[Discussion] Good Luck! (Kimura Takuya, Tsutsumi Shinichi)

KimuTaku: Full Throttle!!! aka The Aerodynamics of Luuuve
Drama Review: Good Luck!

The Cast:
Kimura Takuya, Tsutsumi Shinichi, Shibasaki Kou, Kuroki Hitomi, Takenaka Naoto

In a Nutshell:
Commercial pilot Shinkai Hajime sets his sights on earning another stripe, but must first navigate through workplace issues, personal dilemmas, and unexpected romance at All Nippon Airways.

Aerodynamically Challenged

On the surface, Good Luck! looks as sleek as a newly minted airbus, with all the modern trappings of a workplace renai. But the plot encounters some, uh, turbulence due to contrived situations and mediocre writing in the first half. At first, it seemed to me that this drama simply… lucked out after the first episode. Roll Eyes

The opening sequence is promising enough with its brisk editing, modish music and saturated tropical hues (very One West Waikiki… look it up, heh). But after the initial thrill of watching a tan, toned, topless (!!!) Kimura Takuya sprint through downtown Honolulu in the first few minutes, the rest of the first episode, well, never really takes off.

The pilot *wink, wink* episode is usually a pretty reliable gauge of how the rest of the drama will play out. There are some exceptions, of course, as some dramas get progressively better and end up surprising you, while others get progressively worse after a pretty promising start. Good Luck! is no such exception. So why does this drama fail to, uh, leave the ground? *more winking* Hmmm, let me count the ways…

Good Luck! may be technically smooth and glossy (TBS certainly didn’t stint on the production values and overseas shoots, I’ll give ‘em that), but the story also suffers from faulty writing and (amateurishly) tries too hard to string together what the writers must have thought were Cute Rom-Com Moments and Cool Pilot-y Moments (they must have been contractually obligated to include at least 3 of each per episode, heh). Many situations have a manufactured feel, and seem like they were written in as mere springboards to An Important Moment in the story.

Case in point--Important Moment # 1: Guy meets Girl for the first time.

The Springboard: In Episode 1, Kimura’s character (the rookie co-pilot Shinkai Hajime) makes a rather bumpy landing after the captain (a dear old man whom we see far too little of) is debilitated by back spasms mid-flight. As soon as the plane is on the ground, a visibly PO’d member of the technical ground crew (who is obviously a SHE, and obviously the Main Love Interest in the story) confronts Shinkai and berates him for, er, not taking better care of the frickin’ plane. I’m not a pilot, but any knucklehead would know that in an in-flight emergency, a SAFE landing is better than a SMOOTH one. A “lowly” mechanic telling a pilot off for any negligence (real or imagined) immediately triggered a red flag for me. Dude, it just doesn’t happen. In the airline industry, you can’t change the pecking order anymore than you can tow a Boeing 747 ten inches using your teeth and a metal chain. So this encounter was obviously contrived to create sparks between the two. Goshdarn, I hate it when the writers do that. Cussing

And Little Miss Grouchy Mechanic (Shibasaki Kou) herself… the feeling of annoyance each time I saw her was like living beside an airport, and each second of your miserable existence is permeated by the rumble of jumbo jets overhead. It. Never. Really. Goes. Away. Crazy

Yah, we know, her parents died in a plane crash 13 years ago and she’s carried this ginormous chip on her shoulder ever since, yah we know she became an airplane mechanic to make sure the planes under her watch are in tip-top condition, yada yada. But you can’t fully sympathize with her because she just grates on you. Her sullen face and snappish ways don’t exactly endear the character to you, as she seems to be in this perpetual state of PMS (which can also stand for: Plane Mechanic Sub-humanoid, hahaha). She talks like a bleepin’ ventriloquist, too: blinks a lot but never moves her mouth and lower facial area. How does she do that? Amayyyzing!!! clapping

Jeesh.

