BOSS

BOSS


Format: Renzoku
Genre: Detective

This series revolves around a group of peculiar detectives in a new division created to fight against an increase in atrocious crimes. Osawa Eriko is a beautiful career woman who has just returned from training in the U.S. and is appointed as the "boss" of this division. But despite her intelligence and capabilities, she can never understand a man's heart, so she remains unable to find a husband. In fact, her assignment in the U.S. was really a demotion after she ruined her career track over a man. So why was she chosen as the boss of the new division? Even though the detectives are talented, they all have some kind of issue or flaw, and they are considered to be the "problem children" of the police force. In the end, the division's true purpose is just to isolate these problematic detectives.

--Tokyograph

It has Amami Yuki, and Takenouchi Yutaka so it better be good! I was expecting quite a show from these veterans, being a capable actors themselves. Tamayama Tetsuji is an extra bonus of an eye candy. And for the younger generation they might connect with Mizobata Junpei ( whom I adore in Akai Ito), and for the guys it has the current generation idol - Toda Erika.

My high expectation was mostly attributed to Yuki and Yutaka but it's fair to say that when that expectation is concerned it is not surpassed. It is still a decent watch however.

The direction is pretty, I like its style of editing, the picture-to-actualscene approach is nice. Basically cinematography is very likeable.

But storywise, it lacks magic. Osawa Eriko's character is not convincingly impressive. The drama tries to make her character appeal to audiences as a higly intelligent, experience, impressive detective, but I didn't buy it. The psychological method used to interrogate criminals is not that impressive either. The cases are mostly mediocre. Saved for few last episodes, though not impressively great, been pretty entertaining watch for the twist, and comedic element which is aplenty compared to earlier episodes.

Character to note is Yutaka's as Nodate, a weird character, which is something I don't expect coming from Yutaka. I never know he could actually carry such comedic role, and he did it pretty well. Though I've read some comments that his character was annoying to some extent, but to me it works.

This is a drama that rides on star power not on its storyline and plot. It has quite high viewership rating and Japan I see it as something attributable with the stars and also pretty editing + comedic elements but MINUS on its storyline.

My expectation is not surpassed. I was expecting a memorable great drama. But I didn't get that. Despite saying that, I was entertained. And in the end that's all that matters, no?

p/s: it seems like there is possibility of season 2

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Smile / スマイル

Smile / スマイル

Format: Renzoku

Genre: Romance / Suspense / Legal

Hayakawa Bito has a Filipino father and a Japanese mother, but he was born and raised in Japan and has never visited the Philippines. The ever-smiling Bito works at Machimura Foods during the day, and at night, he works a part-time job trying to make his dreams come true. One day during an incident at a bookstore, he meets a girl named Mishima Hana, who lost her ability to speak due to an accident. But even though she can't speak, Bito is drawn to her beautiful smile. However, Bito becomes wrongly suspected by the police for a crime, and after meeting the lawyer Kazuma, the issue begins to grow... Together, Bito, Hana, and Kazuma will go through challenging times and have to overcome many obstacles.

-tokyograph

A drama that strike a chord. It touches upon the issue of discrimination and prejudice in Japan. There is this prejudice on people of half-blood, who are not pure Japanese. There is also this prejudice to relative of criminal irrespective of him or her being innocent. These are the issues prevalent in this drama. Though the genre came across by the producer as romance which is rightly so in regards to the romance between Vito and Hana, issue of discrimination and prejudice is of vital importance that sculpted the series. It is not injected just to spice up or give some definition to character, but it is there as part of the storyline. The drama revolves around that line.

It can be slow at times, but I appreciate that since it works well with the issue which need some of the slow attribute. It can be cheesy at times but it doesn't spoil the drama for me. Acting wise, Nakai Kiichi delivered very good performance. While Matsumoto Jun and Aragaki Yui has lots to improve. Jun is good in certain scene but when crying is concerned it looks very forced. Yui on the other hand didn't convince me much on her acting ability, though she is very decent to watch mostly because of her beauty, but definitely not her acting ability. Oguri Shun to me is very convincing as the villain, his way of walking, his stare gave me the creep of a criminal. I think he is one versatile actor because he pretty nail down different character quite convincingly in most of his works if not all.

