Mizuki Arisa & Mitani Koki in SAZAE-SAN 2 !!!
Mizuki Arisa's SAZAE-SAN will have a 2nd installment in summer, following the success of the first one in November last year!^o^
In this 2nd SP, Mitani Koki joins the cast as Sazae-san's new neighbour!!^o^ Wow, it's not often we can see Mitani-sensei perform acting, ne^^ (He currently acted in Yonimo Kimyou SP too, actually.) His role in Sazae-san is also a writer, hehe ^_^
Sugoooii make-up on Mitani-san!!!^O^ Mitani-san is a good comedy actor, actually^^ I've seen him acting a bit before. LOL, his best acting performance though, was in SMA COURT, when he was suing Shingo!^v^
Gee.... RYO-SAN has to make a guest appearance here to complete this drama XD
Anyway, I hope Arisa and Mitani Koki will promote it in Bistro Smap ^_^
While we're on this, I will also post topics related to Arisa and Mitani Koki. Arisa's upcoming TV Asahi drama SP pictures. Mitani Koki's Wagaya no Rekishi review and also, old stageplay, BY MYSELF, written and directed by Mitani-san.
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
Official website for Kiryuin Hanako no Shougai is up:
http://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/kiryuin/
The drama will air in early summer, so I expect June.
Beautiful Arisa's showa look!^^
Looking forward to the sword scene!^o^
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
WAGAYA NO REKISHI Review
Wagaya no Rekishi disappointed me. I'm afraid Mitani Koki has lost his touch =( His recent works has degraded since Uchoten Hotel, and then it never matched up to my expectation anymore since Magic Hour.
The Yonimo Kimyou na Monogatari story he wrote and starred himself last April 4, was so boring too.
Wagaya was not bad actually, it's a good heart-warming family drama, but everything were just too futsu for Mitani Koki level. What I love from his works is the hillarious idea of the story, hillarious Mitani Koki-style dialogues and scenes... and I couldn't see all these in Wagaya no Rekishi. Disappointed.
The only story I loved and care about was Taizo (Sato Koichi) and Masako(Shibasaki Kou)'s first met and how Taizo met Masako's family. Taizo and Masako's story was romantic. I think Sato Koichi is such a kakkoii, kakkoii man even at almost 50 and he has very, very good chemistry with Shibasaki Kou. They surprisingly looked good together and didn't look awkward at all! They have age difference about, what... 19 years? But really, they look good together! And their first dancing scene was so romantic^^
But after they got "married" (start living together), everything gets more and more draggy. None of the siblings' stories intrigued me. Horikita Maki and Eikura Nana just didn't have enough screentime to develop their characters more =( Really too bad. And MatsuJun-Masami's TITANIC-like story really didn't interest me XD
Btw, I was rooting for Fusako (Eikura Nana) and Tezuka-sensei (Fujiwara Tatsuya), too bad they didn't end up together XD (oh well, I guess that's bcoz Tezuka is a non-fictional character).
80% of the cast has to speak with Hakata dialect. But the younger cast couldn't deliver the Hakata-ben lines naturally... they even often overlapping it with Tokyo-ben. The older ones like Nishida Toshiyuki and the mother did a great job though. Sawa Suzuki (Muneo's wife) did a great job too. Shibasaki Kou's Hakata-ben was passable.
Actually Horikita Maki did excellent in faking a certain accent in ALWAYS movie. But her Hakata-ben in Wagaya was not too good.
Anyway, I finally watched the 3rd part in a fast-fwd mode. Totally not a story I expected from Mitani Koki =( This is just a very futsu family drama, that any other writer can write.
I'm sorry, Mitani-san. But I'm still your #1 fan and waiting for the day when you'll be able to write comedy as good as you used to be!!^^
★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★
BY MYSELF is a 2-men play written and directed by Mitani Koki, starring the king and prince from the kabuki world, Matsumoto Koshiro and Ichikawa Somegoro (Matsu Takako's father and older brother). It was showing in April 1997, in Japan.
You can watch them here:
BY MYSELF
1- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkmfju7t5xk
2- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V3W8MxOtpmg
3- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7VmACXm-4c
4- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7bgenMwNe4
5- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pq5_3knqzbo
BY MYSELF is definitely one of the better piece from Mitani Koki!^^ I enjoyed it alot! Too bad the YouTube clips has not finished, I think there are suppose to be at least 5 more clips.
The 2-men play reminds me alot of Warai no Daigaku (University of Laughter), Warai was originally a radio drama, and then adapted to a stageplay, and then adapted to a movie starring Yakusho Koji and Inagaki Goro^^
The story is about an unsuccessful writer(don't get much jobs) played by Somegoro. One day he got a call from his editor telling him he got a new job. A retired veteran stage actor that has never accept any interviews all his life suddenly contacted the editor and told him he want to make a biography book abt himself. The editor think it's a big chance since the veteran actor has never revealed about his private life to any media before. However, Somegoro will have to be a "ghost writer", they will publish the book like it is written by the veteran actor himself, as an autobiography book, although it is actually Somegoro who write it, but his name will not be credited at all in the book. Without hesitating, Somegoro accepted it, because as long as the job means MONEY for him, he's fine with anything.
He finally came to the villa where the veteran actor (Koshiro-san) stayed, but never he expected the veteran stage actor is such an eccentric old man who is actually alot older than he looks, and Somegoro suspect the actor hides a mystery in the villa. The veteran actor kept making it hard for the writer, by giving him so many unreasonable conditions even before he start interviewing him. Koshiro-san even kept Somegoro's car keys and didn't want to let him out of the villa until he finished writing his autobiography.
A very, very intriguing story. I love it everytime Mitani Koki writes the story of a writer. He knows that profession best, so I think that's why his stories about writers as leading characters are always interesting.
I want this one made as a movie like Warai!!^o^ hehe~
Hope the Youtube user will upload the next clips *v*
Somegoro's monologue part was excellent. I really enjoyed that part! Somegoro's acting is really excellent here, but as expected from a father, Koshiro-san is definitely more BRILLIANT. The character he built, so different than the other he had done. Actually what is amazing from Koshiro-san, he never act a character the same way. It's always different from the various plays, musicals, dramas I've seen him in. I'm amazed that he can do that.
Oh, speaking of Koshiro-san, he is actually the reason why Mitani Koki became a writer. 17 years old Mitani Koki adore and idolize Matsumoto Koshiro that time and promised himself, "I will definitely write a story for him to star, someday!". And so he became a writer^^ Imagine how much influence Matsu's father for Mitani-san?