I guess that’s why the Co-PilotShinkai + GrouchyMechanic love arc was a letdown for me. There was always that niggling feeling you were being set up for IT, and manipulated into saying, “oh how cute, look at them spar, they keep pushing each other’s buttons, oh how cute they are, ad infinitum, ad nauseam…”

Flights of Fancy

There are other such plot contrivances in the first half of the drama, especially when the story overplays the human angle inasmuch as the passengers are concerned. I can see why the writers thought that injecting all the human passenger drama would give a show about jumbo jets some kind of a SOUL, but the accompanying implausibility was downright counterproductive, to say the least. I was shaking my head a LOT in certain episodes, thinking, man… these Air Nippon passengers have got to be the most spoilt travelers to ever ride a plane. All they ever do is whine and complain and browbeat the crew into acceding to their every whim, realistic or not. In the first episode alone, Shinkai co-pilots a flight bound for LAX, but the airport is suddenly closed to traffic after a fire breaks out. A businessman on board throws a tantrum on the freaking plane and demands he be taken to Los Angeles pronto! for the earth-shattering reason that a business deal might fall through if he isn’t there in time. Jeesh. What this really is, is a Springboard to Important Moment # 2: When the Pilot gives the “Why We Do What We Do” speech. So Shinkai ditches flight protocol by leaving the cockpit to confront the Truculent Traveler and make him see the Error of His Ways, and explain why trying to land a plane in a burning airport is, um, A REALLY BAD IDEA. Doh!

The implausible scenarios just keep coming: In a later episode, a politician demands to be let off the plane mid-air because he’s afraid of flying. Whoopee. Another passenger refuses to let the plane take off without seeing her dead hubby first (okay, that episode was really sad, but I’m including this for illustrative purposes). Still on another flight, a doctor raises a stink when a sudden thunderstorm prevents the plane from landing at Narita, because there’s some sick kid back in Tokyo whom she needs to operate on. What pissed me off was her unreasonableness and misplaced sense of entitlement, in demanding to speak with the pilot and singlehandedly convince him to turn the freaking plane around and force a Narita landing, thunderstorms be damned. (Geez, lady, you ain’t the only competent surgeon in Japan, and if the medical procedure were such an emergency, I’m sure other doctors would be more than happy to save that poor kid’s life.) That whole episode = Logic FAIL!!! I mean, I know that the crew are committed to making a passenger feel comfortable and relaxed during a flight, but appeasing their antagonism and indulging their outbursts will serve no purpose at all.

What’s odd is that Good Luck! was produced in the post-9/11 world, where flight attendants and plane marshals supposedly have wider legal latitude in dealing with Difficult Customers. Maybe the writers of Good Luck! conveniently forgot the other side of the coin: a passenger gone haywire poses a significant risk to the REST of those aboard, not to mention the flight crew, and must be dealt with AS SUCH. There’s only so much room to try and placate agitated fliers, because there are bound to be a few on any flight, on any airline. But when push comes to shove, when passengers become hostile and physically aggressive, then any airline worth its propellers should have the proper security measures in place to address these types of situations. Isn’t there some sort of Escalation Protocol? When reasoning with them fails, inform them (politely, but firmly) of the possible consequences of their actions. If that fails, threaten them with jail time. Handcuff them to their seat. Pump ‘em full with sedatives, if needed. I mean, for crying out loud, on any given commercial flight there are 300-odd people jammed in a metal cylinder whizzing at breakneck speed 10,000 meters in the air. Will everyone just let the freaking pilots do their freaking JOB? Which is to fly the freaking plane and get people from point A to point B in one freaking piece. True, emergencies happen, the unforeseeable can change a flight plan and all that, which is all the more reason to trust the crew to make the decisions and the judgment calls that only THEY are trained to make. And besides, we all know that in the Real World, passengers generally do as they’re told. All that drama aboard the Air Nippon flights in Good Luck! was just that… DRAMA. Mad

When there’s no undergirding logic to the dialogue and actions, the story loses steam before it even leaves the ground. A drama without a feasible plot is a rudderless ship—er, plane. Mediocre writing is the proverbial bird-caught-in-the-propeller of any film or TV show. And you know what happens to the aircraft when a flock of wild geese gets sucked into the blades…? Crash and burn, baby.

Liiiiiving on a Jetplane

That being said, what probably prevents Good Luck! from taking a complete tailspin into Drama FAIL!!! territory is the improved writing in the latter third of the story. In these final episodes, the implausible situations are (thankfully) jettisoned and the plot streamlined as the main characters’ trajectories come to a head. Important Decisions need to be made, and Formidable Obstacles must be hurdled. Old Grudges and Past Sins are revisited, and the Requisite Confrontations must take place before Personal Healing can commence. Lives are re-examined and motives are questioned… Self-doubt and recrimination are Dealt With. But it is the Human Spirit that Triumphs In the End. And, well, you don’t ever complain that it does.

