'Golden Bowl' w/Takeshi Kaneshiro - Eps 2 & 3
More thoughts on 'Golden Bowl'
First Episode
[Download for eps 1-11 here]
General series comments
Episode 2 sees the beginning of Akutagawa and Hitomi sharing her grocery shopping trips - the first time it happens, I can only imagined that Akutagawa shadowed her to the shop so he could tell her off for encouraging Akira in demonstrating her affections for him (Akira had been jealous of Hitomi from the beginning when she suspected that Hitomi had helped Akutagawa in the bowling competition because she liked him). Anyway, the grocery trips continue in each episode and they provide some terrific comedic dialogue and also some nice emotional development between Hitomi and Akutagawa.
Another thing that begins in episode 2 which continues through the rest of the series is the Developer's Visit. Despite beating the developer's bowling team in episode 1, the developer shows up each week wearing his white suit and white hat but with a different vividly-colored shirt. Amusingly, his goons always wear black suits with ties color-coordinated to their boss's shirt. And they sing. Yes, the developer always arrives singing some song or another, and he is often accompanied by his deadpan-faced goons, which I find hysterical. The first time I saw the goons providing backing vocals, my eyes bugged and I nearly fell over - and the singing gets funnier through the series, as occasionally the goons provide backing vocals to Mr. Tanorae as well. And every episode, as this menacing trio come out of the lift to approach Mr. Tanorae's office, the attendants Shibahara and Takegami try to fend off the unwelcome visit but are thrust aside in slapstick fashion by the goons each time; the visit always culminates in Mr. Tanarae capitulating to the developer and therefore at the end of each episode there is another bowling competition pitting Hitomi and Akutagawa against another garishly-costumed champion pair.
Despite the predictability of these elements, and the obvious foregone conclusion of the competitions, the episodes remain entertaining for me due to the character development that takes place particularly between leads Akutagawa and Hitomi, who are wonderful and nicely realized. There is humor and wit in the dialogue and Kaneshiro is amazingly funny - he has a marvelously expressive face and his line delivery is spot-on. Kuroki is also excellent - her Sakura Hitomi is a terrific combination of fierce, vulnerable, cute and funny. Kaneshiro's Akutagawa is something of a cipher to me because he IS very funny, and he seems to deal with most situations by resorting to humor to deflect his own feelings. This is clear in many of his reactions with Hitomi. When her words strike a chord, he doesn't want to admit to it immediately - instead he often responds with a quip or a joke.
Episode 2
In this episode, Hitomi is inordinately curious about Akutagawa's absent girlfriend. In the first episode he told her that she was abroad, far far away, but in this episode Chiaki reveals that there was a car accident 3 years ago in which the other Hitomi died. Sakura Hitomi has an interesting reaction to this, which is affected by receiving another phone call from her husband's mistress. Hitomi questions Akutagawa about his girlfriend and during a very interesting conversation that takes place while they are competing she tells him that he needs to get over her and move on. The episode is framed by Akutagawa being unable to knock out the "Bye Bye Split" formation because he thought of the two parallel pins as lovers and he didn't want them both to be knocked over and separated. When the same formation appears during the competition, however, he is forced to separate the two lovers (bowling pins). I love how the bowling pins come to symbolize Akutagawa's emotional development. My only big question in this episode is WHY is Hitomi so interested in Akutagawa's girlfriend and why does she work so hard to convince him to move on? Partly it is because she's feeling very sore about her husband's possible infidelity, and she is confused as to how she should react to her own situation, but I wonder that the seeds for her own emotional attraction to Akutagawa have already been planted, unbeknownst to her.
Episode 3
This episode is very emotional with a fair amount of development for our leads in particular.
It opens with Akutagawa smooshed on a crowded commuter train headed into downtown Tokyo when a shrill woman accuses him of having touched in an inappropriate manner. She makes a huge fuss and drags him off the train with the station attendant and a large crowd forms around them as woman in heavy makeup and a short skirt cries out again and again that Akutagawa is a lecher who tried to feel her up. He protests his innocence, of course, and because he is our hero we believe that our sweet Akutagawa could never do such a thing. The woman is condemned by the audience from the outset as being a liar.
Personally, I hate this scene, absolutely HATE it, especially because of what happens next. Things are looking quite bad for our sweet Akutagawa as the woman continues to hammer at him, when a calm man enters the center of the crowd and speaks up for him, stating that he was standing next to him and that Akutagawa had his hands raised up in front of him as is the custom of men on this tightly-packed trains to avoid accusations of unscrupulous women. This smooth-talking, sophisticated man offers to be Akutagawa's witness should the police be called, but he deftly talks the station attendant out doing so, and just like that, the crowd who had been raining insults down upon Akutagawa now begin to make terrible comments about the woman at the center of the conflict. It really turns my stomach. It doesn't help that after the mob disperses and the mystery man walks off with Akutagawa, she begins to sob to the station attendant that she really was touched, and what should she do? When the station attendant begins to look sympathetic to her plight she gives him a sly look and asks if he has a girlfriend. Ugh. I really hate that the woman was always the cheat here and that a man could so easily turn aside what could have been a legitimate complaint by sticking up for his own. It just smacked of the old boys club. Double UGH.
