I personally like this new Japanese version than the 1998 version (the one with Liam Neeson). I'm going to write a long synopsis so those who are curious and want to compare this with the book could get an idea. For those who want to watch the movie, you'd better not continue reading. There will be spoilers.
1994 - Kobe
18 year-old Baba Jun escaped from prison because his younger brother needed a transplant, but he was too late. His younger brother has been dead. He then found refuge in some kind of youth center, where he met Watanabe Takumi and the two became friends. Takumi died during the Kobe earthquake in January 1995 and Baba Jun used Takumi's identity to begin a new life.
Baba Jun had gone into a juvenile detention center as a minor because he accidentally killed Mr Saito, who had cheated Baba Jun's mother out of her money. With a good attorney, Baba Jun actually should not have gone into prison; but unluckily his family was poor.
The late Mr Saito had a son, Saito Ryosuke. He was harassed by society because of his father's crime. Thus he held a grudge against Baba Jun, who had killed his father.
2004 - Tokyo
Baba Jun - now known as Watanabe Takumi - worked as a lawyer. He lived with Takumi's girlfriend. In the course of his work, he met a young woman, Fuwa Yui, who had a little daughter named Kozue. Fuwa Yui, due to her work, entrusted Kozue to an illegal child care, managed by Mr & Mrs Tanabe. When Fuwa Yui died, Baba Jun took Kozue away and left Tokyo; after reporting the illegal child care to the authorities. Meanwhile, Saito Ryosuke - now a police detective - had found out Baba Jun's real identity, but there was no proof.
2018 - Fukushima
Kozue was now a beautiful young lady, met Usui Shin - a young politician, and the two fell in love. Shin's grandfather was against the relationship because Kozue's father's identity was unclear.
The Tanabes, now bicycles thieves, found out about Kozue and Shin - from their daughter Erika, who worked at Shin's office. [Erika was much luckier than Éponine. She was clean and educated, not a beggar. Later she realized that her parents didn't love her as much as Baba Jun loved Kozue.] The Tanabes blackmailed Baba Jun: if he didn't give them money, they would announce that Shin's future wife's father was a murderer and a fugitive.
Baba Jun told Kozue to break off her relationship with Shin. She later told Shin that if she had to choose between Shin and her father, she would choose her father, because he loved her even though she was not his natural daughter.
When the police raided those bicycles thieves, the Tanabes attempted to kill Saito. They went into the woods to bury him, but Baba Jun came and saved the detective.
Shin suffered from hepatitis and needed a transplant. Baba Jun became the donor. It was then he realized why he had been living. Baba Jun asked Shin's grandfather to give consent to Shin - Kozue's marriage, and he himself would leave to avoid future troubles.
The scene where Baba Jun met Saito Ryosuke in the hospital showed the contrast between the two: one was serene and peaceful, while the other hateful and angry.
It ended with Saito Ryosuke rode a car together with Baba Jun, perhaps heading to prison.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
Monday, March 18, 2019
Korean drama series (part III)
Misty
This was quite interesting, although the pace was rather slow. A famous news presenter was accused of murder. There was no evidence, but she was arrested after reporting corruptions which involved 2 big companies. The lead actress's present was dominant and it was easy to see why she was respected and admired by many. However, I didn't like the silence and gap between dialogues. The dialogues were also slowly delivered. It was unrealistic to me. It's also the same reason why I hate The K2: The main female characters, in both series, could not control themselves in live shows.
Lawless Lawyer
This series was entertaining - until someone mentioned that in the year 2000 microSD had not been existed 👿. But, really, the poor boy obviously could not swallow a floppy disk. I think I like Lee Jun-ki now. [With long small eyes and pointed chin, he reminds me of male characters from Japanese manga, like the ones drawn by Riyoko Ikeda..] His female partner had an alto voice that was nice to hear. Plot: A lawyer returned to his hometown to avenge his mother's death. He named his office 'Lawless Lawyer' - perhaps because he was a gangster before. He fought the female judge and her cronies, who ruled the small city.
Falsify
This one was very good. What if a respected newspaper's director instructed his journalists to fabricated news? A media jackal believed that his brother, a journalist, had been murdered because of one of his articles. So he followed his late brother's journey to unravel the mystery.
Iljimae
I wanted to watch this to see more Lee Jun-ki. This was a classic. The king killed everybody whom he thought as a threat to his throne. Iljimae, the hero of this story, was searching for the sword -and its owner - that had killed his father, and to hide his true intention, he robbed the houses and gave the money to the needed. For the poor, he was their Robin Hood. The setting was in 17th or 18th century and it was interesting how Mandarin characters were widely used.
