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J-dorama ~ N

Title: Namida o fuite 

Cast: Eguchi Yousuke, Ninomiya Kazunari, Uchida Yuki, Tortoise Matsumoto, Ueto Aya

Theme: "Kansha kangeki ame arashi" by Arashi; "Tobenai Tori" by Yuzu.

On Air: FujiTV 2000 Oct 11 - Dec 20

A fire killed a father and left the mother in a coma, leaving 4 children homeless. Oonishi Katsuo (Eguchi), a passionate man who was the junior of the dead father during his high school time as a member of the American football club, decides to take in the 4 children for the time being until their mother recovers. 

It is not surprising that one will compare this drama with "Hitotsu yan no shita" as Eguchi plays a similar role of a big brother/father who goes all out to protect the children. Frankly, I find this drama so so only. I have expected some resistance from the children when they learn that they are to leave with Katsuo, but the children accept him quite easily although not full heartedly in the initial stage. The individual subplots are not that interesting but still good enough for one to follows through each episode. 

Title: Nemureru Mori

Cast: Kimura Takuya, Nakayama Miho, Nakamura Tooru

Scriptwriter: Nozawa Hisashi

Theme: "Camouflage" by Takeuchi Mariya

On Air: FujiTV 1998 Oct 8 - Dec 24

Nakayama plays a character, Ooba, who is marrying Hamazaki (Nakamura) in 3 months time. However, she's a woman without any memory of her past due to a car accident which killed all her family members. One day, while clearing her house, she found a love letter telling Ooba to come to the forest 15 years later from the date of the letter, which is actually 3 days later. Out of curiosity, Ooba went to the forest and met Itou (Kimura) who knew everything about her, including her past...

Personally, I didn't really enjoy this show. By the middle of the drama, one can easily guess who's the real killer and there's no element of surprise here. The ending also didn't score well with me. The only merit is that Nakayama, Kimura and Nakamura acted really well.  

Title: Netsuretsu teki chuuka hanten 

Cast: Suzuki Kyouko, Shiina Kippei, Ninomiya Kazunari, Seto Asaka, Katsumura Masanobu, Ishiguro Ken, Azuma Mikihisa

Theme: "Rainbow" by Sowelu

On Air: FujiTV 2003 Jan - Mar 12

The whole drama takes place on board the Star Leo cruise where Tachibana Shio (Suzuki) is organising an event to invite the 7 top chefs termed "Shokuou" from Hong Kong to prepare Chinese cuisine to VIP on board the cruise. However, due to some misunderstanding, not only did the 7 top chefs fail to board the cruise, the original team of cooks in the Chinese restaurant "Hei Hei Rou" quitted as they are unhappy with this event. Just when Tachibana is at a loss since there's not a single cook in the restaurant, 7 people gathers in the kitchen by chance and they are roped in by Tachibana to pass off as the Shokuou...

Highly hilarious! All the casts are superb and their unique characteristics make the whole drama an enjoyable one. Ok, so it is a bit unrealistic that even though all 7 of them have not much experience in cooking, they can still deliver Chinese cuisine that is comparable to a top Chinese restaurant's standard. Oh well, as the narrator at the start of each episode stressed, miracle happened through hard work ^o^ Moreover, count them lucky that they only need to cook for one VIP per day. If only the filming of the cooking be more realistic. Seeing phoenix flying and dragon appearing is just exaggerating! Anyway, thumbs up for the whole team. 

Title: Neverland

Cast: Miyake Ken, Imai Tsubasa, Murakami Shingo, Tanaka Koki, Ikuta Toma

Theme: "Dasenai tegami" by V6

On Air: TBS 2001 Jul 6 - Sep 14

A drama about 4 high school boys from a private school who choose to stay in their school hostel during summer vacation. Each one of them has a secret which causes them to run away by hiding in school.  I would have thought that this drama is produced by Johnny's jimushou since the main casts are from this agency.  I actually quite enjoy this drama even though it's a bit dark. I particularly like the subplot that revolves around Yoda Mitsuhiro (Miyake) and his stepmother. A pretty sick plot that shows the stepmother wanting to take revenge on Yoda's parents by having sex with Yoda. Wanna puke just thinking about it >_< Anyway, I find Miyake quite good in his role. It's also pretty fun seeing all the Johnny's guys gathering in their hostel joking around or sharing their emotions. Quite a nice drama and great theme by V6. 

