2016.02.09 Handsome Rakugo Review!
I finally got around to this! Sorry and enjoy!!
Cannot believe I was in the front row!!! So close!!! I still needed my glasses though which is NOT a good thing.. I am gunna have to get new glasses before May or else I am screwed at both Fairy Tale and KAT-TUN concerts (that were announced last week on Tuesday night btw xP). But onto the show!!
The PreShow Rage:
I almost went mental waiting for the toilet. Japanese people really have no common sense at times!!! Rage!!! So this is what happened. There was naturally a waiting line for the bathroom - that part isn't the problem!. As I got closer, I noticed the girls were opening and closing the bathroom door so I assumed 'oh we only have one toilet to share'... I get closer and it's a bathroom that has at least two stalls! So my mind starts thinking 'why the fuck are we close the door behind in everytime one person leaves and one person goes in?' so obviously I'm thinking 'these dumb bitches. So the person in front of my goes into the bathroom and she closes the door behind her - here I notice she's part of the 'waiting inside the bathroom cue' and so I'm liking, 'fuck this' and open the door only to find out she's BEHIND the fucking door?! Are you fucking seriously bitch? Just LEAN against the fucking door so people can easily get in and out and not have to open and close that door every 3 fucking minutes. So eventually she moves one down and away from the door. And holy fucking shit, there's a fucking DOOR STOPPER on the fucking floor BEHIND the door?! Are these butches DUMB AS FUCK?! So of course I grab the door stopped and put it against the door and holy fucking shit you'll never guess what - the door STAYED open so more people could move down and make the line even quicker. I am astounded at their stupidity. Completely and utterly. Japanese people (I know we shouldn't blame a whole race of people but I've been here nearly 2 years so I gotta say) really are these stupiest groups of people ever. They have THE least common sense in the entire fucking world. There's nothing in their brain. Nothing at all. It's all moths and dust! UGH. Rage over...
Before it started, I was so worried I wouldn't be able to understand what was going to be said because usually Rakugo is spoken in old Japanese or in keigo (polite) Japanese, but they ended up speaking pretty normally so I understood almost all of it completely ^_^ hence why I ended up laughing so hard!! XD
It Begins
So the way they entered was SO sexy and so great! They were in their pairs for the evening and two walked past each other at the back and then came forward while the pair at the front went past each other and walked back. Nishiyama looked straight at me when he came to the front! I was scared of making eye contact with him for the rest of the show xD Also during the opening, Yuya kept his fan up to his nose all the way through - the reason will be revealed later.
Story One: Senryo Mikan (1000 Ryo - old money system in Japan - Mandarin)
As soon as they sat down Maeyama said to Tsuchiya: "You're already drinking (water)?" XD
They had some great back and forth between them before actually getting into the show xD
Mae fucked up straight away in his first scripted line, slapped himself and restarted which was both cute and funny xD
During the entire show, he tripped over his words a few times but the stories are so fast and it was his first day so it's totally fine xD it was cute too! Nishiyama tripped over his words about twice too.
Maechan's sweat was impressive! Very sexy and erotic xD or is that just me? xD
So the story is that a lord (Shion) has an ill son (also Shion) and he wants to make him better and he's heard that if his son eats Mikan then he'll get better so he demands that his servant (Maeyama) goes out and searches for mikans. So off the servant goes on his journey and he talks to many shop owners (Shion did all the differents parts and there were old men, women, everything and his diversity was really good!) and none of them have mikans and also it's winter so it's no the season etc. Finally he gets to the last shop owner and Maeyama is like 'just tell me you don't have any but... do you have any mikans? I already know you don't have any so quickly tell me.. tell me... tell me you don't have any. I know you don't so just tell me'
(Shion) 'I haven't even spoken yet!! .... I'll go and see if I do *goes to the back* here *blows the dust of it* we have one'
'How much?'
'1000 ryo'
'1000?!' *runs back to his master and the master accepts price and gives Maeyama the money and he buys it*
On Maeyama's way back to his masters house with the mikan he pauses and goes 'I have a 1000 ryo worth of mikan in my hand. That means I could sell this and get more! It's worth 1000 ryo! But if I do, I'll abandon the master and his son won't get better.... but I could be rich! 1000 ryo!' So Maeyama runs to a seller to check how valuable the Mikan is.
'.... this is just a normal mikan!'
'What?'
'This is worthless!'
'WHAT?!'
The story ended with Maeyama saying "Staff!!!" which is a famous line from a comedian here in Japan. So naturally we all laughed. I really liked the different roles Shion did in this story. And it was strange seeing him be so.... manly xD
Story Two: Kanban no Pin (The Billboard's Pin?)
Then we swapped pairs and now we had Yuya and Nishiyama and before the story began they quickly explained the game (The one with the dice in the cup - Liar's Game?). As mentioned earlier he'd been on stage constantly using a fan to hide the lower part of his face and finally (before they sat down) he said 'I wanted to have this really cool reveal. Wait for it' and he reveals a drawn on moustache 'but it didn't turn out the way I wanted and now I'm really embarrassed!' xD Then we got into the story. I don't remember much besides pissing myself laughing cos of Yuya - he seriously has some talent and reminds me completely of Kaji Masaki xD But it was mainly of this one guy trusting this older man in a game of Liar's Game and ultimately he lost and it showed how the old man tricked everyone one. There's a hilarious section where he through the die in the air and then it didn't come down for like a minute xD So then Yuya is impressed and learns the same trick to wiggle money out of people. And again the whole die is in the air for a long time joke happened xD It was a little difficult (probably the most difficult to follow) but I found it rather hilarious.
