Finally Finished Watching CHANGE

Genre: human drama

Episodes: 10

Leading Actor: 木村拓哉 Kimura Takuya

More details in DramaWiki.

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.......