Japanese drama recommendation request

[alexandral]

I was reminded by winterspel's post that I meant to ask for some Japanese dramas recommendations for ages. Recently the dramas I watch happen to be mostly Korean. :D And even though I have a strong belief that Korean actors are THE most gorgeous bunch of guys any country ever produced, I feel I need to expand my horizons. :D And especially I feel more so since I have started watching "Hana Yori Dango" for it is too adorable for words.

SO, PLEASE recommend Japanese dramas of your choice!!! I will be thankful to you forever!!!!

Japanese Dramas I have seen, with the ratings:

1) Long Vacation 8.5/10 - My favourite Among Japanese dramas. MUSIC.
2) Kurosagi 8.5/10 - Absolutely excellent. And Yamapi.
4) Remote 7.5/10 - One of the best OTPs and highly adorable heroine
5) Good luck - 7.2/10 So much cuteness.
6) Nobuta wo Produce 7/10 - Extremely intelligent.
7) Pride - 6/10 I haven't finished it yet, but it doesn't make my heart beat faster
5) Forbidden Love. 3/10 - I felt very uneasy with the subject matter. But TAKKI!!!

Things I particular enjoy in dramas and shows:

1) Romantic story full of angst
2) Male friendship that is larger then life
3) Good ending
4) It would not hurt if it starred Yamapi, Takizawa Hideaki or Oguri Shun. And a drama with Takuya Kimura or Takeshi Kaneshiro is always a good thing. :D

Comments

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I adored God Give Me More Time (Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake) and so did kitsune714 and miss_dian but I know winterspel doesn't care for it. It doesn't have a happy ending but it has plenty of angst and gorgeous Takeshi Kaneshiro.

How about Tatta Hitotsu No Koi? It fits all of the above to a tee.

I don't know how valuable my recs are to you, because for the above, my order totally wold be:

Pride
Kurosagi
Frobidden Love

Then liking for Nobuta wo Produce (but hard to get through I confess) and utter boredom for Long Vacation.

I actually also prefer korean dramas. They are more emotional and more colorful IMO.

Orange Days is supposed to be romantic and good. So is Love Generation (Takuya!). I have both but I haven't seen it. I am planning to watch Strawberry on the Shortcake, which miss_dian loves and which has Takki but I haven't seen it yet.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I got lost with "Tatta Hitotsu No Koi" when everyone was saying that this is going to have a bad ending. Now I know the ending this is probably the one to start watching.

"God Give me More Time" sounds really good and I would have been watching it in a shot, but AIDS is something I have a very irrational fear for. I am afraid I will end up getting paranoid about AIDS again (meaning thinking how clean my dentist's utensils are). :D But thank you so much because you reminded me that Takeshi Kaneshiro should be added to 4).

ANd thank you for "Strawberry on the Shortcake" rec.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Strawberry on the Shortcake also stars Kyoko Fukada (the lead in Kamisama) but I should warn you, much as I loved, it can get a little bit slow in some parts. And a brief spoiler>>> Takki steals his teacher's underwear..!! *ROFL*

Happy ending though-- involving snow and piggybacking :D

It was the first j-drama I watched and yeah, I came to the conclusion that Takki in school uniform is still HOT ^^;;

P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Forget jdramas! Watch Loveholic with me instead. I want someone to squee with ;)

Re: P.S.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

EEEEEE! OK!!! I am starting the downloads :D I feel I must because you are so enthusiastic :D

Re: P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Yay! Btw, this moves so fast. He is already in his mid-20s by the first half of ep 4 (so no school thing for long, btw).

Re: P.S.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

YAY! Korean drama that moves fast!! This is something to watch definitely!!! (I love "The Snow Queen" for this too). I must say that image you put in my head - something about red umbrella is stuck there. :D

Re: P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Oooh, the red umbrella scene.

This one:

http://img99.imageshack.us/img99/2203/685407699jb.jpg

It might be my favorite scene so far (the whole thing is so prettily shot). Or the scene in the rain in ep 5.

Re: P.S.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

OMPH! So beautiful. So icon-worthy, especially bottom-right corner shot.

Re: P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I really love the way Loveholic is filmed, and the way: the way they use filters and colors and still shots. I think this is my second favorite visual scene though. My fave is in ep 5. I talked about it in my monster write-up, but it involves him standing on a dark street, and everything is wet and raining and he is being hugged by Ja Kyung (the girl who is his friend and who's in love with him), and he has this white shirt on and it's almost shining in the soggy darkness, and you see it from the back, just her arms around him but his completely still at his sides.

So very pretty.

Re: P.S.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I agree with you - for what I have seen , I have yet to see Japanese (or even Taiwanese) drama filmed as beautifully as even an average Korean one. And as concerning the best, like "My girl" or "Goong" or ALTK, they filmed as good as any movie. And this is one of the reason I prefer Korean drams, I am very "visual" in my feelings. :D

And YES, that description makes me want to watch "Loveholics". :D

Re: P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

Very true. I keep wondering why Korean dramas are so consistently my favorite (my number one drama is Taiwanese and my number 2 is Japanese, but when I look at dramas in general, Korean ones are the ones that appeal to me the most), and aside from the fact that they generally match my sensibility the most (with all those deep, passionate emotions, grand sweep of the drama etc etc) and the fact that they have some of the best eye candy out there, you are right, they are just incredibly beautifully shot. I find that is true with Korean movies, too. All the Korean movies I've ever seen, regardless of whether they were good or not, looked absolutely gorgeous.

