Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Preview of Winter 2013 offerings: Karamazov no Kyoudai (FujiTV)

Title: Karamazov no Kyoudai
Official site: here
Main cast members: Ichihara Hayato, Saito Takumi, Hayashi Kento
Details on storyline etc: here
Timeslot: Saturdays 11.10pm

Comments: This looks like a really emotionally-charged and controversial story based on what FujiTV wrote on the pre-site. "With a murder case in a suburb city set during chaotic times, the spotlight will be on harsh family problems and emotions like magma residing in young people while highlighting social problems like messy politics, social class gaps, educational problems, difficulty in securing employment and youngsters who can't see their futures." My only concern is, aren't they trying to squeeze too much into a drama? I am not expecting this to be as focused and intense as WOWOW's offerings like Shokuzai but it will be a waste of the original material if it turns out to be a mixture of everything without a proper central theme. And private networks tend to be restricted in many ways since funding is largely from advertising and sponsors unlike cable TV which has a bigger say in how they want to produce the dramas. Nonetheless, I haven't read the original before so there is no basis of comparison but this may help me in accepting this drama for whatever flaws it may have.

As for the cast, I have no particular strong liking nor dislike for them so I'm in this primarily for the story. This is probably a KIV case for me and I may drop it if it proves to be a half-baked attempt at what could potentially be a very engaging drama.

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