Pride: episode 4 rewatch thoughts
Jul. 14th, 2008 03:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dangermousieEpisode 4 of Pride is one of my very favorite episodes of what I am rapidly coming to think is my favorite drama of all time.
Which means? It's damn good. It also features one of the most amazing Aki moments of them all. Anyone who claims she lacks spine must have slept through her insisting she comes along with Halu and very injured Tomo to a gang meeting (with hundreds of hoodlums out for money/beatdown) because the boys will need witnesses. And she jokes with them on the way. Oh God, Aki, how awesome are you? No wonder Halu looks at her the way he does (side note: if a man looked at me the way Halu looks at Aki throughout this episode, I don't think I'd be able to make coherent syllables!)
Aki is so full of courage of every kind. (Actually I think to be willing to step with eyes open into a relationship with someone as difficult and emotionally damaged as Halu is courage as well). But I think what she does here, is one of the bravest things she does, along with offering to her horrible abusive ex-boyfriend to go back to him if he gets Halu out of jail, later on.
And just as in the latter case, she never makes a huge show of her courage. It is the right thing to do, it comes from her sense of justice, from her care for Halu, from her inherent Akiness, so she does it. (Yes, Aki is my favorite jdrama heroine of all time, why do you ask?)
This write-up is totally not linear about the ep btw, but I can't help it...it gets me so jazzed up.
One thing I noticed on this rewatch: inside the den of the organization, Aki loses it when she finds out the girl lied about the pregnancy to blackmail Tomo and heedless of the danger, slaps her for it. Not that there would be any doubt, because we see what kind of woman she is already, but this is a first 'concrete' indication how seriously she takes views on motherhood. Which, when you consider Halu's background, is hugely significant and is indirectly reassuring, if this makes sense. (In all three dramas I've seen Takeuchi Yuko in, she hooked up with men with Mother-related trauma. Hmmm. There is Pride, there is Mukodono, where Yu lost his Mom at a young age. And of course Eiji in Bara No Nai Hanaya was an abused child. Hmmm...)
But yes, when she slaps the woman, and the gangster hits her. Oh boy. Halu helps her get up and sees her crying and he literally goes blank-minded with rage. The thought of anyone harming her makes him stop functioning on any other level than wanting to hurt whoever did it to her (such a foreshadowing for later with her bf). GUUUUH.
Of course, we've seen them get slowly and slowly more and more serious with each other, but by now (even it's only beginning of ep 4) they both have to audibly remind themselves 'it's a game' (though the soft look in her eyes and the intense one in his, so denies it). I love it when he drives her back home in the beginning of the ep, he tells her she is special and he tries to turn it into a joke, but it's so not and he is being so skittish about it all. But oh, the staring!
I love that (even before the misunderstanding is resolved and it turns out it's Tomo the gal is looking for, not Halu) she tells him she knows he couldn't be the one to get the girl pregnant, because he isn't the type to do that. (Side note, I literally LOLed when the girls say he made their friend pregnant and Aki squeal-gasps and Halu comments, very dryly, 'thank you for a reaction I can understand.' LOL). In a way, he really needs someone to believe in him unreservedly. But, as always, she is not a pushover. And she is slowly taming him, getting him used to open up to her. She won't let him into the house until he explains why he is helping Tomo out of the mess (Yamato told her he might be doing it because he wants a job with Tomo's family company when he retires. Yamato would never think that sort of thing normally of course, but he is having issues about being poor because of Yuri and her wanting him only because she thinks he is rich. The scene in the car was painful!)
So yes, it's not that she necessarily believes what Yamato says, but she does believe (and she is right), she is owed an explanation, and she won't let Halu into the house until he explains. And he does. He sits by her door, and does (also, his comment that she is superior to him because he is ignorant of love like hers...it's both swoonworthy and really sad, isn't it?). Like a little kid. And then she opens the door and he stands up muttering 'it's very cold' but he still doesn't come in until she explicitly says 'Please come in.' It's like taming some really half-fierce-half-abused non-housebroken animal, isn't it?
I really loved why he helped Tomo btw. It's because he is friends but much more because he can understand Tomo's dedication to hockey because it's something he is so dedicated to himself. And of course, it's very different from the situation with Makoto but it's also the same: he couldn't help Makoto until Makoto decided what he wanted to do (quit or be psychologically prepared for the game) but once he did, he backed him up. So here, he is backing Tomo up.
I have always liked Tomo and this episode is no exception. So many of the main characters mask their true feelings/issues under a specific demeanor: Yamato his trauma and guilt under his nice-guy facade, Halu his damage under the brusque unfeeling 'persona', and Tomo his family issues under his laid-back guy thing. (And awwww, in a reverse Yamato/Yuri thing, he's been pretending to Chika he is poor. Awwww).
Let's see what else...oh, the scene with Halu, Tomo, and Aki in the car to a gang den joking and laughing, and then parking, and Halu is helping injured Tomo walk and then Aki, matter-of-factly, steps on the other side to help him walk too, and they are bantering...God, I could rewatch this forever.
Oh, each write-up is getting longer and longer, heh. At this rate, write-up for ep 11 will be the length of a novel.