Anyway, Akutagawa thanks the man for his help, and admires his "coolness." One other thing happens in the teaser that I love - it's a small thing, I will admit, but when Hitomi is at the bowling alley, she scolds herself for her poor score and throws one last ball, which knocks down all the pins but one last one that rocks gently. Hitomi is so cute as she puffs her cheeks and blows, as though she might help the pin fall over. She blows and blows until finally the pin decides to tip over, and she is just utterly adorable as she kisses her hands to the fallen pins and exclaims "oh, yes!" with a giant dimpled smile.
Hitomi is feeling awful in this episode as she finally comes to accept the truth of her husband's infidelity. At a particularly vulnerable and touching moment, she asks Akutagawa if she posseses a woman's attractiveness, and I just love this simple, heartfelt moment between them:Akutagawa: Yes.
Hitomi: Really?
Akutagawa: It would be a waste if you weren't somebody's wife.
Hitomi: Fool! [she's a little embarassed - perhaps she thinks he's making fun of her with excessive praise]
Akutagawa: That came from the bottom of my heart.
Hitomi: [she's silent, and somewhat stunned]
Akutagawa: You still look like a young girl with doleful eyes.
Hitomi: Really?
Akutagawa: Yes. Very attractive.
Hitomi: Thank you. [she still seems very surpised and touched by his words]
[Akutagawa bows fairly deeply to her, and when he raises his head, he sees that she's crying. Hitomi is overwhelmed by what he's said to her, and probably really regretful that she had to hear this from this young man (which is cool all by itself) and not from her husband]
Hitomi gets another call from her husband's mistress which prompts her to run out the house in distress and hail a cab to go to the love hotel where the mistress had told Hitomi she would be with her husband. When she realizes she left her wallet at home, she notices Akutagawa walking home, and orders the taxi to stop to pick him up so he can help her pay for the taxi later on. I always laugh when she yanks him into the taxi, and when he pulls back and resists, she pulls harder. "It hurts," he exclaims, and I helplessly giggle.
When it comes time for the bowling competition their opponents are two very pretty and buxom young women dressed in somewhat scanty outfits. Hitomi is feeling quite sore at this point after seeing the proof her husband's affair and feels that for her own self-respect, she must win this game and not let the cute young things beat her. It doesn't help her mood any that Akutagawa is a little too admiring of the other team. Ultimately she finally confesses to him during the game that she had gone to the love hotel to verify that her husband was having an affair, and that she had lied to Akutagawa when she had told him that she and her husband were still as loving as newlyweds. The look on Akutagawa's face as she says this is so sad it breaks my heart.Hitomi: Smile. We'll be fine. Smile. Your sympathy makes me even more sad. But I have a favor to ask of you. Don't let me lose the game.
[there is a moment of resolve for Akutagawa, then he says]
Akutagawa: [in English] Okay, boss.
^^^^and that's me squeeing at his adorable delivery. Kaneshiro is just wonderful in these moments. He can be cute and silly one moment, serious and heartrending in the next, and he does it so effortlessly. This man is an amazing actor and he imbues the character with all these layers of characterization in a role that could have been played very two-dimensionally.
Akutagawa tries to comfort Hitomi later when he explains to her that perhaps her husband is only interested in this other woman for the sexual adventure, and then he says the sweetest thing: "Many men can replace your husband, but no one can replace you." Awwwww...but then, just a few minutes later, after Hitomi apologizes for burdening him with her personal troubles, he leans in close to her ear and says, "You are very attractive" and oh, his tone of voice is soooo sexy. He advises her to forgive her husband this once if she still loves him. So she asks him to do something a little nuts. There is one pin still standing for their final throw and they need to knock it down or lose the competition - Hitomi asks him to knock that single pin down blindfolded - and if he does it, she will try to forgive her husband and forget about it. So he does it, and never does a man look as hot as Kaneshiro blindfolded (as anyone who's seen House of Flying Daggers knows). There is a beautiful moment after he knocks the pin down that he remains blindfolded and waits for her to come over and remove it, and golly, he looks delicious. Wish I had a cap of it to share! And then he turns around to her and says, "I see you!" like a little kid, and I can only smile. Their huge laughing grins are such a nice capper to an otherwise fairly angsty episode, and it's really touching that Akutagawa does this for her so that she can have some peace of mind. As she tells him earlier, he has "a kind heart."