I found myself thoroughly involved (and just as satisfied) with the final 3 episodes, as the denouement kept me on the ragged edge, asking-- Will Shinkai ever get to fly a plane again? Will Koda (Tsutsumi Shinichi) and Togashi (Kuroki Hitomi) end up together? Will Koda ever forgive himself after all this time? Will Ogawa (Shibasaki Kou) forgive HIM? Again, you know your buttons are being pushed and you’re being set up for something, but this time, it WORKS. Maybe it was the heart-stopping climax, or the acting tour de force from the main cast (with the notable exception of Shibasaki Kou), or the writing having a more natural feel than the first few episodes. At some point the drama stops trying too hard to bear the onus of its own lofty ambition—i.e. to make an Ultra-Cool Pilot Drama with a Heart. And when that happens, as the final episodes prove, the story becomes more of a human drama dealing with real people and not mere stereotypes, something less artificial and more personal—and thus, infinitely more believable.

[A note on the soundtrack: Loved it from the start! Such infectiously funky, up-tempo tunes! I also liked the statelier pieces used for Important Dramatic Moments, which made my spirit soar. And the whole feel of the theme song “Ride on Time” (despite the English lyrics making NO SENSE whatsoever) perfectly mirrors the warm, mellow colors suffusing the hangar as the cast members pose languidly by the jumbo jets in the end credits sequence. This song is best listened to on a lazy Sunday afternoon; it evokes a future free of worries, and just beyond the horizon—an endless blue sky of possibilities. Plus, every time Kimura turns around wearing those Ray-Bans and his KimuTaku Smile of Awesomeness, my head explodes. Ouchy. w00t

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[A note on the airline industry inside stuff: I really was impressed with the production values, and all the efforts of the drama to (literally) bring you into the cockpit, and witness how those pilots and flight crew Work It. From my standpoint, all the flying stuff seemed credible enough, though somewhere in Japan, a REAL aviator (or two) might have screamed, “That’s NOT how you maneuver the center stick, you eejit!!! Baka! Baka!” (Or something to that effect. Big Smile

) Wow, All Nippon Airways must have given TBS the keys to one of their hangars and told the staff, “Planes are all yours, baby. Go crazy!” At first I wondered why TBS didn’t use JAL (being the flagship carrier and all), but that would have been pushing it. Hehe. So ANA it is.]

Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (haha)

I was very much caught up in the interesting dynamic between the senior flight attendant Togashi, and the perpetually dour, audit-happy cyborg-pilot, Koda. I just want to get this in: as far as the East is from the West, I adore Chief Togsahi as much as I, well, abhor Ogawa the Grouchy Mechanic. Amid a gaggle of flaky, flight(y) attendants, Togashi’s sensible, down-to-earth ways are refreshing indeed. Kuroki Hitomi is terrific! She nailed the maturity and grace of a flight attendant past her prime, the quiet sadness and wistful irony over a lost love, her dedication to her passengers, and the warmth of her smile belying the defeat in her eyes. Love her! Wub

As for the Flying Cyborg Koda, most ably played by Tsutsumi Shinichi (he’s well-built and good-looking, I’ll give him that. a true hunk in the sense that Kimura isn’t, heehee!), for the first few episodes I must admit being peeved with him, going around like a heartless Tin-Man-Robot-God-Inhumanoid who’d ground his pilots if so much as a speck of lint was found on the windshield—or something like that. NOT the kind of dude you’d want to mess with: piercing gaze, stiff upper lip, obsessed with propriety and rules and manuals, who can’t stand it when a “Maverick” (look--an homage!!! an homage to Top Gun!!! I managed to sneak it in! My Pilot Movie Reference # 1! *ka-ching!* hahahahahahaha) like Kimura’s character flies a plane using his heart more than his brains. Ahaahh—thought I, welcome to the Jedi Master Koda School for Losers, where reverse psychology and sadistic cruelty are but a two-pronged approach to Making Pilots Better here at All Nippon Airways. Whip them into excellence! Mess with their heads—they’ll thank you later! Wonderful.

