Review-Kon'na Koi No Hanashi

Sanada’s first work in his “Big Ban” era, the drama is buoyed by his outstanding performances, and Harashima is one of my most favorite characters among Sanada’s work. It is unfortunately not released in video or DVD in Japan, so it is a big disappointment for latter-day Sanada fans who did not have chance to see the program in real time. (I believe it is available in Asia.)

Harashima is a filthily rich and stone-cold businessman, who cannot trust or love anyone. He is in an advanced stage of stomach cancer. One day he gets to know a downtown guy Konosuke, and his neighbor girl Kaori, who lives in a poor section of Tokyo where Harashima’s company is trying to bulldoze down. With lots of coincident and Konosuke’s unsolicited kindness, Harashima eventually falls in love with Kaori and opens up his heart to the downtown folks. He gets ousted from his position by his rivals in the company, and decides to sacrifice himself to save the company as well as Konosuke’s townspeople before he dies.

As often in the case of TV dramas, some details are too cheezy - too many coincident occur, etc. - but all the characters are well positioned, interesting, and well performed by actors/actresses, so you get hooked to the story from early on. However, the biggest charm of this drama is the “eye performance” of Sanada. Harashima does not speak much, instead he expresses feelings with his strong eyes. And the camera often shows his face in close-ups. Harashima’s action often is so snobbish, if anybody else performs it, but looks just so cool and appropriate because of his eye expressions.

And Sanada is SO SEXY and irresistibly handsome. No juicy love scenes exists, he always wears proper suites and tie - but you still get a chill. His sexiness and the performance now have become one notch higher from his previous works, and his career starts to take a huge turn after this “fairy tale for adults”.