en-us http://www.keithwatanabe.net/index.php Keith Watanabe's Website http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/421398a352e197310c4a14b90e0a1faa.html Daisuki!", staring model-gone-actress Karina. The show is about a mentally handicapped woman, who possesses the mind of an 8 year old, and is trying to rear a child after her husband is killed in an accident. The drama often switches between comedy and melodrama as Karina, her child and the family face numerous challenges.

Currently, Karina's performance has earned her heaps of praise as she attempts to dismiss the image of being "just another pretty face" to someone who is capable of handling more difficult roles. Despite this praise, I find the show and her act extremely disappointing. First, I'm not sure if this is true or not, but she's supposedly playing a retarded woman. Or perhaps even someone with autism. I've had some difficulty discerning what type of mental disorder she has in the show. However, in the first two cases, my biggest complaint is that no retard or autistic person is EVER that gorgeous. It's just not realistic.

Next, her character seems far too intelligent for either case. I mean, she can read and perform some levels of deduction. I've worked with autistic kids in the past and found that most cannot logically formulate anything continuous. Again, the problem I have is not truly understanding what sort of mental disorder she has. I presume (according to the translations) that she's retarded in the show, but her retardation is a far cry from the people I've either worked with or seen.

Instead, what her performance amounts to is what I think is a typical Japanese girl trying to grow up. She's stupid like most average teenagers here, constantly cries (which seems to be a pre-requisite of "good" acting in Japan for women) and formulates logical conclusions on massive leaps in logic, like someone trying to go to point D from A but skipping B and C in the process and instead hitting point X.

Most of the show attempts to garner sympathy for the family and character and to make retardation/mental disability seem humane. I don't mind the purpose, but the execution is terrible and far too forced. They want to portray her as being noble through her innocence and ignorance. That's fine but at some level my conspiracy theory tells me it's another way to validate people's inherent stupidity. For instance, there's a scene where she admonishes her child for tossing their pet turtle. She tells her kid that because her father and her caught the pet turtle, the pet turtle thus is her father. In the background, her family cracks up and it's an acknowledgment that her innocence is a treasured thing. However, I look at this as like watching Beavis and Butthead, where Butthead makes some odd conclusion through his limited reasoning capability.

One of my friends was talking about Japanese dramas and their formulaic nature. I do see this with this show, trying to use her challenges as obstacles she must overcome by the end of the episode as each episode builds towards the character facing her biggest challenge yet, not unlike a Japanese video game. I guess, unlike most dramas though, there isn't an "end" to her situation, just a gradual acceptance of her growth as her kid matures and the family finds ways to deal with this situation.]]> Sat, 15 Mar 2008 21:41:31 -0600 http://www.keithwatanabe.net/blogs/2008/3/15/421398a352e197310c4a14b90e0a1faa.html