Sunadokei J-Dorama 砂時計昼ドラ Part 1
I've been very VERY excited ever since the drama-adaptation of Sunadokei
was announced a few months back. I was even more excited when it was announced there was going to be a mind-boggling SIXTY episodes, 5 airing per week for twelve weeks. I've been a big fan of Ashihara Hirako (芦原 妃名子) ever since I stumbled across this series (Even though Sunadokei is pretty popular in Japan, not too many people here are talking about it here, most likely because it hasn't been licensed yet.)
Now that I've gotten the chance to watch the first week's worth of episodes (5 episodes)...hmm...it was...different. Since it's sixty episodes, I'm sure they'll flesh out the characters as the drama progresses, but so far...well, they've changed a lot of the scenes, as well as added in new characters/changed the personality of the existing characters. For example, Daigo's mother. In the manga, she was a kind, gentle friend of An's mother who made An feel at home when everyone else in the small town was talking behind her back (or at times, to her face) about her mother's divorce and the reasons for their return. But in the J-dorama, she's portrayed as a loud character who's well...annoying, to say the least. I really liked Daigo's mother in the original version so I was really disappointed (and puzzled) by the change.
Another gripe I have about the characters is, the young Fuji (or should I say, Harry Potter
?) Is it just me or is he the spitting image of the main character in the book by J.K. Rowling? He has the very same colored scarf, similar glasses, and the very same hairstyle. I mean, come on. Sure, Fuji-kun's supposed to look "mature" for his age---but this looks like some bad version of a Harry Potter cosplay. When I first saw the picture lineup for those actresses/actors chosen for Sunadokei, I thought this child actor looked the most like the character he was portraying. But I guess the makeup artist/clothes coordinator went overboard.
And I don't mean for this to be offensive, but this kid's not Daigo. And him being overweight is only part of the problem. He can't act. Plain and simple. When he's trying to reassure An everything's going to be okay, he had no expression on his face. He was articulating every word like someone was holding up the script for him and he was just reading off of it. And there's just no chemistry between him and the other lead. I don't expect love chemistry, but at least some kind of friendship chemistry (is there such a term? ^^) Because the way things are now, I can't see how these two could have become as close as they are (in the drama).
If I had control over the casting (which I don't, but let's just pretend XD) I would have chosen Matsukawa Naruki.
He was amazing in Joou no Kyoushitsu (The Queen's Classroom)
and since he does look much younger than his age (he's 16) I could see how he could look 12/13 with the right clothes and hairstyle. Not to mention, he already has experience playing country-born(田舎で育った) characters. I recently watched a special two-hour drama that he starred in titled Sumire no Hana Saku Koro and in that drama he was a kid living in a small town out in the middle of no where. He was convincing as that character, and it proved he could learn a unique dialect (in Sunadokei, since they're in Shimane, there's a separate dialect for that area). And heck, if Shida Mirai could have taken over as An, even better.