Sypnosis: Story revolves around a traditional Jap restaurant which still does things the very traditional way, eg. water from well, no food processors or microwave. The owner is a 23 yr old woman, Osen, who's always in a kimono, loves to drink & takes her duties of proprietress very seriously.
A typical Tokyo city chef came to the restaurant in an attempt to find the 'true' ways of cooking, & had to adjust to the restaurant culture where waste of ingredients is frowned upon, & where the weather & health conditions of the patrons are taken into account when planning the menu.
Every episode highlights the making of a particular Japanese food, eg. making of miso by hand, cooking rice by straw fire etc. The drama also showcases certain Japanese culture (eg. pottery, temple celebrations) & fine Japanese dining. What's best is how the show contrasts the fading of the old ways against the fast new pace of life.
Loves: The showcase of Jap food & culture! Makes me hungry just watching the fine dining presentations...............
Hates: Why didn't any romance blossomed between the 2 leads??????????? Was so looking forward towards the love story, esp. since the female lead seems to look forward to a date with the male lead in episode 4.
Sypnosis: Kimura Takuya is a primary school teacher, who reluctantly agreed to stand for election after his father & elder brother died in an air crash, so as to avoid having his mother take on the heavy responsibility. To his surprise, he won the election by a thin margin & thus became a parliment member. {episode 1}
Though he knew nothing about politics, he was nominated to be party leader, & hence the prime minister, by the ruling party's leading politician, who planned to take control of political power & use Kimura as a mere puppet. Kimura's clear understanding of the masses' day-to-day situation & his heartfelt speeches won him the distinction of being the youngest prime minister in Japanese history. {episodes 2 & 3}
He's helped by a capable secretary with her own political ambitions, a young admirer who simply wanted to help in whatever way she can, and a election planner with dashed political hopes. All 3 were with Kimura since the 1st elelction, & went on to become his close friends & colleagues in the prime minister's office. In the end, romance blossomed between the prime minister & his secretary.
Several episodes highlighted how Kimura's insistance on putting the country & the people's needs as priority, instead of just playing politics, touched the hearts of his own office personnel, his own party's senior, & even the opposition party's leader. There's also much detailing on how Kimura had to adjust to the political world, & how absurb some of the current systems are.
The 'evil' politician then realised Kimura would not be a mere figure head, & proceeded to put him in disgrace & force him to resign. But of course, Kimura has his own way to deal with the situation, hence a happy ending.
Favs: The show relied heavily on Kimura's charm & manner, to bring off the plot of a popular young politician with strong views on right & wrong. In the finale, Kimura actually has a 20 min speech explaining why he's going to quit his position of prime minister & dissolve the parliment for re-election. It's really quite impressive how he managed to hold the audience for that long, a must watch for Kimura fans.
Loved the comic relief brought about by the interaction between Kimura & his 3 helpers. And the plots on how Kimura try to fit in the political world seems quite realistic, eg. how he escaped from his bodyguards to live in his own house instead of the official prime minister's residence.
While the plots on how Kimura touched the hearts & changed the views of his fellow politicians are obviously idealistic, it's still quite watchable, as long as one bears in mind this isn't the real world. ;)
It's quite fun to watch the part where the masses just focused on what Kimura is wearing that day & totally ignores the political discussion of the day. And in episode 4, when Kimura is bombarded by tons of paperwork for qustioning the decision of certain government bodies, I can really identify with that work scenario!!!
Hates: Though the female secretary is very fitting in her role of capable secretary, I think she looks too old for Kimura in the show!!!!!! The actress is actually 1 year younger than Kimura Takuya, but in the show she looks older than him! Cannot tahan such a match!
And since Japan's political system is a bit different from what I'm familiar with, it's hard work reading the subtitles to follow the political plot. Had to re-watch many times.......
Motivation to watch: Thought will be interesting to see how this drama is supposed to help the Taiwanese tourism board promote Taiwan overseas. Besides, the lead is 仔仔, & I had a good impression of the female lead 陈妍希 from her 1st show Why Why Love.
Sypnosis: The 3 male leads were close friends from high school. 10 years since, 王传一 is helping out in his family's hotel business & 仔仔 became a popular novelist, who turned to driving a taxi to get inspiration for his new novel. Thus he met 朱孝天, whom they've lost contact after the latter migrated to the USA after graduation.
The show revolves around the friendship & love stories of the 3 men, with flashbacks to their high school days, detailing how 朱孝天 & 王传一 gained the friendship of recluse 仔仔.
陈妍希 is the subodinate of 王传一, & initially had a crush on the dashing PR manager. She later became the love interest of 仔仔, whom she mistaken to be a suicide attempt while the latter tried to get back his inspiration from her. 陈妍希 is also a family friend of dejected 朱孝天, who rejected the love of 陈妍希's sister, since he still couldn't forgive himself for failing to save his father's business.
Another subplot in 关颖, dream girl of 王传一, ex-fiance of 朱孝天.
Loves: Got interested in Taiwan's 阿里山 after watching the show!!!!!!! The place was filmed so beautifully & seemed rather interesting. I had thought it was simply another nature reserve/mountain, but think the place is rather well developed as a tourist spot. Wanna go visit!!!!!
