Another excellent production from our Japanese friends and one that I would highly recommend specially to those whose tastes runs along the lines of trendy dramas. If modern dramas are not your thing, I would still recommend this with the reminder “watch it with an open mind”… 3 men and 1 lady stuck in an elevator, all residents of a penthouse on the same building, meeting for the first time and all trying to pee to the tune of Abba’s “Dancing Queen”… that’s one h*ll of an introduction and a h*ll of a way to bond with new friends :p “Bathroom Friends” as one of them calls it :p … from then on, they did become friends, discussing mundane things and their personal lives. Until they realized that they all have love problems with their ex’s or their soon to be ex’s, and all agreed together with their respective partners to experiment on a game they called… “Love Shuffle” a.k.a “Love-Sha” to see if they can find happiness with someone else or with each other, again.
Let’s meet the 4 main characters and the partners they brought to Love-Sha. First is Tamaki Hiroshi as Usami Kei(Usa-Tan). He is engaged to a sweet rich girl named Mei played by Kanjiya Shihori. She is the daughter of his boss hence his being promoted to a better position in the company. Unfortunately, she broke up with him and now he’s wondering if he wants her back because he loves her or because he doesn’t want to loose the lifestyle he has been accustomed to.
Matsuda Shota as Sera Ojiro(O-Chan) is a professional photographer who is incidentally a playboy who can read women like a book and is currently involved in an illicit relationship with a sex-starved rich housewife named Kamijyo Reiko played by Kojima Hijiri.
Tanihara Shosuke as Kikuta Masato(Kiri-Kun) is a Pyschiatrist and the partner that he brought to the “game” as his girlfriend is actually one of his patients, a suicidal and delusional girl named Hayakawa Kairi played by Yoshitaka Yuriko whom he hopes to distract from her dangerous tendencies by joining their game.
Finally, the 4th among the “Bathroom Friends” and the only girl, Karina as Aizawa Airu(Ai Ai). She is the daughter of a diplomat, she speaks 3 languages and works as an interpreter. She brought her ex-boyfriend as her Love-Sha partner. He is a rich nerdy guy with a clingy personality named Oishi Yukichi played by Daigo.
The Story and The Script. it has a very cosmopolitan feel to it, like, a story that could happen in sophisticated New York or London or Paris or whatev… so why not Tokyo? Tokyo has the same sophistication, PLUS, some unique quirks that none of those western cities has which makes it even more interesting… at least to me. Just as I had expected, the script is modern and smart and remarkably well written… what am I saying, it is sooo goood!!! Aaahhh, what a blessing, it rarely happens so… thank you drama gods!!! What’s amazing about the script is the perfect combination of all its elements. I don’t think I’ve ever come across something like this in a dorama, ever. Mystery, Mtyhology, Humor, Depth, Maturity, Sensitivity, Wit, and a whole lot more, wrapped around some pretty solid Japanese quirkyness. It injected just the right amount of each of these things in this production and instead of chaos, what it produced was an outstanding work that was truly and absolutely entertaining with a capital E. Sooo uniquely Japanese, not even close and completely devoid of any resemblance to those better written and highly successful Korean dramas. In your average Dorama, dialogues/lines have the tendency more often than not to be uttered quite rapidly in some instances, and here its no different, so I suggest that you pause it and give yourself time to read the subtitles, you’ll be amazed at the brilliance of the script. At times like this, I wish I don’t need to read the subtitles… but that’s impossible so im just ever sooo grateful to the subbers and the hardsubbers, arigatou gozaimasu ^^ the punchlines were superbly written with a “slapstick style” wordplay/word association ^^ tell me it aint’ so…joe! yay panda! ^^ with the craziness of the comedy, you’d think intellectual conversations between characters would be missing BUT its all there, in the dialogues are insights about life and love and people and their strengths and weaknesses, expressed in a way that goes beyond a deep understanding of an average mind.
The Actors and Characters. Im gratified that the well written script and those very interesting characters were not wasted on bad acting. The ensemble cast(the actors/actresses) is one of the charms of this drama, characterization(how the characters are defined) is another. you will fall in love with the characters and you’ll find yourself starting to care what happens to them in the end *or is it just me and my delusional mind that does that? ^^ * who will end up with whom?… is this character really a villain?... can this relationship succeed despite the “dark and morbid” outlook of one?... if I am to give acting honors in this drama, I would have to give it to Yoshitaka Yuriko as Kairi. How can a dark character be successful in being kawaii at the same time? Sometimes her cute smile sends creepy chills up my spine. Tamaki Hiroshi is the lead star here and was pretty good too in his “poor nice dorky guy” image BUT im afraid that I could never get pass my obsession with Nodame Cantabile and his role there. To me, any role he portrays will never be better and would pale in comparison with Chiaki Shinichi. *Sorry Senpai* ^^
The Eye and Ear Candy. Since it was shot mainly in the city of Tokyo, you would think that there would be limited chances for good cinematography but I was impressed by the shots inside Usa-Tan’s office building and on the streets of a busy and crowded metropolis. The stylists for the drama were also consistent with the kind of look that they gave for each character and their striking personalities. Usa-Tan is rural and traditional, O-Chan is sleek and modern, Kiri-Kun is professional, and Ai-Ai is stylized casual, Mei is pretty and sweet, Reiko is sexy sophistication, Kairi is dark and gloomy and Yukichi is dorky young professional. Very rarely can I appreciate songs that I do not understand, so thank you for the 80’s American songs used here. Excellent choice ^^
The Ending. Needless to say, I like this drama ‘coz I like the final pairings. In the earlier episodes, it wasn’t obvious who will end up with whom, that’s why I vowed not to write spoilers here, its part of the fun in watching this. Im not going to overanalyze if they were able to convince me as to the “feasibility and believability” of them getting together. Without giving out too much information, let me put it this way, only Yukichi and the person he ended up with, left me with a “tiny” question mark in my head, its just a very tiny question mark though ^^ my delusional mind is calm ‘coz every character is happy in the end. *thank you, thank you, no cause for a mild depression after watching this ^^*
i would have wanted to leave you with some really nice fanvids of the 2 songs from this drama BUT, the love theme, Bangles' ETERNAL FLAME were like used as some kind of an ode or tribute to their favorite pairs in the drama ^^ therefore there are spoilers galore in them so i'll just leave you with the other english song in this drama, the opening and closing theme from Love Shuffle, here's Earth, Wind and Fire's FANTASY...
