Beautiful Life

This is pretty much standard fare as far as Japanese TV drama goes. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, then they have to overcome obstacles and misunderstandings along the way, blah, blah. And in the end, true love triumphs over all. Or does it....

The twist here is that the girl is wheelchair-bound and is suffering from some mysterious illness. Will she get better? Or will she kick the bucket? Well, that doesn't matter much since any reasonably intelligent person should have guessed the ending halfway through the series.

What makes this drama series work isn't the mystery of whether or not the girl recovers, but in the appeal of the lead and support characters. Takkako Tokiwa is radiant. If I am her doctor, I would diagnose her illness as Ally McGraw disease. Anyways, after awhile, you can't help but care about these characters. The series is enjoyable on that level.

Based on its merits, this series warrants a look for fans of Japanese dramas, although I think women will enjoy it more than men.

I saw this film, and the story was so sad in the end. The happiness and tears are coming so fast, but that's life, unpredictable... it's very dramatic, and unpredictable story, the film was telling about the simple story but it is so deep. I hold my tears down when I saw the end of the film. You just have to see this film, I can't tell much more to all of you about this film, because my English not good. "Woman and man are supposed to be together, even your heart didn't know what someone feels to you, you just have to give and love to each other, no matter what will you get. Loving with all of your life to someone that you love, is so beautiful, if you wanna make your life beautiful, so you just have to love someone. Peace out...

Somehow I knew it would be a usual typical Japanese movie with not-a-happy-ending, but still I love it anyway. Takuya Kimura really showed his arrogant cool handsome look in that movie -I love the way he smokes- and acted as if he was a real hair stylist. The story gave me a roller-coaster of feelings and a shocking touchy ending. Once in a while, Shuji was not a firm person, as he couldn't seem to decide where he stands. Like when he couldn't decide between Kyoko or his ex-girlfriend. He didn't seem to show his feelings toward Kyoko -which is seen in almost most of Japanese movies where Japanese guys are too proud to show their feelings and end up loosing the girl- while on the other hand Kyoko was trying to show her feelings but didn't get the response she hoped for. The ending is also a hit! I couldn't stop my tears when Shuji tried to talk to Kyoko's dead body and put on make-up for her burial. A man could really love a woman and tries to achieve his dreams for her. The story teaches us to tell someone that you love before it's too late. Long live love!! =p

This was about the most popular show around last year. Nearly half of the population of Japan watched the last episode, and everybody talked about it every week. I totally dug this series. I did not miss a single episode - even when I came back to the U.S. for a 2-week trip, my VCR was set to record the shows I would miss. It lasted 11 or 12 episodes, standard for Japanese dramas.

This show, a little clumsily, addresses issues relating to disability, with the main female character in a wheelchair because of a mysterious (but quite serious) disease. Her overprotective brother is particularly good.

Kimura - or Kimutaku as everybody calls him - lives up to his title as Japan's Sexiest Man in this movie. Great hair, reasonable acting, plenty of standing around looking nonchalant.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who understands a little Japanese - you don't need to understand everything to follow the very sweet story. The short version is: boy (hairdresser) meets girl in wheelchair (librarian), they fall in love, she gets sicker, things progress, blah blah. But darn it, it's so sweet.

Beautiful Life (2000) was an emotionally charged drama that struck a familiar chord reminiscent of other ones like it for its textbook depiction of love, loss, and resilience, but it wasn't without its flaws. At its heart, the story was anchored by the chemistry between Takuya Kimura's charming yet understated portrayal of Shuji and Takako Tokiwa's luminous performance as Kyoko, a woman whose physical limitations were treated with admirable sensitivity for its time. The drama's beauty lay in its quiet moments, Kyoko's defiant joy, Shuji's evolving tenderness, and the unspoken melancholy of ordinary life brushed with rising pain. However, its emotional power often bordered on manipulation, with tear-jerking sequences and swelling musical cues that risked reducing a nuanced relationship to a mere tragedy. Fortunately, this was only most applicable to the last 3 episodes. Additionally, while the drama broke ground by portraying a disabled FL in a leading role, it sometimes leaned into idealized tropes, framing Kyoko's struggles more as narrative devices to drive Shuji's growth rather than delving deeper into her agency and identity despite being a leading character. The pacing, too, occasionally faltered, with melodramatic stretches that risked to undercut the rawness of its central theme. In a different world, I would love to see them continue exploring the relationship without the terminal illness element since it was somewhat cut short to accommodate for the writer's predetermined plan. On another note, a few things were planted but neglected and ended up being underutilized. For example, it was foreshadowed multiple times how Shuji was the son of a famous hospital director/CEO and coming from a family of doctors but that didn't play a role later on, nor the anticipated involvement of his family which remained anonymous. Many things were either missing or unfinished at the cost of fleshing out the story and its characters just to reach the highly emotional familiar moments. For all of its shortcomings, Beautiful Life captured something universally human: the poignancy of love in the face of fate. It was imperfectly told and profound, a drama which, even as one wished it had dared to be bolder, lingered on in the heart, at least for a little while.