Which Japanese dramas/movies do you really want to watch on Viki? đŸ‡ŻđŸ‡” 🏯

TV & Movies J-Dramas
42

Hi everyone!
Good news!
Viki has created new Japanese drama channels.
I guess they will get them licensed soon

https://www.viki.com/tv/36738c-when-one-day-i-will-sleep

https://www.viki.com/tv/36736c-the-flower-and-the-beast-season-1
https://www.viki.com/tv/36737c-the-flower-and-the-beast-season-2
https://www.viki.com/tv/36740c-parfait-tic
https://www.viki.com/tv/36739c-hoping-to-give-you-a-big-hug-tonight
https://www.viki.com/tv/36742c-scums-wish
https://www.viki.com/tv/36743c-i-bought-my-boyfriend-on-a-loan

Good luck!

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43

None of the ones I requested so far. Will see if later on
sigh

One of them

https://www.viki.com/videos/225559v-holy-battle-in-couleur-de-rose-the-future-is-in-our-hands-episode-1?locale=en

http://asianwiki.com/Holy_Battle_in_Couleur_de_Rose_-the_future_is_in_our_hands-

44

I’ll copy-paste my list from another thread here. A textwall, but I think in this context more info is better than not enough, and I don’t plan on posting one of these every day. (“Thanks!” they say.
:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: )

  • “Life” (2007) - based on Keiko Suenobu’s manga about brutal school bullying, is easily the best, most ethically spectacular drama I’ve ever seen. I’d die to see it again and I would dearly like to introduce a whole bunch of friends to it, but
 there’s no longer any place to see it. I describe “Life” as being “Like ‘Alien,’ but with scarier monsters.” Every single scene in this is electrifying, and every single scene has that rarity of rarities, the either-or moral choice . In virtually every scene someone has to choose between loyalty to a friend vs. fitting in with the crowd; giving up vs. fighting; standing up for oneself vs. caving in and living as a beaten dog; trashing an enemy in vengeance vs. elegantly stepping aside and allowing them to destroy themselves via their own embarrassing actions; stepping in and saving the day for someone else vs. indirectly guiding them and letting them triumph via their own effort. Viki really needs to get a “Life,” hahaha. Anyone who’s ever had to endure being bullied will find this drama to be jaw-dropping and flat-out magnificent in its inspiration;

  • “Joker Yurusarezaru Sosakan” (2010) - a brilliant show about the ethical questions in vigilantism, with some incredible twists and some of the best acting I’ve seen in ages (Sakai Masato is a Japanese Gary Sinese, with an inscrutable face that’s always smiling but with heavy-duty conflict going on in his head.) I know at least two friends, one of them a bestselling writer of vigilante novels, who’d really dig this show and would likely become long-term subscibers if the show were here;

  • “Voice” (2009) - about forensic science students turned detectives, with a classic “morality play” in every episode, like vintage Star Trek and Twilight Zone used to be, IOW, food-for-thought long after it’s done, and with excellent acting and writing;

  • “Iryu: Team Medical Dragon” (2006) - one of the best and most realistic doctor shows I’ve ever seen, also with great writing, acting and effects;

  • “Kiina: Fukano Hanzai Sosakan” (2009) - about a police woman assigned to an X-Files-type division that deals with weird supernatural cases, much like the classic “Galileo” but even weirder;

  • “Ushi ni Negai wo” (a.k.a. “Wish Upon A Cow” or “Love & Farm” - 2007) - a group of pampered Tokyo college students sign up for a semester in Hokkaido to intern as farm workers, where they instantly regret it but can’t back out, so they have to learn to get serious about life and basically to grow up. I remember in the opening episode two of them birth an actual calf, live, with no effects and no help (nothing is done half-hearted in Japan, including acting.) The calf, which they name “Green,” basically becomes another cast member as he grows older. Just a cool and totally unique show;

  • “Yasashii Jikan” (2005) - about a father and son living a few miles apart on Hokkaido without knowing it, who’d become estranged after the son crashed the family car, killing his mother. The father runs the Forest Clock, a coffee bar with a huge picture window that looks out on the forest beyond - an actual place you can visit in Furano. A really intense, emotional melodrama that will stick with you forever, and has Ayaka Hirahara’s “Ashita” as its theme song(!)

  • Dr. X (2012) - This was on ■■■■■■■■■■■■ but got deleted before I had the time to see it (they’ve ditched a ton of their J-dramas too, which means there has to be a bunch of J-drama addicts just as frustrated as me, wanting somewhere else to see them.) This one has gone to six seasons, so it must be good.