But then, maybe that’s exactly the kind of person a pilot ought to be. As the story progressed I found myself agreeing with Koda more and more with each flight decision he executed, each judgment call that he made, even if they sometimes ran counter to what the Pampered Passengers demanded, or to what Average-Skilled-Pilot-With-Compassion-in-His-Heart (read: Shinkai) sometimes so misguidedly pushed for. Aside from his competence and cool efficiency, what won me over to Team Koda was the fact that among everyone else, he never lost perspective, and refused to be swayed by sentiment or public opinion. He had a JOB to do, as did the crew, and he never let them forget that. We learn later on of his involvement in the plane crash twelve years prior, which further explains why he would ride everyone so hard. But history or no history, I’d still be on his side. Let’s just say that I’d feel WAAAAY safer riding a plane if I knew Koda was the skipper. Sorr-ee, Co-Pilot Shinkai… but it’ll take more than niceness and a good heart to be an excellent pilot. *shrugs*

As much as I adore Kimura, it really is Koda’s character that’s better-written and more… complex. This is seen especially in the second half of the drama, when he grapples with past demons as well as more recent ones. And you cheer him on his journey, until he finally breaks free from his own personal prison of guilt and self-condemnation. This sounds like trite crap, but it’s only when you’ve first forgiven yourself can you truly enjoy the forgiveness of those whom you’ve wronged. Kimura’s character Shinkai is ostensibly more likeable than Koda ever is, because Shinkai is this Good-hearted Everyman (and a bit of an Underdog, as well) out to prove his Worth in the world… How’s that for likeability? But the real meatiness of Shinkai’s character only comes out in the final two episodes of the drama, when his personal life unexpectedly takes a nosedive (pun intended). Life IS unfair. Life SUCKS. People, circumstances, even your own self, can let you down. It is how Shinkai comes to terms with this adversity that causes his character to truly shine. I love how Episode 9 takes the viewer along his downward spiral of disbelief, denial, anger, bitterness, and defeat, before a fresh tail wind of hope (in second chances), and faith (in himself and in others), and the promise of love, lifts him out of the depths.

On the Wings of Love

As I’ve said, the Koda-Togashi love arc is definitely one of my favorite. As early as the first episode it’s clear that these two share a Past, and that their relationship Did Not End Well. But you continue to root for them, you can sense the strong feelings rippling underneath the impeccable professionalism, and you can’t wait to dig up the rest of their history, can’t wait for the story to take you back to What Happened Between Them—and you suspect it had something to do with the fateful 12-year-old plane crash. Maybe the writers of Good Luck! do Mature Love best—obviously, the Koda-Togashi dynamic is light-years more satisfying for me than the Shinkai-Ogawa engineered romance. As the Senior FA, Togashi’s warm disposition is a perfect foil to Koda’s stony aloofness. You hate it that he’s so mean to her, but you know he loves her still, after all these years, after all that’s happened since. Mature love has something that young love, sweet love doesn’t: again, perspective. Mature love has perspective, one shaped by the passage of time, by experiencing some loss, by growing up a little, by moving on, by LIVING. And it’s attributable to both the writing and the spot-on performances from Tsutsumi Shinichi and Kuroki Hitomi, that despite their limited scenes together (they’re JUST supporting characters, after all… would it were not the case! heehee) and sparsely dished personal history (you really have to read between the lines to milk it all out), it’s entirely believable that these two persons once shared a deeply committed love, but lost it to chance, or choice, or circumstance. Some of their scenes together actually frickin’ made me cry—that’s how emotionally invested I was in their story. How both individuals find their way back to Love (in a most satisfying manner, too!) isn’t so much a happy ending as it is a new beginning, as they learn to let go of the past before forging a new future—together.

