'1 Pound no Fukuin' comments, episodes 7, 8 & 9 (of 9)

[winterspel]

I'm a completist, so here are the last 3 eps.


Episode 7

• The beginning of the episode introduces Ueda's story arc that carries through to the end of the drama: his father arrives to bring him home because Ueda promised that if he was not a champion by the time he turned 30, that he would return home and take over the family business. Clearly Ueda has not achieved this goal, and his father yells at him, calling him "useless" and striking him on the head. While it is played here for comedy, ha ha, it's sooo funny that boxer Ueda is being struck by his father, I don't approve at all of the parentally-inflicted violence. Just my personal opinion. Ueda is not ready to come home - he loves being a boxer, and doesn't have any interest in taking over the family business. So he lies...and announces that he will have a title match, which excites his father who finally acts proud of his son.
  
  
• Sister Angela, who is charitably cleaning a dirty street, is tricked into attending a host club (and she's so naive that she believes them when they tell her that she's helping them out because they're having problems). Obviously, what they do to her is wrong, and to give them the benefit of the doubt, Kurenai does think she is in costume initially...but I'm not sure exactly what they thought they were doing once she told them the truth - she's a nun, and has no income, so how did they think she could pay? I guess this means one or two things - one, that there is such a deep ignorance of what it means to be a nun and how nuns live, that they really didn't comprehend that in no universe would she be able to pay for her evening, and/or they were so unscrupulous that they didn't care. I suppose both options are possible. It just strikes me as so evil to prevail on her naivete and compassion and entrap her further (Kurenai wants her to stay to hear his sob-story confession) and then make her pay for essentially being forced to stay.
  
  The price for her ignorance? A nice round four hundred thousand yen bill at the evening's end.
  
  
• Kousaku, is shocked when he sees Sister Angela coming out of the host club into the snow. I liked the snow. :) I hope it was really snowing while they were filming, because it was such a random detail.
  
  Kousaku stalks Sister Angela the next day, and I thought it was rather cute the way he perched up on the wall while she despondently sweeps conveniently in front of the gate. Kousaku's pouty "Shista," is cheek-pinchingly cute. And then he STAMPS HIS FOOT at her! But then I don't really understand why she tries to make him think he was seeing things...and I'm floored that Kousaku buys it! These two are really children, both of them - they're both far too innocent to ever be let loose on the world. He would eat everything not nailed down and she would be destitute from helping every swindler to cross her path!
  
  But then Kurenai shows up, to prove that she's lying. The conversation that ensues is hilarious:
  
  Kurenai: Sorry there was an error on your invoice last night. [it now reads 500,000 yen]
  Sister Angela: 500,000 yen?
  Kousaku: [making a heart with his hands, breaking it apart] Oh, my! [in anguish] You went after all!
  Kurenai: I'm the number one, so I'm expensive.
  Kousaku: [gesturing wildly] So you like this kind of face?!
  Sister Angela: He tricked me.
  Kousaku: [threateningly steps toward Kurenai] You did?
  Kurenai: Don't put it like that. You had fun last night.
  Kousaku: [turns in anguish back to Angela] You had fun?
  Sister Angela: I didn't have fun.
  Kousaku: [stamps his foot again] Then why?
  Sister Angela: I was an idiot to be deceived by him.
  Kousaku: Sister, you're not an idiot!
  Kurenai: I don't really get it but...Please pay by the end of the month.
  
  Kurenai drives off in his flashy car, and while Sister Angela is troubled as she considers the invoice, Kousaku stares at her quite reproachfully. At least until Sister Millie arrives, and Kousaku jumps to her rescue. I think it's really quite adorable how the two of them work together to deflect Sister Millie.
  
  
• Of all people Ueda should spar with, Ishizaka should be the last choice! Ueda stupidly shows off with the one person who absolutely doesn't support his idiotic lies to his father about having a title match. The fight is hilariously bad, and so therefore, quite funny.
  
