The Problematic of the Unproblematic

Before we get to the focus of this post, I want to share a picture that summarizes what I meant about the difference between the variety of hair you get from Japanese male actors vs. their female counterparts. Here is a still of a video from a premier for a show someone sent me. It's from 2016, I don't recognize anyone but Saito in this, and I don't read Japanese, so I can't tell you anything about this event, but look at the contrast between him,his male counterpart and the women. I think this pretty much says it all about hair and fashion. Very traditional for women and something else for men. Now onto more hair . . . Well, here we are again. Who knew that a hair post would get over 100 comments! That's what happened for the previous Takumi Saito Hair Appreciation post. I don't expect it to happen here because this is a very focused post, a tribute to the hair fans on the set of one drama in particular. Whenever we talk about Takumi Saito (and I say ...

As promised, in connection to my hair retrospectives from the BG recaps, I am doing specific hair posts for Takumi Saito. Styles come and go as we all know, but they seem to come and go and come and go for Japanese actors more than for anyone else besides male kpop stars. What I find fascinating is how much more their styles change than their female actor counterparts. Takumi Saito and his hair appeared in early Rawr posts when some of us were enthralled by him in Destiny-Like Love . However, because Japanese drama have an iffy subbing culture, he has never become a mainstay on the blog, but his hair deserves some recognition. I am grateful that Kakashi reminded me that we have a whole section on hair posts , so I am joining a fine PotUp tradition. Takumi Saito has been in over 50 movies, 33 dramas, and 11 television movies, so I only include pics of hair from things I've actually seen. Real Life Japan Cuts Opening Night for Ramen Shop (2018) I wasn't going to put anyt...

Trotwood: I feel as though I keep apologizing for delaying this recap project, but this time rage had no part in the delay but giddy fangirling. I got to actually meet Takumi Saito during Japan Cuts , the New York City based Japan Society's annual film festival. Thus, every time I tried rewatching the finale to get screen shots, I started giggling like a twelve-year-old girl each time he showed up on screen and would have to stop. Panda: I am so excited you met Saito, Trot!!! Wow, what a way to cap off the BG journey. kakashi: Incredible!!!!!  Murata's empty desk I was already planning to do a whole hair post on Saito's hair to add to the other hair posts  on the blog, so never fear, I will include some pics from the event. Make sure it includes one with a clear view of his "clothes". I kind of like the combination of the "hair" with the "clothes". No I'm not odd, it's him.

Trotwood: I entered this episode with so much rage. Then I spent most of it in tears. Panda: I entered with Hope and left in defeat. And anger. kakashi: It was around 3am when I watched this episode, so I honestly don't remember. I don't think I had such strong feelings. But I did (and do) wonder why Best Boss had to die. 

Trotwood: I apologize for the delay in this recap. kakashi: And I apologize for taking so long to comment.  Panda: I apologize for taking even longer to comment. I still have not fully settled in/adjusted to my new busy schedule. I actually haven’t been as busy as I have in the past; it’s more because I didn’t want to face this episode. As I said to my older daughter, what I really want to say here is the following: " Episode 7 was a perfect hour of television until the last minute. I actually thought, 'This is perfect' to myself while watching--those actual words. Everything just seemed to work perfectly like when you are playing with a team and things just go seamlessly whether it’s on the field or on an assembly line. Then something painful happened in the last minute. I felt betrayed—slapped and punched. I am still hurt. The end. " Instead, I’m going to keep going and give you what I thought was going to be the briefest recap that I’ve ever done. I did...

Trotwood: I would like to thank Mahjong for reminding me last week that I needed to do a hair retrospective.  In the comments for episode # 5, I did a hair retrospective for Eguchi Yosuke. The only two left are Takaya Kamikawa (Murata) and Takumi Saito (Takanashi). I don't know when the others will be. I do know that there will be no hair retrospective for episode 7--only silence. But let's start. I'd forgotten how much I liked this episode. panda: It did take a while for me to get used to Takanashi's mop :) kakashi: I do like Korean hair better.

Episode 5   This episode’s cold open has us back again in 2012 at the airport with Shimazaki guarding the famous soccer player, Kuono. We hear--before we see--that damn screw fall to the ground and multiple ceiling beams fall. For some reason, Shimazaki is not right behind Kuono, who gets completely covered by the beam and loses consciousness. Shimazaki rushes to his side. Kuono grabs his hand and digs his fingers in until Shimazaki bleeds, but he can’t free his hand.  Kids, it's bad news if a screw falls from the sky. Almost always.   Well, just based on this open, Shimazaki was bad at his job in the past.

Trotwood: I like to think of this episode as the one where we get back story on PM Tachihara that makes me completely sympathize with her manipulative selfishness disguised under wan beauty. But this doesn’t happen. It should. Her story should make me feel badly for disliking her so much, but it doesn’t. So there. (picture me sticking out my tongue at you all). kakashi: Well, you know how I feel about her, so this doesn't change much, it only confirms that I really appreciate this character. So not the female character we usually get! She knows how to manipulate and yet, has deep vulnerabilities. I really like her. panda: I warmed up just a tad. Like literally just a tad and I do not want  her getting any closer to Shimazaki. What this episode does do is give us a set up for more reveals later about Shimazaki’s past and allows me to write a shorter recap since not as many things happen in this episode as in the last two.

Trotwood: The only preamble needed here is that I guess we need to believe in leather belts. kakashi (joining the team officially): and handcuffs. panda: and arm and upper body exercises. Are they truly that magic??

Trotwood: Before I start the recap for this week’s episode, I feel I need to apologize to Mamiya Shotaro because in the previous recap I said I did not know him from anything but the movie Tori Girl ; however, that is not true. He also plays Saito’s younger brother in the lovely if odd movie The Kodai Family . I think it’s because when I watched this movie, I was getting airsick from reading the subtitles while flying, but I kept watching anyway (getting sicker and sicker) all because of Saito. I don’t remember much about the other characters because of my nausea.   I also think it’s because of his hair, which made him look like a completely different person. So this week’s hair retrospective in the comments will focus on Mamiya. Panda: I did watch and enjoy Kodai Family! I only remember the leads and the sister though.

Trotwood: Well, I am back to recapping. Cubic recaps are on hiatus (I’ll get back to those in the summer—if summer ever comes), and I swore I wouldn’t do anything else until then. However, this drama really grabbed me. Not for the reasons you would imagine. I am/was watching several other Japanese dramas while watching this: Aishi Girl, Final Cut, May I Blackmail You, Five, Unnatural, and Repeat. There was more discussion of Repeat than this show on my twitter feed, and I actually enjoyed Unnatural more consistently than this show. However, I rarely have a show that leads me to complete rage and then basically seduces me back to being its best friend again. This was that show. There was quite a lot of buzz about this show when it came out because of the cast. I won’t go into the background of each, but they are top notch and have many devoted fans. Our lead, Kimura Takuya, has been in the business since the late 80s, he is a boyband member turned award-winning actor. And don’t ge...