  • Asakusa Fukumaru Ryokan (2007) - about a nosy and hilarious inn owner in Tokyo’s Asakusa district, starring Nishida Toshiyuki, who played the grumpy noodle chef opposite the late, great Brittany Murphy in “Ramen Girl.” This had a second season but I’ve only seen the first - a great comedy with some heavy tear-jerker action too. By the end of this the actors will feel like they’re your family, and you’ll be sad to have to say goodbye to them.

  • Midnight Diner (a.k.a. Shinya Shokudo - 2009 onward) - About a diner that opens at midnight and closes in the morning, and the weird regulars and non-regulars who show up there. This is mondo cool and has gone to something like five seasons, but ■■■■■■■ only has one. So a great opportunity to pick up their slack and basically pull fans of the show away from the “flix” Borg.

Prolly others I’m forgetting - well “With Love” from 1998, which is basically the same story as the movie “You’ve Got Mail” but came out several months earlier - people might be put off by the now ancient-looking computers that are the focus of the story, but it’s a great story (with some flaws,) with phenomenal music that’s woven throughout the plot.

Ok, now I’m done. Again, sorry for the textwall but better to be thorough.

3 Likes
45

I’m not much of a Jdrama watcher, but there is one Jdrama that I would love to see on Viki: Fallen Angel.

I watched it on YT in a day, since the episodes aren’t very long, and there are only 9, I believe. The story line may be rushed and rather fragmented, but I was glued to my seat watching it! The themes the drama went through in such a short amount of time really touched me, and I still think about that drama (or mini-series?).

image
Starring:
Kato Kazuki
Uehara Takuya
Kitamura Takumi
Chiba Yudai

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46

I started watching it but have a hard time following the story. Can you give me a recap? YT only has 2 very short parts now in English but is missing a big chunk of dialogue.

1 Like
47

Yes, I would be glad to!

SPOILER ALERT

As an overarching summary, the story is about three brothers who discover that their mother works for a secret society. They work on trying to find out the mission of the society and why the society people are trying to capture one of the brothers. It’s a little bit dystopian and a lot of suspense :smiley:. I would say that they are trying to create ultra-smart human beings in order to improve society, but that contrasts with the real need of society
which maybe isn’t intelligence but love


In the beginning, there is a mother who is attempting to save her son from some people trying to catch him (we learn later on who they are and why they try to catch him). She quickly finishes his heart transplant and sneaks him out of the hospital, and tells him to go to his two older brothers. She gives him the address and I think a note, and leaves him.

He stumbles to a train station and gets a ticket to the city where his brothers live. His brothers are skeptical of him at first, but the oldest remembers the youngest brother and he recognizes his mother’s handwriting. He is the first of the two older brothers to extend love and compassion to the youngest.

When the youngest finally gets enough strength to go out, he convinces his older brothers to try and find their mom at the hospital; the only problem is that the hospital doesn’t exist. They go to where it once was, but it completely disappeared
and this is where weird things start happening, like suspicious jelly beans and strange girls trying to force the boys to eat the jelly beans
a crazy (or seemingly crazy) young man tries to ■■■■ them, but then runs away
the youngest has horrible flashbacks of a surgery


And so begins the journey of the three brothers to discover what happened to the youngest, where their mom might be, what the meaning of the jelly beans is, who is the society, and why they are being chased


If you would like, I can write in more detail.

There should be a playlist on YT with all of the episodes, but the quality isn’t very great
if you search fallen angel eng sub playlist, it should pop up


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5vmgq-_X_Gg&list=PLPUjXKm5qBvEtmZVJSgPriSBNIb_fOpwm&index=2&t=154s

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48

@helenama73_911 Thanks! xoxo

Sounds to me like a very complicated drama. I still don’t get it though. In the end, do we finally have understanding as to why all this weird things happened? Or do they leave it as a cliffhanger, with no closure in the ending? That would ■■■■ me bc i hate endings like that.

Thank you for adding the video it has all the episodes.

2 Likes
49

The ending
it does show the mastermind behind everything and it does explain why he did what he did, but
it does leave off on a sort of cliffhanger into what should be a next season.
Yes, the story is kind of confusing, I was confused too, but as I watched, I understood more, especially towards the end.

You’re welcome!

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50

@helenama73_911

Finally, I finished watching the rest of the short episodes, and it makes sense now the whole thing. This is one of those drama that ‘‘plays with your head’’ until the very end.

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51

Licensed

https://www.viki.com/tv/37769c-love-is-phantom

https://www.viki.com/tv/37735c-one-page-love

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52

Ooo Probably anything from the classic film directors.

