Enka no Jyoou
I truly enjoyed this show, despite many bad reviews, some of which who thought it’s boring because Ookuchi Himawari (Amami Yuki) although being poor and infinitely unlucky, always is a nosey parker and helps others. I beg to differ.
I guess it DOES require a different sense of humour to enjoy this drama. Every episode will surely have Himawari encountering some events of persons she know, especially Tamaru Hitoshi (Harada Taizo) the ex boyfriend, dragging her into it. Himawari being super unlucky, will always have near death accidents, but she’ll always recover. And it’s not helping that Hitoshi’s wife, Ichijo Masami (Sakai Wakana) is extrememly jealous of their relationship that she always sought to harm Himawari some way or another…until episode 7 or 8 when Himawari, being also a very kind person, save Masami from rolling down the stairs.
Also, Himawari will always be talking to her younger self, Nobutomo Sachiko (Fukuda Mayuko), who will appear only when Himawari is stressed, and unseen by anyone but Himawari (touzen desho). Sachiko will do the previous episode recap at the beginning of each episode from episode 2 onwards, and reminds the viewer she’s the child version of Himawari. Other events that will surely occur in each episode were Himawari will get angry about some people who are wrongly self-justified, and she’ll imagine herself flaring up and teaching a kanji each time. Except towards the end of the drama, she DOES flare up for real and explained the kanji-of-the-episode; in the last episode, instead of Himawari, it is the creepy girl (see below) who “inherits” this imaginative scenes.
The fun thing about this drama is things that happened certainly wouldn’t happen in real life. But hey, that’s the whole point of watching dramas some times. Things like, Himawari having a 不死身(un-die-able body), a seemingly creepy girl who actually is just like Himawari, a cop who actually is an ero jiji, a hospital president who visits seedy pub and was harrassing Himawari when she was doing her singing stint at the pub, a artiste manager who always help out Himawari and always have some funny three or five words mottos, a mother who borrows money from loansharks to give male prostitutes, etc etc. The seemingly more normal person in this drama was the matriarch of the Tamaru family, who unfortunately suffers from Alzheimer. Poor old lady committed suicide to relieve her son and daughter-in-law having to take care of her.
What I like about this drama were the word plays, and the names they gave to Himawari, Sachiko, and the creepy girl. Himawari means sunflower, and it represented her character – never say die attitude, and always being cheerful and helpful to others. Sachiko means a child of happiness, and indeed, Himawari’s motto in life was to make people around her happy no matter no far she herself is from happiness. Lastly the creepy girl – Gomi Sadako (Narumi Riko). Gomi (五味) is the same pronunciation as rubbish in Japanese, and her classmates all made fun of her surname, saying she’s trash. And Sadako, I need not explain more about the ‘pun’ here. She looks almost like THAT infamous Sadako, but she’s nothing creepy like that. Her name also meant a child of virtue.
Repetitive as some scenes may be, if you have a different sense of humor from the norm (and no I don’t mean things like, sadists or masochistic), do try out this drama. Ratings aren’t always the best way to gauge a drama.
Suggested tagline for this drama: The adventures of the most unlucky but un-die-able woman in Japan
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