Jaan-e-Mann, Kurosagi and Millionaire's First Love
OK. Jaan-e-Mann is LOVE. The plot involves Suhan (Salman) attempting to help Agastya (Akshay) woo Salman’s ex-wife Piya (Preity) but I can’t really sum it up at all.
If you want an excellent review by someone more coherent than I, go to:
http://brangan.easyjournal.com/entry.aspx?eid=3127230
My thoughts are behind the cut.
This is rather disjointed because I am still processing.
Oh, God, it’s such a fun, crazy, off-beat movie, probably the most innovative, delicious movie I’ve seen out of Bollywood for ages.
The movie really is unbelievably creative. It (a feat in Bollywood) looks like nothing else and is very fresh. I will talk about the musical numbers in a second, but I wanted to mention the delicious post-modernism of it all.
I have to mention the amazing dance number early in the movie where Salman and his Uncle are trying to talk Akshay into wooing Preity. All of a sudden, there is a knock on the closet door, and a quawalli-performing musician group comes out. And when Uncle asks why, they answer ‘who is going to perform the song, your father?’ And at one point during the song, Uncle forwards, saying the audience gets tired if the song goes on too long. Or when Salman and Uncle are praying for a miracle and temple bells randomly appear for them to ring them and then they stay at the background the whole time, never going away. Or when Salman tells Uncle his story and as he starts, a screen appears in the back, and when Uncle asks what this is, Salman replies ‘My flashback.’ And the characters are completely unflappable about these.
JeM makes a practice, early on, of breaking the fourth wall routinely, shouting ‘we are in a movie’ yet somehow, it drags me in into its world, makes the characters more real than something (and forgive me for constantly dragging it in, but it is the last Bolly movie I watched) like Don, which plays it straight.
And it’s a very clever thing. Because by the end, it ends up going almost straight, playing it serious. Salman’s angst is real. But because it dragged you in slowly (early musical numbers are positioned to be ‘we are musical numbers, artificial, see’) then when they are in earnest, audience is dragged in gradually and it works. They can’t mock it because it snuck in, emotionally, while earlier mocking itself (does it make sense?).
And yes, The songs. They are a DELIGHT. I loved every single one of them, from the rocking number Salman performs in college (I am bad with song names) that reminded me for some reason of the famous ‘O Jaane Jaana’ from Pyar Kiya To Darna Kiya, because of the guitar and the groupies probably to the last, very angsty number when Salman contemplates all he lost, and the happiness that is barred to him, to the above mentioned number for Akshay to woo Preity complete with a carbon cut out of her and dancing midgets to lovely romantic number Preity does with Salman/Akshay on the bank of the river!!! My favorite but one is the number which combines Preity’s family trying to get Preity to say yes to Akshay’s proposal with Salman celebrating his commercial success with some hot Irish style dancing.
But my favorite number bar none, and actually my favorite picturization in a Bolly movie ever, is Salman’s flashback song, in which he narrates the entire story of his and Preity’s meeting, courtship, marriage and break-up. It’s part Gene Kelly’s Singing in the Rain, part Busby Berkley, wholly original (the image of Salman on darkened stage, in a white shirt, with letters falling all over him from the dark, as he is singing about all the letters he sent to Preity that he never answered is brilliant. Or the bit where they dance up the steps and the fountains go off). I could rewatch this number forever.
And what can I say about Salman? He really makes the movie. Without him being so so GOOD it actually wouldn’t work and be a tiresome phantasmagoria.
Now granted, I am a Salman fangirl (have you seen those arms?). But my liking for him went up about tenfold after watching JeM. Why? I have never seen a Bolly superstar so willing to make fun of his image.
Salman plays a big-headed, immature failure of an actor. Heh. We start with him (in his dream) on stage, accepting a Filmfare for Best Actor, having bested such people as Amitabh and I am already giggling as it’s notorious that Salman only won one measly supporting Filmfare for KKHH, which, since Filmfares’ closest analog is something like the MTV Awards, is rather shocking for a star of his stature and probably has to do with his not playing nice with the media.