  
• The scene of Kousaku and Sister Angela in front of the fountain is one of my favorites in the run of the drama. It's SO PRETTY! I love how he supports her when she sags at the staggering amount of her debt. The way Kousaku selflessly asks her what he can do - he would love it if she were kicked out of the convent, but he doesn't want her to be unhappy, so he's willing to help her out. She refuses his offer, of course, but she should know by now that her repeated refusals just spur Kousaku onwards.
  
  
• Wouldn't you know that Kousaku's chivalrous desire to rescue Sister Angela from her debt leads him to eating contests in order to earn money?
  
  
• The sequence that unfolds after Kousaku goes to Kurenai and offers to take responsibility for Sister Angela's debt seems like fanservice, no? I mean, the way that Kurenai tells Kousaku that he can pay with his body (and I'm sure I'm not the only one to appreciate the slashiness of the Kousaku/Kurenai vibe), and then the Kousaku-as-host scenes seem designed as audience-pleasers. :) I'm not complaining! And frankly, after seeing Kame as a coltish kid in trackies, it's awfully nice to see him with teased hair, flamboyant clothes, crystals glued to his face and the black nail polish! :D Definitely no complaints. And yet. I wonder at this however, from a plot perspective, since it seems that Kurenai really does need the money, so how does offering Kousaku a job figure into that? Also, wouldn't it be bad for business to throw someone as un-trained as Kousaku into a job which requires quite a bit of polish and finesse, qualities which even on his best days, good-hearted puppy Kousaku could not be said to possess? It's fun to see Kousaku chugging liquor from an enormous glass (would someone like to tell me why the other hosts chant as he drinks? I don't understand this ritual), but from a business perspective, hiring him and displaying him seems silly. (I know, I need to not overthink such things, but it stuck out for me, so.)
  
  
• The Mother Superior's reaction when Sister Angela asks for 500,000 yen is hilarious! I love the way she laughs. But could someone explain to me what coin she handed to Sister Angela? I'm sure it's a joke, but I don't get it.
  
  
• I love Kousaku trying to butter up his boss at the restaurant by giving him a massage so he can ask for his pay in advance. Of course the answer is "no," but Kousaku doesn't give up and turns to ask Nori-chan who has justed walked in from shopping. She doesn't even wait for him to ask: "No way," she cuts him off, her sixth sense alerting her to Kousaku's impending request for a monetary favor. Heee! Such a sweet girl, she turns him down with a big smile.
  
  
• I like the scene at the host club when the Chairman tries to drag Kousaku out - although Kousaku is seriously an idiot for a) not recognizing the Japan Champion (of course it figures that Kurenai would also be in the boxing world, hmmm?) and b) jumping up and down like a little kid when Kurenai tells the Chairman that Kousaku might be better off as a host rather than a boxer. Poor Sister Angela, I don't blame her for being upset - she doesn't want to be responsible for causing Kousaku to stray from his chosen path just to help her out with her debt. I do love the Chairman's dignified exit when she finally leaves, hauling Kousaku along behind her.
  
  
• Later, when Kurenai drops in on Mukoda Gym to present Kousaku with a new invoice (because he left the host job early), and then reveals Ueda's lie about having a title match to Ueda's father and proceeds to insult the Chairman, I love Mukoda's comeback: "This host without dignity is really a champion? He's completely different from the champion I know." For the first time, Kurenai's slick, superior attitude cracks as he bends down to her threateningly: "Ah? What's wrong with a boxer working as a host?" And the Chairman stands her ground! I LOVE HER BALLS. :D
  
  
• "Six wins, thirteen losses, nine draws. That's my current score," Ueda says after Kurenai flounces out (and how cute is it that the Chairman rushes to brush his touch off both her and her son?) Ueda continues: "I'm an inept boxer who can only fight pathetic matches. The truth is, I'm nothing much. I'm not even endeared by these guys." Ueda breaks my heart with these few lines! I've come to like him so much, and it's just so unfair that despite his efforts he couldn't rise any higher as a boxer, but even worse, that he feels unloved by his comrades.
  
  Again, I really dislike that Ueda's father strikes him. Ugh, do not want.
  
