REBECCA 「Virginity」 - Insert Song for "Lipstick"/『リップスティック』

 

Image courtesy of GirlsChannel - http://girlschannel.net/topics/2207/

While not as heart-wrenching and dark as "Seija No Koushin"/ 『聖者の行進』 and "Kono Yo No Hate"/『この世の果て』, 野島伸司/Nojima Shinji’s 1999 Fuji TV drama series "Lipstick"/『リップスティック』 is certainly a stark and sobering melodrama to be sure. Nojima’s unconventional romance drama revolves around the troubled love affair between a young juvenile delinquent Hayakawa Ai/早川藍 (portrayed by the always wonderful 広末涼子/Hirosue Ryoko) and the much older Corrections Officer Ariake Yu/有明悠 (三上博史/Mikami Hiroshi) who is assigned to oversee her stay at a low-level security Juvenile Detention Facility until she can have her criminal case reviewed in Japanese Family Court.

Ai, the daughter of a rich businessman, had been betrayed by a supposed friend who cheated her out of a large sum of money. In retaliation Ai assaults and seriously injures the girl and her boyfriend at a Tower Records store in Tokyo. While Ai is combative and uncooperative towards everyone else, she strangely opens up to the kindly and supportive Yu and they develop a close almost teacher/student relationship. Yu (who is a brilliant and talented painter by training) has his own set of issues as he is in love with his late brother's wife Kuwada Chihiro/麻生祐未 (麻生祐未/Aso Yumi), a classically trained flutist. Yet she can't return the sentiment as she is still recovering from the loss of her husband and has become withdrawn and reclusive.

Ai and Yu - L-R -  Yu (Mikami Hiroshi) & Ai (Hirosue Ryoko)

Ai befriends a number of girls at the facility including the soft-spoken honors student Ikawa Mashiro/井川真白(scene-stealing 池脇千鶴/Ikewaki Chizuru), who was arrested for deliberately injuring her abusive step-father; the emotionally scarred Junior High School student Suzuoka Kobato/鈴岡小鳩, affectionately nicknamed 「ぽっぽ」(cute 真柄佳奈子/Magara Kanako) who is accused of assaulting another student at her school and who suffers from extreme OCD and ADD behavior; the "Yankee" tough girl 松田理恵子/Matsuda Eriko (singer/actress 伊藤歩/Itou Ayumi) who committed robbery as part of a gang of girls but who decided to take the full responsibility for the crime (she later implicated her accomplices so that she can get a lighter sentence so that she can reunite with her “freeter” boyfriend); and the troubled Miike Anna/三池安奈 (Nakamura Aiimi/中村愛美), a beautiful high school student who was brainwashed by her boyfriend, the charismatic and emotionally manipulative Makimura Hiroki/牧村紘毅 (窪塚洋/Kobuzuka Yosuke) into taking drugs and prostituting herself to Makimura's associates and who also suffers from suicidal tendencies. While Anna is still under Makimura’s enthrall even in prison, she struggles to free herself from his influence with the help of kindly former juvenile delinquent turned Correction Officer, Kasai Takao (いしだ壱成/Ishida Issei).

On The Run - Ai and her fellow student detainees - L-R - Anna (Nakamura Aiimi), Eriko (Itou Ayumi), Ai (Hirosue Ryoko), Ikawa Mashiro (Ikewaki Chizuru) and PoPo (Magara Kanako)

Along the way Ai and her fellow detained peers share many experiences and face a number or trials and tribulations while trying to adjust to life at the Juvenile Facility. Ai in particular struggles with her growing romantic feelings for Yu. She plays psychological and emotional games with Yu in the hopes of trying to win his affections and to break through the various emotional barriers that he has put up since the death of his brother. When Yu and Chihiro's relationship begins to become more romantic, Ai withdraws and becomes more hostile and unruly. In one of many unsettling dramatic moments, the romantic rivalry between Ai and Chihiro comes to a head when Chihiro in a desperate move to win Yu's affections, blinds herself by toppling a standing TV set (which shatters glass debris into to her eyes) right in front of a horrified Ai. One can't say that Nojima is one for subtlety.

Blinded by Love - Chihiro (Aso Yumi) literally blinds herself for Yu.

レベッカ/REBECCA's signature 1985 single 「Friends」 was used as the theme song for the series. Even though the song had already been used previously as the theme song for Nihon TV's 1985 drama series 『ハーフポテトな俺たち』/"Half Potato No Oretachi", the remixed version of the song was selected for this series and it is indeed a fitting theme song for this series. J-Canuck has already posted an entry for "Friends" previously, so I would like to instead highlight another REBECCA song that was featured prominently in the series. 「Virginity」plays during one of the most emotionally tragic and heart-wrentching sequences in the series - during the death of popular charcter Mashiro.

 

Haunting sequence featuring Mashiro's (Ikewaski Chizuru) suicide.