And as a corollary, I can’t stress enough how disappointed I was when the Shinkai-Ogawa chemistry fizzled, sputtered--and DIED A THOUSAND DEATHS!!! Cussing

(You see, I had just come off watching Pride and Hero, both dramas with the good fortune of possessing that elusive winning formula: excellent writing + fine acting from BOTH LEADS + terrific chemistry = Romance WIN!!! So am I being a tad too harsh on Good Luck! for being such a dismal Romance FAIL!!! between the two leads? Perhaps, perhaps not. Damn you, Pride and Hero, for setting such high standards!!! *Charlton Heston mode: shakes fist at Statue of Liberty* Damn you all!!! /end rant) To be completely fair (and I’m not *just* speaking as a Kimura Fangirl here, see), what made the Shinkai-Ogawa scenes borderline watchable was Kimura Takuya himself, and the 4,505,233 megatons of pure, undiluted Kimura Awesomeness that he brings to all of his roles, all of his scenes, all of his dramas. The Kimura Awesomeness sometimes made me fuhggedabout how insufferably obnoxious Grouchy Mechanic was (an emotionally tepid, one-dimensional performance care of Shibasaki Kou’s Acting FAIL!!!). All she ever did in Good Luck! was sulk and skulk (around the hangar) and give Shinkai the Evil Eye. The only rational explanation I could think of for her behavior was that she’s actually a robot—and probably self-assembled too, which would explain why she was so good with the machinery, hahaha. I seriously wanted to kick a wrench in her direction and scream, Oy! lassie, you pissy little missy, don’t waste your time—and mine! Just… go fix a propeller blade, or something! Go… screw a plane! Hahahahah—geddit? Hahahahaa… Jeesh.

Okay, so maybe by the time I reached the last two episodes of Good Luck!, I wasn’t exactly hurling invectives (and my dad’s tool box) at my TV screen anymore. Whatever you think of Shibashaki Kou’s acting (or lack thereof) in this drama, you still want those two lovebirds to end up together—because it ain’t exactly rocket science or particle physics to figger out that Kimuradoramas like Good Luck! ARE REALLY ALL ABOUT THAT. Airplanes, hockey rinks, race tracks, and the various characters and dilemmas wherewithal—are but the shifting, interchangeable mise-en-scene to a KimuTaku Romance, whose one inviolable law is that KimuTaku Always Gets the Girl. So by sealing their, um, turbulent, oft-interrupted romance with a tender kiss on the beach in the final episode, the Shinkai-Ogawa love arc finally takes flight—and soars off into clear azure skies and the warm Hawaiian sun. And what else can you do but give the happy couple a thumbs-up and wish them, “Good Luck!” thumright

I just LOVED the family angle of Good Luck! because these scenes had that normal rhythm that was sorely missing from the rest of the drama (aside from the Koda-Togashi moments, that is). No stilted situations here, or encounters that just screamed: “Trying too hard!!! Logic FAIL!!!” Kimura has marvelous chemistry with the actors playing his dad and his brother—nothing forced or self-conscious, just the normal relational dynamics within a family. Those family scenes were moments of such honesty and emotional connectedness, and affected me more than a dozen of the Requisite Romantic Encounters (with their manufactured sparks—boo! hiss!) ever could. The longish sequence in Episode 2 where Kimura visits his family while contemplating resignation made my eyes mist over; also notable is a later scene where the family go on a midnight fishing jaunt. In Episode 9, Shinkai’s hospital scenes with his father are as moving as they are uncontrived, and I kept hitting the rewind button because I couldn’t get enough of their respective performances. Had the Love : Family screen time proportion NOT been so effin’ skewed, Good Luck! could have actually turned out a pretty good drama.

Meet the Motley (Flight) Crew

Of the supporting cast, I particularly liked the actor playing the Chief Purser Ota, that persnickety little ajusshi (er, wrong language, I know) so lovable in his earnestness to Do a Good Job. And of course, there’s Takenaka Naoto as one of the Air Nippon pilots (a character so incongruously named Jane Naitou), who in Good Luck! reprises his inimitable role as Hentai-with-the-Many-Accents. This K-drama fan has seen but a few Jdoramas so far, so everything is still kind of… fresh and new for me. So the first time Takenaka Naoto came out in Good Luck!, I fairly sat up and screamed, it’s that “German” conductor from Nodame Cantabile!!! Sans the white flowing wig and the fake Mr. Potatohead Nose!!! (Man, in Nodame Cantabile he was just SO debauched… but SO fascinating, it more than made up for my loathing for that retarded piano-banger Nodame.) Seriously, who can play the part better than this guy? He reminds me of all those men (in real life) who have no redeeming physical attributes whatsoever (read: fugly as hell) but have no trouble at all scoring some babes. (Must be the sense of humor. Ain’t it always the sense of humor?) Here in Good Luck!, free of that ridiculous disguise from Nodame Cantabile, I found Takenaka Naoto to be no less hilarious—more so, even. His sarcastic, off-the-cuff one-liners (delivered with such incongruous panache!) were SO hysterical to watch, especially when aimed at Kimura’s character, that you wonder how much of it was ad lib. Brilliant!

