No.of Epis: 10Year/TV Station: 2009/TBS
Cast:
Tamaki Hiroshi ~ Usami Kei
Karina ~ Aizawa Airu
Matsuda Shota ~ Sera Ojiro
Tanihara Shosuke ~ Kikuta Masato
Kanjiya Shihori ~ Kagawa Mei
DAIGO ~ Oishi Yukichi
Yoshitaka Yuriko ~ Hayakawa Kairi
Kojima Hijiri ~ Kamijyo Reiko
Synopsis: (from Dramawiki)
Usami Kei is a salaryman who has risen in status due to his engagement with Mei, the wealthy daughter of his company's president. Shortly after she breaks off the engagement, a power failure leaves him stuck in the elevator of his apartment building. Trapped with him are three others living on the same floor - Airu, a trilingual interpreter, Ojiro, a model photographer, and Masato, a psychiatrist. While waiting, their conversation hits upon their love lives and the question of whether there is truly only one fated partner for everyone. As a result, they decide to try "shuffling" their relationships with each other.
Slacker's review:
One big to draw as to why i watched "Love Shuffle" was the screenwriter, Nojima Shinji. Well, Nojima didn't disappoint me, but this drama would not be everyone's cup of tea. The plot featured modern city dwellers and showed their perceptions of romance through shuffling their partners. The concept was new and interesting, but somehow the drama didn't appeal to me on the pilot episode. I guessed the reason was because "Love Shuffle" got a character-driven plot. Every character had in-depth developments, showing how they appeared to be on surface, and how they struggled with their own emotions & thoughts. So that's why the storyline did seemed to be kinda boring or weak to me. But as the drama continued, I got to understand the characters more as they revealed their motives for participating in the "shuffle". I liked the interactions between the characters, and how they went along with their individual dates. You could somehow guessed who would end up with who towards the end of the drama, and I was quite please with the ending. Butta, watching Usami becoming a politician was kinda far-fetched to me...hahaha!
Tamaki is always trying something new with his choice of characters. Usami was a typical salaryman and he's the only fella who's against the shuffling. (but his gf Mei wanted to participate...) Tamaki's performance was alright, nothing new from him actually. His expressions were quite funny, though exaggerating at the same time. I didn't like Usami with Mei , but he definitely looked good with Ai Ai (Airu).
This is probably my first time watching Karina in a drama, and I thought her performance was not bad! Her chemistry with Tamaki was really good, and I like her character Airu as well. Airu was a straightforward person compared to Mei & she got a fun-loving personality. Oh! I like Airu's little red car too...so cute!
Matsuda was definitely "very hot" in the drama. Honestly, I thought his character really stole the limelight (I supposed Tamaki's the main lead). I liked his hairstyle & image la, he looked very handsome while being a photographer and taking pics of his dates. Sera seemed to be those guys who were "very easy" with relationships, but as he met his "opponent" Kairi, we finally got to see the real Sera, who's trying to hide his real feelings from others etc. I liked him pairing up with Yoshitaka, though the latter really seemed kinda odd most of the time. Lolz!
Tanihara was probably the most senior actor here, kudos to his performance as Kikuta! Kikuta was so nice to everybody, but nobody really knew his intentions. He's "instructing" Kairi on what she shld do before commiting suicuide on her 20th birthday...and his main reason for joining the shuffle was because one of them looked like his ex. (that's quite a surprising twist...)
Luckily, Kikuta was not a evil guy like what i nearly thought. There's only four words to describe his actions...and the words are "yong xin liang ku". Haha! One more thing, Tanihara's eyes could be quite "seducing" when he looked at others...hoho!
Kanjiya's Mei and Daigo's Oishi were pretty alright to me la. They finally got married in the end, but I didn't like this couple throughout the drama. May be their characters were just not interesting to me.
Yoshitaka's Kairi was an interesting gal. I thought her acting was good. She always seemed to be very quiet, talented in arts, and suicidal. Kairi got that spooky aura around her. Though Kairi was expressionless most of the time, I really liked the moments when she smiled, like her scenes with Sera, and when Usami got her a panda soft toy etc. (She's lovely when she smiled..)
Kojima's Reiko was a "revolutionary" character. She's a married woman, and her motive to participate in the shuffling was to find a guy to make her pregnant. Imagined her husband actually knew what she's doing and supported her doings. Wow....really modern ah. Well, the drama did tell us who's the real father to her kid in the end. I thought Kojima's performance was not bad, as Reiko was really seductive with her expressions and her behaviour.
Earth, Wind & Fire's "Fantasy" was the theme song for the drama, while The Bangles's "Eternal Flame" was the insert song. It's always nice to see Japanese dramas using english oldies as theme songs.