For those who have not watched the series, you may want to skip this part of the post as there are major *Spoilers* and plot details that will be discussed. During the course of the drama, the audience learns more about the tragic homelife of Mashiro (who was so named as her kindly biological father loved the smell and feel of freshly washed white sheets) and how she had come to be held at the facility. We learn that Mashiro's weak willed mother had been abandoned by Mahiro's biological father and that she had eventually fallen in love again with a low-life scumbag 小泉章吾/Koizumi Shogou (chillingly played by veteran character actor 夏八木勲/Natsuyagi Isao) who not only physcially abused Mashiro but had also sexually assaulted her on multiple occasions. Mashiro had hidden the fact from her mother and was now pregnant with Koizumi's child. While Mashiro had initially wanted to keep the baby, she eventually relents to pressure from everyone and undergoes an abortion at the facility. While Mashiro had made a promise to her mother that she would protect and take care of her after she is released (Mashiro's mother was also victimized and abused by Koizumi), Mashiro's mother learns of Mashiro's aborted pregnancy and becomes insanely jealousand goes as far as to blame Mashiro for seducing her lover. Mashiro is eventually released back to the custody of her vendictive mother (whom she grudgingly goes back to live with having no where else to go). On the first day of her return back, she is again savagely beaten by Koizumi and raped again as her mother seemingly ignores her pleas for help. Betrayed by her mother and seeing no happy future left, Mashiro goes to the abondoned buidling that she, Ai and the rest of the group had once fled to (after briefly escaping the facility earlier in the series) and jumps from the building in a symbolic attempt to "fly into the sun" (like the myth of Icarus) and obtain her happiness.

This has to be one of the saddest and most emotionally haunting sequences I've ever seen in Japanese Drama and was made all the more tearful by young actress Ikewaki Chizuru memorable and poignant performance as well as REBECCA's stirring song "Virginity" which played in the background.

Of course in typical melodramatic J-Dorama fashion, Hirosue's character Ai gets to revenge Mashiro when she sacrifices her own chance at freedom (she was to be released from the facility due to good behavior) to maim Koizumi by impaling his leg with the point of an umbrella (after he had make a snide and condescending remark about Mashiro finally being in heaven) as a devasted Yu looks on knowing that Ai will be surely be sentanced to a lengthy prison term for this action.  


Nojima Shinji's dramas typically don't end on a happy note and "Lipstick" is no exception. While not as depressing as "Kokou Kyoshi"/『高校教師』 or "Kono Yo No Tate"/ 『 この世の果て』, "Lipstick" ends rather ambiguously.

"Revenge" - Ai (Hirosue Ryoko) maims scumbag Koizumi (Natsuyagi Isao) with an umbrella.

REBECCA's song 「 ヴァージニティー 」 was the 1st track to their 2nd mini album release 『Nothing To Lose』(1984). Written by songwriter 宮原芽映/Miyahara Mebae and composed by REBECCA leader 土橋安騎夫/Dobashi Akio, it was infact one of the first songs Dobashi's composed for the group (he would later collaborate with lead singer NOKKO to write the vast majority of their hits including their two biggest hits 「フレンズ」 and 「RASPBERRY DREAM」. Having a more somber and gritty rock sound, "Virginity" definitely sounds like a precursor to "Friends". While released as a single is didn't really make much of an impression on the Oricon charts (it wouldn't be until their next single 「 ラブ イズ Cash 」(1985) until they would make the first of many placements on the Oricon charts). Despite this, "Viriginity" is still one of my favorite REBECCA songs (owing to the "Lipstick" drama) and has become a bit more appreciated after-the-fact by fans. The PV for the song is also pretty nice with NOKKO sporting more of a cool rocker look as opposed to her typical "Madonna" inspired pop attire.

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Image courtesy of http://dakafal.wordpress.com/2007/09/22/albums-rebecca-rebecca-4-maybe-tomorrow-poison-time-voice-print-and-blond-saurus/

 While "Lipstick" was released to VHS in the past, it is surprisingly not available on DVD format or Blu-Ray which is a shame.  "Lipstick" is perhaps one of the best Japanese dramas of the 90s and was one of Hirosue's more memorable roles.  
 

The radiant and always charming Hirosue Ryoko - Image courtesy of Goo.ne.jp

Hirosue is one of my favorite actresses and has had a successful career both on TV and in movies appearing in such dramas like 『Summer Snow』 (2000),  『Slow Dance』 (2005) and films like "Bubble Fiction"/『バブルへGO!!～タイムマシンはドラム式～』 (2007) and "Okuribito AKA Departures"/ 『おくりびと』 (2008).  Hirosue can currently be seen in the Fuji TV drama series "Starman"/『スターマン　・　この星の恋』 (2013).

"Lipstick's" memorable 1st Episode opening sequence