The other minor characters were forgettable at best (like Shintai’s mental Korean-speaking neighbor, so very YAWNNN for me), and annoying at worst (like that rookie flight attendant Fukaura who has the hots for Shinkai and creates trouble for Pilot Koda somewhere in the first half of the drama). Natch, it goes without saying that my favorite characters (aside from Kimura’s Shinkai Hajime, for as you all know by now I am bound for life to this man and his 4,505,233 megatons of Kimura Awesomeness) are Koda (Tsutsumi Shinichi) and Togashi (Kuroki Hitomi). Kuroki Hitomi is just sooo lovely!!! And Tsutsumi Shinichi, I gotta admit, is one Hunk with an Attitude! Heehee… I can’t decide if I’d go with Tsutsumi Shinichi’s chiseled face and Terminator physique over Kimura Takuya’s, er, whippet-like frame and less conventionally handsome features, but I MUST say that both men are incredibly good-looking male specimens, a double-whammy of stupendous yumminess!!! (So who wins? I do!!! I do!!! Hahahahahahaha dance

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Air KimuTaku, Ready for Takeoff!!!

I’d love to see Shinichi Tsutsumi in whatever other stuff he’s in, but my Beating heart

and soul are unabashedly Kimura Country. Whatever I’ve said about how Good Luck! was written, or how Co-Pilot Shinkai’s character was written, I have nothing against Kimura’s performance. Kimura’s comedic timing is pure frickin’ gold, baby, every single time. I don’t know how he does it—it’s one of those things you either have or you don’t. And this guy’s got it wholesale. I also love how Kimura inserts these little details in his acting — a shift in his gaze, a quiver of the cheek, a quirking of the eyebrow, a cocking of the head, a curl of the lip, a rapid blink, a flash of the eyes, an impatient little gesture, a barely-there alteration in the timbre of his voice, a goofy grin, an unexpected yelp of surprise, a tensing of the shoulders, a change in his step… they all MEAN something, they come off so spontaneously yet you know are intended (nay—calculated) to make the character a little easier to believe in, to sympathize with, to understand, to root for. 99 % of the time these mannerisms enhance the character more than they detract from it. They help you get you inside his skin, inside his mind, inside his soul.

Kimura is SMART actor because he uses every tool available to him—the camera, the dialogue, his own lithe body and highly mobile face (the body being an actor’s primary instrument), even the other actors in the scene with him, and the physical space in which they move—and he makes them all work to bring out the best in his performance. He really is the consummate performer, and by no means am I being condescending here. I’m not even referring to his singing and dancing, though they may have helped shape his perspective into what it is now. To PERFORM denotes something you do before an audience, a viewership, and in Kimura’s body of work, PERFORM is precisely what he does. (Performing does not necessarily mean being a self-conscious actor, which Kimura is not.) The way he inhabits a role like a second skin, the way he is so completely in the zone when he acts, becoming that person, thinking his thoughts and feeling his emotions, reacting to the story the way the character was written (no, even better, judging from his ability to adapt, add to and improvise on a role)—are nothing short of amazing. And YET he does this from an audience-savvy perspective that allows him to communicate his character across so effectively. It must be loads harder to do what he does, because there’s always that little part of him that remains attuned to the needs of the audience, while the rest of him is committed to fleshing out the role. But then that’s what also makes him so… WATCHABLE, ACCESSIBLE, and LIKABLE, regardless of the way the character was written: funny or dark, meaty or stereotypical. He’s a winner, that one. I’ve got to tell the guy (to use pilot lingo): “You. Have it!” Hahahahaha Not Worthy

He’s so handsome here that I often forget what those little white characters near the bottom of my TV screen are. It’s only when that fickle, treacherous camera leaves his face that I remember they’re supposed to be the fan-subbed lines of dialogue that I kind of NEED TO READ in order to understand the story.

