[jdrama] Flowershop without a rose

[scottishlass]

Just finished the first ep of Bara no nai Hanaya and I have to say I'm mightily intrigued!!

To fess' up I had my doubts if Shingo could pull off a loving father, he is most of the time silly as a kid in most of his performances but here he pulls it off.
Nojima Shinji is the writer and having watched his doramas Pride and Nemureru Mori (Sleeping Forest) with Kimura Takuya, I have high hopes of Bara no nai Hanaya.

I loved the first few minutes up to the title. So much was conveyed in these few scenes and yet it left quite a mysterious air as well. On the outside we have a young man, loosing his wife while giving birth to their daughter. Easy enough ... but the way this was filmed it got me thinking. We never see his face up until the first real time scene.
The complete flash back is filmed without showing Eiji's (Shingo's) face. The long hair, the clothes - they all indicate that he is not a salaryman. He might not even be well educated, might be a school drop out, as he starts off doing only menial work.
His wife - if the woman who is on the tape IS his wife/SO - looks more like a school teacher, a nice ordinary looking woman and she doesn't look like she would normally associate with a thug like Eiji with long hair and bomber jacket.

So I'm asking myself if the girl is really his daughter? And is he only lonely/sad because of the death of his wife/girl-friend or does he harbour other secrets? More dark and dangerous?

And who is the rose? The dead wife? the little girl? Mio, the blind woman? Or something completely different?

Anyway, I loved the first ep. I loved the cinematography and the setting, the colours ... OMG the colours of Japan in autumn are glorious!!!

Takeuchi Yuko as Mio really makes you believe she is blind, she is really good and cute and has good chemistry with Shingo. I loved their scene in the rain with the umbrella. It was sooo romantic and adorable and yet I have the devastating feeling that this is not a romantic dorama per se.

So far Bara no nai Hanaya (Flowershop without a rose aka The Rose) is a very intriguing dorama.

Comments

[ginzarhapsody.livejournal.com]

Skipped on over from dorama_chat. :)

To answer some of your questions. :)

Eiji and the little girl, Shizuku, are indeed father and daughter through blood. The woman on the tape was his wife, who died during childbirth. Her body was weak and thogh knowing that she might die in childbirth (and not telling Eiji), she still had Shizuku. As far as we are lead to understand, Eiji is a very straightfoward character harboring no secrets. Mio, on the other hand, is seriously FULL of secrets that I cannot wait to dig into.

The rose is his wife. In the video tape, she said that she wanted to open a flower shop with lots of roses with Eiji. And of course, Eiji was clinging to that rose when she died. So, now in Eiji's flower shop, there are no roses (which we find out when Mio tries to buy some).

I'm totally with you. Bara no Nai Hanaya's first episode was near perfection for me and had me clinging to it every second. I was smitted with Shingo performance as well as Takeuchi's, and before I had my doubts about the silly!Shingo and Takeuchi has never rubbed me the right way, but I think she just made me a fan. :)

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Thank you for clearing some of the things up!!

I had thought that they are father and daughter, but somehow the proper woman on the tape didn't mesh with Eiji we see in hospital. He looked more like someone living off the streets rather than having a wife and family if you know what I mean.
Just the way it was filmed it was a bit strange (in a mysterious way) and I don't trust that doctor guy one bit.

Yes, Mio is really mysterious and I wonder how this will develop further.
I love the ending title, it reminds me a bit of SOS (the fall into the snow) and it doesn't bode well for our two main characters, but we will see.

[allbloomedout.livejournal.com]

I remember someone on my f-list watched this and i just realized it's you. :) I didn't watch this until over the weekend until the subs were out. I agree in that it's really intriguing drama! It feels fresh in that it's not typical romantic drama. Shingo really surprised me as loving father and I was pretty moved. I actually haven't seen him acted in anything except his guest appearance on Galileo. The little girl is really adorable and I loved Shota's character randomly popping up. XD

I agree, the colors of autumn in Japan is really pretty. :) I loved the scene in the rain as well. I wonder why that man made Mio pretend to be blind. I'm guessing he might he his wife's father? So much mystery.. :P

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

Mio has no choice but to abide to sensei's wishes ... you'll see why in ep2 :)

[allbloomedout.livejournal.com]

Umm..you're making me more curious as to why. Hopefully episode 2 subs will be out this weekend. :)

I forgot to mention in the last comment that I love the theme song too. I found out on yesasia his single won't be out until March. :( I guess I'll have to keep listening to youtube mp3 rip. I love his voice and he also did a wonderful theme song for First Kiss.

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

I hope so too because I do think I misunderstood about half of what was happening in that ep :) Though I'm getting better in Japanese but depending on which dialect they are talking it is hard :(

[allbloomedout.livejournal.com]

I have the same problem too. I'm fine with Tokyo and some Kansai-ben but other dialects like Tosaben used in Utahime i couldn't decode at all. :P Hopefully, with time we will get better with different dialects. :)

[scottishlass.livejournal.com]

I hope so too :)