J-newbie: Kou Kou Kyoushi 2003

Since Hotaru no Hikari, I kinda fell for Fujiki Naohito;

in fact, I had already seen him before, but only in minor roles, in Hana Yori Dango Final - he was the guy from the casino, Kaburagi (I remember saying: 'hey, this guy is handsome) and in Proposal Daisakusen, which I never finished.

I was searching for him on youtube and found some episodes of a thing called 'Kou Kou Kyoushi'; I just clicked and watched for a few minutes and then I looked up for the drama on dramawiki and discovered that the plot was, among other things, about the love beetween a teacher and his student.

I've always had a thing for this kind of stuff, especially since last year I was sooo in love with a professor from my university (of course, he never knew), so I said 'yay! I wanna watch this.' And that's what I eventually did.

The twist in episode two was ruined for me, because that was the exact part I had watched on youtube, but nevertheless, it didn't make the drama less interesting. It's my first 'serious' drama ever, 'cause I usually search for comedies to watch, I hate sad movies.

It's also the first one starring Aya Ueto - I saw that she's really popular, she played in a lot of dramas, but I had never heard of her before.

Mostly every character is a bit or more crazy;

the most annoying for me was Fujimura-sensei, the English teacher (I heard that he was also in the 1993 Kou Kou Kyoushi - which I don't intend to watch); I thought he was creepy from the first episode, and it turned out I had a good intuition. Also, this female teacher who's in love with Fujimura annoyed me like hell, with no particular reason tho.

Yuji, the crazy host, played by Nariymia-kun - I think he was kind of exaggerated, but I liked that they portrayed the world of hosts closer to reality, showing the bad sides of it, similar to what I recently saw in a documentary about male host clubs in Japan.

Beniko, Hina's best friend, played by Sonim...I wanted to slap her all the time because, come on, how can a girl be so stupid and trust a guy that much??

The doctor - not that she was terribly ugly (or so she seems to me), but she was also crazy and no morals at all! how could she defend Koga's lie and not tell the truth to Hina?? she was a doctor, for god's sake!
Later edit: I take back my words, just saw that she was born in 1957! so she is just old, not ugly.

The crazy schoolgirl involved in nasty business, who I was afraid would rape Koga before the end

Hina, played by Aya Ueto - I liked her and thought that she delivered a good performance as the innocent high-school girl who falls in love for the first time. But why did she have to wear that yellow scarf throughout the whole movie??

And Koga-sensei, played by Nao was, of course, my favourite character. I never thought a math teacher could be so sexy! there was absolutely nothing disturbing about his relationship with Hina, because they looked so good together and had great chemistry.

I suggest you watch it, but not if you're into fast-paced movies. I think Kou Kou Kyoushi is mostly psychological; I like this genre, but for some people it might seem boring.
Also, I cried in the last episodes, especially in episode 9 I think? yeah, I think 9 it was - they're 11 in total; oh, I wish there was a special - on dramawiki the special is listed, but I couldn't find it anywhere - personally I think It doesn't exist. Too bad...I wanted to know what actually happened in the end. But I'm not gonna spoil the ending here.

Here's the plot:

Hina, a high-school student meets a man named Koga Ikumi in a game arcade. He lies to him that she is 20 and aneds up spending the night at his house. The next day, he turns up as the new math teacher at her school. He doesn't seem to recognize Hina at first but the wheels of fate are slowly moving to reunite them in what is a passionate story of forbidden love.

One of the main underlying themes of this drama is death (Koga is dying because of a brain tumor). Another important theme is the struggle the main characters have in trying to realize the difference between love and dependence.