Which brings us to: “How to really enjoy Good Luck!, despite its flaws:”

Whenever Kimura Takuya appears in a scene: Hit pause. Play. Pause. Rewind. Play. Slow frame. Rewind. Play. Repeat all over again.

Good heavens… Seeing him so uncharacteristically clean-cut (with hair shorter than his collar line--whoopee!) and looking so dapper in those crisp white uniforms with the pilot stripes, and the aviator shades-----I lose, man. I lose it. I lose it completely. I hit pause, go to the nearest corner of my room, and start to CHEW ON MY BIG TOE. Because that’s JUST WHAT YOU DO to survive the KimuTaku Onslaught of Awesomeness. (I’d sometimes wonder whether Air Nippon ticket sales, er, skyrocketed while Good Luck! was being aired in Japan. Wouldn’t be surprised if they did, heh.)

IF Kimura were THIS cute in all his other stuff, the universe as we know it would simply explode in an endless haze of pixie dust. So it kind of works out that he has to have the hair of a troll figurine in most of his other dramas. He’s really doing it to SAVE THE WORLD from total annihilation!!! Ain’t KimuTaku just the best?

Gaaahhhh. I obviously have some more toe-chewing to do… w000t

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:44 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Thanks a lot for the insults, so we aircraft mechanics are lowly sub humans huh?

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:20 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

A lowly mechanic? Are you frigging crszy? I was a aircraft mechanic in a previous life, the Air Force, and do you know how much training we have? Are you going to put a $17 million dollar high performance jet aircraft in the hands of a low life? God, just go and insult anyone who has work on jets before. Argh!

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 12:34 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

^ Sorry if the review rubbed you the wrong way. Please note that the word "lowly" is in quotation marks. I was alluding to how (I'd assume) the ground crew would be normally regarded in relation to their more "esteemed" colleagues in the airline industry (i.e. the pilots, cabin attendants, flight supervisors, etc.).

Well, reality check, but that's capitalist society for you. There's a long tradition of division of work between the "respectable" white-collar worker, and the "lowly" blue-collar laborer. (Again, note my usage of quotation marks.) Blue-collar work is categorized as vocational/manual in contrast to professional/executive jobs. Unfortunately, that's the default structure of labor: I was just pointing out the occupational discrimination being practiced by society, not that I in any way condone it. And I can just imagine the social divide to be wider than ever in such a hierarchical society as Japan (even more so than in the West).

As for calling Shibasaki Kou's character a "Plane Mechanic Sub-humanoid," by "sub-humanoid" I was referring to Shibasaki's robotic acting, and not her character's line of work. If you re-read the paragraph, I was kvetching about how sullen, stiff and unemotional she was the whole time. Sorry if it gave you the wrong idea. No offense was meant. Wink

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 5:54 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

If you want a reality check, spend some time with pilots. You'll lose that fan girl worship you got going there. I worked as a mechanic for 20 years and while there were a few pilots I respected, I wouldn't give 2 cents for the majority of them, and a few I wouldn't even go in the air with.

And as for telling off a pilot, I've bitched out idiot pilots that messed up "my" aircraft a few times

Posted: Wed Jul 01, 2009 7:15 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Hi Enders MY Girl...

Well youv'e done it again. A brilliant piece of writing and most of it hits the nail on the head.
All I could think of to say was ...IT'S A DAMN DRAHMAH....!!!!!!!

It dosen't matter how close to real life it is. I don't care if the pilot is in love with flying a plane. I don't care how stupid the girl with the spanner is. She was wrong for the role. She was dull. She didn't impress me with her ability to fix a loose screw. I can't think what Shinkai saw in her. Maybe just because she was so mean and angry and didn't chase after him....maybe...

This was a great vehicle for all the cast really. especially Kimura san. He just glows in that uniform. He loved wearing it and he said he falt rather pleased with himself when he walked through a hotel lobby to go and do a scene. Something there is about a man in a uniform. Cool

Somewhere there is a clip of an NG scene which is so perfectly funny that it is worth watching once a month. Kimura and Shinichi and that other actor playing sarcastic pilot, whose name escapes me. Kimura word and action perfect. Shinichi only had a short couple of lines and he blew it over and over until the only one not exploding was Kimura but his back was turned and hs shoulders shaking. I must find it and send it to you.

