バテンダ - Bartender
Dear みんなさん,
I have just finished watching the "Last Glass" of the J-Drama バテンダ, starring the very cute 相葉雅紀 - Aiba Masaki and......... WHAT A MASSIVE LET DOWN!
So disappointing. The series only went for eight episodes, so I figured that at the end there would be come kind of big confessional speech from one of the two main leads about their feelings for the other - possibly concealed by a roundabout explanation of the significance of a particularly relevant/romantic/nostalgic cocktail. But no. WE WERE DECEIVED! Viewers of this series were completely and utterly denied a romance. COMPLETELY. There were no awkward falls that led to awkward glances, no awkward acts of drunkenness that led us to believe they may show the tiniest bit of physical-contact-but-in-a-restrained-Japanese-style way. No hugs, no kiss. No Nothing!
Grrr. ANYWAY, moving on from that fact, I will admit that right from the start there was no real physical chemistry between Aiba's character, Sasakura Ryu, and Kurushima Miwa. Miwa was played by the cute, but-sporting-a-very-unflattering-haircut-involving-a-flat-fringe-and-some-long-flyaway-bits, Kanjiya Shihori.
Is it because Aiba is in an idol band that he can't be seen to be romantically involved, even when he's playing another character on television? I remember being distinctly underwhelmed at the end of Yamada Tarou Monogatari because again, there was no end romance. And the two main characters in that drama (Kazunari Ninomiya and Sho Sakurai) are actually also members of the same band as Aiba - the band Arashi.
If anyone out there on the Internets has some insight into this matter, please drop me a comment. I am yet to visit Japan, so I would love to hear from someone who has experienced these pop-culture things first hand, unlike me, who is but a humble researcher...
Or is this all just in my imagination? Am I putting my Australian (loosely Western) ideas of what constitutes a TV drama onto an audience who has comeletely different expectations and desires for their drama? Hm. Guess I'll just have to watch more drama to find out ^_^
Think I'll start watching Absolute Boyfriend next. See how that goes.
おやすみ
~Sophie
I have just finished watching the "Last Glass" of the J-Drama バテンダ, starring the very cute 相葉雅紀 - Aiba Masaki and......... WHAT A MASSIVE LET DOWN!
So disappointing. The series only went for eight episodes, so I figured that at the end there would be come kind of big confessional speech from one of the two main leads about their feelings for the other - possibly concealed by a roundabout explanation of the significance of a particularly relevant/romantic/nostalgic cocktail. But no. WE WERE DECEIVED! Viewers of this series were completely and utterly denied a romance. COMPLETELY. There were no awkward falls that led to awkward glances, no awkward acts of drunkenness that led us to believe they may show the tiniest bit of physical-contact-but-in-a-restrained-Japanese-style way. No hugs, no kiss. No Nothing!
Grrr. ANYWAY, moving on from that fact, I will admit that right from the start there was no real physical chemistry between Aiba's character, Sasakura Ryu, and Kurushima Miwa. Miwa was played by the cute, but-sporting-a-very-unflattering-haircut-involving-a-flat-fringe-and-some-long-flyaway-bits, Kanjiya Shihori.
Is it because Aiba is in an idol band that he can't be seen to be romantically involved, even when he's playing another character on television? I remember being distinctly underwhelmed at the end of Yamada Tarou Monogatari because again, there was no end romance. And the two main characters in that drama (Kazunari Ninomiya and Sho Sakurai) are actually also members of the same band as Aiba - the band Arashi.
If anyone out there on the Internets has some insight into this matter, please drop me a comment. I am yet to visit Japan, so I would love to hear from someone who has experienced these pop-culture things first hand, unlike me, who is but a humble researcher...
Or is this all just in my imagination? Am I putting my Australian (loosely Western) ideas of what constitutes a TV drama onto an audience who has comeletely different expectations and desires for their drama? Hm. Guess I'll just have to watch more drama to find out ^_^
Think I'll start watching Absolute Boyfriend next. See how that goes.
おやすみ
~Sophie