To be continued... Episode 4
First Episode
[Download for eps 1-11 here]
General series comments
Episode 2 sees the beginning of Akutagawa and Hitomi sharing her grocery shopping trips - the first time it happens, I can only imagined that Akutagawa shadowed her to the shop so he could tell her off for encouraging Akira in demonstrating her affections for him (Akira had been jealous of Hitomi from the beginning when she suspected that Hitomi had helped Akutagawa in the bowling competition because she liked him). Anyway, the grocery trips continue in each episode and they provide some terrific comedic dialogue and also some nice emotional development between Hitomi and Akutagawa.
Another thing that begins in episode 2 which continues through the rest of the series is the Developer's Visit. Despite beating the developer's bowling team in episode 1, the developer shows up each week wearing his white suit and white hat but with a different vividly-colored shirt. Amusingly, his goons always wear black suits with ties color-coordinated to their boss's shirt. And they sing. Yes, the developer always arrives singing some song or another, and he is often accompanied by his deadpan-faced goons, which I find hysterical. The first time I saw the goons providing backing vocals, my eyes bugged and I nearly fell over - and the singing gets funnier through the series, as occasionally the goons provide backing vocals to Mr. Tanorae as well. And every episode, as this menacing trio come out of the lift to approach Mr. Tanorae's office, the attendants Shibahara and Takegami try to fend off the unwelcome visit but are thrust aside in slapstick fashion by the goons each time; the visit always culminates in Mr. Tanarae capitulating to the developer and therefore at the end of each episode there is another bowling competition pitting Hitomi and Akutagawa against another garishly-costumed champion pair.
Despite the predictability of these elements, and the obvious foregone conclusion of the competitions, the episodes remain entertaining for me due to the character development that takes place particularly between leads Akutagawa and Hitomi, who are wonderful and nicely realized. There is humor and wit in the dialogue and Kaneshiro is amazingly funny - he has a marvelously expressive face and his line delivery is spot-on. Kuroki is also excellent - her Sakura Hitomi is a terrific combination of fierce, vulnerable, cute and funny. Kaneshiro's Akutagawa is something of a cipher to me because he IS very funny, and he seems to deal with most situations by resorting to humor to deflect his own feelings. This is clear in many of his reactions with Hitomi. When her words strike a chord, he doesn't want to admit to it immediately - instead he often responds with a quip or a joke.
Episode 2
In this episode, Hitomi is inordinately curious about Akutagawa's absent girlfriend. In the first episode he told her that she was abroad, far far away, but in this episode Chiaki reveals that there was a car accident 3 years ago in which the other Hitomi died. Sakura Hitomi has an interesting reaction to this, which is affected by receiving another phone call from her husband's mistress. Hitomi questions Akutagawa about his girlfriend and during a very interesting conversation that takes place while they are competing she tells him that he needs to get over her and move on. The episode is framed by Akutagawa being unable to knock out the "Bye Bye Split" formation because he thought of the two parallel pins as lovers and he didn't want them both to be knocked over and separated. When the same formation appears during the competition, however, he is forced to separate the two lovers (bowling pins). I love how the bowling pins come to symbolize Akutagawa's emotional development. My only big question in this episode is WHY is Hitomi so interested in Akutagawa's girlfriend and why does she work so hard to convince him to move on? Partly it is because she's feeling very sore about her husband's possible infidelity, and she is confused as to how she should react to her own situation, but I wonder that the seeds for her own emotional attraction to Akutagawa have already been planted, unbeknownst to her.
Episode 3
This episode is very emotional with a fair amount of development for our leads in particular.
It opens with Akutagawa smooshed on a crowded commuter train headed into downtown Tokyo when a shrill woman accuses him of having touched in an inappropriate manner. She makes a huge fuss and drags him off the train with the station attendant and a large crowd forms around them as woman in heavy makeup and a short skirt cries out again and again that Akutagawa is a lecher who tried to feel her up. He protests his innocence, of course, and because he is our hero we believe that our sweet Akutagawa could never do such a thing. The woman is condemned by the audience from the outset as being a liar.
Personally, I hate this scene, absolutely HATE it, especially because of what happens next. Things are looking quite bad for our sweet Akutagawa as the woman continues to hammer at him, when a calm man enters the center of the crowd and speaks up for him, stating that he was standing next to him and that Akutagawa had his hands raised up in front of him as is the custom of men on this tightly-packed trains to avoid accusations of unscrupulous women. This smooth-talking, sophisticated man offers to be Akutagawa's witness should the police be called, but he deftly talks the station attendant out doing so, and just like that, the crowd who had been raining insults down upon Akutagawa now begin to make terrible comments about the woman at the center of the conflict. It really turns my stomach. It doesn't help that after the mob disperses and the mystery man walks off with Akutagawa, she begins to sob to the station attendant that she really was touched, and what should she do? When the station attendant begins to look sympathetic to her plight she gives him a sly look and asks if he has a girlfriend. Ugh. I really hate that the woman was always the cheat here and that a man could so easily turn aside what could have been a legitimate complaint by sticking up for his own. It just smacked of the old boys club. Double UGH.