Then, he mentions to his agent (in the dream) that he will only do the role of Bajirao in Bajirao Mastani (“only the leads for me!”) which once again, has me rolling on the floor, as BM was a planned SL Bhansali magnum opus about a Maratha warrior king and his lover Mastani who rode into battle with him blah blah blah, and initially was going to star Salman and Aish Rai and then Salman and Kareena Kapoor and then fell apart (I was MOST upset. Salman with a sword? ROWR).
And he wakes up holding a bar-bell instead of an award, a reference to criticism that he is always obsessed with muscles and his figure blah blah.
Not to mention the bit later on where he is looking for work with movie studios and none of them want to hire him until he rips off his shirt (reference to his always having some excuse to remove a shirt in his movies). And his first movie flops because he is a lousy actor (and the movie itself is called Jaan-e-Mann). Blah blah blah. It’s priceless.
But the thing is, Suhan isn’t just some caricature of Salman’s media image or whatever. There are a few cool digs here and there, but he manages to be a real, likeable, flawed person. I got sniffly towards the end when he thought he lost Piya for good and then decided to walk away, from his ex-wife and baby because he thought they’d be better off with Agastya. He can do quiet scenes as well as hyper funny ones and did I mention he speaks excellent English in that sexy deep voice of his? *goo*
And then there is the guy’s willingness to put on any costume? I mean, how can you not love a movie where Salman is wearing a Zorro outfit, randomly dueling with the passerby. Or being an Elvis? Or (I was on the floor), it takes a lot of nerve to wear a Marylyn Monroe Seven-Year-Itch dress if you are a man, and a man built like Salman, and actually strut in it.
But yes, even Salman makes the movie, both Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta are wonderful. Akshay’s laugh was seriously getting everyone to laugh every time. He manages to come across as funny and decent and clueless all at once. And Preity had the relatively small, usually thankless role as the object of both men’s affection, a good wife and mother, but she was sparkling and real and AWWWW.
And then there is the script. Which I think is very clever, and unexpectedly subtle.
For example, take the whole Salman-Priety angle. While Salman makes a conscious resolution to grow up and take care of Preity and the Baby and make up to them what they lost in the second half, it doesn’t come out of nowhere. You can see throughout that he is not over her even though he is too sunk in bitterness to admit it. When Akshay says he was interested in Preity in college, Salman is acting very jealous. When they get to NYC and put that telescope opposite Preity’s apartment, Salman keeps watching her and won’t give Akshay the binoculars and as you see him see Preity for the first time in a year+, you see him almost visibly catch his breath at seeing her. And of course he mutters Akshay can keep his Piya, he isn’t planning to fall in love blah blah.
In a way, by Cyrano de Bergerac-coaching of Akshay to woo Preity, it’s a re-courtship for both of them. Preity (who never fell out of love with Salman) is reminded of him and (as wannabe on Bollywhat pointed out) Salman sees she is still attracted to the type of person he is. But it’s also a recourtship for Salman. By seeing Preity like this, he is rediscovering her and falling in love with her all over again.
Witness him go berserk when that group of men try to molest her in a nightclub. He tells Akshay to call them outside and Akshay might think Salman is going to beat them up to make him, Akshay, a hero in Preity’s eyes, but Salman looks murderous and it’s just because he wants to get his hands on them. I actually like that this fight was with Salman in drag, because somehow, even with lipstick, and eye make-up and poofy dress, he comes across as utterly masculine and when he tears into those men, whoa. And notice that it’s only Piya’s voice that brings him to his senses. Mmmm.
And then he discovers the baby. And I love the contrast between him making faces at the children earlier on in the story and then later, once he thinks he’s lost Piya and the Baby for good, staring at them, near tears, and of course, now he is noticing all the children around, and they seem to be everywhere.
But I think the finally break-through for him admitting his feelings to himself is not even the Baby but hearing Preity’s side of the story (told to Akshay). He finds out she did not ditch him in the worst time of his life. In fact, she was pregnant when he left, work-wise, and the whole divorce/not getting letters was the fault of her family. And then, he forgets all the bitterness and finally admits to himself that he’s never stopped loving her.
And all of this forces him to mature. I love the scene where he is begging the writer for ANY job at all. And you know the sign of his hard-won maturity? Even when he decides that he can never have Preity because she got engaged to Akshay, he doesn’t walk out or anything. He works every day, making that commercial. He goes back to India and accepts any work at all. He is not being responsible to win Preity back. He is being responsible because he’s grown up.
