Here are some impressions I have written on the drama series several months ago.
I haven’t had the chance to put them online, but I guess the time has finally come.
I could not resist downloading and watching this one. If anything, I wanted to see how
SAWAJIRI Erika would handle her role in this drama; would she be different or would she live in the shadow of Aya from 1 Litre of Tears. I was glad to see she was quite different in the drama (even in the way she looked). There were similarities, yes, but there were also many differences. The main character AMANE Kaoru suffers from a strange and incurable disease (yes, once again!) known as
XP. When I first happened upon the synopsis, I found it amusing that SAWAJIRI Erika was again cast as a girl with an incurable disease. It is like she has become the indisputable heiress of such roles. As soon as one starts watching, however, there is nothing amusing about it. XP, while not as evil as
SCD, is still a nasty disease. Anyone infected with such a disease cannot be exposed to direct sunlight. The body cannot resist the UV rays emitted by the sun and has no means of repairing the damage they inflect on the body cells. Hence, exposure to the sun for more than 5 minutes or so could lead to death. The first thing that comes to mind is a vampire. I’ve got to wonder, though, about all the diseases that exist in this world and how little we know about them.
In any case, Amane sleeps during the day. Her close friend Misaki captures the daily events of the outside world for her on video so she can see how things are during broad daylight. During the nighttime, she usually goes to the nearby park and plays on her guitar. She aspires to become a singer despite the many rejection slips she has received from producers. She has no audience and hasn’t sold a single piece of her self-made CDs. The drama starts out as relaxing and peaceful. It loses a bit of that as it approaches the end. It is a pretty good drama, despite having its clichés. The soundtrack is amazing and AMANE Kaoru has got some pretty good pipes. I liked the acoustic versions she plays at the park. The 2 songs she sings are pretty nice. SAWAJIRI Erika has even adapted the character and used the name for her debut in the music world, singing the very same songs from the series. I may check out the
movie version sometime in the future.
Fast Forward 4 Months (Now)I have finally managed to buy the
movie. I can safely say that I like it better than the drama. It is a biased view, of course, since it comes from someone with a preset belief that Japanese movies are superior to J-Dorama. Period.
The lead is played
Yui against
TSUKAMOTO Takashi playing FUJISHIRO Kouji. No, I am not in the position to compare Sawajiri’s and Yui’s performances since I believe they are acting in two different kinds of media. However, overall, I can say that Yui has more composure and is more clam in her delivery. And indeed, such tranquility extends to be reflected in the entire movie, especially when compared to the drama. Naturally, a 2-hour movie cannot cover as much ground as the drama which spans 7 hours. Nevertheless, the movie does not miss out on anything important from the story.
Somehow, the movie feels closer and more real than the drama. That’s how it felt to me, at least. It has none of the (slight) superficiality or the cheesiness the drama sometimes displays. There are slight changes to the storyline as to be expected from all adaptations (as they reflect their creators?Einterpretation of the original story). Kaoru in the movie is not as ambitious as her drama counterpart in wanting to break into the music scene. Just going to the park every night and playing on her guitar is enough for her. The conditions where she first came to know Kouji are also different. I can identify better with the characters in the movie and the way they are portrayed. Kouji, for instance, is not the initial loser I came to hate in the drama (adding to that that I really didn’t dig YAMADA Takayuki’s portrayal of him in the drama). Of course, given the time limit, most character are not as well developed in the movie, but that does not matter much. I liked the movie better; that is it. Oh, and the ending is much, much better. It doesn’t mean that drama is not worth watching. On the contrary, as I have said before, such works complement each other instead of being directly in competition.
Musically, both the drama and the movie have beautiful soundtracks. I like them both equally as they fit in nicely. Now, when it comes to the actual songs: Stay with Me & Taiyou no Uta in the drama and It’s Happy Line & Good-Bye Days in the movie, I do have a particular preference. I like the drama songs better. Both SAWAJIRI Erika and Yui have good voices and performances but I like the tempo and overall feel of Sawajiri’s songs. Besides, Yui’s songs (especieally the first one) are plagues with some funky Engrish. I have to admit, though, I liked the performance of Good-Bye Days towards the end and the expressions on Yui’s face as she was singing it :3Ah, and I really dig the intralingual Japanese subtitles which seems to have been designed with hearing-impaired people in mind. They use some cool symbols such as the music symbol when BGM is playing. It also details instances when a character is carrying out a specific action (like crying) or if there is an external sound (like the sound of waves). I wish every Japanese movie comes with such subtitles (some does not have subtitles at all ;_;). These are very beneficial in learning.In any way, I like this piece of fan artwork (for the movie)
Credit: Instants of Insanity
http://musouka.com/blog/?p=6Sawajiri Erika China
http://sawajiri-erika.cn/2007/11/taiyou-no-uta-dorama-vs-movie.html
