Saikou no jinsei no owarikata ~Ending Planner~ (2012)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 10 episodes
Genre: drama, family, life&death, detective
Cast: Yamashita Tomohisa, Eikura Nana, Maeda Atsuko, Chinen Yuri, Ono Ito, Sorimachi Takashi, Mikami Kensei, Yamazaki Tsutomu, Kanie Keizo, Quests: Tamamori Yuta, Anne,
Synopsis: Ihara's family business is rather unusual - for 4 generations they have worked as funeral parlors. Second son Masato hated this job and left home some years ago. On one unlucky day Masato's  life is turned up-side-down, when he is close to losing his former job and receives a call from home - dad has passed away. Since older half-brother Kento is on one of his unknown trips and three younger siblings - cripple Haruka, university student Hayato and highschooler Momoko - still growing up at home, Masato takes the responsibility and takes over the household and continues 5th generation at funeral shop. At the same time, he befriends with local police, especially with young rookie Sakamaki Yuki, and co-operates with them in investigations.
Rating: 5/5
I did not think that it is going to be that interesting. It actually is not that sad as you might think from the synopsis and it is definitely much more interesting than usual detective dramas.

Masato has many different sides. As a manager he did his job, which made him bitch. In love he is playboy and cheater as his girlfriend (only mentions and photo) is in England. Other than that, he is very reliable, honest, caring, soft-hearted and loves his family the most. He also acts like the eldest son when Kento is not at present. It is very different role from Yamashita's previous roles and his acting is more natural. To my surprise, he was the first and only one from the main cast who knew how to act crying and I have a feeling that his amazing crying-scene was not made with fake tears..

Eikura Nana plays the part of Sakamaki Yuki. I liked Yuki's character. Despite being a detective and being surrounded by crime and murders, she keeps her positive way of life. She drinks much and most of the time ends up drunk as a fish so that Masato must push her home in cart. She has a special nickname for Masato - Masapyon, which was actually the nickname how Masato's girlfriend called him, which made me think if it is really suitable for a friend to call with same nickname as girlfriend does? She also proved that even police uses Google to search information - professional, ne?

There has been much comments about Maeda Atsuko. She almost got ban from acting together with Johnny's and her screen time was cut down, because ratings showed that viewers changed channels on when she was on screen, literally she was made into reason of  low ratings. I think it is unfair  accusation, because I find her acting bearable, well if we look that it was her 10th acting role, then it is slightly bad. At the same time, Haruka's character was partly in fault - she was too sensitive about her leg, time to time too emotional and annoying. I do not understand why they had put so much of her love story into drama, because others had only one episode about  their love life, so her continuing story was almost out of context. My complaints for Maeda Atsuko are that her acting of disabled leg

was horrible and too fake, also she should have opened her mouth more to have clearer pronunciation - her words were hard to understand. I hope that now on solo career she takes up some acting and singing lessons to improve herself, because otherwise she will be forgotten with some years.
Because Hayato and Momoko were the youngest and they were kinda similar, I am going to talk about them together. They both were more selfish and thoughtless then others, it might have been due to the fact they grew up without mother longer than Masato and Haruka. Momoko has an ability  to eat in every possible situation or if she does not eat the food, it ends in her face after she has again insulted Haruka. Neither of them has much screen time, so I cannot comment their acting much, I feel just sad that they beat up Chinen Yuri -.-

Kento, more referred as Ken-ni or Aniki (older brother), is very caring, but many of his actions did not seemed to be for the sake of others, more they were easier ways for him. He always left without saying goodbye and never revealed where he was or what he was doing. He also had serious doubts as, in the end, he still was only a half-brother to others. Well, later he has some other problems too, but about that in Spoiler review. The Ihara family had serious communication problems - they all loved and respected their dad, but their family life lacked in solving problems and helping each other. It is interesting to see how they are rebuilding the trust and family ties with each other. There is a saying that critical situations do two things - they break up people or grow stronger together.

I should mention Iwata-san too, but I bet any extra word about him, might be a spoiler, so you know where to find information about him ;)
In conclusion, it is a heartwarming drama, which combines family life, detective and even a bit supernatural. The star of the drama is Yamashita Tomohisa - he has made a great comeback since starting solo career. And this drama is watchable for all viewers as it is not that big tearjerker.
(The starting clip actually reminds me NEWS Bathday commercial some years ago..)

SPOILER review: The thing about Kento is that he has a tumor - a fast paced brain tumor, but I must say that the saddest scenes are when Masato finds out about it. Even Kento's dying is not that sad as drama shows long and clear his last moments. But more spoilers are attached to Iwata-san. As you might understand since one episode - he does not eat or drink anything and since another episode you start to think why anybody else has not seen him? At first, I thought he is like some kind of Masato's conscience. It would have been a good idea, ne??  I think it was in 8th episode where it comes out, that actually he was Yuki Grandpa's soul. Which is the reason why the drama is also supernatural. In a weird way it was not annoying at all. From all the episodes, there was only one thing I hated from the bottom of my heart - why Nagamine (Yuki's partner) had to die? He had just married and was becoming dad -.- It is way too unfair. 

Kurosagi

KUROSAGI (2006)
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)

Country: Japan
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.