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- Dr X poster
I watched this drama series and also the film of the same title and same characters, early last year.
I heard that South Korea is about to bring out their own version of this Japanese drama. I have to say, it would be hard, if not impossible, to better the actors of this Japanese drama.
Shun Oguri as Toru Hyuga, the Rich Man made the role his. He was so good as the young IT genius who built an empire. He was arrogant and cocky and yet really vulnerable at the same time. Whilst Satomi Ishihara, played Makoto Natsui, with so much effervescent, innocence and bravado.
They had such a good chemistry.
The story goes that Toru Hyuga is a high school dropout who started an IT company called Next Innovation, which made him a multi-millionaire and a president of his company. The company became huge and was listed in Forbes; therefore everyone wants to join Next Innovation.
One of these was Makoto Natsui, who was on her last year of university. She had been job-seeking for the last 8 months and had gone through more than 30 rigorous job interviews but no such luck.
By chance, she saw a notice that Next Innovation is doing a job fair. She decided to attend,
During the job fair, the speaker was Toru Hyuga himself and made Makoto an object of his ridicule for the pathetic unemployable job-seekers.
Makoto did not take the insult lying down. She showed him she has an exemplary memory by reciting verse and chapter of his company info.
Hyuga was not not excessively impressed but in desperation Makoto said her name is Chihiro Sawaki. Hyuga was visibly intrigued. Nevertheless, Makoto was not considered for any position in the Next Innovation.
Hyuga has an affliction of prosopagnosia. He has face blindness, he can’t remember faces of people.
Anyway, Chihiro Sawaki is Hyuga’s mother, who abandoned him when he was still a little boy. He grew up in an orphanage before he was finally adopted. Hyuga has always been curious where his mother was and has obsessively looked for her. It was over 10 years ago that Hyuga and Makoto first met in her village.
Hyuga once came looking for his mother and asked the then young Makoto if she knew a woman called Chihiro Sawaki, who was supposed to be living in their village. Makoto knew but Chihiro previously said that she would not want to meet her son if one day he does come looking for her. It was a close chapter in her life. Makoto therefore denied any knowledge of Chihiro to Hyuga. She always carried this guilt.
Now in the present: Makoto suddenly got a call from Next Innovation, about a project that they would like her to be involved with initially.
Actually, I was so surprised with this part of the drama. The project is very closed to my own heart 🙂
I remember a few years ago, when mobile phones were just introduced, Peter (my husband) and I were talking about the possibility of having your own mobile phone number for life. Also why not have a system where you can see your medical records, savings, pensions and everything else.
And surprise surprise, this is actually the premise of the system being developed by the Next Innovation which is called Personal Files. How uncanny is that?!!!
Anyway Makoto was a great help and support for the often temperamental Hyuga. He became a victim of his own success.
When Hyuga lost his company completely leaving him without much money, Makoto was there to help and guide him to start over again. He did, thanks to Makoto with her outstanding memory.
This drama is so good, quite fast paced. Although I thought 10 episodes would have done it. It drag a bit between 10 & 11. Some scenes should have been cut as it did not really help or rather did slow down the tone of the story.
Anyway happy ending with Makoto going to Brazil for her new job with a pharmaceutical company but Hyuga said that he can make the other side of the world like nothing with his IT expertise.
Their romance did not end here as happily ever after. There is a film of the same title but in New York.
This was set a year or so later and Makoto is now working in New York. She occasionally meets up with Hyuga very fleetingly and it seems this is the way Hyuga wants it.
Makoto has to go to Japan for a few weeks and stayed with Hyuga’s apartment which is so minimalist to the extreme of minimalist.
He has a huge open plan apartment but with no bed/futon and not a proper working kitchen. He has an American style fridge full of bottled water and beer and a leather sofa.
Makoto changed this and unknowingly used his prized kitchenware to cook and a rice cooker was now proudly sitting in his kitchen and hang towels in the towel rail in the bathroom. He was raging. He told her he wanted it the way it was.
Makoto and her things were confined in a little out of sight cubicle.
But this was not enough, he also told her that he wanted them to be just like before, living away from each other, preferably thousands of miles away, and not seeing each other so much, Makoto moved out.
During a wedding, where they both attended, Hyuga finally said that they should break up.
Makoto is back in the USA, Boston and slowly getting over Hyuga.
Hyuga finally felt that Makoto meant the world to him but he was too proud to do anything. He was really evil to Makoto.
Out of the blue Makoto was bombarded by texts that Hyuga was in Boston.
They meet up again. Initially it looks like this meeting was more of a closure as they still said really nasty things to each other.
However in the end Hyuga confessed that he will change for her. Awww.
And he did, slowly. So cute ending.
I don’t think the Korean version will be able to better this Japanese version or the Korean actors will be as likeable as Shun and Satomi!