Thursday, January 07, 2016

Jdorama review: Mutsu

Nishijima Hidetoshi plays a doctor who can diagnose any illness by sight while doing the thinking pose. Because he's worked in a prison before, Dr Tameyori can also see when someone is going to commit murder. Did I mention not too think too hard when watching this show? Later in the show Dr Tameyori is supposed to be involved in research but we never see him do any.

Densha is a cop with anger issues stemming from his strong sense of justice, whatever that means. The big mystery of Mutsu is the murder of a family of four which Densha is determined to solve. Of course, he has an overacting boss who always shouts at him for overstepping his boundaries etc etc. Zzzz.

Ito Hideaki runs his own hospital and has a hot secretary.

Did I mention the sexy secretary?


Ishibashi Anna is a psych doctor who's only job in the show is to babysit one patient.

And that patient is Menma, I mean Hamabe Minami who belongs in a psychiatric hospital instead of a regular one but this show is not concerned about common sense.

Oh yeah, there's the creepy hospital janitor with no eyebrows.

The acting in Mutsu is very bad. Sometimes its ok but most of the time its very inconsistent with overacting that mad me cringe.

There are a lot of interesting ideas and cliffhangers but the execution is so clumsy. The family murder reminded me of Kazoku Gari, another Densha dorama but nowhere as good. I watched all the way for the mystery and its actually not bad but they just had to put in a long stupid debate with the villain and a karma ending that you could see coming a mile away.

Mutsu is a trashy, badly executed murder mystery with just enough eye candy, I mean twists and turns and interesting ideas to keep me entertained.

8 comments:

dgundam said...

i dont know about you, but whenever i watch a densha drama, i usually end up dropping it after the first episode. im just amazed how a bad actor like him can still get shows. must have made lots of goodwill from densha.
got bored of this show.
so far this just newly ended drama season, the only thing i really watched was siren and otona joshi. everything else was just worse.
except for angel heart. that was a good live action manga adaptation of a boring manga. not the dramas fault that the source material wasnt good.

Akiramike said...

Densha is not good but he's been involved with good shows like Kazoku Gari. How would you rate Otona Joshi cause I was planning to skip it altogether?

dgundam said...

skip it lol. since im an eguchi, shinohara, kichise, and tanihara fan it was passable for me. but objectively, i give it a 6/10. not as good as anego. it was very typical predictable jdrama writing. you can see the ending a mile away. i actually had the general plot guessed when episode 1 ended lol

one thing i would recommend you to watch though is this recent chinese period drama called Nirvana in Fire.
i dont watch c dramas and even period c dramas, but i just heard so many good things about this show that i just had to try it...i was instantly hooked. spent the whole week just watching it. you might get turned off by the flying fighting in the first few episodes but it settles down. what this drama did good though is the intricate plot,good acting, beautiful costumes and high production values.
theres barely any romance and is mostly about a count of monte cristo revenge type drama. plenty of politics, political maneuvering and a set piece battle. much better than any japanse jidaigeki or korean sageuk ive ever seen. sure i sometimes like the didactic nature of jidaigekis but it does get boring eventually. while i might sometimes love the love stories of sageuks, constant weakling kings and dumb romance can get grating.
i was actually thinking that what nirvana in fire is in period dramas, is what legacy of the galactic heroes is for anime.
from what ive looked through online though is that this show is unique and not something you usually find in c dramas in general and im actually kinda sad its over.
definately try it out! i doubt id try other c dramas but this show was entertaining imo and has changed my perception of cdrama making and quality.

dgundam said...

oh ya the show is 54 45 minute episodes long, and the 1st episode introduces a ton of characters so it might take a few episodes to really get things going.

heres a link for character profiles:
http://jolecole.blogspot.ch/2015/02/nirvana-in-fire-character-profile.html

also Lang Ya Bang: an anual ranking by the Lang Ya Hall, its categories are: top martial arts experts, top sects, top wealthy people, top beauties, top gongzi

Anonymous said...

Otona joshi is actually one of my 2015 favorites. It's predictable, but well-executed. It does a very good job of capturing that certain... optimistic tone of 90s dramas (perhaps because it's using 90s actors...), which I found refreshing. It has the 90s-style sentimentality, not the over-emotional, male characters crying non-stop over-sentimentality of many modern dramas.

At any rate, upbeat, straight-romances with non-shitty acting and dialog are a rare comodity these days. Of all genres, certainly its romance that regressed the most since the 'golden age.'

The leads have chemistry, and Eguchi put in a thoroughly enjoyable performance.

The side storylines with Shinohara's friends weren't necessary, but not too much of a drag.

There was also some clever dialog where the characters poke fun at romance tropes.

If you're feeling nostalgic for a drama with a 90's-feel, give it a go.

Akiramike said...

dgundam: I watched 12 episodes of Nirvana in Fire because of the LoGH comment. lol Kind of disappointed with the secret of the 3 on 1 fight because the writers can use that to solve every single problem. Its more Monte Cristo than LoGH and Mei Changsu needs his own Reinhard von Lohengramm. It was entertaining but I couldn't continue because of there are so many episodes to go and the pace of the palace politics. Thanks for the recommendation though, might continue when I need a change of pace.

anon: You've convinced me to give Otona Joshi a go.

dgundam said...

youre right, they need someone as smart as him to call it an logh. although mei chang su will face off against smart baddies, none of them are as smart as him.
i think i was thinking more of the fact that it has plenty of political maneuvering and scheming and is different from the normal period dramas out there. there might be jidaegkis out there that have political maneuvering but those are based on real life history and not an original ip so they dont deviate from history. meanwhile for sageuks they always have a large romance plot, and dumb baddies, or nonsensical characters.

ya, its a tough slog at 54 episodes for you since i know you dont like watching long stuff lol. i think the last one u tried was amachan, but you gave up i think. nirvana was an enjoyable show and i was glad to try something new from the usual jdramas i watch. i doubt id watch other period cdramas though, since theres hardly any other one that can match its acting, plot, and production values. i was actually surprised that china had the ability to make a high quality show like this.

Akiramike said...

dgundam: LoGH was pretty long but it had pace and excitement. Mei Chansu doesn't feel like an underdog and it feels like its too easy for the writer to write him out of problems. The hero is as good as the villain and Mei Chansu doesn't have a worthy adversary. The draw for a lot of viewers I think, is more the fact that he is dying and the princess storyline.