  But the Chairman reveals her awesomeness yet again. "Ueda," she tells him. "Beat that guy someday. Then it won't be a lie anymore." *loves*
  
  
• When the guys all get together in the dorm that night around a bottle of liquor, Mitaka confronts Ueda on his assertion that the rest of the guys don't like him. I'm so glad he does this, because I sort of wanted to knock some sense into him, too. How could he be so oblivious to not know how the others appreciate him?
  
  But the best part of the scene is how Mitaka tells everyone why he boxes. I think that it's really important for Katsumi to hear that Mitaka was bullied also as a kid, and that both Katsumi's mother and boxing helped him to move past that. Kousaku is really cute and simple as he acknowledges the big thing that happened to him because of boxing - he met Sister Angela! Kame's expressions as he says it are incredibly cute, as is his big smile at the end. :)
  
  
• I like the scene that follows with Mukoda and Katsumi - the way he finds her drinking alone and warns her not to drink too much. I'm not sure that Katsumi from a few episodes ago would have even considered saying that. I think he's beginning to appreciate how his mother, who doesn't pay much attention to him, is still really tough to stand up to people who would sneer at her for being a small woman running a boxing club, and that even as a child she was tough enough to stand up to bullies. I felt like he left her with a sense of appreciation - he realizes that she's trying to reach out to him, even though it's not entirely natural for her.
  
  
• When Kousaku goes to ask Kurenai for a match (if Kousaku wins, then Kurenai will cancel Sister Angela's debt), I love how far Kousaku has come. While I don't exactly want to call Kurenai selfish, he doesn't understand why Kousaku would want to do something like that for Sister Angela when she isn't even his girlfriend - he doesn't see how Kousaku will benefit, because he really only considers such things in terms of tangible returns. Selflessness, or even finding happiness by making another happy, is not part of Kurenai's worldview.
  
  
• The scene of Kurenai at his gym seems to indicate that the story he told Sister Angela in the beginning might have actually been true, and that he does have a real debt to pay off.
  
  
• It really irritates me how Kurenai seeks to humiliate others at every turn, but perhaps this behavior is a result of similar treatment by others. If his story was true, and he was really sold by his parents, it's possible even that for him to become a boxer-host (which is really silly - boxers get beat up; I think he would have to be the most incredible boxer not to let anyone damage his face which he needs to look pretty for his host-job), perhaps he was even sold into child prostitution or something like? I'm just speculating, of course, but something has made him a very hard and unscrupulous person.
  
  
• The episode ends somewhat predictably - Ueda spars with Kurenai (and is defeated, but at least he can now honestly say that he's fought a champion) and Kurenai agrees to Kousaku's terms - they'll have a title match, and if Kousaku wins, Sister Angela's debt will be canceled, but Kurenai counters by saying that if Kousaku loses, he'll owe Kurenai double: 1 million yen.
  

Episode 8

• It's official! The boxing commission has given its approval to the proposed match between Kousaku and Kurenai! (big surprise, eh?) Mukoda is ecstatic that Kousaku will have a title match - she's always had high hopes for Kousaku, and even though the competition is tough, she's confident that Kousaku has a fighting chance to win.
  
  
• Kousaku, while on a training run, lies (gasp!) to Sister Angela: he tells her that Kurenai had a change of heart and canceled her debt - he makes no mention of the fact that the debt is canceled only if he wins his match with Kurenai, and that the debt is doubled if he loses.
  
  
• Still, I can't believe that even after hearing the chairman's strict instruction to be careful about making weight, Kousaku goes ahead to chow on a hidden bun! He has a lot of nerve, and even with the stakes so high, an amazing lack of regard for himself and his gym, to so deliberately jeopardize his goals. Kurenai is taking it a lot more seriously - he fakes drinking champagne while working as a host, because of course the alcohol intake would affect his training.
  
