Doing some cleaning up around the home yesterday, I unearthed a few Blu-Rays, one of which was the movie version for the original Fuji-TV 2006 cop series "Unfair"（アンフェア）, starring singer-actress Ryoko Shinohara（篠原涼子）as this take-no-guff police officer. From what I've read of the premise at Wikipedia, maybe this was Fuji-TV's version of "Dirty Harry". I never saw the show when I was living in Japan, but saw plenty of the commercials which probably shows how much faith that the powers-that-be had in "Unfair".
Their faith was well placed since the original drama came to beget a rash of specials and movies which ended in 2015.
Interesting how I've used the word "faith" twice in as many of the last two sentences because the theme song for the original series was "Faith" as recorded by Yuna Ito（伊藤由奈）. Now that is a name that I haven't heard in a long time since I wrote about her 2005 "Endless Story" back in the summer of 2016. "Faith" was Ito's 2nd single right after "Endless Story", released in March 2006 as "Faith/Pureyes", treated as a double-A-side release. Written by Kenn Kato and composed by J-Pop duo BOUNCEBACK, the theme song is an elegant soul ballad that seems to act like a reassuring counterpoint to the high tension and action that probably occurs in each episode. The single reached No. 6 on Oricon, going Double Platinum.
Yeah, that's not a bad thing, especially considering how sharp and strong the spotlight in Japan can be. I've never been to Hawaii although I have a good friend who lives there. It would be nice to visit someday.
ReplyDeleteWe used to hit up the Ito family izakaya back the day, just before Yuna hit it big. Naturally they played "Endless Story" in the restaurant ad nauseum and I got sick to death of it.
ReplyDeleteSo believe me: this single was a godsend! Just hearing something different was just a relief for my ears, haaaaa!
Hi, Saburo. Thanks for the good story. Although I can understand the family's pride in their daughter's achievement, I agree that variety is the spice of life. I'm just happy that I could find another Yuna tune to put up. All the best!
DeleteYep, they owned a fairly popular restaurant in Honolulu for a good chunk of the 2000s. Me and some friends made it our regular Friday night hangout around 2003 or so. It wasn't until some time later that she broke through with Sony Music and the restaurant became more well known for the show-biz connection.
ReplyDeleteWe made our last visit the weekend they closed in mid-October 2016. All of the Yuna music posters and imagery was still on display as it was, over a decade previously.