Title: With Love
Country: Japan
Release Year: 1998
Episode: 12 episodes
Genre: Romance
Station: Fuji TV
Actors:
Takenouchi Yutaka as Hasegawa Takashi
Tanaka Misato as Murakami Amane
It has been a long time since the last J Drama that capture my interest. This drama is so so old even the color palette rendered to almost black and white, the quality of the video is so bad that line is blurred. You can watch it by streaming online here. Just check it yourself how bad the video is. But despite all I successfully watch half of videos available in one day! Whoot! Me, the one who can’t stand watch Feeling (old K drama with Lee Jung Jae in it) no matter how many people's confession about how good it is for reason.... I can’t stand the lack of foundation/cc/bb cream to cover Lee Jung Jae’s pimples. Hah! I know I’m so shallow, but I get used to with the flawless Korean actress/actor’s skin nowadays (You CANNOT see even the skin pores). Believe I tried to watch that drama more than 3 times still stop for the same reason: Oh those pimples! Make it go away!
So yeah it must be the stories. Actually the trigger is a J drama titled Good Partner that made me can find the hidden gems. Or the smoldering handsome Takenouchi Yutaka ajhussi. Ahem. Sometimes picking new drama to watch is like watching domino effect, one drama leads to another drama and another drama and so on. But there's a thing about drama telling story of two people falling in love through some kind of passage like typo in an email, random telephone call, wrong addressed letter, or a bottle with a message in it 😁 I always love them.
It starts with when Takashi send email to wrong addressed. The wrong addressed email contains a piece of music sample that he wrote himself since he is a music composer. It starts with when Amane receives a wrong addressed email that from it she hears a piece of music that she likes. She starts to introduce herself as someone she likes to become; he starts to introduce himself as someone he likes to become. She is an art student who lives in Paris, France to learn to paint, he is an idealist indie musician lives in Tokyo. But none of them is like what they said they are, she is bank teller, and he is a compromising musician who lives to compose jingle for advertisement.
All lies, but in between their lies they tell each other their real dream that not yet to happen but on the way to make it happen, their struggle on the process, their anxieties, concern, and fear, they tell truths. Maybe the simplification and exaggeration of their lives or who they really via their lies reveals more valuable insight that are lost or watered down in ordinary experience. Their lies are so good, they don't even recognize each other in real life for the fact that they live in the same neighborhood.
You know everything get more tangled, when they make each other the first person they want to tell when bad thing or good thing happened in their life. Yeah been there, through that 😆 .So one day they plan to meet each other. But on those time and age, where photograph is not so easily captured and sent, camera and smartphone don't come in handy. Everything seems in slow motion, people take their time to watch, feel, and ponder, take everything in because there's no tool to help them to remember except their memory, and thus time becomes more precious. So how to meet someone who you only know by word? No picture, no sound, no facebook, no twitter, or other social media.
 |
| Oh do you still remember the sound when your computer via phone tries to make internet connection "zzzz, ting, zzzz, ting, zzzzzzz" :D |
They arrange a meeting, she will bring an art book about painting, he will bring music sheets. Lol. You don't know how easy our modern life now, until you watch all those old movies. Ah that venerable years. No internet, no smart phone, no digital camera. It really feels so nostalgic 😁 With such unfortunate circumstances or time of the years perhaps? They only got the almost meeting. Almost, but not quite. Not yet. Soon, maybe. Yeah, almost is such a big word.
After all misunderstanding, and chasing each other around the globe, from Tokyo to Paris, finally they realize that the other person is one they have chatted all these times. When we thought, they eventually get together, but they don’t. *sighs*. Oh J dramas and their love of open ending. Okay, in my interpretation, yes they end up together, but in such kind of long distance relationship. He works in Paris and she is in Tokyo. Because no one need to sacrifice anything, she needs to be a feminist, keeping her job intact, he can live his dream. Several meeting in a year, a lot of phone calls and emails, and lack of passionate kisses and hugs (the last is one that baffled me the most 😂). Yeah, I got the idea, or perhaps it is only my interpretation. Maybe they only become good friend with few phone calls and emails. Who knows!
It is just a crux of J drama (I swear 😆), I probably make a generalization or I may not watch too many J drama. But the thing is J drama always portrayed its heroine as a feminist female employee who take her job seriously and make it as big part and one of her top priorities in her life. But the fact Japan and Korea coveted the two of top post in earning disparity between man and woman. And as country with many women choose to quit their job after being married and having kid. I still think there is not such a bad things for woman retired from work after they marry or have kid or continue to work after being married and having kid or even choose not to marry at all because they like their work, as long as it is their choice and they are happy with it. But I still really do think the picture is quiet ironic.
Nevertheless this kind of story always got me. I think it is beautiful about two people fall in love with each other without seeing each other. So they fall in love the other person's state of mind, not physically, not what their status on society. They can fulfill their need of the other's being present, without being present, with just only sharing their mind. Because they are already in each other heart right? They always have the feeling that the other is there with them. The strange is I do have this kind of friend; we know each other through internet never see each other, just exchange emails and message. So although this kind of story has a pull for me but it affect nothing in our relationship, or I try to make up it to be or imagine it to be. I think my rational always got the best of me. Sigh. This underlines it is not about the passage but contain of the passage. And where is the amazing mind and the beautiful soul that I've always been searching for.. Ha ha ha ha....
Maybe my preference of drama arch is only the compensation of my inner fragility. The drama becomes my viable mean to supplies the virtue I don't have. In other word, perhaps we dislike a drama because it contains things we already overwhelmed by. i.e. someone likes a medical theme drama till she becomes a medical student suddenly she avoid it like a plague. Or the fact we, K drama lovers who refuse to watch anything that doesn't have any romance in it, is only showing us that we lack of romance in real life 😀 Either way, K drama holds out the promise of inner wholeness.
Song Title: La Vie En Rose
Cover Artist: Laura & Anton
Original Singer: Edith Piaf
Des yeux qui font baisser les miens
Un rire qui se perd sur sa bouche
Voilà le portrait sans retouche
De l'homme auquel j'appartiens
Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas
Je vois la vie en rose1
Il me dit des mots d'amour
Des mots de tous les jours
Et ça me fait quelque chose
Il est entré dans mon cœur
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause
C'est lui pour moi, moi pour lui dans la vie
Il me l'a dit, l'a juré pour la vie
Et dès que je l'aperçois
Alors je sens en moi
Mon cœur qui bat
Des nuits d'amour à ne plus en finir
Un grand bonheur qui prend sa place
Des ennuis, des chagrins, s'effacent
Heureux, heureux à en mourir
Quand il me prend dans ses bras
Il me parle tout bas
Je vois la vie en rose
Il me dit des mots d'amour
Des mots de tous les jours
Et ça me fait quelque chose
Il est entré dans mon cœur
Une part de bonheur
Dont je connais la cause
C'est toi pour moi, moi pour toi dans la vie
Il me l'a dit, l'a juré pour la vie
Et dès que je t'aperçois
Alors je sens dans moi
Mon cœur qui bat
No comments:
Post a Comment