CHANGE DORAMA: ELECTIONS IS THE ONLY PERMITTED LEGAL WAR

courtesy of Fuji television

So says Asakura Keita’s (Takuya Kimura – the King of J-dramas according to sources) election manager in Japanese dorama CHANGE. Life has changed a lot to the afro-haired school teacher. The death of his politician father and brother forced him to run for the ruling party in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. However, Keita has no interest in politics preferring to gaze at the stars instead whenever there’s an opportunity. With the by-elections decided, the party boss Kanbayashi Masaichi and his ambitious secretary Miyama Rika (Fukatsu Eri) felt he should succeed his father as the young Asakura is both youthful and good looking, and would appeal to certain block of voters. Besides, the party needed to defend its parliamentary seats. The persistent urging of Rika and Keita’s wish to spare his mother from politics (she was the other choice) made him decide to run (besides he thinks he's not going to win anyway). On the other hand, master election manager Nirasawa arrived vowing a victory --- the short but grueling campaign has begun for the afro-haired school teacher.

I enjoy watching political dramas (e.g. West Wing) and this one is no different. Change dorama is still on-going (third episode as of press time) and it has already exceeded my expectations. I saw how Japanese conduct their campaign (they use a van and travel around the city and candidates wear a sash bearing their name for example) and I expect to learn more about Japanese politics and the workings of their Diet (Parliament) in future episodes.

The Japanese are good in developing cliff hangers toward the end of an episode – that’s why I prefer to watch finished series than on-going ones. Episode two of Change left me and my father hanging – there’s episode three in Veoh but it has no subs yet. Hahaha…I think one of the subbers has an exam so the release of the third episode might be delayed – no problems though. Thanks to the fan subbers I get to see excellent series such as this.

Update:

Excellent series...watch the final episode as the actor does a twenty minute uncut speech! Compelling towards the end...