Japanese Drama: A Life～Kanashiki Hito (A LIFE～愛しき人～)
Airs: Sundays
Leads: Takuya Kimura and Takenchi Yuko
Synopsis:
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Rushing back to Japan from US in order to operate on his former boss, our hero Kazuaki Okita returns to the hospital that he left behind as a rookie doctor. Not exactly happy to see the “best friend” he had gotten rid of by ploy 10 years ago especially knowing that his wife (Mifuyu Danjo) might still harbor some lingering feelings for our hero, Masao’s biggest concern is how Kazuaki’s return will affect his future as his father-in-law’s successor.
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An extremely skilled surgeon, Kazuaki possesses a confidence that puzzles…and draws petty jealousy from other doctors in the hospital. Quick to jump on the bandwagon of criticism when Kazuaki’s first operation goes wrong, all the doctors seem determined to not give our hero the opportunity to perform another operation to save his patient…except Mifuyu who after an initial angry rant at Kazuaki realize that he is the only one willing to give her father a fighting chance.
Armed with Mifuyu’s consent, Kazuaki performs yet another surgery and was able to cure Director Danjo successfully this time around.
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Immensely relived that her father is saved, Mifuyu starts to shed some of her polite aloofness towards Kazuaki but by this time our hero has already turned down Director Danjo’s urging to stay at the hospital and prepares to return to US.
Puzzled when Masao suddenly shows him a brain tumor scan, Kazuaki is stunned once Masao reveals that Mifuyu is the mysterious patient.
Quickly agreeing to Masao’s request to perform the surgery on Mifuyu, our hero decides to stay at the hospital for now.
Ninja’s First Impression
As a fan of Kimura I was pretty excited to see him in a new show…even if I am not usually interested in J-medical dramas. The first episode of A Life was not an instant winner in my book especially considering that it really wasn’t the flashiest among the vast medical J-dramas but hey, it has Kimura in it so I am going to at least give it a few more weeks.
Judging by episode one Kimura is his usual charming self and Takenchi Yuko does a good job portraying the heroine who is trying to suppress her feelings for our hero. However, I am not sure if this story is suppose to have two female leads but there is a spunky nurse character (Yuki) in the show who has such great chemistry with Kimura right from the start that I would rather if she becomes the love interest instead of the heroine.
Anyhow, it’s way too early to know if this one is going to be a winner or not but A Life does have lots of complex characters with some hospital intrigue thrown in the mix so I think it could be promising if done right. For the silly fan girl inside me’s sake, I am crossing my figures and hope this Kimura’s latest will be a sure winner!