A friend in Japan recommended this drama saying that it was hilarious. I downloaded it and took a quick look, and got addicted… The drama was shown in Japan starting end of December 2008 I believe, and it just ended (I just watched the last episode) It’s got a few actors that was quite familier - Tamaki Hiroshi / 玉木宏 who starred Nodame Cantabile (my review here) and Matsuda Shota / 松田翔太 who starred Liar Game. As for the main actress, I’ve seen Karina / 香里奈 here and there in various dramas like Ryokiteki na Kanojo (my review here) and Galileo (my review here), but seemed that she’s never starred a prominent role - she wasn’t bad at all in this drama.

The story was written by Nojima Shinji / 野島伸司. I used to hate him when I was young when he married Noriko Sakai (used to be a big fan of her..lol), but I couldn’t denied that he was a great script writer. I liked a couple of his past work a lot, like Hitotsu Yane no Shita / ひとつ屋根の下, and Seija no Koushin / 聖者の行進.

It had an interesting theme - swapping partners. Four guys and four girls joined a game called “Love Shuffle” which was hosted by one of the guys who was a phychologist. Each of these people have been having issues in their relationships and the phychologist came up with this game in which for each week, each person will get together / date a different person, and the game would be repeated once, so each person will the the same person twice. The idea was to expose each person to new partners in order to find their “true love”. I thought this would make a really interesting drama and apparently I was right. There were hilarious moments as well as depressive ones, when these people had different kind of chemistry against each other. Four of these Eight people actually were living on the same floor (28th) in the same apartment, they would gather in front of the lift and hold “pajama party” every night to chill and chat about their experiences.

One of the things that made this drama shine was that each of these six people have their own “messed up” personalities - Photo freak, gay phychologist, sex-addicted married woman, girl with messed up mind always wanted to suicide, super rich kid that was shy and polite…etc. It was super entertaining to see how they dated each other when their personalities totally went against each other’s. It was also very relaxing to watch, not sure why but probably because most of them were professionals (e.g. phychologist, photo artist, linguist..etc), and their livings were classy, which I always endeavor. Just cool people.

This is a highly entertaining and recommended drama. Before closing it up here is a little bio for each of these interesting characters:

Tamaki Hiroshi as Usami Kei (29)

A section chief and a graduate from a second-rate university. He should have risen to become the division chief after his marriage, but … is his love for Mei real? Or is it just because he wants to maintain his current lifestyle? He’s opposed to the love shuffle.

Karina as Aizawa Airu (25)

The daughter of a diplomat. She works as a translator. She has a boyfriend that she wants to break up with but she is enthusiastic about the love shuffle.

Matsuda Shota as Sera Ojiro (26)

A photographer who shoots magazine cover shots and an outstanding young man who’s successful in his career. The female subjects of his photography shoots are always bowled over by him. He loves women and he’s enthusiastic about the love shuffle.

DAIGO as Oishi Yukichi (29)

A wealthy man who made his money through stock trading. Even though he loves Airu, he eventually gives up and joins the love shuffle.

Yoshitaka Yuriko as Hayakawa Kairi (19)

She hallucinates and has tried to kill herself several times. Her condition is unstable. She joins the love shuffle at the persuasion of Dr Kikuta.

Kojima Hijiri as Kamijyo Reiko (34)
Her husband is a famous person. She is enjoying herself in the 3 months before her husband’s return and joins the love shuffle at the invitation of her lover, Ojiro. She’s a woman who only cares about looks but not talent or virtue.

Kanjiya Shihori as Kagawa Mei (25)
The daughter of a company president. Kei saved her when she met a mountain accident back in high school and they are currently dating. She has never dated anyone else. 3 months before their wedding, she suddenly proposes to break off their engagement. She and Airu were classmates but Airu has forgotten about her because she has transferred schools numerous times. She joins the love shuffle.

Tanihara Shosuke as Kikuta Masato (32)
An easy-going psychologist, he is more famous than he deserves to be. He joins the loves shuffle at Kairi’s invitation.

• Japanese drama review - Last Friends / ????????
• Japanese Drama Review - Akihabara@Deep / ??????DEEP
• Japanese Drama Review - Galileo / ????
• Japanese Drama Review - Meichan no Shitsuji / メイちゃんの執事
• Japanese drama review - 7 Days between Father and Daughter / ???????7?? (Papa to Musume no Nanokakan)
• Japanese drama review - The Ikebukuro West Gate Park / ????????????

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 1st, 2009 at 6:26 pm and is filed under Japanese drama. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.