One Pound Gospel | 一ポンドの福音

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I finished watching this Japanese drama with a friend last weekend. What started out as something relatively interesting slipped into boredom by the middle of the series. By far, the most interesting episode was definitely the one concerning Yamada Ryosuke as Mukodo Katsumi and his frustrations with his mother, but this was quickly "resolved" with little comment. Interpret that as you will, but in the end I can understand the low ratings.

The show lacked much climax or excitement. I felt that what little there was relied on the actors to use exaggerated expressions (Kamenashi Kazuya, the star of the show, must have been exhausted every day after filming), or long, drawn-out camera shots of people's faces. Oh, and silly dialogue/monologue as well. There was very little plot action, and where there was, I felt it was poorly enacted. I felt like the story was never quite as serious about itself as it needed to be, and so any seriousness brought in by other means, such as acting or filming, failed to hit the mark. I really couldn't take it all that seriously.

The best parts of the entire thing were the stories of the secondary characters who received far too little screen time. It may or may not be a good sign when you find yourself far more interested in what is happening with the people outside of the spotlight [and watch their expressions and reactions in each scene rather than the main actors] than the feature characters. I was not interested in the relationship of Hatanaka and Sister Angela in the slightest.

I will give the series it's certain comedic moments. If it had been focused on comedy entirely and had not tried to be convincingly serious [seeing as it failed to do so in my opinion], I think it would have earned a better reputation with me. There were some great moments, particularly with Kobayashi Satomi as Mukoda Seiko. The actors themselves weren't particularly poor either, especially with the supporting cast. I think Kamenashi is decent and convincing actor in general, especially after his performance in Nobuta wo Produce, where I had said from the beginning episode, "Wow this guy is good."

Overall, I feel it was a plot with potential that simply failed to deliver. It had a lot going for it, and the actors themselves weren't poor, but it an attempt to be serious it relied on devices that didn't help at all.