July 18, 2008

• Memory Lane: House 1

  As it gets closer and closer to baby’s arrival, I have been prone to take frequent trips down Memory Lane, specifically snapshots from my childhood.

  Anyway, lately, I’ve been listening to some really old J-Pop songs mainly from the opening credits of favorites when I grew up. Channel 31 (WNYC), a public television station, would show Japanese dramas in the original Japanese with English subtitles on Sunday nights from 7:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. These extremely sappy, heart-wrenching stories usually of 20-somethings in their immediate post-college lives just sucked you in and kept you coming back for more tear-jerking fun week after week. Well, they did to me.

  Memories are funny. Mine are triggered in so many ways: sight, sound, feel, touch…everything, even smell. Just listening to these songs and watching these videos brings me back to such a distant and nostalgic time in my life. Traveling down memory lane…click on these and enjoy!

  101 Kaime no Puropozu
  101回目のプロポーズ
  (101st Marriage Proposal)

  With an opening song by the duo of Chage & Aska, this was the first J-Drama my brother and I got into. I think it was the dorky Asian kid is us which identified so well with the main character, a middle-aged Japanese man who’d been looking for true love and marriage after a hundred setups and unsuccessful proposals, and his pursuit leads him to this most unattainable of women: a hard-nosed, concert cellist who’s cold and tragic, but deep down longs for an unattainable true love herself.

  Tokyo rabu sutori
  東京ラブストーリー
  Tokyo love story

  Sort of the “ultimate” J-Drama series and one which most people recognize the most. I started watching this just before it ended and just couldn’t get into it. Still, the story had those familiar elements—not to mention the most recognizable J-Drama actors and actresses—which kept me wanting more when it ended. I’m such a sap, as I quickly found out while watching these.

  Dareka ga kanojo o aishiteiru
  誰かが彼女を愛してる
  (And I Love Her…)

  This was a comical and cute one called, in English “and I love her” about two men, a father and son, who happen to meet and fall head over heals for the same woman on the same day. Here’s the theme song of the series, sung by Nakayama Miho (here is a dismally short article about her in wikipedia and her entry in JDorama), who happens to play the target of the two men’s affections.

  Ai to iu nano moto ni
  愛という名のもとに
  (In the name of love)

  Brutally depressing this one was, so much so I’m not sure why my brother and I watched this to the end. As described by the JDorama site, “Seven good buddies left school and stepped into the society. Each then finds life out there not as carefree as it used to be. Their courage, optimism and confidence are also worn off slowly by the cunning reality. After a series of hurdles, they get a deeper understanding of their friendship and treasure it even more.”

  • 10:06 pm
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