Fall 2012
Ooku ~Tanjou~[Arikoto Iemitsu Hen]
[REVIEW] JDrama - Ooku ~Tanjou~ (Arikoto Iemitsu Hen)
After such a long break, I didn`t know what to watch!! So I went through the list I keep of all the dramas I have watched and I saw that I was almost done with this one. Please note, I watch the first 7 episodes 2 years ago and finally completed it with the remaining episodes this year. Hopefully I can remember to give this a good review.
Review
Ooku is a drama series following the movie Ooku (2010). They take place in a similar setting and are vaguely related, but they do not share any characters between them thus if you have watched or not the movie before the drama series does not matter. The setting is properly explained in the drama; it takes place in a world where the men is infected by a disease in the Tokugawa reign era. With the decreasing number of men, Japan starts to change socially. The story is based on the manga Ooku by Yoshinaga Fumi. The manga is still ongoing and has presently 11 volumes. You can find a scanlated version for the first 30 chapters (approx 7 volumes) on MangaHere. It is quite behind the serialization, but understandably, translating historical works are not easy and not everyone can do.I have not read the manga yet (but I am planning to), thus I cannot make a statement about it.
The story follows 2 main characters, a monk played by Sakai Masato and Tabe Mikako as the shogun and we learn the life of shogun as a woman with lots of romance thrown in. The story starts nicely with the original setting, the beautiful costumes and scenery. It also touches more serious elements, like love making, childbirth and death. While it was something we rarely see in modern drama, I was welcoming to the idea of more adult themes.
I have not completely watched many historical drama before, so it is a bit hard for me to compare the quality of this to others. But after a few episodes, the pacing gets slower. The whole drama takes place in the same building. My interest in the story dipped down a little, but I was watching 1 episode from time to time. Taking it slowly helped me appreciate this drama more.
The story of this drama will appeal to women more then men in my opinion because of first of all its roots as a shoujo/josei manga, the romance and the setting (woman shogun). The story can be slow and tedious but it remains interesting to see a world where women has power in the Edo period.
However, it was very hard for me to take Sakai Masato's character seriously at times. While his acting was first class ( I really like this actor), his expression on his face felt like it was glued. I understand this was probably intentional, being a Buddhist monk and supposedly emotionless. I find that he could have done a better job with his facial expression. There is also Tabe Mikako. I have nothing against her, but there is something about her that is a bit annoying that I find in all the shows that I have watched with her. I find it apparent in this one as well, especially in the first episodes. I wonder if she got better or it might be that I got used to her by the end. Nevertheless, I think she was quite good in playing a tomboy character with a strong attitude and it might exactly be what she excels at acting.
I also recommend the Onna Nobunaga special. It has the same idea of a female leader and it was quite good in my opinion.
Synopsis: (from dramawiki)
During the reign of the shogun, Iemitsu, an epidemic causes the population of men to sharply drop, leading to an ooku where the role of men and women are reversed. Thus, "the women become the shogun, served by 3000 handsome men"...and so with that, the unimaginable and grand scale story begins.Cast:
- Sakai Masato as Madenokouji Arikoto
- Tabe Mikako as Tokugawa Iemitsu
- Tanaka Koki as Gyokuei
- Hirayama Hiroyuki as Inaba Masakatsu
- Minamisawa Nao as Yuki
- Omi Toshinori as Murase Masasuke
- Danta Yasunori as Matsudaira Nobutsuna
- Naitou Takashi as Sawamura Denemon
- Aso Yumi as Kasuga no Tsubone
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| After watching Legal High, it was hard at first to take Sakai Masato's character seriously |
Story:
I love historical drama!! I can understand though , historical drama can be a thing you like or you just don`t like. Since I love them, it isn`t too hard to like a drama series like this one.Ooku is a drama series following the movie Ooku (2010). They take place in a similar setting and are vaguely related, but they do not share any characters between them thus if you have watched or not the movie before the drama series does not matter. The setting is properly explained in the drama; it takes place in a world where the men is infected by a disease in the Tokugawa reign era. With the decreasing number of men, Japan starts to change socially. The story is based on the manga Ooku by Yoshinaga Fumi. The manga is still ongoing and has presently 11 volumes. You can find a scanlated version for the first 30 chapters (approx 7 volumes) on MangaHere. It is quite behind the serialization, but understandably, translating historical works are not easy and not everyone can do.I have not read the manga yet (but I am planning to), thus I cannot make a statement about it.
The story follows 2 main characters, a monk played by Sakai Masato and Tabe Mikako as the shogun and we learn the life of shogun as a woman with lots of romance thrown in. The story starts nicely with the original setting, the beautiful costumes and scenery. It also touches more serious elements, like love making, childbirth and death. While it was something we rarely see in modern drama, I was welcoming to the idea of more adult themes.
I have not completely watched many historical drama before, so it is a bit hard for me to compare the quality of this to others. But after a few episodes, the pacing gets slower. The whole drama takes place in the same building. My interest in the story dipped down a little, but I was watching 1 episode from time to time. Taking it slowly helped me appreciate this drama more.
The story of this drama will appeal to women more then men in my opinion because of first of all its roots as a shoujo/josei manga, the romance and the setting (woman shogun). The story can be slow and tedious but it remains interesting to see a world where women has power in the Edo period.
Acting:
The acting has some good points but some bad as well. I find that each actors played their role well in general and by the end of the drama I realized that I got attached to some of them. This is a good thing, showing that they performed well. One of the good point in this drama is that the characters evolve from the beginning to end in such a gradual manner. The core is the same, but each character have grown.However, it was very hard for me to take Sakai Masato's character seriously at times. While his acting was first class ( I really like this actor), his expression on his face felt like it was glued. I understand this was probably intentional, being a Buddhist monk and supposedly emotionless. I find that he could have done a better job with his facial expression. There is also Tabe Mikako. I have nothing against her, but there is something about her that is a bit annoying that I find in all the shows that I have watched with her. I find it apparent in this one as well, especially in the first episodes. I wonder if she got better or it might be that I got used to her by the end. Nevertheless, I think she was quite good in playing a tomboy character with a strong attitude and it might exactly be what she excels at acting.
Music:
I always like the classical traditional music of historical drama. I comment about music in my review because for me it is an important aspect. I can remember 2 instrumental songs that play from time to time (the opening and one that plays from time to time) which were good. It might be because I took a 2 year break , but I feel like it was missing some variety. The ending song by Misia was okay, but kind of out of place.Recommendation:
Ooku series has already 2 movies. 1 that is a prequel (Ooku) and the second one is a sequel ( Ooku : eien emonnosuke tsunayoshi hen). It is important to watch this drama before the second movie. If you have liked this drama then obviously it is also recommended to watch the movies. I find that the movie pacing might be better for a story like this one.I also recommend the Onna Nobunaga special. It has the same idea of a female leader and it was quite good in my opinion.
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| The cat is too cute! |
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