Re: letters, btw. I love the scene where Akshay actually gives Preity all of Salman’s letters that she never got. And she starts flipping though them and crying and Akshay says a few nice things about Salman and she starts crying harder and asks him to keep talking because no one in her family ever said nice things about him. Awwww.
But the thing is, Akshay doesn’t really love her. He doesn’t know her. He can only even interact with her through the mirror of Suhan’s coaching. In fact, he ends up with a HEA much more suited for him: a girl who looks like Preity, but who is utterly compatible with him: a scientist, a space person blah blah.
One thing I like is how the family is handled. I am sick of Bolly movies where the youngsters won’t elope because parents don’t approve. Here, Salman and Preity did do just that, and in the end, I have no idea what the family thought, but they are together. And yet, her family isn’t evil, just preferring to have a scientist and not an unemployed actor as a son-in-law.
And I think I’ve rambled enough for ten movies, so I better stop. But I have to mention my love for the scene where Piya finds him with the Baby and asks for the autograph and the look on his face and the yellow scarves falling and the whole thing is…
I. LOVE. THIS. MOVIE.
I have also finished Kurosagi and now desperately need more. MORE.
I loved the ending. So open (set up for a sequel, please?) yet so hopeful. Kurosaki seeing Tsurara there, and not being able to conceal being pleased. Her making his trademark ‘bang’ gesture at him. Telling him one day she’ll catch him and him muttering ‘see ya.’ Priceless.
We only see him ever relax with her. The only time we’ve ever seen him joyful the whole series was during the adorable fireworks scene. He is actually laughing and they are playing around, and he forgets himself for a bit, and you can almost see the *thump* as he is brought down to earth and he tries to distance himself. He doesn’t want to allow himself to be happy (his drive, which is what initially saved him is now hampering him from moving on) but it’s clear he is happy with her.
I love how open and accepting Tsurara is. In a way, trying to deal with Kurosaki is like taming a wild animal. Make no sudden move. I think my favorite scene in the entire drama, actually, is her cooking that food for him and leaving it by his door (he is always eating instant noodles) and he sees it and he looks around to see if she is watching (and she only opens a door when he is gone because she is listening, afraid to spook him) and he sees she isn’t and then OMG. The look on his face. He wants to take it SO badly. He is almost sick with it. He wants to sink into care and normalcy and rest just a bit. But he knows if he gives in even a bit, he will be a goner and he will go after her and that will be it. So he takes it in and throws it out. And yet, next morning, he brings her back the bowls and tells her he threw the food away but he is coving one bowl the cat broke with a towel, in a futile effort she won’t notice: he can’t help but let the boy in him come out somehow when she is around. In a way, even the pushing her away is his testing the boundaries. Sort of ‘but if I do that, will she still like me?’ It’s sort of like an abused animal testing the good-will of a new owner, trying to make itself secure.
And of course, everyone can see he is a goner for her. Yukari tells him that outright. And speaking of Yukari, how much do I hate her? Yeah, the guy doesn’t reciprocate your feelings and never pretended to. So, you call the cops in on him, and thus rob him of his revenge. Because of course, despite your ‘I want what’s best for him’ speeches to Tsurara, it’s all about you, you selfish evil twit! When Tsurara forgives her, I want to yell at the screen, ‘are you nuts?’
But yes, Kurosaki finally closes on the men who swindled his father (I love his whispering ‘watch me, father, mother, sister’). I wonder what he was going to do though? Kill him. He strikes me as incapable of killing. Part of the reason he went the swindling route is because he can’t kill. But this is so incredibly personal for him, he is falling apart, to pieces, in front of everyone’s eyes as he deals with this. He cannot even maintain a pretense of coolness.