There are mixed reviews on this drama, with some review saying that the discrimination is overly portrayed and there is no such thing in Japan to such extent. We see Vito is subjected to sudden ID check by the police patrol. But... that is actually the law in Japan where foreigner can be checked for their ID/working permit at any time. Vito is subjected to that because he doesn't look like a Japanese when he was born, raised and speak only Japanese and he is of Japanese nationality. Not only that he will become the very suspect if there's nearby crime happens because he looks like a migrant, and generally there is this belief that large amount of migrant are criminal. This sort of generalization do happen all over the world unfortunately though it must be acknowledged that not everyone is the same. We see how mexicans are looked down like that in Americas because most of them are illegal migrants, we can also see the same for the high percentage of Indonesian migrants in Malaysia, such as also of Filipinos with high percentage of illegal migrants which come about this generalization thingy. And facts shown that in each country, many crimes are conducted by these illegal migrants. BUT it is not right that this generalization and prejudices is making human blind and use that reason to cloud their action and decision towards these minority. because not everyone will fit into such generalization. When this prejudices and generalization is internalized and not controlled that we are allowing them to form our overt action of discrimination when they don't deserve such treatment.

It is impossible to shed all this prejudices because of human nature, but I believe that the drama choose to highlight such issue is for us to be able to be aware of such and thus make attempt not to be clouded and blinded of such prejudices. We need to have a control mechanism.

Other branch of the issue is not only on racial but also when someone is a relative of a criminal. I remember having the same 'what???' sentiment when watching a jmovie, Tegami, which somehow touch upon this. Does having a relative, a criminal, warrant them being looked down and casted off when they did nothing wrong and are completely innocent. Like keep getting bullied in school because your father or brother is in jail, the society talks about you, cast you off. While bullying is not right, at least you can see that they are done by child, who in some incidents is immature in their action. But such bullying is also evidently practiced by adult. If adult unfairly treated others like this, what more the younger generation? I know it is somehow oh human nature to be wary of someone but does that warrant the treatment like what have been received by a character in Smile just because she is a relative of a criminal. People look at her like 'she can't be believed because she is related to a criminal', 'birds of the same group flocked together', 'she must be rotten because the relative is rotten' thus putting a pressure on a completely innocent person who find that living is extremely hard because of the society.

To some extent, in parts of Japan these discrimination do happen. I've read about such experience of a foreigner living in Japan. There is also an experience of a naturalized Japanese who is not Japanese by race but with Japanese nationality being subjected to 'Japanese Only signs' in some public places. The issue of sudden check of ID towards foreigner is also the law in Japan. And recently the issue of half-filipino somehow made it big in Japan news, over nationality and all. Sometimes this filipino might even been treated with a insulting remark of 'filipino yarou'. These all happens. And there are lots of such things on the news recently. While it is true that some of the foreigners created ruckus or are involved in crime in Japan, to treat everyone because of race with much hostility without clear ground is simply unfair.

While someone who is not familiar with this fact might see that Vito's dream of opening up a restaurant with menus from different countries where people of different national can eat together regardless of their race, ex and nationality, to be cheesy - Do you know that in Japan there are establishment which clearly prohibit foreigners, but only Japanese? some even excludes naturalized Japanese (people from different country or born in Japan but with different race who applied for Japanese Nationality and accepted as Japanese national). This prohibition ranges from onsen, restaurant, public bath etc.

This drama shed a light on these issue of prejudices and discrimination, and hopefully so that we can somehow get something from it. Sometimes it can be a bit preachy. But in the end, the issue is a genuine one;

there is discrimination and prejudice.

And now what is the best that we can do to handle this?
It must start from within us, individuals.

I mostly love the drama because of the issue it tackled, and how it glued me on the seat waiting for events to unfold. The style of directing is keeping the drama seeming real though to some it might be kind of slow.

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I'm on my semester break. I've been treating this space very poorly, my bad. I've been watching few dramas in the holiday but nothing really impressed me hard enough. Though there are few decent dramas that managed to kept me glued until the ending, not less those which just didn't work for me, founding its way out of my watchlist a.k.a permanently dropped only after first few episode - most prominent example recently being Karei Naru Spy. Even my longing to see Nagase Tomoya in a new drama couldn't assure me to waste time on such drama. Maybe I'm just not in the mood of slapstick comedy? I don't know.

On the other hand i finally finish Atashinchi no Danshi after a long pause *peek at the date I posted about it on the blog, it's so long time ago*. It's quite a nice show in the comedy genre. What I like most must be the interaction between the characters, the six brothers. It might not be a very memorable drama in the long run, but it has been enjoyable enough while watching.

Recently also watched Bloody Monday, Majo Saiban, Mr. Brain and BOSS. All of which has something to do with mystery, suspense and thriller. Let's see whether I'll dedicate post to comment about the drama. Can't afford to promise though, since lots of updating-promise seems unfulfilled, my bad.

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