  
• Finally the Mukoda Gym boxers begin to understand solidarity! It always seemed so unfair to me that the other boxers would eat proper meals while Kousaku would have to eat diet food at the same table. Ueda has the brilliant idea that since everyone at the gym is meant to be helping Kousaku achieve his goal of winning his championship match, everyone should eat the same diet meals with him. And here, as before in his conversations with Katsumi, we see the seeds planted for Ueda's future: even though he failed at boxing (he's inept just like Mitaka) - he is still capable of becoming a trainer. But Ueda doesn't know this yet - he's planning to quit boxing.
  
  
• I love the Mother Superior - the brief scene with her leading the nuns in smelling the approaching springtime is adorable! Even if Sister Millie, like always, doesn't quite get it.
  
  
• The scene where Sister Angela goes to Kurenai to plead for him to cancel the bet with Kousaku is an interesting one. The Mother Superior arrives to pay the 500 thousand yen, but Kurenai doesn't want it because he reasons that he can gain 1 million yen by beating Kousaku, so why should he accept half? In a moment of weakness, he fires back that he has his own debt to repay: 300 million yen. Everyone gapes for a few seconds at that before Kurenai says "just kidding," but we know that at least he isn't kidding about having a debt, regardless of whether it is 3 billion yen or 300 million yen, or some other amount.
  
  Sister Angela begs Kousaku not to fight for her or for money, but to fight for himself, but what I find most interesting is the fact that everyone is trying to save him from this match, and even Mitaka and Katsumi privately express concerns to Mukoda - because no one except Mukoda really believes that he's capable of defeating a champion. Which of course must be poisonous for Kousaku, and I have to commend him for his determination and his self-confidence. He knows that they mean well: Sister Angela, the Mother Superior...and even though he says he's doing it for Sister Angela, there is a part of him that's doing it for himself. He has to win because he can. He has to believe that in order to make it happen. So I really love how he faces Kurenai and insists that he's going to win. And I think Kurenai appreciates Kousaku's determination as well - at last, it's serious, not just a game, and even though Kurenai is sure he'll beat Kousaku, on some level, I think he values having an opponent that he can't stomp on too easily.
  
  
• Kousaku is such a dope to claim his win for his "future wife" in front of all those reporters - ahahaha! He really has no sense of PR whatsoever.
  
  
• At last Kurenai is honest about his debt! (I hope) And for the first time, Kousaku sees that they are the same underneath their differences: they both love boxing for inexplicable reasons, and that's why he keeps doing it. Kurenai admits that he could have paid off his 700 million yen debt (gosh, he keeps changing the number) if he'd focused on being a host, but somehow, he keeps boxing despite the low monetary pay-off.
  
  
• The scene where Kousaku finds Sister Angela waiting for him after his weigh-in introduces a note of discord into the build-up to the championship match; Sister Angela tells Kousaku that she's come to tell him to do his best, and that's all - Kousaku senses that something isn't right, which stays with him despite everyone's best efforts to pump him up by play-acting his win in Korakuen Hall (I love Ishizaka's send-up of Kurenai as he and Kousaku shadowbox).
  
  
• While I can believe that Kousaku is 110 pounds, I really can't believe that the taller, heavier-appearing Kurenai is 111 pounds. No way.
  
  
• The championship is fairly predictable (Kurenai is very good and keeps knocking Kousaku down) but it's played out over Ueda and Sister Angela leaving - Ueda is going home, I guess, since he knows he'll never be a champion, while Sister Angela has asked to be sent to a convent far away. Of course, Kousaku catches Kurenai with his straight right punch, and Kurenai goes down, to leave Kousaku the champion.
  

Episode 9

• One minor thing that has bugged me with the filming of the drama is some of the unnatural staging I've seen occasionally: in episode 7, when the guys sit in one of the dorm rooms drinking, they are seated in a half-circle arc that allows the camera to film them, but seems awkward and unrealistic (most people would sit facing each other somehow). Similarly, in episode 9, Kousaku's colleagues are all seated at a table for a celebratory meal, but they're seated only around one side and on the ends instead of on both sides of the table. With as many camera angles as jdramas tend to use, it seems really strange that they couldn't stage these scenes more naturally.
  
