Heaven's Coin (1995)

Television shows and movies that center on a disabled person have been around a long time -- it's really nothing new. What's Eating Gilbert Grape is a classic and even in the world of Japanese dramas they appear, such as the autistic girl Mayuko in Kimi ga Oshietekureta Koto. Most of the time, as these examples illustrate, the disabled characters are both a source and cause of pity. In Hoshi no Kinka, the central character Aya, a deaf girl, is refreshingly strong and encouraging, taking almost all negativity and turning it into something positive. Hoshi no Kinka is about Aya, a nurse, falling in love with the doctor she works for, Shuichi. Shuichi suffers a devastating setback -- the trials the two experience is the central plot of the story.

I wanted so much to like this drama. The character of Aya is so compelling and acted so wonderfully by Sakai Noriko that I felt it was completely wasted by incredibly horrible writing full of unrealistic events and inept characterization. I was frustrated through the entire drama because of the absurdity of most of the situations. They simply felt forced.

Most of the actors weren't that great, but they really didn't have much to work with. Takenouchi Yutaka did a decent job through the whole series with a strong performance in the last two episodes. He also had the only character that actually grew as the series progressed. Osawa Takao I felt was sub par, but nowhere near as bad as the remaining actors. As I stated previously, I really enjoyed Sakai Noriko. I felt her facial expressions were real and thus I felt I could sympathize with her, not as a disabled person but simply as a human being. The frustration of being disabled was there, but it wasn't overdone at all -- just enough to experience it as the audience.

There were a few other good points, though. I managed to shed a tear a few times during the series. Most of the time they were for Aya's character (her selflessness was very moving... I'm a sucker for that sort of thing). Unfortunately the bad far outweighs the good for this particular drama.

I compare this drama to the old video game Bubble Bobble. I sat through 255 stages of that game, fighting through one frustrating level after another, just so I can see what the end would be like. After finishing the last boss, you find you get the crappy ending, and you need to go through all 255 levels again to get the good ending. And just like in Bubble Bobble, I'm going to watch season two of this drama in hopes I can get a good ending. I have my doubts.

(Originally posted August 6th, 2006.)

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