And yay on Loveholic.

Btw, I think the end will meet with your approval. I checked.

Re: P.S.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

EEEE! Thank you so much, dear, for checking the ending!

What thrills me to bits is that Korean movies are very BIG at the moment, with critics and audiences alike. As big as European movies were somewhere in 80s. I think this really shows how good Korean entertainment industry is doing. I am going off tangentially, but I think the strange rules of JE and like are on the other hand are hindering the success of Japanese film industry (which is also awesome IMHO). But may be JE guys think that seeking approval of the West is a bad thing??

Re: P.S.

[dangermousie.livejournal.com]

I don't think JE is thinking in abstract terms of West's approval. I think they just want to keep a really tight control on their marketable stars and not let them go anywhere which would make the more financially and career independent. Ugh. Maybe it stems from the really tight connection between music and entertainment industry? While Korea (and Taiwan) have plenty of singer-actors, a lot of them aren't but that is much less so the case with Japanese dramas.

Also, Korea is trying to make its products more generally accessible. Almost all even remotely successful kdramas have dvd box-sets with English subs. I can't think of any Japanese ones that do (even Taiwan puts subs on its most successful series, but not Japan).

And I had to check the ending. I wasn't going to watch 16 eps of gorgeous angst with characters I adored without either finding out it ended OK or bracing myself for the ending (the ending made me giddy so you can guess which of the options it turned out to be).

Re: P.S.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I think they just want to keep a really tight control on their marketable stars and not let them go anywhere which would make the more financially and career independent. Ugh.

This seems to be terribly short-sigted that JE stops their actors from participating in festivals and like. Festivals means more international exposure and more revenues. Thought I suppose JE revenues come mainly from the Asian region and they don't aspire yet to take over the West.

And I had to check the ending. I wasn't going to watch 16 eps of gorgeous angst with characters I adored without either finding out it ended OK or bracing myself for the ending (the ending made me giddy so you can guess which of the options it turned out to be).

I agree - I ALWAYS check the ending first. This is one of the things I like about doramas, that I can check the ending. ;D And of course that there is the ending in the first place.

[allbloomedout.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen enough jdramas to recommend something that fits with what you like. I've only seen Nodame Cantabile, Hana Yori Dango, and Kimi Wa Petto. I don't think any of those fits your list. You didn't list HYD as your seen? I thought you've seen it because you're watching 2. HYD is a lot less angst though. I'm going to bookmark this post though since you've list many jdramas I haven't seen :) Thank you and sorry for not being much of help.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEE! NO - you are of great help! You reminded me about "Nodame Cantabile", it has a cute romantic story and a good ending, right?

I haven't listed HYD 2 because I have only seen 3 episodes and not sure yet what it's rating will be for me. It is definitely at least 8/10, but I don't know if this changes.

And I think I definitely should watch HYD 1.:D

[allbloomedout.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEE! NO - you are of great help! You reminded me about "Nodame Cantabile", it has a cute romantic story and a good ending, right? Aww, you're so sweet. Nodame has a cute romantic story and happy ending. It's not really romance heavy though. It's more on classical music (orchestra/piano recitals) and the friendships of the members of the orchestra. I hope you'll enjoy it when you give it a try.

It is definitely at least 8/10, but I don't know if this changes. I think the same for me. I hope it keeps being as great as It is now. Yay, I can't wait for you to see HYD 1. :) I love you icon. I'm a fan of Wallace and Gromit too! :)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I think the same for me. I hope it keeps being as great as It is now. Yay

Or may be I will end up loving it even more then now??

[allbloomedout.livejournal.com]

I think that is highly possible :D I held back on watching episode 4. I just couldn't handle it without subs. I just have to know what they are saying. Gokusen is tying me over though since it has Oguri Shun and MatsuJun :) Are you going to watch ep 4 without subs?

[winterspel.livejournal.com]

Kimura Takuya: you may like Love Generation - it's romantic, some angst and a good ending: with the added benefit that the Kimura/Matsu Takako pairing is FAMOUS in Japanese dramas.

Kaneshiro Takeshi: I adore Golden Bowl - it's one you could probably watch with Sasha, as it's harmless and fun with broad humor, and it has a gentle, yet sweet romance (and a good end). I think you may really like the female lead, Hitomi, because she's strong and independent and yet pretty traditional in many ways. But the best, best part is Kaneshiro who is impossibly adorable and incredibly funny (I had no idea he could be such a funny actor until I saw him in this!).

I absolutely think you need to finish watching Tatta Hitotsu no Koi - it's totally worth it.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

EEEEE! I actually have "Golden Bowl" but completely forgotten about it, thank you for the rec!! And I promise to watch THnK. :D

I was going to recommend "Remote" to you (it is excellent) , but I only saw the soft subbed versions around.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

- Takizawa Hideaki: Strawberry on the Shortcake (a little slow though).
- Takeshi Kaneshiro: God Give Me More Time (he's HOT).

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Thank you so much, dear! ** hugs ** "Strawberry on the shortcake". UNREQUITED love????? I love stories when people overcome their depression, but Unrequited love?

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Strawberry on the Shortcake? Ooooh... don't worry, it is, in fact, requitted love :D

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

EEEEEEEEE! Thank you so much for indulging my spoilery habits. I feel "Strawberry on the Shortcake" can be a winner!!!