Anyway, Akutagawa thanks the man for his help, and admires his "coolness." One other thing happens in the teaser that I love - it's a small thing, I will admit, but when Hitomi is at the bowling alley, she scolds herself for her poor score and throws one last ball, which knocks down all the pins but one last one that rocks gently. Hitomi is so cute as she puffs her cheeks and blows, as though she might help the pin fall over. She blows and blows until finally the pin decides to tip over, and she is just utterly adorable as she kisses her hands to the fallen pins and exclaims "oh, yes!" with a giant dimpled smile.
Hitomi is feeling awful in this episode as she finally comes to accept the truth of her husband's infidelity. At a particularly vulnerable and touching moment, she asks Akutagawa if she posseses a woman's attractiveness, and I just love this simple, heartfelt moment between them:Akutagawa: Yes.
Hitomi: Really?
Akutagawa: It would be a waste if you weren't somebody's wife.
Hitomi: Fool! [she's a little embarassed - perhaps she thinks he's making fun of her with excessive praise]
Akutagawa: That came from the bottom of my heart.
Hitomi: [she's silent, and somewhat stunned]
Akutagawa: You still look like a young girl with doleful eyes.
Hitomi: Really?
Akutagawa: Yes. Very attractive.
Hitomi: Thank you. [she still seems very surpised and touched by his words]
[Akutagawa bows fairly deeply to her, and when he raises his head, he sees that she's crying. Hitomi is overwhelmed by what he's said to her, and probably really regretful that she had to hear this from this young man (which is cool all by itself) and not from her husband]
Hitomi gets another call from her husband's mistress which prompts her to run out the house in distress and hail a cab to go to the love hotel where the mistress had told Hitomi she would be with her husband. When she realizes she left her wallet at home, she notices Akutagawa walking home, and orders the taxi to stop to pick him up so he can help her pay for the taxi later on. I always laugh when she yanks him into the taxi, and when he pulls back and resists, she pulls harder. "It hurts," he exclaims, and I helplessly giggle.
When it comes time for the bowling competition their opponents are two very pretty and buxom young women dressed in somewhat scanty outfits. Hitomi is feeling quite sore at this point after seeing the proof her husband's affair and feels that for her own self-respect, she must win this game and not let the cute young things beat her. It doesn't help her mood any that Akutagawa is a little too admiring of the other team. Ultimately she finally confesses to him during the game that she had gone to the love hotel to verify that her husband was having an affair, and that she had lied to Akutagawa when she had told him that she and her husband were still as loving as newlyweds. The look on Akutagawa's face as she says this is so sad it breaks my heart.Hitomi: Smile. We'll be fine. Smile. Your sympathy makes me even more sad. But I have a favor to ask of you. Don't let me lose the game.
[there is a moment of resolve for Akutagawa, then he says]
Akutagawa: [in English] Okay, boss.
^^^^and that's me squeeing at his adorable delivery. Kaneshiro is just wonderful in these moments. He can be cute and silly one moment, serious and heartrending in the next, and he does it so effortlessly. This man is an amazing actor and he imbues the character with all these layers of characterization in a role that could have been played very two-dimensionally.
Akutagawa tries to comfort Hitomi later when he explains to her that perhaps her husband is only interested in this other woman for the sexual adventure, and then he says the sweetest thing: "Many men can replace your husband, but no one can replace you." Awwwww...but then, just a few minutes later, after Hitomi apologizes for burdening him with her personal troubles, he leans in close to her ear and says, "You are very attractive" and oh, his tone of voice is soooo sexy. He advises her to forgive her husband this once if she still loves him. So she asks him to do something a little nuts. There is one pin still standing for their final throw and they need to knock it down or lose the competition - Hitomi asks him to knock that single pin down blindfolded - and if he does it, she will try to forgive her husband and forget about it. So he does it, and never does a man look as hot as Kaneshiro blindfolded (as anyone who's seen House of Flying Daggers knows). There is a beautiful moment after he knocks the pin down that he remains blindfolded and waits for her to come over and remove it, and golly, he looks delicious. Wish I had a cap of it to share! And then he turns around to her and says, "I see you!" like a little kid, and I can only smile. Their huge laughing grins are such a nice capper to an otherwise fairly angsty episode, and it's really touching that Akutagawa does this for her so that she can have some peace of mind. As she tells him earlier, he has "a kind heart."
To be continued... Episode 4