  
• Poor Kousaku! Not only did Sister Angela not come to his championship fight, but he joyfully runs to show off the belt only to discover that she's gone away for good to another convent. Meanwhile, Katsumi is distressed to learn that Ueda has quit boxing.
  
  
• Kousaku sits by the water feeling sorry for himself, wondering what's the point of being a champion if he lost Sister Angela, when these cute little boys run into the frame on cue to spaz over Kousaku's champion belt. Of course he gives it away. Silly boy!
  
  
• The last episode is chock full of predictable bits, like Ueda seeing Sister Angela at the bus stop and Ueda takes her off to a manga cafe. I love how he tries to stop her from leaving by telling her that she has to read at least 30 in order to avoid incurring a penalty!
  
  
• I do find it amusing that Sister Angela (manga character) ends up in the manga cafe with a pile of mangas in front of her, including, as the subtitlers helpfully explained, one by the same author of 1 Pound no Fukuin. I like little things like that.
  
  
• It's scary to think of how many calories were in the five empty beef-and-pork bowls in front of Kousaku at the restaurant as he drowns his sorrows in a sixth bowl. Even the proprieter is worried about him!
  
  
• I like how Ueda sort of sits vigil over a seriously depressed Kousaku who not only has to deal with his true love disappearing on him, but also with his roomate and confidante leaving.
  
  
• I think Ishizaka's outrage at Kousaku giving away the champion belt is deserved - Kousaku has no appreciation for what he achieved (and particularly for what he owes his fellow boxers, not just Sister Angela) and doesn't seem to realize that his win is a win for all of them; the belt wasn't entirely his to give away. I understand that Kousaku is devastated, but even still he's being a wee bit childish about things.
  
  
• Well, at least Kousaku doesn't have a monopoly on childish behavior - Sister Angela doesn't end up going to her new convent, and after being chased by the other boxers who want her to see Kousaku, she ends up barricading herself in the chapel. I confess that listening to the boxers trying to talk her out made me giggle.
  
  
• Ack, the second scene of Kousaku with the kids (he watches one little boy wearing his belt being "beaten" by the other boys with plastic bats) is just as contrived as the first. Of course it sparks him into remembering that he loves boxing. But Kame doing the "champion man transform" routine is very cute. ;)
  
  
• The rest of the episode feels a bit rushed: Kousaku goes to Sister Angela in the chapel, and he ultimately breaks up with her and concentrates on preparing for his next match, three months away. The scene where Angela comes to him before that match, no longer a nun, is sweet (and she looks so young and pretty - the habit made her look a little older and more forbidding than she is in street clothes). Kousaku's eyes look so huge and happy! And Kousaku's walk into the light is very much a Kame strut. ;)
  
  
• Wedding! I love Mukoda in a kimono! And bumping her head (rather hard, it seems!) into the Mother Superior's head, hee! And Kousaku's smile as Angela walks up to him is truly precious. That's one of my favorite Kame smiles - happy, amazed, and a little unsure. The two of them are unbearably cute. (although, omg, the heels on Kousaku's white wedding shoes!)
  
  
• The end of the episode is really-pat as it shows us Horiguchi winning "Rookie of the Year" just as he'd promised, while Ueda trains Katsumi (who looks too pretty to be a boxer, goodness!), Ishizaka vows to defeat his next opponent, Kojima screams at a new batch of recruits and Mukoda dreams about another champion and expanding the gym. Oh, and of course they show us Kousaku and Angela's happily-married life in which she still has to keep an eye on him sneaking food. Angela looks really pretty and Kousaku is the same as ever - an irrepressible child.

--

Final thoughts? Not a bad drama at all. Still, I never would have watched it if not for Kame, but the drama surprised me many times throughout, and it was actually a terrific ensemble. I really liked many of the characters, and rewatching the final episodes made me appreciate the secondary cast quite a bit more. I even warmed up to Meisa and Yamada! ;)

Too bad about the ratings, though, and how long will I have to wait for Kame's next drama?

**And many thanks to Massuki & Sailor Spork for the subtitles! :)