[jdrama] Good Luck!!

[scottishlass]

Yay, it is Christmas break and I can review my favourite doramas at last :) As always - review contains spoilers


summary:
Good Luck!! is a series about pilots, cabin assistants and mechanics all working at ANA (All Nippon Airlines) under the strict regime of Cpt. Koda (Tsutsumi Shinichi). Especially green co-pilot Shinkai Hajime (Kimura Takuya) suffers from Koda's strict rule.
What Shankai doesn't know is that Koda was related to a plane crash in the US years ago and ever since has blamed himself to be responsible as he called in sick that morning and another co-pilot was on the fateful flight in his stead. The exacting taskmaster almost breaks Shinkai and it seems that the coung co-pilot wants to give in his resignation after being suspended for a week.

While being suspended from his active status, he meets one of the ground crew mechanics, a motorbike riding gal with a connection of her own to the fateful plane crash a few years back. Ogawa Ayumi (Shibasaki Kou) is a stubborn and straight-talking mechanic and despite her sometimes acerbic nature Shankai feels drawn to her and she to him.

As Shinkai slowly learns what it means to be a pilot, being responsible for hundreds of lives during flight, he also starts to respect Koda and realises that they are not so far apart in their thinking after all. With the help of Ayumi and Koda, Shinkai becomes a better pilot. All could be perfect for Shinkai if not for one fateful day on the ground when he tries to prevent Koda from falling off the plane during an emergency drill. Now he has to face the greatest challenge of all - can he return to being a co-pilot and if so, will Koda-san still remain as taskmaster?

characters:
Shinkai Hajime is your typical boy next door. He has a boyish love for flying and is passionate about his job. He is not a player, has no stupid ex-girl-friend and is a bit wakward around women who come onto him. But he has a love for flying, he defines himself from it and without it it seems he has no real interests. Kimura did a great job portraying him and Shinkai will always be one of my top 5 dorama boy-friends :)

I love Shibasaki Kou as Ayumi. She is acerbic, honest and a tough and vulnerable cookie at the same time. I could so see Shinkai falling in love with her from the first time she appeared. With her no-nonsense talk and her aversion towards cocky pilots she keeps Shinkai grounded.

Tsutsumi Shinichi as Koda gives a shilling performance. I really hated his guts but really appreciated the character towards the end as more and more of his background story came out. Tsutsumi Shinichi showed how he blames himself for that accident all those years ago by being so tasking and exacting on himself as well as on others.

my review: I'm still not sure if I like Pride more than Good Luck!!. Between these two it is a close draw. :)
Seriously, Good Luck!! is a good series that doesn't concentrate so much about on the romance but on the day to day dealings of the pilots and mechanics, the friendship, cameraderie but also petty jealousies. I love the bickering between the pilots as well as the OTP and some scenes are just hilarious, especially those with Captain Naito Jane, this guy and his many ex-wives just cracks me up (perhaps because I cannot wipe my mind from the image of him in a speedo in Water Boys *LOL*).
I like the way Shinkai is portrayed. They could have made him a cocky, arrogant pilot, a womanizer and player. But he isn't. He is a nice guy, caring and frustrated, full of wonder and doubt. He cares about his family and he is both frustrated about his seemingly disinterested father and feels guilty for not continuing the boating family business. I also like his way with women, Shinkai has a great frienship with senior CA Togashi Noriko which is sweet. He is like the younger brother to her and he asks her for advice all the time. Then there is the open adoration of the young CA Fukaura Urara (Uchiyama Rina) which he finds embarrassing but he lets her down gently.

If you want Kimura goodness with witty dialogues, planes and a good cast, Good Luck!! is the drama for you.

Comments

[crimsonredd.livejournal.com]

another interesting thing to note, this is the ONLY Takuya drama where he has a family - a brother and a father :) and i like that :)

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

True! Either his characters' families are not mentioned or his characters' mom is a crook or against what he is doing.

I also liked Makato the little brother. He was such a cheeky little brat. And him always saying to his dad: Like he said instead of repeating what Shinkai said to his dad. It was hilarious!

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Great review!! I just finished watching Hero yesterday and must say that I'm very pleased with Takuya Kimura's acting. And Good Luck sounds interesting, though I probably want to watch Pride first :D

The hair in this one ~ it looks cool though. I mean Takuya's hair in Hero was like, jaw dropping for me at first. And the tan??? He makes one hell of a pretty girl, boy though. And was it you that mentioned he had great legs? Heck yeah, better than mine!!! :D

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Yeah in Hero he looked a bit ... ummm different. :) I didn't like his hair there at all. But nice bod !! Esp. in the Hero Special.

It was me who said he had better legs than some women, me included. In the Beyonce skid for SmapxSmap he was hilarious but damn, he would make a cute looking woman.

I like him in Good Luck as his character is cute - Halu might be my tough icehockey playing dorama boy-friend with a hybris, but Shinkai definitely is the cute, understanding boy next door with no hybris. IMHO Pride is a must see. It is very well done and let's face it in the icehockey gear Kimura and co look hot :)

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Actually what I watched was the Hero Special. What's the difference between Hero and the Hero Special??