Title: News no onna 

Cast: Suzuki Honomi, Takizawa Hideaki, Fujiwara Noriko, Fukada Kyouko

Theme: "Sanpo Michi" by Judy and Mary

On Air: FujiTV 2000

Title: Ningen Shikkaku ~ Tatoeba boku ga shindara

Cast: Doumoto Tsuyoshi, Doumoto Kouichi

Scriptwriter: Nojima Shinji

On Air: TBS 1994 Jul - Sep

Title: Nijuu kyuu sai no Christmas

Cast: Yamaguchi Tomoko, Matsushita Yuki, Mizuno Maki, Inamori Izumi, Nakamura Tooru

Scriptwriter: Kamada Toshio

On Air: FujiTV 1994

Title: Nisen nen no koi

Cast: Nakayama Miho, Kaneshiro Takeshi, Nakama Yukie

Scriptwriter: Asano Taeko

Theme: "Yesterday and Today" by Do As Infinity

On Air: FujiTV 2000 Jan - Mar 20

Title: Nurse man 

Cast: Matsuoka Masahiro, Abe Natsumi, Uehara Takako, Koizumi Koutarou

Scriptwriter: Terada Toshio

Theme: "Hana Uta" by TOKIO

On Air: NTV 2002 Jan 19 - Mar 23

Title: Nurse no Oshigoto 3

Cast: Mitsuki Arisa, Matsushita Yuki, Fujiki Naohito, Kanda Uno

Theme: "Break all day" by Mitsuki Arisa

On Air: FujiTV 2000 Apr -Sep 19

In this 3rd series, Asakura Izumi (Mitsuki) continues to be the worst nurse in history. This time round, she's in charge of a new nurse played by Kanda Uno and the two just bickers day in day out. Focus is also on Asakura's love life with Takasugi Kentarou (Fujiki), an intern doctor. A light hearted drama that sends you bursting into laughter at Asakura's clumsiness. I'm surprised to see Fujiki playing such a character. At times very yasashii, at times very petty. But it's quite cute to see how he and Asakura behaving so labu-labu ^o^ I'm surprised that this series has more than double the episodes of a normal J-drama (norm is 11 episodes). The 50th episode of the series is made into a movie. Caught the movie on a plane and I almost choke on my food seeing Fujiki dressed up as a nurse!

Title: Nurse no Oshigoto 4                                                                                        

Cast: Mitsuki Arisa, Matsushita Yuki, Fujiki Naohito, Adachi Yumi            

Theme: "Love Potion" by Mitsuki Arisa

On Air: FujiTV 2002 Jul 2 - Sep 24

In the 4th series, Asakura Izumi (Mitsuki) is into her 7th year of nursing and thinks she's a veteran now but is really still as clumsy as before. Back from their honeymoon trip, Asakura and Takasugi Kentarou (Fujiki), now a full fledged doctor, is still as labu-labu. However, things do not go so smoothly for them.  At home, Asakura has to deal with her mother-in-law who moves in unannounced. At work, she has to deal with a new nurse, Hiromi Kawai (Adachi), who is good at everything and has no wish to work under Asakura. And not to forget, her marriage with Takasugi hits the rock when she questioned Takasugi on his operation and Hiromi adds fuel to fire by falling in love with Takasugi. Being his die hard fan, I have to talk about Fujiki here. He's so much mature here as compared to the 3rd series. As a husband, he's perfect! Cooked for the family and allows his wife to sleep till late. Now, I need this kind of husband =P Anyway, a funny drama that filled laughter in your life although there are some touching moments too. Let's hope this is the end of the nurse no oshigoto series. After 4 series and a movie, how much more unique stories can they come up with?