But I do think he learned something that might help him, long-term. When he met a man who got swindled in the same fashion as his Dad. And as he walks out, he whispers ‘Today I met you, father. But he, he didn’t kill his family.’ He is finally realizing not everything is the swindlers’ fault and maybe that would help to let go. But he needs to really catch and confront the master swindler first. (How do I hate him, mocking Kurosaki and his family on the phone?) But of course, he can’t because Yukari called the cops in on him and we get the most heart-breaking scene of the series, as he is surrounded by cops and he loses his mind, trying to fight his way out, completely wild, driven mad by the thought that it’s all been for nothing, he was so close and lost his revenge. OMG. That is completely painful to watch. And Tsurara (whom he called earlier, and called her by her proper name and said good-bye and told her he was giving her his cat. Which once again, makes me wonder what he planned to do with the swindler. Kill him?) sees this, sees how completely naked he is in front of the crowd and she runs after the police car and she bangs on the window, and she is BAWLING and she is telling him he is not alone. And the cops tell him ‘why don’t you say good-bye to her’ but he doesn’t even raise his head but is crying.
And then he sits in that cell, completely drained and hopeless, and the cop does have a point, that a part of him is OK with not having to run any more, but not this way. Not without getting his revenge.
But of course he is released through machinations of Old Man (who isn’t sick at all, btw, and who I don’t think can be bested by Kurosaki) and we get that amazingly hopeful ending and GUUUUH. LOVE
I also watched Korean Melodrama (movie) Millionaire’s First Love. Six words: break-dancing, cross-dressing Korean Nuns.
The movie is like A Walk to Remember on speed. It has all the plot twists of a typical Korean dorama: lost childhood love, terminal illness that leaves the girl as pretty as ever, school hi-jinks, an icy upper-class guy who is made human by the love of a simple girl, mother issues, childhood trauma, orphans, but at the crazy speed required to fit it into an under-two-hour movie. *bam* new twist *bam* another twist *bam* third twist.
I know I was supposed to be moved, but I was rather amused. In a very happy way. I didn’t get to know the characters well enough to feel bad for their angst, but I reveled in the deliciousness. The gorgeous kiss in the rain (he drops his umbrella). Her waking up in the hospital with him in the next bed saying he brought himself instead of flowers. His giving her a whole jar of ‘pills’ with messages of how much he loves her inside and she is crying and he tells her he told her not to OD on them and she sobs ‘I was afraid to die before I read them all.’ The bits with the cooking. The totally OTT but near to my heart scene when he runs through the woods and collapses on his knees and SCREAMS. Very HOT (btw, where else can I find this actor? He can cry silently and still look hot. Rare quality I prize). His holding her and telling her to come to him when she’s in pain blah blah. Lovely. But I hope that after the end he goes and falls for someone more robust next time.
If you want an excellent review by someone more coherent than I, go to:
http://brangan.easyjournal.com/entry.aspx?eid=3127230
My thoughts are behind the cut.
This is rather disjointed because I am still processing.
Oh, God, it’s such a fun, crazy, off-beat movie, probably the most innovative, delicious movie I’ve seen out of Bollywood for ages.
The movie really is unbelievably creative. It (a feat in Bollywood) looks like nothing else and is very fresh. I will talk about the musical numbers in a second, but I wanted to mention the delicious post-modernism of it all.
I have to mention the amazing dance number early in the movie where Salman and his Uncle are trying to talk Akshay into wooing Preity. All of a sudden, there is a knock on the closet door, and a quawalli-performing musician group comes out. And when Uncle asks why, they answer ‘who is going to perform the song, your father?’ And at one point during the song, Uncle forwards, saying the audience gets tired if the song goes on too long. Or when Salman and Uncle are praying for a miracle and temple bells randomly appear for them to ring them and then they stay at the background the whole time, never going away. Or when Salman tells Uncle his story and as he starts, a screen appears in the back, and when Uncle asks what this is, Salman replies ‘My flashback.’ And the characters are completely unflappable about these.
JeM makes a practice, early on, of breaking the fourth wall routinely, shouting ‘we are in a movie’ yet somehow, it drags me in into its world, makes the characters more real than something (and forgive me for constantly dragging it in, but it is the last Bolly movie I watched) like Don, which plays it straight.
And it’s a very clever thing. Because by the end, it ends up going almost straight, playing it serious. Salman’s angst is real. But because it dragged you in slowly (early musical numbers are positioned to be ‘we are musical numbers, artificial, see’) then when they are in earnest, audience is dragged in gradually and it works. They can’t mock it because it snuck in, emotionally, while earlier mocking itself (does it make sense?).