Oh, & they did a rather good showcase of the 101 building: the fireworks on New Year's Eve looks wonderful! Have never knew it possible to have fireworks of a building like that! And now I know, if visiting the building, must post a letter from the post office there, cos will have a unique 101 building postmark!!!!!
Hates: the slipshod ending. Can't stand how all the characters repent/made decision in the last few minutes of their stories, when they've spent >10 previous episodes rejecting the other party.
Other leading actors/actresses, refer to DramaWiki.
Motivation: thought the plot sounds interesting. And it seems very popular, so gave it a try.
Sypnosis: romance story between 4 people in the media industry: female popular actress, her manager, a popular scriptwriter, and a 1st time director. Subplot details the drama serial the actress is leading in (written by the scriptwriter & directed by the director) - how a mentally slow young woman finds true love in her lawyer & reconciles with her long lost sister.
Faves: Loved the 2 male leads! ;) And the romance story is wonderfully woven: a 4-way love triangle with all the nuances you can ask for........... It's also quite interesting to see how the media industry in Korea works.
My fav clip: the 4 leads were attracted to each other & were trying to guess how the other party is feeling about him/herself........
Hates: The 1st 3~4 episodes are a bit slow, cos still spinning the story of how the 4 leads are related. Since the leads don't know each other yet, the romance factor is quite low (unless you enjoy knowing how couples meet), & all the details are on how difficult it is to decide to film a drama serial. I almost gave up watching the show! Luckily persevered till episode 5, when the sparks just burst, & it's wonderful since.....
Another irritating bit for me: too many flashbacks used. Sometimes I wasn't even aware it was a flashback, & got puzzled on the obvious difference in timeline (thanks to the show's efforts on the leads' changes of image). I suppose it works for the actress/manager storyline, since they meet again after 7 years, hence the need to flashback to understand their past. However, why use it on the director/scriptwriter love story?????
Chaseability: Why don't they screen an episode everyday?????? It's plain torture having to wait a whole week for 2 episodes!!!!!!!!!!!
Re-watchability: the romance factor is definitely worth re-watching again!!!!!! However, since this isn't a purely love story, this means have to go through all the broadcasting drama again.........
Motivation: Haven't watched a good romantic comedy for a long time, so tried the new spring season drama serial the moment I knew about it, even though didn't know any of the actors. Besides, the plot seems interesting.
Synopsis (of 1st episode only): Female lead is a nice, serious girl who can never to get a boyfriend, always falling for the wrong kind of guy & too shy to express her feelings. She signed a contract with a company she got to know at her fav bar, thinking it is a match-making agency. Turns out the company, Kronos Heaven, is launching a new Nightly Lovers series of human robots, & she had signed up for a free trial of the prototype.
The 1st male lead is the robot, named Knight. He's programmed to meet all the girl's expectations of an ideal boyfriend, including the requirement to be the "knight in shining armour saving the girl in distress". By the end of Episode 1, he's managed to reduce the female lead's fear of him as a "humanoid electrical home appliance" to a grudging acceptance of a robotic friend.
Meanwhile, the younger son of the company director, a seemingly irresponsible playboy (2nd male lead), begins to notice the female lead, a result of her comments on the company's new dessert menu.
Faves: Loved the simple fact there's finally a live-action drama adaptation of this kind of manga! There're lots of manga on humanoid robots, but this is the 1st drama serial I know of. Show is light-hearted yet has no exaggerating scenes. Plus, it's a romantic love triangle story of 2 guys fighting for a girl. What more could a gal ask for?????
Hates: None till now.........well, not after the 1st episode. The only disappointment is, the 1st male lead is not my type of dream guy. ;) Lucky female lead & 2nd male lead are acceptable to me.........
Chaseability: will definitely follow this show faithfully every week!!!!! can't wait for the next episode! wanna see how the 2nd male lead falls in love with the female lead!!!!!!
Motivation: Like the leading actor after the show that propelled him to fame, Nodame Cantibile. Plus, the show is supposed to be the best drama serial for the winter season it was aired.
Sypnosis: A man who's been unlucky all his life ends up in a temp teaching post in Nara, where he was suddenly confronted by a talking Deer, who needs him to transport an ancient sacred artifact from the Executor of the Fox, so as to conduct an ancient ceremony to sustain the confinement on the Whale trapped below Japan, else it will break free & cause Mount Fuji to erupt, eventually breaking up Japan.
When the relectunt hero made the mistake of getting the wrong artifact, he was punished by the Deer & henceforth would see a deer's head instead of his own reflection. To complete his mission & get his own reflection back, he must uncover the identity of the Transporter of the Mouse, who aimed to thwart the ceremony & keep the artifact for his own purposes. The hero was aided in his mission by his colleague, a blur History teacher who fell in love with him, & the Executor of the Deer, his student, who also suffered the same punishment.
Faves: loved the beautiful way Nara was filmed! I loved the place, so really enjoyed watching the beautiful scenery shown!
Thought the way the Japanese folklore of the Whale was linked to the Nara deer & the Kyoto fox very clever & innovative, quite convincing! Very entertaining & relaxing show!
Hates: none! ;) Don't expect Jurassic Park-level computer graphics though: the talking deer puppet & animation is quite obvious by movie standards, but good enough not to ruin the show.
Re-watchability: Wanna watch it once again, since it was enjoyable, but not in the near future. Have to wait till I've forgotten part of the plot 1st.
