Lengthy yet unspoilery meta on Sapuri :)
Nov. 29th, 2007 11:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieOh, two episodes into Sapuri and it’s total, all-consuming love.
You know me, usually I am not one for dramas without ginormous amounts of angst, right? But Sapuri is set in an everyday, workaday world. There are no beautiful, suddenly terminally ill heiresses. No mustache-twirling villains (any backstabbing that happens is the usual, climbing the corporate ladder stuff), no lovers dying in the snow or the other tropes of melodrama usually so beloved by me.
But somehow, I am entranced by every minute. I haven’t fast-forwarded even once, and that almost never happens (I tend to succumb to impatience and ff on 2x and read the subtitles at the same time). I think what gets me so much is the realness of it all, the fresh genuineness (I am trying to put into words which draws me so, but it’s hard). It’s riveting because watching complex, good, intelligent people is riveting: their interactions, their progress, their life. I don’t need ‘created’ drama to add spice, they are fascinating enough as they are. This is not an angsty show but it’s not fluffy either (and OTT comedy is significantly absent. Any humor that happens is one that might conceivably happen in real life).
Watching Sapuri made me think of this facet of Japanese dramas. Most of them have a vibe very different from kdramas, even when the plot is more ‘dramatic’ than in Sapuri. Kdramas strive for, and achieve, creating these hyper-saturated, emotional worlds which are not unrealistic, but are focused on certain aspects of life, and they go at it through everything from acting to cinematography. In a way, a kdrama is a mood-piece, but with a complex world and characters of a Victorian novel. It is emotionally real but it’s not realistic in the sense of passing it on the street, if it makes any sense. It’s a world apart.
Most jdramas do not have that: no matter how far-fetched the plot might get, there is a sense of reality of the world, in its everydayness, intruding. Perhaps a lot of jdramas do have its own emotional lens (no one could call Gokusen or Hana Kimi a slice of kitchen-sink realism) but it’s more low-key? It’s as if the novel in question is a modern one. It feels like a world I might step into, even in such very dramatic dramas as Forbidden Love, Kamisama or Hanadan. Though Hanadan is perhaps the closest jdrama came to that aesthetic kdrama vibe: not because of the plot, but because of this feeling of a hyper-realistic world that is a real world but only through a mood-piece lens. Am I explaining myself at all?
Also, office dramas: Sapuri is making me reconsider my ‘rather eat glass’ attitude to office dramas. This is a second office drama I loved (first was excellent Brand) so maybe Kimi Wa Petto was just an unfortunate choice for me.
Part of the reason I adore Sapuri so is that the characters feel more realistic, less harsh and abrasive, less OTT. Let me be honest. I did not care for the heroine of KwP at all. In fact, she rather annoyed me. I adore Minami. The only reason she is not the favorite is because Yuya is so awesome (but about it more below).
Part of it is because of the different emphases of the stories, of course. KwP might have been realistic about the horrible treatment women get in the Japanese workforce, but realism doesn’t necessarily make for a good story. At times I felt like I was watching a public service announcement. You have no idea how much I just wanted to go ‘enough, enough, I get it, now move on to something else.’ It was not an issue I could identify with and it didn’t have enough drama on its own to hold my interest (I hasten to add this is all subjective of course. I know many on my flist found KwP wonderful).
I didn’t like any of the characters in KwP and I adore almost all in Sapuri. And that is another important factor: who wants to spend leisure time in the company of unpleasant people? I wouldn’t have minded if the story appealed to me, or I found the characters unpleasant but interesting, but neither happened.
And then there is Yuya. Yuya just might be one of the most wonderful characters I’ve seen in a drama. He won’t beat Hiroto in Tattakoi for my favorites among Kame’s roles because Hiroto just made me incoherent in his tongue-tied raw vulnerability, but Yuya is wonderful.
KwP? Had MatsuJun as Momo. Now, don’t get me wrong, I adore MatsuJun. I think he is one of the best young jdrama actors out there. I loved him to bits in Hanadan and Gokusen. But not only, on the shallow end of the pool, did TPTB burden Momo with hideous hair and worse sweaters, I just cannot warm up, associate emotionally, or anything with a human pet. I just can’t. I think that was the biggest thing in KwP: the premise just got my hackles up and that was it.
By the way, I have only been comparing Sapuri and KwP and left Brand out of the discussion entirely, but I think in some ways, Brand is a more appropriate comparison: they are both office dramas I liked, and have a competent heroine who is not reviled for it and a hero who I love. But Brand is a very different puppy (no pun intended): it is as much about the clash/love of two strong-minded, strong-willed individuals as it is about finding yourself in a job.
You know, the highlight of Sapuri for me, so far, have been the Yuya-Minami interactions. They just ring so true. I don’t even care for now if they ever hook up, because their interaction is wonderful on whatever level, Minami mentoring but not overtly and not patronizingly, and Yuya so full of energy and so open to any emotion, so immediate about everything. Minami is so loveable as this slightly neurotic workaholic, and Yuya is…GUH.
You know, this makes the third drama I’ve seen Kame in (Tattakoi, this, and Nobuta. I don’t think I’ll watch Gokusen2 because Gokusen with no Shin is not right, and the special about someone dying of 28 diseases just makes me think of a OSO parody with SRK as a legless, armless, deaf, dumb and mute hero :D). What comes through in all of these, despite how different the roles are, is this complete genuineness, this vulnerability and wearing of your emotions and your heart on your sleeve (even if the character tries to hide it, like in Tattakoi or doesn’t realize at first he has it, like in NwP). I have no idea if it’s just the facet that Kame is good at expressing, or if its his personality seeping through (seeing as I am unlikely to become a pal of his, I don’t much care which). But it’s a wonderful quality to have on screen: he just makes me empathize with him like crazy.
