Last Friends
Nagasawa Masami as Aida Michiru
Ueno Juri as Kishimoto Ruka
Nishikido Ryo as Oikawa Sosuke
Eita as Mizushima Takeru
Mizukawa Asami as Takigawa Eri
Yamazaki Shigenori as Ogura Tomohiko
I'm been crazy about Nishikido Ryo ever since I saw him in Ichi Rittoru no Namida (2005). I hadn't seen him in anything new since then...he's been in other stuff but I hadn't seen him in any of them. In fact, there was a special episode of Ichi Rittoru no Namida in 2007 that I haven't seen yet so I have to get on that as soon as I finish this one.
When I heard Ryo was going to be in this new drama, I knew I had to watch. I read a summary of the show and thought it would be interesting. There was going to be a gay character in it, which I thought was very different from the stories I'd seen before. For the most part, gay themes aren't the norm and neither is domestic violence.
Michiru works in a hair salon. She's an apprentice there so she does the odd jobs and is treated badly by one of the other girls there. She knows she's still a newbie so she has to take the abuse. Sosuke is her boyfriend. He works for the Child Welfare Division and seems to be a nice guy. In the first episode, Sosuke asks Michiru to move in with him. After talking to her mother, she agrees she could go live on her own. She's so happy to be moving in with Sosuke, she goes out and buys some things for the apartment. At one of the stores, Ruka is looking for a mug. She's made the purchase and turns around in time to see Michiru walking past the store. She runs after her. As she runs off, she drops her mug and knocks down Takeru. Michiru gets on a bus and Ruka chases on her bike. When Michiru gets of the bus, someone knocks her packages over and she has to gather them which gives Ruka time to catch up. She calls out her name and Michiru looks over to see Ruka. She gets up and runs to hug her.
Besides the fact that Ruka looks like the gay character, you could pretty much tell she has a thing for Michiru from the way she looks at her.
As the episode progresses, it looks like Sosuke and Michiru are happy together until she catches him going thru her phone messages. He suspects Ruka is a man she is seeing and asks Michiru to prove to him Ruka is a female. She offers to go back to her house and get her yearbook. While she's home looking, he calls her. She runs to the kitchen where she's left her phone but misses the call. As she's going back to her room, the phone rings again...she goes back and picks up the call. Sosuke asks her where she is and why she didn't pick up the first time. She tries to explain and he asks her if she's with a man. He orders her to get home right away.
I thought Ryo was so handsome in Ichi Rittoru no Namida...just adorable. Which is why what I saw next was pretty disturbing. She arrives back to the apartment and Sosuke grabs her arm and pulls her inside. He yells at her and throws her down on the floor. As she falls, she hits a lamp and it falls over and breaks. While she's still on the floor, Sosuke bends down and slaps her three or four times and then he ends up kicking her really hard. Wow...I'd never seen something like this on a J-drama....this one has to be "ground breaking" or possibly even scandalous back in Japan.
I watched the first six episodes one after the other today...I couldn't stop watching..There are 5 more episodes to go and 1 special episode. I'll probably be able to finish this one by the end of the week.
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