Dôsôkai review (lots of screenshots)

[riccichan]

Originally, I wanted to write a short summary. But... it's more a re-narration than a summary and has gotten quite long. Still, I feel that it's alright, because the dorama is not slow paced, and I want to do the topic justice. Needless to say, the text contains massive spoilers, so if you still want to watch this dorama (there are no subtitles

Comments

[acchikocchi]

Not knowing anything about this series other than that Yamaguchi, Kokubun, and Sakamoto were in it, as I read the summary I think my jaw dropped so far it practically fell off my face. O_O Not only the subject matter but the relatively frank treatment of it, when compared to, say, Last Friends, was shocking enough (I'm trying to think of a comparable series in the last few years and coming up blank), but on top of that to have three Johnny's involved? And not as, you know, the straight best friends but as an underage bisexual hooker eventually part of a menage a trois, an outright gay man who marries another man, and a gay rapist? Uh. I had no idea Johnny's were allowed to take those sorts of roles -- I thought Ningen Shikkaku was kind of pushing it for them. XD Of course this was before the Shuukan Bunshun series and subsequent lawsuits, which would have add an entirely different tenor to such roles, I imagine. (Though not, I see, before Kita Koji's book. Hmmm.)

I certainly can't imagine Pi in such a role, though Kame... hm, maybe. I have troubly imagining Kame in any kind of series with this early-90s aesthetic of heavy-handed doom and gloom and angst and sex. Come to think of it, I have trouble imagining Kame in a series with explicit sex scenes, period. XD Ryo, yes, I could see him in here. Although that could be because physically speaking, Ryo's looks seem more in keeping with that era than the current one -- or maybe because of Last Friends, who knows. He just seems to suit it more. Or Subaru -- this seems like Subaru's sort of thing. Someone I'd like to see in this kind of drama would be Yoko, though I don't know if he has the acting chops to pull it off. Not that I think any of them would actually get such a role these days -- this is pure conjecture. :D

(While I'm tempted to say that offscreen MatsuJun would fit best, ahem, all his onscreen roles have been the complete polar opposite of this, so no. XD)

[riccichan]

Yes, Melli and I reacted the same way! I did know a bit about the dorama (that was the reason why I searched for it for so long), but I didn't expect quite so much nudity and controversial topics.

I was thinking once more how strange Japan is in regards to actors and their roles, and how readily we've adopted that view. I don't know of any other country where actors are so much identified with their roles as they are in Japan. Latest proof of that was the drop in Ryo's popularity ratings after his role in Last Friends - I mean, hello? That was just fiction, not an expression of a heretofore unknown side of the actor's character. I think in Western popular culture, fans would rather applaud a chance to grow for their favourite actor, wouldn't they? Or am I just too ignorant of the Western pop business?

Another question is whether JE would actually start avoiding the issue of homosexuality because of the lawsuit (which didn't prove anything), thereby giving it some more credibility. If I were them, I wouldn't do that. And I guess we wouldn't have fanservice if they were so strict, would we?

As for the roles - hmmmmm. *muses* I thought about this some more, and actually, not considering the plot, I can imagine all Johnnys in these roles (well, those in Kanjani8/KAT-TUN/News' age group!). They've all demonstrated that they can play around with gender issues, why not in a dorama? Personally I'd prefer seeing Ryo in the role of Arashi, of course. :D

Thanks for the long and thoughtful comment! ♥