[jdrama] Pride review

[scottishlass]

At last I'm getting around to review this dorama. It was my first Japanese one and introduced me to Kimura Takuya (apart from SMAP) and boy, I was instantly hooked. Not only was the quality of the files very good, JTV did the subs and this is one of the best fan subbing groups out there, but the story was very good and the characters interesting.

summary:
Pride is about a corporate owned ice hockey team that has to struggle through the loss of their beloved coach Anzai. The Blue Scorpions are a good team, with three star players, Hotta Yamato (Sakaguchi Kenji) - the goalie, Ikegawa Tomonori (Ichikawa Somegoro), a defense player and Satonaka Halu (Kimura Takuya) the center star player. Anzai influenced them all but especially Halu who idolizes Anzai without realising that the coach restricted his game playing by never letting him develop his own play but molded him into a second Anzai. Anzai was also the very person who told Halu that a true iceman never falls in love and that love/women should be treated as a game.

When Halu meets Murase Aki (Takeuchi Yuko) one night at a bar, he figures she must be a woman from the last century, a traditional woman with values. In fact he is right. Aki has been waiting for her stray boy-friend for 2 years and doesn't date. But as Halu stages a fight with Tomonori to get Aki’s attention and cell phone number, they click.

Halu considers her perfect for his love game, proposing they will date casually and once her boy-friend turns up again it will be game over and they both part ways. Even though Aki knows that she is sick of waiting for her boy-friend (this theme is appearing throughout the series and also resolves around Halu's issues with his mother), she agrees to Halu's game. They start to date, to bicker, to respect and fight each other. All around them, ppl think it is a match made in heaven, even though Halu (Spring) and Aki (Autumn) refuse to acknowledge their growing affection towards each other.


Halu grows dependent on Aki, and as she helps him through his issues with his wayward mother who left him when he was still a child, she realizes why he plays the game and why he choose her. She has been waiting, just as he has been waiting for a woman who would fit him like a glove. Halu falls for Aki hard and to give her the ultimate gift and trust, he prepares to give her the key to his apartment but just as he is about to propose to go steady, to forget the game, Aki's boy-friend unexpectedly returns.

Aki, torn between her love for Halu and her duty to her boy-friend returns to him but when he injures her after she confessed her affair with Halu, she tries to keep it a secret from Halu. But Satonaka finds out and fights with Aki's boy-friend with him ending up in gaol. In order to save Halu's reputation and career as ice hockey player, Aki agrees to marry her boy-friend even though she knows she doesn't love him anymore.
Halu is hurt when he hears about Aki's impending marriage and decides to try out for the NHL. Aki's boy-friend also has a little secret of his own, and he only pretended to want to marry Aki as he couldn't fathom her cheating on him. They break up and Aki is all alone. Waiting as Halu is in Canada.
She truly has become the traditional woman, the woman from the last century, as she waits for the return of Halu, even though they didn't promise each other anything ...

review
When I first came across the series I couldn't understand why so many on my flist liked it. It was a sports drama for crissake. But from the first scene up to the 11th and last episode, this series gripped me. Of course the males are all jocks but they are in a cute way, they are all gung ho and family like where celebrating and fighting is normal and business as usual.
The actors are very good. Coming from a city where the local ice hockey team is much more important (and successful than the local footy club) I know the scene surrounding ice hockey a little bit and here it was spot on: the local bar where they gather, the female groupies, the gung ho of the whole team - that was spot on. One could easily forget that these are actually Japanese men instead of the guys from the local Metro Stars or Cologne Sharks.
Even though the drama is set in a very modern world, the values addressed are very traditional if not sometimes old-fashioned. But getting to know the characters from one episode to the next you can actually see why they are so important to them even if they themselves don't realise it.
I liked the fact that even though Halu is deeply hurt by the abandonement of his mother in his early childhood, he desperately wants to fall in love and find a woman who takes on such a crazy man as himself. All that game talk and that as an ice man he doesn't need love is all talk and not really conviction. He is in need of more love than e.g. his team mates or even Aki. He wants to meet a woman who loves him unconditionally and who will support him no matter what - something his mother failed to do.
That is why he is so attracted to Aki - here is a woman who is waiting for her wayward boy-friend, not knowing if he ever returns because of a promise of marriage. She seems to him like the epitome of everythin his mother was not, kind, patient, an ideal.
Aki on the other hand doesn't see herself like this. One of the main reasons why she agrees to the game is that she is actually sick of waiting for her boy-friend. Everyone is telling her he is not coming back and slowly she realizes that it might be true. But she keeps the fact that she is sick and tired of waiting from Halu - in her mind pretending to be his ideal woman while in reality she actually already is.
Some ppl have been surprised to see her returning to her old boy-friend but for me that was the right way to deal with the situation. Despite all of Aki's protests of not being a woman of the last century with all the traditional values, she actually is. She has a deep sense of right and wrong, of compassion and most of all of duty. She promised, so she cannot get back on her word with her ex even though she doesn't love him anymore. But she is willing to sacrifice her love to Halu (and his love to her) for doing the right thing - going back to her ex (and somehow figuring out a way to either be a dutiful wife to him or to end the relationship). Up until Halu ends up in jail for assaulting the ex, she is hoping that her boy-friend will end the relationship when she tells him the truth. She is trully surprised when he is all about forgivenness and starting anew. When she makes the deal with him to let Halu go free without charge, she abandons all hope to be free of her boy-friend, in her sense of duty towards Halu she is even willing to accept an abusive husband, because she loves Halu and wants to see him realize his dreams of becoming a famous ice hockey player.