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Hero was a ten ep drama in 2000 and the Special is a two hour special from 2006. Kimura played in both Kouhei a kenji (district attorney) with a bend for the meticulous. He investigates himself and his colleagues are hilarious :)

[miss-dian.livejournal.com]

Ah, I thought Hero special was the dorama Hero. Which explains my confusion at the ending of Hero Special (why there were so many colleagues that wasn't explained). I enjoyed Hero Special very much though :D

*plans to watch Hero*

Kimura Takuya is one of the few j-actors whom I have taken a liking to (Takizawa Hideaki, Kamenashi Kazuya, and YamaPi also included).

[ginger001]

I love Good Luck! This one with Pride and Long Vacation are probably my favorite! In fact I love all Takuya doramas but those three are kind of special ;)

Takuya's hair in Hero and probably in Beautiful Life is where I like it the least but he's hot whatever his hair looks like or whatever he wears anyway. A friend and I agreed not long time ago that Takuya would look great even wearing just a garbage bag ;)

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Isn't it just. Whatever he wears he looks good. I saw the SMAP performance from 22 Dec. of this year's Music Station Christmas Special and his new short hair cut (Halu slightly longer with CURLS) looks cute. And he looks so damn young again *lol*

I think Good Luck and Pride are my top favourite KT doramas, followed by Sleeping Forest and One Million Stars.

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

Great review! I really love this drama too! Takuya is so cute there I can marry him tomorrow. (:D) Really nice character, believable and realistic, the one you can meet in RL.

"Good luck" also has one of my favourte secondary pairings - captain Koda and his lady. And I have a crazy crush on captain Koda too. :D

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Love the icon :)

Yep Tkuya is love as Shinkai :) I coudl just grab him and lock him up at home but I don't think his Hubbiness (tm) would like that *lol*
I really didn't like Koda at first but man, he is my second favourite character now. I like him and his issues and Noriko-san is wonderful!!

[koalathebear.livejournal.com]

Someone told me about this review and I was so happy to hear someone else likes this drama :D I adore it proof is here :D I definitely like it better than Pride but I'm in the minority there ;)

Thanks for sharing!

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

WOAH! You certainly like this drama - I just took a look at your website. Kudos to you for all the details!

Yeah Good Luck!! is also one of my faves Jdramas as well as Kimura Takuya dramas. It has a special innocence and fun about it that draws you in.
I read your opinion about Pride and especially Aki's character. I don't think she is so much a doormat as she appears. She is actually quite a tough cookie with a strong sense of right or wrong. When she faces those blackmailer types she was tough and especially put herself in danger not because she was sure Tomo and Halu will rescue her but because her sense of right or wrong was challenged by these folks. And this sense also made her go back to the ex-boy friend.

I'm looking forawrd to more of your reviews :)

[rika-66.livejournal.com]

Good review, Una, thanks! I like it.
I've finished "Good Luck" already and I have to admit that so far this is my favorite Kimura's dorama. He plays in it brilliantly. I liked the story - and also I completely fall in love with his character, Shinkai. He is exactly "my" type of man, not Haru from "Pride" (while I admired greatly Kimura's acting in "Pride").

I also liked a lot the support character, capt. Koda. Interesting character and a very good acting. Tsutsumi Shinichi is a very talented actor! I've seen him before in another Kumura's dorama, "Chushingura 1/47".

[little-witch27.livejournal.com]

Tsutsumi Shinichi as Koda gives a shilling performance. I really hated his guts but really appreciated the character towards the end as more and more of his background story came out. Tsutsumi Shinichi showed how he blames himself for that accident all those years ago by being so tasking and exacting on himself as well as on others.

I absolutely agree with you on that. I'm beginning to like him more and more as the story progresses, and thank God I've finally come to the episode where the tragic accident from 12 years previous is revealed. I like how it all comes together. The characters are all great - except that one stewardess, Fukaura, who annoys the hell out of me!

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

OH btw, the quote tags don't work in LJ ... instead of <q> </q> write <i> </i>.

I love Tsutsumi Shinichi. He is a great actor. He played Ogata in SP (the outburst post I did yesterday). I like him very much and watch his dramas as religiously as if he were from SMAP :)

[little-witch27.livejournal.com]

Oh God, I cried my eyes out over the final episode. :(

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Why? It ends happily :D
But it was good, ne?

[little-witch27.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was brilliant! I just found it so touching, and I guess I didn't want it to be the last episode. I wanted it to go on forever.

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

This is both the advantage and disadvantage of Japanese doramas. They are short!
With Hero at least they did an additional special as well as a movie (which I still have to find with English subs).

But I like Shinkai. If you watch more Asian doramas you'll realize that even the nicest hero in a dorama has some jealous, crappy, bitchy ex-girl friend who makes you wonder how the hell nice hero ever had such a slip of good-taste. But in GL!! they completely ignored that plot device and I'm glad of it. Shinkai is just the cute boy from next door.

[little-witch27.livejournal.com]

That he is. I love him as a character. My favourite moments with him and Ayumi are when she tells him she was furious seeing him with that other girl, and he has to smile while still eating a banana. And when he calls her late at night after he missed their date, and she hesitates, and he holds the phone away from his face and lets out this frustrated, "I want to see her!" Love that! Also the way he is with his brother and father. And the 'kiiisss' in the end. It's just normal, totally convincing.

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Yeah these are also my favourite moments .. also when he tells her to look at the sun and then sying they are not so far apart after all. He is a real nice guy, and not screwed up like so many dorama heros (you'll see when you have seen more, esp. Korean doramas).