Whisper
In my opinion, this one was a mess. I didn't like the lead actor, especially in the first episodes where he knitted his brows too many times. He looked like he was carrying the problem of the world on his shoulders. An upright judge and a righteous policewoman turned evil. Along with other corrupted characters they cheated and deceived each other. It began with a death of a reporter and another reporter was framed for the murder. Every time a new evidence was found, it would soon be gone, either due to blackmail or threat. The case just went round and round and didn't make a progress.
Misaeng (=Incomplete Life)
Love this very much. It's about white collar workers in a trading company. The central character was 26 year-old Jang Geu-rae (it's his name). He only had a GED (=I think it's equivalent to a high school diploma) and could became an intern because he had connection, and this made everybody looked down on him - at first. However, he showed that he was indeed competent and was contracted for 2 years. His co-workers grew fond of him and wanted to help him to become a full timer.
The cast is great. It's the first time I saw Im Si-wan who played Jang Geu-rae. He's a pretty boy who seems to act without effort. The senior actor who played his boss Mr Oh, had bags under his eyes, made him believable as hardworking team-leader.
Misaeng was based on webcomic series by Yoon Tae-ho. The movie Inside Men [It was a great movie.] was also based on his work.
Two Weeks
This was more like The Fugitive and you could even see Tommy Lee Jones for a couple of seconds. Starring by Lee Jun-ki, his character was named Jang Tae-san [which reminded me of Michelle Yim's dad's name in 1983 Tiger Hill Trail]. Jang Tae-san was framed for murder and he escaped while being transported from police to prosecutor, because he had to donate his bone marrow to his daughter -whom he had never knew existed - in 2 weeks. (If he went to jail, someone would kill him.) He was chased by the cops and the bad guys. I really enjoyed watching this one.
Chief Kim (a.k.a Good Manager)
At first it was boring and since i's a comedy, the actors tend to overact. I hated to see Chief Kim and the gluttonous finance director sabotaged each other. They worked at the same company, so why? I forgot again that this was supposed to be a comedy. But when they started to help each other and then work together against the corrupted chairman and his people, it got interesting and I started to enjoy the series. I also loved the comic drawings at the end of each episode.
Bad Guy
This was so bad. I had choosen a wrong drama to watch. The synopsis was interesting, it was about revenge. Little Choi Tae-song had been taken from his parents and it had been said that he had been the illegal son of the Haesin group's owner. His name had been changed to Hong Tae-song. A year later they said he had been an impostor because they found the real boy, and they threw him out on the street, just like that. It was so cruel that those people should have been arrested by the authorities. 20 years later, he came back to get his revenge.
This series, however, focused on a love triangle among two Hong Tae-songs and a girl. It's just not my cup of tea. I dislike this kind of drama. I almost gave up after 3 episodes, but finally decided to get on with it. It was so boring that I started to notice how the director loved short shots. In a dialogues, for example, he would do close ups on the character who was delivering the line, and changed to the other character, and so on. It really had got on my nerves.
The actress who played Hong Mo Ne was very bad. I think it was her eyes. I was not sure if she had been sleepy or she hated her own character.
Prison Playbook
Loved this so much. One of the best dramas I have seen. I had imagined a dark prison with dirty inmates, but the prison was clean like in 'Innocent Defendant'. I have no idea if real prisons in South Korea are like what has been described in this series, but I really enjoyed watching this. The main character was a famous pitcher who went to prison for a year for beating the man who had assaulted his sister. This series was full of interesting characters and in fact this is the first South Korean series that could make me laugh a lot.
Hello Monster
This one was also good. I forgot what the main character's profession. I think he was a professor in criminology, and helped the police as a consultant. When he was little, he met a serial killer who later killed his father and kidnapped his younger brother. The cases in this series were interesting and the relationships among the characters were well portrayed. I liked how the stories were divided into chapters with a catchy song in the beginning of every chapter.
This was quite interesting, although the pace was rather slow. A famous news presenter was accused of murder. There was no evidence, but she was arrested after reporting corruptions which involved 2 big companies. The lead actress's present was dominant and it was easy to see why she was respected and admired by many. However, I didn't like the silence and gap between dialogues. The dialogues were also slowly delivered. It was unrealistic to me. It's also the same reason why I hate The K2: The main female characters, in both series, could not control themselves in live shows.
Lawless Lawyer
This series was entertaining - until someone mentioned that in the year 2000 microSD had not been existed 👿. But, really, the poor boy obviously could not swallow a floppy disk. I think I like Lee Jun-ki now. [With long small eyes and pointed chin, he reminds me of male characters from Japanese manga, like the ones drawn by Riyoko Ikeda..] His female partner had an alto voice that was nice to hear. Plot: A lawyer returned to his hometown to avenge his mother's death. He named his office 'Lawless Lawyer' - perhaps because he was a gangster before. He fought the female judge and her cronies, who ruled the small city.
