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2007-12-18 02:36 |
“TAIYOU no uta” or “A Song to the Sun” stars Sawajiri Erika from 1LITER no namida as Kaoru. Kaoru has a genetic disorder called Xerodermapigmentosum or “XP” for short. The disorder disables the skin’s abilityto fix mutations, thus Kaoru must avoid sunlight and can only gooutside at night time. Not only that, but the type of the disease thatKaoru has also affects the brain, and thus she has been told that shemay not live beyond 20.
Now, she is just turning 19, and every year her parents have abigger birthday party for her to celebrate the fact that she is stillalive. Kaoru dreams of becoming a musician, and plays her guitar andsings on the street at night. She sends her audition tapes to severalrecord companies, but none of them accept her. One letter of rejectionshe gets has a message on it written by hand that says, “Have you everreally been in love before?”
As you can see from the cast list, Yamada Takayuki is in this dramatoo. How does he fit in? Well, one day when Kaoru was staying in thehospital, she saw Yamada’s character outside carrying a guitar. Helooked sad as he gently set the guitar down on the corner next to somegarbage, paused and looked at it for a while, and then walked away.Kaoru took the guitar and decided to become a musician, but she hasalways wanted to meet Yamada’s character some day and ask him why hethrew the guitar away.
Yamada’s character is a guy named Kouji who spends his time doingcheap part time jobs. He is also 19 years old. He’s a pretty depressingguy who says that he doesn’t have any dreams for the future. Obviously,there is something in his past that he wants to forget. In a flashback,we see him with the guitar fighting with some guys in order to protecta girl. We’ll have the watch the later episodes to find out what itmeans.
Kaoru finally gets a chance to meet Kouji when she happens to seehim on the street while she is playing her guitar. She runs after himand asks if the guitar is his. Kouji denies that he has ever seen theguitar and throws it into a bush. While Kaoru goes to pick up theguitar, Kouji disappears.
Kaoru doesn’t see Kouji again until her friend Misaki invites her ona group date that she arranged with one of Kouji’s friends. When Misakirealizes that Kaoru and Kouji already know each other, she and Kouji’sfriend leave them alone together.
They find out a little more about each other, and learn each other’snames, but they mostly find out that they don’t get along very well.Their outlooks on life are too different. Kaoru knows that her life maynot last much longer (keep in mind that Kouji still doesn’t know aboutKaoru’s disease), and she has nothing but dreams and a desire to liveto fulfill them. Kouji, on the other hand, says he doesn’t have anydreams at all and “wouldn’t mind if he died tomorrow.” Kaoru, knowingthat she could easily die any day, doesn’t like this attitude at all.
The next time they meet, Kaoru is being harassed on the street bysome guys who want to take her somewhere. Kouji comes to her rescue andtakes her away on his scooter. That’s the end of the first episode.
So, overall, I think this drama is really, really good. I’ve onlyseen three episodes, but I like it a lot so far. This is a good one foryou kids this season. It sucks that I’m not going to be in Japan to seea lot of the middle episodes.
Of course there are a lot of rehashed elements from other dramasthat you can see in “TAIYOU no uta”. For one thing Sawajiri Erika isplaying a girl who has a deadly disease again, just like she did in “1LITER no namida”. That drama and this one are the only major rolesshe’s had, so now for some reason she has become known as the girl whoplays terminally ill characters. And the guy is played by YamadaTakayuki this time, which is exactly the same as his position in sekaino chuushin de, ai o sakebu. And, as in “sekai no chuushin de, ai osakebu”, the theme song is by Shibasaki Kou, just so that we can’t helpbut be reminded of “sekai no chuushin de, ai o sakebu” every time wewatch this drama.
The parallels to other dramas in “TAIYOU no uta” are hard to ignore,and maybe more than a few too many. And for another thing, dramas thatwere too similar to “sekai no chuushin de, ai o sakebu” - casting-wise- have already been made (byakuyakou).
Nevertheless, you can’t argue with good entertainment. I like thestory and characters of “TAIYOU no uta” a lot. There’s also a movieversion in which the part of Kaoru is played by the singer, Yui. So,watch the drama and go see the movie. There’s a lot of entertainment tobe had, and lots of tears to be cried.
As read in J-FAN DRAMA 15 December 2007 21:34
Check the photo album for the pictures
Credit: Behind some murderous eyes
Sawajiri Erika China: http://sawajiri-erika.cn/2007/12/taiyou-no-uta-a-song-to-the-sun.html
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