And yes, The songs. They are a DELIGHT. I loved every single one of them, from the rocking number Salman performs in college (I am bad with song names) that reminded me for some reason of the famous ‘O Jaane Jaana’ from Pyar Kiya To Darna Kiya, because of the guitar and the groupies probably to the last, very angsty number when Salman contemplates all he lost, and the happiness that is barred to him, to the above mentioned number for Akshay to woo Preity complete with a carbon cut out of her and dancing midgets to lovely romantic number Preity does with Salman/Akshay on the bank of the river!!! My favorite but one is the number which combines Preity’s family trying to get Preity to say yes to Akshay’s proposal with Salman celebrating his commercial success with some hot Irish style dancing.
But my favorite number bar none, and actually my favorite picturization in a Bolly movie ever, is Salman’s flashback song, in which he narrates the entire story of his and Preity’s meeting, courtship, marriage and break-up. It’s part Gene Kelly’s Singing in the Rain, part Busby Berkley, wholly original (the image of Salman on darkened stage, in a white shirt, with letters falling all over him from the dark, as he is singing about all the letters he sent to Preity that he never answered is brilliant. Or the bit where they dance up the steps and the fountains go off). I could rewatch this number forever.
And what can I say about Salman? He really makes the movie. Without him being so so GOOD it actually wouldn’t work and be a tiresome phantasmagoria.
Now granted, I am a Salman fangirl (have you seen those arms?). But my liking for him went up about tenfold after watching JeM. Why? I have never seen a Bolly superstar so willing to make fun of his image.
Salman plays a big-headed, immature failure of an actor. Heh. We start with him (in his dream) on stage, accepting a Filmfare for Best Actor, having bested such people as Amitabh and I am already giggling as it’s notorious that Salman only won one measly supporting Filmfare for KKHH, which, since Filmfares’ closest analog is something like the MTV Awards, is rather shocking for a star of his stature and probably has to do with his not playing nice with the media.
Then, he mentions to his agent (in the dream) that he will only do the role of Bajirao in Bajirao Mastani (“only the leads for me!”) which once again, has me rolling on the floor, as BM was a planned SL Bhansali magnum opus about a Maratha warrior king and his lover Mastani who rode into battle with him blah blah blah, and initially was going to star Salman and Aish Rai and then Salman and Kareena Kapoor and then fell apart (I was MOST upset. Salman with a sword? ROWR).
And he wakes up holding a bar-bell instead of an award, a reference to criticism that he is always obsessed with muscles and his figure blah blah.
Not to mention the bit later on where he is looking for work with movie studios and none of them want to hire him until he rips off his shirt (reference to his always having some excuse to remove a shirt in his movies). And his first movie flops because he is a lousy actor (and the movie itself is called Jaan-e-Mann). Blah blah blah. It’s priceless.
But the thing is, Suhan isn’t just some caricature of Salman’s media image or whatever. There are a few cool digs here and there, but he manages to be a real, likeable, flawed person. I got sniffly towards the end when he thought he lost Piya for good and then decided to walk away, from his ex-wife and baby because he thought they’d be better off with Agastya. He can do quiet scenes as well as hyper funny ones and did I mention he speaks excellent English in that sexy deep voice of his? *goo*
And then there is the guy’s willingness to put on any costume? I mean, how can you not love a movie where Salman is wearing a Zorro outfit, randomly dueling with the passerby. Or being an Elvis? Or (I was on the floor), it takes a lot of nerve to wear a Marylyn Monroe Seven-Year-Itch dress if you are a man, and a man built like Salman, and actually strut in it.
But yes, even Salman makes the movie, both Akshay Kumar and Preity Zinta are wonderful. Akshay’s laugh was seriously getting everyone to laugh every time. He manages to come across as funny and decent and clueless all at once. And Preity had the relatively small, usually thankless role as the object of both men’s affection, a good wife and mother, but she was sparkling and real and AWWWW.
And then there is the script. Which I think is very clever, and unexpectedly subtle.
For example, take the whole Salman-Priety angle. While Salman makes a conscious resolution to grow up and take care of Preity and the Baby and make up to them what they lost in the second half, it doesn’t come out of nowhere. You can see throughout that he is not over her even though he is too sunk in bitterness to admit it. When Akshay says he was interested in Preity in college, Salman is acting very jealous. When they get to NYC and put that telescope opposite Preity’s apartment, Salman keeps watching her and won’t give Akshay the binoculars and as you see him see Preity for the first time in a year+, you see him almost visibly catch his breath at seeing her. And of course he mutters Akshay can keep his Piya, he isn’t planning to fall in love blah blah.