Falsify
This one was very good. What if a respected newspaper's director instructed his journalists to fabricated news? A media jackal believed that his brother, a journalist, had been murdered because of one of his articles. So he followed his late brother's journey to unravel the mystery.
Iljimae
I wanted to watch this to see more Lee Jun-ki. This was a classic. The king killed everybody whom he thought as a threat to his throne. Iljimae, the hero of this story, was searching for the sword -and its owner - that had killed his father, and to hide his true intention, he robbed the houses and gave the money to the needed. For the poor, he was their Robin Hood. The setting was in 17th or 18th century and it was interesting how Mandarin characters were widely used.
Whisper
In my opinion, this one was a mess. I didn't like the lead actor, especially in the first episodes where he knitted his brows too many times. He looked like he was carrying the problem of the world on his shoulders. An upright judge and a righteous policewoman turned evil. Along with other corrupted characters they cheated and deceived each other. It began with a death of a reporter and another reporter was framed for the murder. Every time a new evidence was found, it would soon be gone, either due to blackmail or threat. The case just went round and round and didn't make a progress.
Misaeng (=Incomplete Life)
Love this very much. It's about white collar workers in a trading company. The central character was 26 year-old Jang Geu-rae (it's his name). He only had a GED (=I think it's equivalent to a high school diploma) and could became an intern because he had connection, and this made everybody looked down on him - at first. However, he showed that he was indeed competent and was contracted for 2 years. His co-workers grew fond of him and wanted to help him to become a full timer.
The cast is great. It's the first time I saw Im Si-wan who played Jang Geu-rae. He's a pretty boy who seems to act without effort. The senior actor who played his boss Mr Oh, had bags under his eyes, made him believable as hardworking team-leader.
Misaeng was based on webcomic series by Yoon Tae-ho. The movie Inside Men [It was a great movie.] was also based on his work.
Two Weeks
This was more like The Fugitive and you could even see Tommy Lee Jones for a couple of seconds. Starring by Lee Jun-ki, his character was named Jang Tae-san [which reminded me of Michelle Yim's dad's name in 1983 Tiger Hill Trail]. Jang Tae-san was framed for murder and he escaped while being transported from police to prosecutor, because he had to donate his bone marrow to his daughter -whom he had never knew existed - in 2 weeks. (If he went to jail, someone would kill him.) He was chased by the cops and the bad guys. I really enjoyed watching this one.
Chief Kim (a.k.a Good Manager)
At first it was boring and since i's a comedy, the actors tend to overact. I hated to see Chief Kim and the gluttonous finance director sabotaged each other. They worked at the same company, so why? I forgot again that this was supposed to be a comedy. But when they started to help each other and then work together against the corrupted chairman and his people, it got interesting and I started to enjoy the series. I also loved the comic drawings at the end of each episode.
Bad Guy
This was so bad. I had choosen a wrong drama to watch. The synopsis was interesting, it was about revenge. Little Choi Tae-song had been taken from his parents and it had been said that he had been the illegal son of the Haesin group's owner. His name had been changed to Hong Tae-song. A year later they said he had been an impostor because they found the real boy, and they threw him out on the street, just like that. It was so cruel that those people should have been arrested by the authorities. 20 years later, he came back to get his revenge.
This series, however, focused on a love triangle among two Hong Tae-songs and a girl. It's just not my cup of tea. I dislike this kind of drama. I almost gave up after 3 episodes, but finally decided to get on with it. It was so boring that I started to notice how the director loved short shots. In a dialogues, for example, he would do close ups on the character who was delivering the line, and changed to the other character, and so on. It really had got on my nerves.
The actress who played Hong Mo Ne was very bad. I think it was her eyes. I was not sure if she had been sleepy or she hated her own character.
Prison Playbook
Loved this so much. One of the best dramas I have seen. I had imagined a dark prison with dirty inmates, but the prison was clean like in 'Innocent Defendant'. I have no idea if real prisons in South Korea are like what has been described in this series, but I really enjoyed watching this. The main character was a famous pitcher who went to prison for a year for beating the man who had assaulted his sister. This series was full of interesting characters and in fact this is the first South Korean series that could make me laugh a lot.
Hello Monster
This one was also good. I forgot what the main character's profession. I think he was a professor in criminology, and helped the police as a consultant. When he was little, he met a serial killer who later killed his father and kidnapped his younger brother. The cases in this series were interesting and the relationships among the characters were well portrayed. I liked how the stories were divided into chapters with a catchy song in the beginning of every chapter.
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