I loved GOOD LUCK even tho it is not my most favourite drama of the lighter persuasion.

Your critique of the drama is spot on.

Peg

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 12:39 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 1:50 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

I'm only half seriously wrangling with you.

The perception of pilots/mechanics is probably the same here too, which is why mechanics will get so pissy over the subject. In fact a lot of mechanics refuse to use the term and insist on being called technicians instead.

And actually as for Shibasaki Kou and her character, I rather liked her. Maybe because it's rare to actually get to see mechanics in serious/main roles in aviation related shows and movies. That and she was actually nicer and had more personality than the female mechanic I worked with.

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:44 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Gir,

I don't know anything about plane mechanics these days. However, I know that my husband .who was a fighter/bomber pilot with the RAF in WWII was on very good terms with his ground crew. They all worked extremely well together. You don't go nose in the air to groundcrew when you are doing missions over enemy territory.
Planes were turned around very quickly in the days of 1939 and 1941 when England was holding back a rather large Luftwaffe alone.
Bomb loaders were a tough group and it was sometimes very hairy when a live bomb would not leave the rack over a target. Not the mechanics fault at all. It just happened that way. Even more heart stopping when the pilot had to land his plane back at the field. My husband had to do that once and he said it was the smoothest landing he ever made in his life. It figures. then what? .. the mechanics and the bomb guys had to get it off the rack. Everyone was good at his job then... and had to be.
That was before jets of course...Sigh.

Peggy

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 4:22 am Post subject: Post Rating: 0

^ Gosh, Peggy, I had no idea your husband was part of HISTORY!!! salut

Pilots, ground crew, NCOs, infantry, servicemen, what have you--anyone who ever served and fought during that time has my utmost respect. I'm like, so in awe! *fangirly gushing* Not Worthy

I'm a huuuuuge history buff (I know, I know, impossible to tell from all my KimuTaku panegyrics, haha), and the WW II Saga is one of my all-time favorite chapters in history. Have the books and the Band of Brothers DVD and all that stuff. cheers

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 2:43 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Ok, still off topic really. But I just came across this and it seemed to tie in here:

http://www.comcast.net/articles/news-general/20090701/US.ODD.Naked.Airline.Passenger/

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 3:22 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:27 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

This is a thread about jdrama and we seem to be enjoying all the posts about flying and maintenance etc. I found it very interesting.
There is a very early Takuya Kimura film which is about flying and the kamikase flights out over the Pacific to torpedo and bomb the US vessels. I saw this and thought it was a good story. Of course it is fiction based on fact in order to give the actors some leeway for emoting. However, I am intrigued by finding out later that all the kamikase flights were sent out with only one plane having enough fuel to get back to base to report results. I wonder if this was true and is that why so many pilots let their torpedos and bombs go and then deliberately crashed into a ship to finish it off.
It seems creditable because they were still in the samurai traditions in Japan and the preparation for the night before the flight was very set and deliberate. Reminded me of the Mediavel Knights before they went into battle. A night of prayer and meditation for them.

Does anyone know if this 'one plane fueled for home' is really true.

Have to remember that these pilots were all extremely young and imbued with the spirit of duty and death.

Peggy

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:30 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

By the way I think this film is called 'FLYBOYS' but could be wrong. Eguchi Toshiaki was also a lead if not the main lead.

Good film if you can find it.

Peg

Posted: Thu Jul 02, 2009 7:39 pm Post subject: Post Rating: 0

The drama 'A MILLION STARS FELL' is one of my favourite Kimura dramas. I think the story was so detailed and very intriguing. Mysterious even, up to the point where you knew the awful truth, as it were.
Alll my focus was on the Kimura role and I thought he showed so much change of emotions without over acting in any way. I think normally you would be on the side of the law but for me Sanma was a horrrid man. He was a killer who tried to save himself but he really was obsessed. He did not want to lose control of the girl and that made him almost into a killer again. Even at the very end he did not seem to be sad or remorseful and went off riding into the sunset.

For me the ending of the two young ones was perfect and had to be that way.
As E.G. has said 'A Greek Tragedy' indeed. Even 'Lady of the Lake.' I expected a figure clothed in white samite to appear out of the lake to escort them away. Cool

Peg