In a way, by Cyrano de Bergerac-coaching of Akshay to woo Preity, it’s a re-courtship for both of them. Preity (who never fell out of love with Salman) is reminded of him and (as wannabe on Bollywhat pointed out) Salman sees she is still attracted to the type of person he is. But it’s also a recourtship for Salman. By seeing Preity like this, he is rediscovering her and falling in love with her all over again.
Witness him go berserk when that group of men try to molest her in a nightclub. He tells Akshay to call them outside and Akshay might think Salman is going to beat them up to make him, Akshay, a hero in Preity’s eyes, but Salman looks murderous and it’s just because he wants to get his hands on them. I actually like that this fight was with Salman in drag, because somehow, even with lipstick, and eye make-up and poofy dress, he comes across as utterly masculine and when he tears into those men, whoa. And notice that it’s only Piya’s voice that brings him to his senses. Mmmm.
And then he discovers the baby. And I love the contrast between him making faces at the children earlier on in the story and then later, once he thinks he’s lost Piya and the Baby for good, staring at them, near tears, and of course, now he is noticing all the children around, and they seem to be everywhere.
But I think the finally break-through for him admitting his feelings to himself is not even the Baby but hearing Preity’s side of the story (told to Akshay). He finds out she did not ditch him in the worst time of his life. In fact, she was pregnant when he left, work-wise, and the whole divorce/not getting letters was the fault of her family. And then, he forgets all the bitterness and finally admits to himself that he’s never stopped loving her.
And all of this forces him to mature. I love the scene where he is begging the writer for ANY job at all. And you know the sign of his hard-won maturity? Even when he decides that he can never have Preity because she got engaged to Akshay, he doesn’t walk out or anything. He works every day, making that commercial. He goes back to India and accepts any work at all. He is not being responsible to win Preity back. He is being responsible because he’s grown up.
Re: letters, btw. I love the scene where Akshay actually gives Preity all of Salman’s letters that she never got. And she starts flipping though them and crying and Akshay says a few nice things about Salman and she starts crying harder and asks him to keep talking because no one in her family ever said nice things about him. Awwww.
But the thing is, Akshay doesn’t really love her. He doesn’t know her. He can only even interact with her through the mirror of Suhan’s coaching. In fact, he ends up with a HEA much more suited for him: a girl who looks like Preity, but who is utterly compatible with him: a scientist, a space person blah blah.
One thing I like is how the family is handled. I am sick of Bolly movies where the youngsters won’t elope because parents don’t approve. Here, Salman and Preity did do just that, and in the end, I have no idea what the family thought, but they are together. And yet, her family isn’t evil, just preferring to have a scientist and not an unemployed actor as a son-in-law.
And I think I’ve rambled enough for ten movies, so I better stop. But I have to mention my love for the scene where Piya finds him with the Baby and asks for the autograph and the look on his face and the yellow scarves falling and the whole thing is…
I. LOVE. THIS. MOVIE.
I have also finished Kurosagi and now desperately need more. MORE.
I loved the ending. So open (set up for a sequel, please?) yet so hopeful. Kurosaki seeing Tsurara there, and not being able to conceal being pleased. Her making his trademark ‘bang’ gesture at him. Telling him one day she’ll catch him and him muttering ‘see ya.’ Priceless.
We only see him ever relax with her. The only time we’ve ever seen him joyful the whole series was during the adorable fireworks scene. He is actually laughing and they are playing around, and he forgets himself for a bit, and you can almost see the *thump* as he is brought down to earth and he tries to distance himself. He doesn’t want to allow himself to be happy (his drive, which is what initially saved him is now hampering him from moving on) but it’s clear he is happy with her.
