How long? 11 episWhen & which tv stn? 2008/FujiTV
Who's in?
Katori Shingo ~ Shiomi Eiji
Takeuchi Yuko ~ Shirato Mio
Shaku Yumiko ~ Ono Yuki
Matsuda Shota ~ Kudo Naoya
Yagi Yuki ~ Shiomi Shizuku
Miura Tomokazu ~ Anzai Teruo
What's it abt? (edited from Dramawiki)
Shiomi Eiji is forced to become a single father when his girlfriend passed away after giving birth to their daughter, Shizuku. Eiji opens his flower shop, but does not sell any roses. The only thing that gives meaning and joy to his life is Shizuku, but even that begins to trouble him when Shizuku begins acting strange, hiding her face by putting a mask over her head when she goes out.
One day, Eiji came across a blind woman standing by the door, taking shelter from the rain. He invites her into the shop, and soon later, they become intimate friends and she slowly grows to depend on Eiji's sincerity and goodheartedness. After rescuing her when she walks into the street and is nearly knocked down by car, Eiji discovers the cold of winter that has saddled his heart all these years slowly melting away...
Eiji also meets Naoya, who decided to depend on him and stays at their house after an incident. Unknown to Eiji and his close friends, Naoya & Mio have unknown motives for getting close to Eiji, and it turns out that they are both working for a person-Anzai, who's the father of Eiji's dead girlfriend.
Slowly, more unknown secrets began to reveal...
Love & Hates:
Plot-Nojima Shinji is back! Just in case you don't know how famous is Nojima, checked out his past works, such as "101 marriage proposal", "同在屋檐下", "高校教师", "Food Fight", "Strawberry on a short cake", "Pride", "Golden Bowl" etc..
Well, I haven't seen such a "classic" Jdrama like Bara for quite sometime. The characters stood out, the plot was rather "mysterious" though it wasn't packaged as a thriller. I won't classify it as a romance drama, coz' the romance was just part of the whole story. I loved how the plot unfolds more & more secrets...which surprised me. Bara has its touching moments, and Eiji is definitely the most yasashii (gentle,soft & kind) man in any drama I have ever seen.
Cast-Katori Shingo! Oh my...i was so impressed with him! Ok, he's well known for his comical roles, but his new image here was just so fantastic, though he has to restrict his expressions. When Eiji is happy, he won't have a very happy face-just a smile; when he's sad, he won't show a very sad expression,he tries to control it. I couldn't get used to such a gentle Shingo initially..haha! He spoke softly throughout, he's greatful for having Shizuku, greatful that Mio believes him...and can u imagine him forgiving Mio after he learnt that Mio isn't blind. (Alright...spoilers..haha!) His chemistry wtih Takeuchi was great, but I think his chemistry with his "daughther" was way better. Shizuku was such a clever & understanding daughter...lovely girl. (Yagi's acting was superb).
Takeuchi...best known for her role in "Pride", and recently, her divorce. Well, her image here was rather similar to her roles in the past, straight lengthy hair. However, her role here is definitely not the same la. "Mio" was the 1st part of mystery, (with Naoya)..so her screen time was more, but later on, other "secrets" became more impt, so Takeuchi somehow became the supporting character for Eiji. Actually, the drama already starts to drop hints abt Mio's blindness from the 1st few epis...so that part is rather expected la. I like how Mio calls Eiji.."Ohanaya-san".
Matsuda's performance here was alright, since his character is up to no good initially. I think he has the potential, but then his character somewhat limits his performance. Also, gotta mention Shaku Yumiko, she's Shizuku's teacher la..acting was gd enough, and she has gd looks. Won't be surprised to see her as permanent A lister in the future.
The final guy i gotta mention is the "baddie", Miura Tomokazu. If you don't know him, you will know or heard of his wife 山口百惠 before. Lucky man right? I really disliked him initially, plotting so much evil to destroy Eiji..and eventually, to realise that Eiji is not the person he shld be after. (Ah, another spoiler to the 2nd part of mystery..) Well luckily, he didn't ill-treat Shizuku, or else I wld really humptump him.
OST-A full instrumental soundtrack...nice melodies. Themesong "Zutto issho sa" is sang by Yamashita Tatsuro. (His song "ride on time" was used as the themsong for "Good Luck".)
Worth watching?
It's definitely a must-watch! Strongly recommend to everybody. I think I didn't reveal too much spoilers here.
