Beautiful Life
Cast:
Kimura Takuya - Okishima Shuji
Tokiwa Takako - Machida Kyoko
Mizuno Miki - Tamura Sachie
Ikeuchi Hiroyuki - Okabe Takumi
Matoba Koji - Miyama Kouzou
Watabe Atsuro - Machida Masao
Hara Chiaki - Ozawa Mayumi
Nishikawa Takanori - Kawamura Satoru
Koyuki
Kawarazaki Kenzo - Kyoko's father
Omori Akemi - Kyoko's mother
Morooka Moro - Tsuchiya (Hot Lip owner)
Summary:
Kyoko, a young woman with an unhindered spirit despite being physically bound to a wheelchair due to illness, and Shuji, a stylish and popular fashion magazine hairstylist, are brought together in a fateful traffic incident. Despite their confrontational meeting, they soon find themselves falling in love, with Shuji drawn to her courage and enthusiasm and Kyoko attracted to his ability to look beyond her physical limitations and into her heart. However, Kyoko's protective older brother and her worsening condition begin to test the bounds of their love for each other and threaten to end their beautiful life together.
credits: www.jdorama.com
Official Site:
http://www.tbs.co.jp/b-life/
Other Sites:
http://www.sempai.org/~mwduncan/beautifullife.html
http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/Subway/6869/beautifullife.html
Program Details:
Telecast Run: 2000-01-16 to 2000-03-26
TV Station: TBS
Duration: 11 Episodes
What I Think:
This is the first Japanese series or jdorama that I have seen. In the first few episodes, I felt bored, I almost did not want to finish it but as the episodes progressed, the storyline became clearer. After watching k-dramas and growing up watching Chinese series, I realized j-dramas are a bit slow paced or what?
I found it rather difficult to rate this series. This drama is inspiring, pretty good, I did not find it fantastically out-of-this-world, but I can say for sure, yup it is pretty good but it is not a classic.
The very good dramas are the ones that give you that wonderful feeling that lingers and stays with you for days. The beginning of the drama was verrrrry slow, sluggish, then down in the middle, the more beautiful, real story begins, the storyline has an up and down trajectory, some dragging moments, and some interesting ones.
Overall it was good but didn't seem spectacular. I give this series 7 out of 10 because of the nice and now-famous final scene which is just wonderful and reassuring, Shuji finally got that feeling of healing and love and serenity
I think Okabe Takumi, Takuya's bestfriend, is a major hottie...
Some spoilers here!!
** Some Nice Scenes:
@ Kyoko giving Shuji-san a dream catcher, I wanted one for years. That's sweet!
@ Shuji moving Kyoko's wheelchair with the feet!! This one scene looks so romantic to me! Believe me!
@ Shuji's declarations of love for Kyoko.
@ Kyoko asking Shuji to make love to her.
@ Sachi telling Masao he' going to be a father.
@ Sachi and Masao's love story.
@ The ending: with Kyoko now dead, Shuji has his own salon now near the beach, he gave a little girl a nice haircut and Shuji just stared into the horizons, I can feel that he has found serenity and real happiness.
Kimura Takuya as Okishima Shuji
Shuji-san is such a wonderful person, he is honest, loving, sincere, and unselfish. Does this kind of a man still exist today?
This is the first jdorama of Takuya that I have seen and KimuTaku, (wow I like that nickname!) looks so much like Won Bin! Wow! J There were dragging and boring scenes where I just think oh this is Won Bin; I can finish watching this one. I saw his pictures in his other series and he looks like a young twenty-something but in this one, he looks like his age, just about 30-ish. Yup. Will his unsurpassed popularity maintain as age catches up with him? He dresses young though, I think I prefer his hair short than this long, shaggy 'do. He looks pretty bad in this series, looks tired, and shots of his face shows his skin is pretty bad too. As an actor, I think he is natural, funny, he is okay, nothing outstanding, and he was unconvincing in some sappy, sad scenes. Oh and the scenes where he smokes, man is that for real? This guy could chain-smoke or what?! I still like Takuya Kimura though.
Tokiwa Takako as Machida Kyoko
The first time I saw Kyoko, what with her hair curly and scattered all over the place, she looked well, not good, horrendous even; she was annoying too. I felt it was stupid how she keeps on saying you shouldn't love me or find someone "normal". I wanted to drag her out of her world of self pity and get her to see that the world was more than just disabilities. When he started changing for the better, I think that was when I started liking her too. Tokiwa is a very talented actress; I want to see more of her acting in another series.
Sachi and Masao
Miki Mizuno and Watabe Atsuro (Kyoko's brother) are so funny; I absolutely liked both of them. The storyline of this drama is verrrrry slow; I almost force myself to watch some episodes, that at one point I was more interested in the side story of Sachi and Masao.
I believe the most wonderful performance in this series comes from actor Watabe Atsuro, playing Kyoko's younger brother Masao.
Rating: 7 Japanese Tempura out of 10
Other Stuff:
Konya Tsuki no Mieru oka ni – by B'z
tatoeba dou ni kashite kimi no naka aa haitte itte
sono me kara boku o nozoitara ironna koto chotto wa wakaru kamo
aisureba aisuruhodo kiri no naka mayoikonde
te o tsunaidara ittemiyou
moeru you na tsuki no kagayaku oka ni
mukae ni yuku kara soko ni ite yo
kakera demo ii
kimi no kimochi shiru made konya boku wa nenai yo
itai koto kimochi ii koto sore wa minna hito sorezore de
chotto shita chigai ni tsumazuite mata shitemo boku wa hade ni koronda
kizutsuite yatto wakaru soredemo ii osoku wa nai
te o tsunaidara ittemiyou
ayashii hoshi no hisomu oka ni
shigemi no oku e to susundeyukou
kegashitemo ii
hajikeru you na egao no mukougawa o mitai yo
te o tsunaidara ittemiyou
mammarui tsuki no kagayaku oka ni
daremo ga minna terashidasarete
kokoro no moyou ga sora ni utsutteru
itsudemo sou yatte warattenaide
kakera demo ii
kimi no kimochi shiru made
konya wa issho ni itai yo
Download MIDI here, left click, let play, save media as:
http://www.jdorama.com/midi/konya_tsuki_no_mieru_oka_ni.mid
Download ring tone here, left click, let play, save media as:
http://www.jdorama.com/ringtone.42.htm
credits: www.jdorama.com
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