I love how open and accepting Tsurara is. In a way, trying to deal with Kurosaki is like taming a wild animal. Make no sudden move. I think my favorite scene in the entire drama, actually, is her cooking that food for him and leaving it by his door (he is always eating instant noodles) and he sees it and he looks around to see if she is watching (and she only opens a door when he is gone because she is listening, afraid to spook him) and he sees she isn’t and then OMG. The look on his face. He wants to take it SO badly. He is almost sick with it. He wants to sink into care and normalcy and rest just a bit. But he knows if he gives in even a bit, he will be a goner and he will go after her and that will be it. So he takes it in and throws it out. And yet, next morning, he brings her back the bowls and tells her he threw the food away but he is coving one bowl the cat broke with a towel, in a futile effort she won’t notice: he can’t help but let the boy in him come out somehow when she is around. In a way, even the pushing her away is his testing the boundaries. Sort of ‘but if I do that, will she still like me?’ It’s sort of like an abused animal testing the good-will of a new owner, trying to make itself secure.
And of course, everyone can see he is a goner for her. Yukari tells him that outright. And speaking of Yukari, how much do I hate her? Yeah, the guy doesn’t reciprocate your feelings and never pretended to. So, you call the cops in on him, and thus rob him of his revenge. Because of course, despite your ‘I want what’s best for him’ speeches to Tsurara, it’s all about you, you selfish evil twit! When Tsurara forgives her, I want to yell at the screen, ‘are you nuts?’
But yes, Kurosaki finally closes on the men who swindled his father (I love his whispering ‘watch me, father, mother, sister’). I wonder what he was going to do though? Kill him. He strikes me as incapable of killing. Part of the reason he went the swindling route is because he can’t kill. But this is so incredibly personal for him, he is falling apart, to pieces, in front of everyone’s eyes as he deals with this. He cannot even maintain a pretense of coolness.
But I do think he learned something that might help him, long-term. When he met a man who got swindled in the same fashion as his Dad. And as he walks out, he whispers ‘Today I met you, father. But he, he didn’t kill his family.’ He is finally realizing not everything is the swindlers’ fault and maybe that would help to let go. But he needs to really catch and confront the master swindler first. (How do I hate him, mocking Kurosaki and his family on the phone?) But of course, he can’t because Yukari called the cops in on him and we get the most heart-breaking scene of the series, as he is surrounded by cops and he loses his mind, trying to fight his way out, completely wild, driven mad by the thought that it’s all been for nothing, he was so close and lost his revenge. OMG. That is completely painful to watch. And Tsurara (whom he called earlier, and called her by her proper name and said good-bye and told her he was giving her his cat. Which once again, makes me wonder what he planned to do with the swindler. Kill him?) sees this, sees how completely naked he is in front of the crowd and she runs after the police car and she bangs on the window, and she is BAWLING and she is telling him he is not alone. And the cops tell him ‘why don’t you say good-bye to her’ but he doesn’t even raise his head but is crying.
And then he sits in that cell, completely drained and hopeless, and the cop does have a point, that a part of him is OK with not having to run any more, but not this way. Not without getting his revenge.
But of course he is released through machinations of Old Man (who isn’t sick at all, btw, and who I don’t think can be bested by Kurosaki) and we get that amazingly hopeful ending and GUUUUH. LOVE
I also watched Korean Melodrama (movie) Millionaire’s First Love. Six words: break-dancing, cross-dressing Korean Nuns.
The movie is like A Walk to Remember on speed. It has all the plot twists of a typical Korean dorama: lost childhood love, terminal illness that leaves the girl as pretty as ever, school hi-jinks, an icy upper-class guy who is made human by the love of a simple girl, mother issues, childhood trauma, orphans, but at the crazy speed required to fit it into an under-two-hour movie. *bam* new twist *bam* another twist *bam* third twist.
I know I was supposed to be moved, but I was rather amused. In a very happy way. I didn’t get to know the characters well enough to feel bad for their angst, but I reveled in the deliciousness. The gorgeous kiss in the rain (he drops his umbrella). Her waking up in the hospital with him in the next bed saying he brought himself instead of flowers. His giving her a whole jar of ‘pills’ with messages of how much he loves her inside and she is crying and he tells her he told her not to OD on them and she sobs ‘I was afraid to die before I read them all.’ The bits with the cooking. The totally OTT but near to my heart scene when he runs through the woods and collapses on his knees and SCREAMS. Very HOT (btw, where else can I find this actor? He can cry silently and still look hot. Rare quality I prize). His holding her and telling her to come to him when she’s in pain blah blah. Lovely. But I hope that after the end he goes and falls for someone more robust next time.