Onaoshi
When Yuya started slowly walking away xD The audience were absolutely pissing themselves and Maechan and Shion didn't notice at all and kept doing their thing. Shion FINALLY noticed at the very last minute and cracked a smile 'Hurry up will you!' xD Maechan missed it completely xD
I seem to have thing for D-Boys where their eye line isn't completey straight. For some reason I find it completely beautiful both Maechan and IkeP's eyes when looking forward aren't completely straight lined <3 guess WE thought the same thing when they took them on. There's a charm to the way their stare <3 same as I love how Kame stares as well but it's a little different to their... am I making sense? xD
Maechan REALLY suits that woman role!! I really hope he gets the woman role in the next Shakespeare D Stage!!! << My predition was correct! Moving onto the story...
This story is about a married couple who first married happily and had a business going but later in their life they ran out of money and business and had to find another way to make money. The husband's (Shion) suggestion is for his wife to work in one of those entertainment houses.Of course she goes mental at first 'what if I sleep with them? Are you okay with that? What if one of them offers me more money than you'll ever give me and marriage? Are you okay with that?' the husband quickly decides against it and they decide to open their own izakaya-like place where she's the face of it so it attracts customers.
So one day a really drunk man walks in (played by Shion) and they see this as their chance to swindle him out of a shit ton of money. So the wife seduces him and says if he brings (I think) 3000 ryo (which is what 3,000,000 or 30,000,000 yen right?) then she'll marry him. And the man tries to have sex with her here but Maechan manages to push him away. And obviously with him being completely drunk they assume he won't remember.
Once the old man leaves the wife and husband discuss that they do really love each other and that they shouldn't do this type of business and that they should up town and down some other business together, hence they revitalise their love <3
BUT the next day he walks in with the money, throws it at the husband (which he doesn't know is the husband) and tries to have sex with the wife 'you'll marry me now right?!' and so it ends with Maeyama was having sex xD His legs were up in the air and he was making funny noises. It was hilarious xD
I really like the way they moved around the stage between stories. Shion had it DOWN how to flip his kimono around his feet and carry on walking xD
Kasa to akai fuusha
The final story! Yuya's performance was solid in this! It was breath-taking and so fluid! But first the story.
So mainly it's about a boy who is brought up in a loving family but one day one of his friends tells him that his mother isn't his real mother and turns out that she is actually his aunt and his mother died when he was born. So naturally Yuya's character gets really moody during his teenage years and become very distant because the shock of knowing his mother is actually his aunt it too much for him. But along the way he meets some interesting characters (a crazy uncle and grandmother for one thing who he played superbly and we were dying with laughter!). Then once he becomes an adult he decides to head out and go into the big city, leaving his family behind. In the city he recieves a red umbrella from someone. One night he's walking home drunk and meets a woman who says some harsh things to him about reality and he decides to part from her. On his way home, it begins to rain and goes to use his umbrella BUT he left it at the last place he was at. Once there he bumps into someone who knows who sent the package to him. It was his mother! He comes to the realisation that it doesn't matter if she's not his birth mother but that she IS his mother. So he hurries back to his family and to his village the next day. Unfortunately, his mother had passed away the day before. And naturally everyone is the room is in tears cos now the son is like 'I'm sorry I left you. I'm sorry I was mean to you. Okaa-san! Okaa-san!' and scene.
DAMN Yuya! He did a variety of hilarious roles in this, so much so that were were CRYING with laughter (wish I could remember who and what exactly now, sorry! Hopefully his version will be on the dvd!). How he got us crying with laughter and then actually crying at the end was absolutely amazing!!!
^ Shame they didn't sell this as an actual poster! =[
The AfterTalk
They had to do an improvisation where they said why they were crying and their crying performances were hilarious and Maechans answer was also makeup or facial care reasons xD and when he did, someone who was working the lights would turn his spotlight off xD
Finally they had to create a story by saying one line each and had to go through Maeyama's name xD so Ma-E-Ya-Ma
Makao ni Tsuita toki, = This guy who arrived in Macau
Egao ga koboreruyouni, = and broke into a smile
Yatto soitsu ga = (this guy < this line is put at the beginning in English!) is
Majide kakke = seriously cool (oh Maechan! XD)
* This guy who arrive in Macau and broke into a smile, is seriously cool. xD
Oh jesus... we were dying of laughter. Especially cos Maechan took SO long to think of a way to end the story xD he was like 'ma..... Ma.....' XD
(Also, thank you Rika for confirming what they said with me ^_^)
Furthermore, it was Maechans shonichi (first day) and he was like 'please come Friday.... Because... I'll also be here... Friday' XD
(It was funnier in Japanese)
Also, Shion kept looking me at the 'after talk' o_O I know the stage is like less than 3 ft away but still! I couldn't cope xD
Extra:
Turns out Rika came too!! She hadn't planned to so bought the ticket today. I was so shocked to see her! I also spoke a little to the girl next to me, she was also there for Mae and Shion and we talked about Kenki and how she liked him and we both agreed the news of his leaving was so sudden xD she said she'd only recently just started going to the boys stuff live.
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Overall: This was SO much fun! I haven't laughed this hard in a while! It was THAT hilarious my true laughter came out! I could not contain myself at all! I really liked how we got to see the feminine side/performacen of Maechan as well as the more masculine role of Shion. Yuya definitely sold the show though and he reminds me A LOT of Kaji!! But I am curious as to which performances they've filmed for the DVD!
Rating: 9/10