Country: Japan
Genre: action, law, romance
Format: drama 11 episodes
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Horikita Maki, Aikawa Sho, Kato Koji, Yamazaki Tsutomu, Ishikawa Yui, Kishibe Shiro, guests: Sugita Kaoru, Koyama Keiichiro, Kiritani Kenta, Komatsu Ayaka
Synopsis: Kurosaki´s family gets destroyed by swindlers. In order to pay back for the murder, Kurosaki grows up to be a swindler himself - but he swindles the money back from other swindlers and gives that back to victims. One day he meets with young law student Yoshikawa Tsurara and from that on many things will be changed.
Rating: 4/5
GREAT! I have never been much of an action-fan, but it is really interesting drama, especially look out for Yamashita Tomohisa´s hilarious undercover appearances... but in some way they seem to work well.
Yamashita Tomohisa plays the part of Kurosaki - young man in his twenties who years ago lost all his family after his father lost all family's money to swindlers. Kurosaki has made the point of his life to revenge the person who swindled his family. But as he himself becomes swindler, he is almost as nowadays Robin Hood who takes from "rich" and gives back to "poor". In a way it is really idyllic. He does not use the money he gets as a pay for himself and lives in one-room apartment with his cat. He is really lonely person and never likes to get too close to other people, because he knows that he risks too much with it. Even though he tries to show that he is emotionless and nothing can make an influence on him, he has his moments when the strong walls of his world collapse and he is defenseless. I think Yamashita Tomohisa made really great acting as Kurosaki, because he was able to play out all moments and emotions even when he did not have any lines to say.
Kurosaki's world as swindler gets really messed up after he becomes connected to Yoshikawa Tsurara. Tsurara is young law-student who believes that everything in world can be corrected and made good with following laws. She is a bit naive to believe that all people by nature are good, especially the ones connected to law and police system. She tries to make her opinion clear to Kurosaki too without really knowing his motives. Sadly, her heart is like young girl's and with more time seeing Kurosaki she starts to have feelings for him. Of course I can say that she is not the only one and as innocent as she is, she is even willing to cross friend-code. I do have to say that even when we can see that Kurosaki also becomes not-so-cold toward her, his kind of men with so much tragedy in his life will never leave everything that he believes for a woman like Tsurara. Maybe once Tsurara grows more mature and gets more experience with dark side of the life, she can be a great partner for life.If they had met in different time and situation, then I think that they might have found each other and had a great life, but Kurosaki's life is way messed up.
At this point, I should mention also Yukari who in every way is a bad friend to Tsurara. Because of her envy she creates much sadness and bad to others. She is rather spoiled and goes with an attitude that if she does not get that guy then no-one gets him. When you ask me how many times Ishikawa Yui can play this kind of woman, then my answer is exactly enough times!
I think one of the most important characters is Katsuragi - man who is behind everything. He is really old and his health is already weak, but his power is just as big as it has always been. Katsuragi is the one who teaches Kurosaki to become great kurosagi. It is difficult to understand his motives behind his actions, but in some moments I felt that they are almost sharing father-son relationship and he is feeling somewhat guilt toward Kurosaki who lost everything at young age. Of course this all can be illusion, because we are talking about a man who is not afraid to make people disappear from this world, but maybe, just maybe, with his age he has started to have different kind of views for life. He is also really eager to make perfect pickled foods, but he never gets it right, so it is just a big smelly and very disgusting mess that he creates. Because of "Kurosagi" and "Ending Planner" Yamazaki Tsutomu has become the "Grandpa of dramas" :)
I definitely was annoyed by the police chief Kashima as he only saw Kurosaki as a bad guy, even when he actually did great things and handed over the bad guys to police. Of course I can understand that it kind of made police look like incompetent to do its job, but come on! The fact taht they did not catch them before Kurosaki means that they were not so good at their job. But Kashima takes it on as a personal revenge to Kurosaki, because he is more or less annoyed by him.
I take a moment to explain some things like the difference between all swindlers - there are akasagi, shirosagi and kurosagi. Akasagi are so-called "love-swindlers". I bet you have seen or heard about them in real life too, when people get married and then end up divorcing so that they get a lot of money and property from their richer husband/wife. Shirosagi are usual con-artists who cheat people and after getting their money, disappear into thin air. Kurosagi is the swindler who most usually takes on shirosagi and cheats money from them and returns the right amount back to people. So without any puns Kurosaki is kurosagi...
Definitely aatch out for "Bang~!" and "Maidoari!", because they will follow you for a long long time if not forever.! They are in every episode, but you never get tired of them! xD It is just a part of the movie that after some episodes you see coming and shout them out. Theme song is great too "Daite daite daite senjorita! Tsuyoku tsuyoku tsuyoku hanasanaide!...." ("Daite Senjorita" by Yamashita Tomohisa) O.o It is really catchy, so be careful.
KUROSAGI THE MOVIE (2008)
Genre: action, law, romance
Format: movie
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Horikita Maki, Aikawa Sho, Ichikawa Yui, Yamazaki Tsutomu, Aikawa Sho, Sugita Kaoru
Synopsis: Kurosaki´s story continues as he gets closer to the swindler who caused Kurosaki´s family tragedy.
Rating: 4/5
It really looks like another episode from the drama.
I love when character's emotions take the lead and he forgets to act rationally. This is exactly what happens to Kurosagi after all this time holding his emotions down.
I just realized that Yamashita Tomohisa got thinner between years 2006 and 2008. If you want to check it then watch the promo pics or just watch the whole drama and movie again XD
I did not like that Horikita Maki had so few scenes, because she is a great actress, but it is considerable due to the fact that she had another movie/drama filming at the same time.
No comments:
Post a Comment