Akira Kurosawa:
Rashoman
Ikiru
Seven Samurai
Record of a Living Being
Throne of Blood
The Hidden Fortress
Yojimbo
Red Beard
Kagemusha
Ran

Kenji Mizoguchi:
The Life of Oharru
Ugetsu
Sansho the Bailiff
The story of the last chrysanthemums
The crucified lovers
The 47 Ronin

Yasujiro Ozu:
Tokyo Story
An Autumn Afternoon
Late Spring
Floating weeds

Kaneto Shindo:
Children of Hiroshima
Shukuzu

Oh my
 I am getting tired. Time to quit this list. Anyway there are so many classics out there that are very difficult to find now.

2 Likes
53

I really wish Viki would update people on what - if any - progress it’s making on getting new Japanese dramas added to the site. The virus-panic has likely hit Viki as hard financially as everybody else so maybe it’s particularly difficult right now, but any information would be helpful. Also it would be interesting to know more about the obstacles that prevent more Japanese dramas from being added.

Just judging from the number of posts on these Discussion forums, it seems like K-dramas are much more popular than J-dramas. But I’m thinking this is just the “snowball” effect: Because there are more Korean dramas to choose from, naturally there are going to be more people watching K-dramas than anything else. Because there are more people watching them, there is more “buzz” about them.

I’m convinced that once people started seeing more Japanese dramas - especially if Viki breaks away from the over-represented Romantic Comedy genre and gets some doctor shows like “Doctor X” and “Iryu: Team Medical Dragon,” detective shows like “Joker,” “Tantei no Tantei” and “Zettai Reido,” school dramas like “Life” and “35-Sai no Koukousei,” paranormal shows like “Galileo” and “Trick,” and many other genres - more people will become aware of them and eventually there will be as much buzz about J-dramas as with any other.

Viki would do well to take note of the growing fascination with Japanese culture throughout the U.S., indicated by the unexpected box office success last week of “Demon Slayer”:
https://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/the-anime-movie-demon-slayer-broke-box-office-records-that-shouldnt-come-as-a-surprise-/articleshow/82282660.cms


as well as the growing U.S. interest in J-rock bands like Gacharic Spin, Doll$Boxx, Band-Maid, Tears of Tragedy, Light Bringer, BabyMetal (which I hate, but which is nonetheless weirdly popular here,) and Soko ni Naru - and the virtual explosion of Japanese festivals in Europe and the Americas, focusing on everything from Anime and Kawaii culture to music (like SF’s J-Pop Summit, etc.)

All of which indicate that there is a huge potential for growth in all things Japanese in North America and Europe, including Japanese dramas. But only if they’re available for people to see.

/soapbox

6 Likes
54

1 litre no namida
buzzer beat
proposal daisakusen
tatta hitotsu no koi

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55

Well, I guess J-Dramas are mainly from the Japanese for the Japanese, they’re often adapted from Manga and relatively short and ‘simple’ (not necessarily referring to their topics though). Japan seems to focus more on animation in regard to exports.
Most ‘dorama’ are adaptions of either Shoujou or Jousei-Manga it seems - but in fact they sometimes address things in a more open way than ofc China or Korea. To me it feels a bit like watching stuff from Great Britain, there’s a certain unique atmosphere.

5-ji Kara 9-ji Made
Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge

2 Likes
56

I don’t know what’s going on but Viki is going to release old great J-dramas.
https://www.viki.com/tv/38128c-absolute-boyfriend

https://www.viki.com/tv/38126c-hana-kimi

I hope there will be more to come. :grinning:

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57

Omg one that has stayed in my heart forever! They had it here 7 to 8 years back. I did some Spanish subtitles. I have made numerous request to have it here again with no luck

Holy Battle in Couleur de Rose -the future is in our hands- (Barairo no Seisen)

Made another request Please help me out by making a request too. Thanks!

1 Like
58

I really want them to add the rest of the Novelist series (aka the Pornographer), it’s incredible. It might be the best bl drama I’ve seen. But the last two installments aren’t available for free anywhere :((((( If they ever get it I will join the subtitle team immediately :weary:

59

I would like to see 3 Nen A Gumi: Ima kara Mina-san wa, Hitojichi Desu on Viki. Maybe that wish will come true


3 Likes
60

miss sherlock
louyang
man from the sea
ghost in the shell

I c annot believe I am not able to find the J dramas I have watched!~
there was some neat mysteries, dramas, detectives and all, and I cannot recall the titles!

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61

YES! I agree with you that Japanese writers can make great Detective dramas/movies.

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