese Manga, Lesson #896: Basic Wine Appreciation). It didn't have much by way of narrative tension, which is another thing I look for, but that's okay. Kame had enough conflicted moments to make up for it. I've always thought that he was really good at portraying distant and reserved characters with a touch of melancholy, a dash of wry humor, and an awful lot of soul-stirring emo. This is why he was effective in dramas like Nobuta wo Produce and Tatta Hitotsu no Koi and was awful in Sappuri, where he had to be jokey and flirty.
I will stop now.