Title: ブザー・ビート Buzā Bīto (Buzzer Beat)
English Title: Buzzer Beat
Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year: 2009
Episode: 11
Cast:
- 山下智久 Yamashita Tomohisa
- 北川景子 Kitagawa Keiko
- 貫地谷しほり Kanjiya Shihori
- 溝端淳平 Mizobata Junpei
- 相武紗季 Aibu Saki
- 金子ノブアキ Kaneko Nobuaki
- 伊藤英明 Ito Hideaki
- 永井大 Nagai Masaru
- 大政絢 Omasa Aya
- 真矢みき Maya Miki
- 小松彩夏 Komatsu Ayaka
SYNOPSIS
B'z - イチブトゼンブ Ichibu to ZenbuKamiya Naoki is a professional basketball player and he is dating the head cheerleader Nanami Natsuki. Although he is good enough to be part of a professional basketball team, Naoki tends to crack under pressure and his balls don't go inside the baskets when he does.
Shirakawa Riko is a violinist and she lives in an apartment together with her good friend Ebina Mai, who is a flutist. Both women aspire to become accomplished artists. Riko goes through several auditions but it seems that she is not good enough to be a part of professional orchestras.
Riko meets Naoki on the basketball court near where she lives and the two become friends. They develop romantic feelings for each other which complicate matters as they are already dating other people.
REVIEW
Buzzer Beat is about Kamiya Naoki and Shirakawa Riko or rather, their friendship which evolved into romantic love as well as their hardships as they both go about following their dreams. However, I'm not as invested in their story as I was with their friendships with other people and the other characters.
I really liked Nanami Natsuki although she was the 'other girl' in the drama. The dichotomy between her public persona and some aspects of her character was interesting, and in a way makes her more relatable because it humanizes her. She's supposed to be this ideal Japanese woman: modern and perennially pleasant. But when other people are not around, she voices out her negative thoughts and she does things that are usually associated with so-called 'bad' girls such as smoking and drinking alcohol. I think another reason why I like her is her stylish outfits for work.
Riko's friend Ebina Mai and her love story is also fascinating. She can be described as boy-crazy and her ideal guy is someone good-looking, mature, and accomplished. She has a crush on Utsunomiya Toru who satisfies all her requirements and she follows him around, but unfortunately things didn't turn out well. She did fall in love with Hatano Shuji who, although not as perfect as she hoped he would be, was very much in love with her.
I don't really like stories where a person does not get exactly what he wants, in particular when a woman has an ideal guy in mind but she gets to fall in love with someone who is the complete opposite of what she wanted. But Mai and her love story played out quite nicely in the drama so it was quite fascinating to watch.
One thing the drama kept highlighting is Kitagawa Keiko's bare face or face without make-up. There were several scenes wherein her character Riko met Naoki without wearing any make-up. I'm not really sure if this is just a way to show Keiko's beautiful face without enhancements because she's apparently popular for being naturally beautiful.
But I prefer to interpret it as her character Riko being fully real and comfortable whenever she's with Naoki. It's like another way to interpret their love as meant to be because they can be true to each other in a way that they cannot be with other people.
When Riko struggled in becoming a violinist in an orchestra, she was contemplating whether to continue trying to make her dream come true or to be more realistic and choose a more practical career. She experiences the conflict most people go through as they make choices regarding their future.
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ブザー・ビート Buzzer Beat