Next ep is the Yamato ep if I remember correctly. Brace for the crash. *huggles her tall, messed-up woobie of a goalie*
Which means? It's damn good. It also features one of the most amazing Aki moments of them all. Anyone who claims she lacks spine must have slept through her insisting she comes along with Halu and very injured Tomo to a gang meeting (with hundreds of hoodlums out for money/beatdown) because the boys will need witnesses. And she jokes with them on the way. Oh God, Aki, how awesome are you? No wonder Halu looks at her the way he does (side note: if a man looked at me the way Halu looks at Aki throughout this episode, I don't think I'd be able to make coherent syllables!)
Aki is so full of courage of every kind. (Actually I think to be willing to step with eyes open into a relationship with someone as difficult and emotionally damaged as Halu is courage as well). But I think what she does here, is one of the bravest things she does, along with offering to her horrible abusive ex-boyfriend to go back to him if he gets Halu out of jail, later on.
And just as in the latter case, she never makes a huge show of her courage. It is the right thing to do, it comes from her sense of justice, from her care for Halu, from her inherent Akiness, so she does it. (Yes, Aki is my favorite jdrama heroine of all time, why do you ask?)
This write-up is totally not linear about the ep btw, but I can't help it...it gets me so jazzed up.
One thing I noticed on this rewatch: inside the den of the organization, Aki loses it when she finds out the girl lied about the pregnancy to blackmail Tomo and heedless of the danger, slaps her for it. Not that there would be any doubt, because we see what kind of woman she is already, but this is a first 'concrete' indication how seriously she takes views on motherhood. Which, when you consider Halu's background, is hugely significant and is indirectly reassuring, if this makes sense. (In all three dramas I've seen Takeuchi Yuko in, she hooked up with men with Mother-related trauma. Hmmm. There is Pride, there is Mukodono, where Yu lost his Mom at a young age. And of course Eiji in Bara No Nai Hanaya was an abused child. Hmmm...)
But yes, when she slaps the woman, and the gangster hits her. Oh boy. Halu helps her get up and sees her crying and he literally goes blank-minded with rage. The thought of anyone harming her makes him stop functioning on any other level than wanting to hurt whoever did it to her (such a foreshadowing for later with her bf). GUUUUH.
Of course, we've seen them get slowly and slowly more and more serious with each other, but by now (even it's only beginning of ep 4) they both have to audibly remind themselves 'it's a game' (though the soft look in her eyes and the intense one in his, so denies it). I love it when he drives her back home in the beginning of the ep, he tells her she is special and he tries to turn it into a joke, but it's so not and he is being so skittish about it all. But oh, the staring!
I love that (even before the misunderstanding is resolved and it turns out it's Tomo the gal is looking for, not Halu) she tells him she knows he couldn't be the one to get the girl pregnant, because he isn't the type to do that. (Side note, I literally LOLed when the girls say he made their friend pregnant and Aki squeal-gasps and Halu comments, very dryly, 'thank you for a reaction I can understand.' LOL). In a way, he really needs someone to believe in him unreservedly. But, as always, she is not a pushover. And she is slowly taming him, getting him used to open up to her. She won't let him into the house until he explains why he is helping Tomo out of the mess (Yamato told her he might be doing it because he wants a job with Tomo's family company when he retires. Yamato would never think that sort of thing normally of course, but he is having issues about being poor because of Yuri and her wanting him only because she thinks he is rich. The scene in the car was painful!)
So yes, it's not that she necessarily believes what Yamato says, but she does believe (and she is right), she is owed an explanation, and she won't let Halu into the house until he explains. And he does. He sits by her door, and does (also, his comment that she is superior to him because he is ignorant of love like hers...it's both swoonworthy and really sad, isn't it?). Like a little kid. And then she opens the door and he stands up muttering 'it's very cold' but he still doesn't come in until she explicitly says 'Please come in.' It's like taming some really half-fierce-half-abused non-housebroken animal, isn't it?
I really loved why he helped Tomo btw. It's because he is friends but much more because he can understand Tomo's dedication to hockey because it's something he is so dedicated to himself. And of course, it's very different from the situation with Makoto but it's also the same: he couldn't help Makoto until Makoto decided what he wanted to do (quit or be psychologically prepared for the game) but once he did, he backed him up. So here, he is backing Tomo up.
I have always liked Tomo and this episode is no exception. So many of the main characters mask their true feelings/issues under a specific demeanor: Yamato his trauma and guilt under his nice-guy facade, Halu his damage under the brusque unfeeling 'persona', and Tomo his family issues under his laid-back guy thing. (And awwww, in a reverse Yamato/Yuri thing, he's been pretending to Chika he is poor. Awwww).
Let's see what else...oh, the scene with Halu, Tomo, and Aki in the car to a gang den joking and laughing, and then parking, and Halu is helping injured Tomo walk and then Aki, matter-of-factly, steps on the other side to help him walk too, and they are bantering...God, I could rewatch this forever.
Oh, each write-up is getting longer and longer, heh. At this rate, write-up for ep 11 will be the length of a novel.
Next ep is the Yamato ep if I remember correctly. Brace for the crash. *huggles her tall, messed-up woobie of a goalie*
