Ooku Tanjou ep 1 - wtf am I watching and why can't I stop?
I was not planning to check out Ooku Tanjou, the period jdrama currently airing. The number of jdramas I've watched in the last couple of years could be counted on the fingers of one hand. If that hand has been in an industrial accident. Add in the fact that the premise made me absolutely cringe - it's set in 17th century Japan (so far, so good), and centers around a male harem. In this world, the men are scarce due to an epidemic, women took over, so genders are reversed - well, the drama actually shows the start of it all. WTF! Need to wash my brain forever! There is not enough brain bleach in the world! I loathe any story involving a harem of any gender the way a devout vegan hates Hormel. (A male harem story is marginally worse because it would also involve beta males).
Ooku Tanjou is pretty much my idea of Do Not Want wrapped in one big package. Yet, flisties kept pushing and pushing and recommending, and I finally caved in. I was pretty bored for the first ten minutes (and also as I haven't watched any jdramas recently, getting used to a different style took a while) but at some point shortly after, I became unhealthily attached to Madenokoji Arikoto (Sakai Masato), our protagonist.
Arikoto is a nobleman who becomes a Buddhist Monk and rises to the status of Abbot (the closest equivalent I can think of in Western terms), but is forced to stay in the palace as the evil Kasuga no Tsubone (Aso Yumi), the woman who runs the palace and is the shogun's former nurse, decides he would make a perfect lover for the shogun. Everyone thinks the shogun wants him for a male lover, but the big secret is the real shogun is dead and the current shogun is female (his daughter) and Kasuga has picked Arikoto as a candidate for babymaking. Why she doesn't just pick someone as well-born and decent-looking without a stubborn adherence to poverty, chastity etc, is a mystery.
If you are going "ummm, whut?" welcome to my world. The whole thing reminds me a bit of those medieval "temptation of [insert name here] holy person" narratives, which is a weird thing to say about a jdrama. But when he has hookers brought in to tempt him (!!!!) and he refuses, I fully expected him to do the Thomas Becket thing and pray over them. Instead, Kasuga takes in the refusal and has her soldiers kill one of Arikoto's monks and one of the hookers in front of him. And then tells him if he doesn't comply, the other monk and hooker will be next. (Ummm, did she just coerce him into sex and forsaking his vows by threatening to kill people? And people thought I Miss You was messed up). There is even a cliffhanger! First time I've seen a cliffhanger of that sort...Also, this was the creepiest thing ever:
What is this, rape-o-clock in the drama world lately?
I know there is supposed to be a love story at some point (a Monk and a female Shogun - only in a jdrama!) Though how that is going to work when I hate the heroine who is a rude abusive bitch is beyond me - she is an awful human being who should be put on an island with no other people.
I mean, her reaction on him not cowing to her insulting behavior but daring to stare at her:
Is this:
I was dying for him to belt her back, harder. Even if it would have made for a very short drama. People ship them? Really? Why on earth?
So I am not watching for any love story *shudder* - nope, I want evil Kasuga defeated and eaten by snails and the heroine with her, and I want Arikoto to go back to monkdom. Dude seems to love it and it's certainly better than life with uber-bitch. Though his court incarnation is hella pretty so he should go back to monkdom only at the very end.
Basically, my brain is going 'wtf is this insanity?' but I cannot stop. Despite the fact that I think my self-respect is dying. I basically really really love the lead character and his actor.* And also, I have NO idea where this is going, which is always fun.
* It kept bugging me where I've seen him before and then I looked it up and he was Tokugawa Iesada in Atsuhime (which was a rare period jdrama I loved. As a bonus, it did not make my sanity die). EEEEE! Also, he looks like a man and not an emaciated preteen, which is my big problem with a lot of jdrama leads (I believe he's 39).
Ooku Tanjou is pretty much my idea of Do Not Want wrapped in one big package. Yet, flisties kept pushing and pushing and recommending, and I finally caved in. I was pretty bored for the first ten minutes (and also as I haven't watched any jdramas recently, getting used to a different style took a while) but at some point shortly after, I became unhealthily attached to Madenokoji Arikoto (Sakai Masato), our protagonist.
Arikoto is a nobleman who becomes a Buddhist Monk and rises to the status of Abbot (the closest equivalent I can think of in Western terms), but is forced to stay in the palace as the evil Kasuga no Tsubone (Aso Yumi), the woman who runs the palace and is the shogun's former nurse, decides he would make a perfect lover for the shogun. Everyone thinks the shogun wants him for a male lover, but the big secret is the real shogun is dead and the current shogun is female (his daughter) and Kasuga has picked Arikoto as a candidate for babymaking. Why she doesn't just pick someone as well-born and decent-looking without a stubborn adherence to poverty, chastity etc, is a mystery.
If you are going "ummm, whut?" welcome to my world. The whole thing reminds me a bit of those medieval "temptation of [insert name here] holy person" narratives, which is a weird thing to say about a jdrama. But when he has hookers brought in to tempt him (!!!!) and he refuses, I fully expected him to do the Thomas Becket thing and pray over them. Instead, Kasuga takes in the refusal and has her soldiers kill one of Arikoto's monks and one of the hookers in front of him. And then tells him if he doesn't comply, the other monk and hooker will be next. (Ummm, did she just coerce him into sex and forsaking his vows by threatening to kill people? And people thought I Miss You was messed up). There is even a cliffhanger! First time I've seen a cliffhanger of that sort...Also, this was the creepiest thing ever:
What is this, rape-o-clock in the drama world lately?
I know there is supposed to be a love story at some point (a Monk and a female Shogun - only in a jdrama!) Though how that is going to work when I hate the heroine who is a rude abusive bitch is beyond me - she is an awful human being who should be put on an island with no other people.
I mean, her reaction on him not cowing to her insulting behavior but daring to stare at her:
Is this:
I was dying for him to belt her back, harder. Even if it would have made for a very short drama. People ship them? Really? Why on earth?
So I am not watching for any love story *shudder* - nope, I want evil Kasuga defeated and eaten by snails and the heroine with her, and I want Arikoto to go back to monkdom. Dude seems to love it and it's certainly better than life with uber-bitch. Though his court incarnation is hella pretty so he should go back to monkdom only at the very end.
Basically, my brain is going 'wtf is this insanity?' but I cannot stop. Despite the fact that I think my self-respect is dying. I basically really really love the lead character and his actor.* And also, I have NO idea where this is going, which is always fun.
* It kept bugging me where I've seen him before and then I looked it up and he was Tokugawa Iesada in Atsuhime (which was a rare period jdrama I loved. As a bonus, it did not make my sanity die). EEEEE! Also, he looks like a man and not an emaciated preteen, which is my big problem with a lot of jdrama leads (I believe he's 39).