Kimura did a good job at portraying an ice hockey player, he even has the physique and the talk (a bit on the crude side). He is a man's man, tough, relentless but vulnerable where women are concerned.
Sakaguchi Kenji is wonderful as Hotta who actually hates icehockey but picked it up to repay a guilt. It was the first time I saw him in a drama but I was impressed and I really liked his character.
Takeuchi Yuko is wonderful as Aki. Soft yet tough as nails and with an inner strength that shines through and who everyone around her is drawn to.
The screen chemistry between Kimura and Takeuchi is amazing, they literally light up the screen. I wouldn't mind seeing more of that particular pairing.

And what more do you want than a soundtrack by QUEEN? It fits the ice hockey theme to a tee.

Comments

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Thanks for a lovely review! I've not found a sports series that I'm fond of. I'll have to see if Pride can change my mind ^__^

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

I'm also not fond of sports dramas, but ice hockey is okay AND neither of the actors look stupid on skates. They seem to have been practising a lot to appear like real pros on ice. I hate nothing more than actors looking stupid doing something their characters are supposed to be good at because they didn't practise enough (my favourite example: Shah Rukh Khan in Mohabattein playing the violin - OUCH!)

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

I hate nothing more than actors looking stupid doing something their characters are supposed to be good at because they didn't practise enough
Yeah I agree with you on that.

my favourite example: Shah Rukh Khan in Mohabattein playing the violin - OUCH
Sorry, am not a Bollywood fan so I haven't seen this :D

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Well you didn't miss much (in ref. Mohabbatein) but SRK is something of a phenomena as Kimura-san. Not as sexy but just as mesmerizing (good dancer & good actor if and when he doesn't overact - points to icon) and most of his movies are really good.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

I've only watched SRK in Kooch Kooch Hota Hai (??). The only Bollywood film I've liked so far (not that I watch many).

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Oh I adore Kuch Kuch Hota Hai! It was my first modern Bollywood movie from the 90s and I love the SRK/Kajol pairing so much.
He has done quite a lot of very good movies in the 90's - they are worth checking out.

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Hmmm. I don't know why I'm rather averse to Bollywood movies while I really love watching movies/dramas involving lots of dancing. I think it is the the singing that I'm not so fond of. And the acting is, IMO, a little "excessive" in general. But I don't know.

Perhaps you have good Bollywood movies to recommend? In Indonesia we get a LOT of Bollywood actually. It's just that I hardly ever watch TV anymore.

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Yeah the hamming is sometimes really going on my nerves but I guess this is a requirement so that even the not too intelligent person in some backwater village in South or North India will understand what the character is going through without using a voice over.

My favourite SRK movies are:
(set in a historical context) - Asoka, Paheli
(set in a modern context) - Kuch Kuch Hota Hai, Khabhie Kushi Khabhi Gham (Sometimes Happy, Sometimes Sad), Dilwale Dulhanie Le Jeyange (SUPER CUTE - my fave SRK movie ever), Swades, Dil Se (terrorism is the main theme)

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

but I guess this is a requirement so that even the not too intelligent person in some backwater village in South or North India will understand what the character is going through without using a voice over.
Bwahahahaha.... ROFL...

Thank you so much for the recs!