OK, enough rambling…
You know me, usually I am not one for dramas without ginormous amounts of angst, right? But Sapuri is set in an everyday, workaday world. There are no beautiful, suddenly terminally ill heiresses. No mustache-twirling villains (any backstabbing that happens is the usual, climbing the corporate ladder stuff), no lovers dying in the snow or the other tropes of melodrama usually so beloved by me.
But somehow, I am entranced by every minute. I haven’t fast-forwarded even once, and that almost never happens (I tend to succumb to impatience and ff on 2x and read the subtitles at the same time). I think what gets me so much is the realness of it all, the fresh genuineness (I am trying to put into words which draws me so, but it’s hard). It’s riveting because watching complex, good, intelligent people is riveting: their interactions, their progress, their life. I don’t need ‘created’ drama to add spice, they are fascinating enough as they are. This is not an angsty show but it’s not fluffy either (and OTT comedy is significantly absent. Any humor that happens is one that might conceivably happen in real life).
Watching Sapuri made me think of this facet of Japanese dramas. Most of them have a vibe very different from kdramas, even when the plot is more ‘dramatic’ than in Sapuri. Kdramas strive for, and achieve, creating these hyper-saturated, emotional worlds which are not unrealistic, but are focused on certain aspects of life, and they go at it through everything from acting to cinematography. In a way, a kdrama is a mood-piece, but with a complex world and characters of a Victorian novel. It is emotionally real but it’s not realistic in the sense of passing it on the street, if it makes any sense. It’s a world apart.
Most jdramas do not have that: no matter how far-fetched the plot might get, there is a sense of reality of the world, in its everydayness, intruding. Perhaps a lot of jdramas do have its own emotional lens (no one could call Gokusen or Hana Kimi a slice of kitchen-sink realism) but it’s more low-key? It’s as if the novel in question is a modern one. It feels like a world I might step into, even in such very dramatic dramas as Forbidden Love, Kamisama or Hanadan. Though Hanadan is perhaps the closest jdrama came to that aesthetic kdrama vibe: not because of the plot, but because of this feeling of a hyper-realistic world that is a real world but only through a mood-piece lens. Am I explaining myself at all?
Also, office dramas: Sapuri is making me reconsider my ‘rather eat glass’ attitude to office dramas. This is a second office drama I loved (first was excellent Brand) so maybe Kimi Wa Petto was just an unfortunate choice for me.
Part of the reason I adore Sapuri so is that the characters feel more realistic, less harsh and abrasive, less OTT. Let me be honest. I did not care for the heroine of KwP at all. In fact, she rather annoyed me. I adore Minami. The only reason she is not the favorite is because Yuya is so awesome (but about it more below).
Part of it is because of the different emphases of the stories, of course. KwP might have been realistic about the horrible treatment women get in the Japanese workforce, but realism doesn’t necessarily make for a good story. At times I felt like I was watching a public service announcement. You have no idea how much I just wanted to go ‘enough, enough, I get it, now move on to something else.’ It was not an issue I could identify with and it didn’t have enough drama on its own to hold my interest (I hasten to add this is all subjective of course. I know many on my flist found KwP wonderful).
I didn’t like any of the characters in KwP and I adore almost all in Sapuri. And that is another important factor: who wants to spend leisure time in the company of unpleasant people? I wouldn’t have minded if the story appealed to me, or I found the characters unpleasant but interesting, but neither happened.
And then there is Yuya. Yuya just might be one of the most wonderful characters I’ve seen in a drama. He won’t beat Hiroto in Tattakoi for my favorites among Kame’s roles because Hiroto just made me incoherent in his tongue-tied raw vulnerability, but Yuya is wonderful.
KwP? Had MatsuJun as Momo. Now, don’t get me wrong, I adore MatsuJun. I think he is one of the best young jdrama actors out there. I loved him to bits in Hanadan and Gokusen. But not only, on the shallow end of the pool, did TPTB burden Momo with hideous hair and worse sweaters, I just cannot warm up, associate emotionally, or anything with a human pet. I just can’t. I think that was the biggest thing in KwP: the premise just got my hackles up and that was it.
By the way, I have only been comparing Sapuri and KwP and left Brand out of the discussion entirely, but I think in some ways, Brand is a more appropriate comparison: they are both office dramas I liked, and have a competent heroine who is not reviled for it and a hero who I love. But Brand is a very different puppy (no pun intended): it is as much about the clash/love of two strong-minded, strong-willed individuals as it is about finding yourself in a job.
You know, the highlight of Sapuri for me, so far, have been the Yuya-Minami interactions. They just ring so true. I don’t even care for now if they ever hook up, because their interaction is wonderful on whatever level, Minami mentoring but not overtly and not patronizingly, and Yuya so full of energy and so open to any emotion, so immediate about everything. Minami is so loveable as this slightly neurotic workaholic, and Yuya is…GUH.
You know, this makes the third drama I’ve seen Kame in (Tattakoi, this, and Nobuta. I don’t think I’ll watch Gokusen2 because Gokusen with no Shin is not right, and the special about someone dying of 28 diseases just makes me think of a OSO parody with SRK as a legless, armless, deaf, dumb and mute hero :D). What comes through in all of these, despite how different the roles are, is this complete genuineness, this vulnerability and wearing of your emotions and your heart on your sleeve (even if the character tries to hide it, like in Tattakoi or doesn’t realize at first he has it, like in NwP). I have no idea if it’s just the facet that Kame is good at expressing, or if its his personality seeping through (seeing as I am unlikely to become a pal of his, I don’t much care which). But it’s a wonderful quality to have on screen: he just makes me empathize with him like crazy.
OK, enough rambling…
