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Thursday, July 5, 2012
"I am their homeroom teacher" - A Gokusen I Review
Originalname:
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ごくせん (第1期) | Gokusen
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Also known as:
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-
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Release Date:
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2. April - 3. July 2002
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Director:
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Toya Sato, Taro Otani
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Writer:
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Michiru Egashira, Rie Yokota, Kozueko Morimoto (manga)
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Cast:
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Yukie Nakama, Yuma Ishigaki, Jun Matsumoto, Hiroki Narimiya, Shun Oguri, Tomohiro Waki
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Plot
Kumiko
Yamaguchi is the grand- daughter of the Oedo Clan’s boss, a yakuza family. She becomes
the new homeroom teacher (get used to this expression, you hear it a lot during
this drama) of the class 3-D, also known as the delinquent class in which
Sawada the leader is.
After an
incident in which the school money disappears, the school head teacher accuses
Kumai, one out of her class, that he stole the money. She believes him, when he
says he didn’t do it and to prove his innocence she searches for the money.
Kumai who feels guilty conscience tells her the truth. The head teacher dropped
the money and he took it, but it got taken away from him.
She beats
the criminals up and gives back the money. The head teacher apologizes to Kumai
and Kumiko makes the promise that everybody of her class will graduate.
Minami starts dating a girl who is already dating someone else and gets beaten up for
it. Sawada recognizes the girl and wants Minami to stop dating her but Minami
hits Sawada which causes Sawada t have to write an apology letter otherwise
he’ll be expelled. The girl breaks up with Minami and that leads to Minami
getting called out by her boyfriend. When his classmates said that they didn’t
want to help him Kumiko gets really disappointed and decides to take things in
her own hands. Arriving at the battle field she sees that only Sawada appeared
to help his friend. She finally steps in and saves her students. When the fight
is over Kumai, Uchiyama and Noda arrive fully armored. Sawada has written his
apology letter and won’t get expelled.
A thief
scares the neighbourhood and everyone believes it’s Uchiyama. Kumiko, Sawada
and the others want to prove Uchiyama’s innocence so they set a trap for the
thief. The trap doesn’t work (mainly because Kumiko looks like a prostitute)
but they catch the thief anyway. The students get rewarded from the police and
everything seems fine. But Uchiyama beats a guy up (the pride of the school).
So he’ll be expelled and searches for a job. Kumiko and the others find out
that he hit him because he hit the puppy (awww, how cute, a puppy) and she
tries to convince him to apologize. So he does. Anyway, Uchiyama doesn’t get
expelled because Kumiko threatened that guy with prison because apparently you
get one year when you hit a puppy.
One of the
teachers, Miss Fujiyama, has started a part-time job as a hostess to earn more
money. However, when she throws Noda’s gift in the garbage he sends a picture
of her working as a hostess to the head teacher and Miss Fujiyama gets
suspended. But she can return if all of the 3-D score above 30 points which
after a lot of tutoring everyone manages. (Yeah, well, at first it seems as if
Kumai didn’t get the 30 points but that’s a mistake...).
Kumiko
manages to lose her mobile and Sawada finds it and brings it back to her house.
So he discovers that she is in fact the granddaughter of a yakuza family. Her
grandfather asks him to keep quiet about this.
Kumai gets
to fall in love but she already has a boyfriend. In the mean time there is a
gang of high school students terrorising the neighbourhood. When the boyfriend
gets beaten up Kumai tries to protect the girl and get hit badly. But gladly
Kumiko steps in and has a word with them. So they get to know the difference
between fighting and violence. And Sawada tells Kumiko that he’s totally into
her... I mean that he knows she’s the yakuza familys granddaughter, but he
might as well could have!!
Sawadas
sister comes to his school because she wanted to talk with him and we find out
that he lives alone because he has problems with his parents.
His sister
can’t take the pressure of her father any longer and decides to go to a
gambling club, of which Sawada rescues her from and gets caught in the process.
The head
teacher expels him but the police already know he’s innocent. But since he’s a
minor a parent has to go and get him. So Kumiko and the whole class beg Sawadas
father and he does go and get him. And Sawada even cries a little (Holy sh--,
the robot cries!!)
Shirokin’s
volley team gets into the nationals. But an expelled student wants so sabotage
it. It’s Kurosaki, an old friend of Sawada and Uchiyama. Their worried and ask
Kumiko for help which she does. She tells the PE teacher he should apologize to
Kurosaki since he didn’t even try to keep him in. So he does, but gets beaten
up for it. Sawada and Uchiyama try to stop him but don’t succeed. Kumiko
arrives, kicks ass and lectures him and he tells Sawada that if he’d had Kumiko
as a teacher he probably wouldn’t have had to quit.
The next
day Kumai bumps into a shop lifter but the shoplifter accuses the gang because
the game which was stolen was in Uchiyama’s hands. She believes when they say
they didn’t do anything. Thanks to Shinohara (the police man she has a secret
crush on) the real criminal comes out. It was a student from a rich high
school.
Meanwhile Tetsu tries to convince Kumiko to be the Oeda Clan’s head in 4th
generation. But she refuses. After a talk with Kumiko’s grandfather about
god-given jobs he realizes that the teacher job is the god-given job for Kumiko
is.
But soon
Kumiko gets stalked by a reporter. The boys ran into a criminal and handed him
over to the police. He was a searched murderer. The boys get honoured and they
should speak on a press conference with Kumiko. Because of that Kumiko gets
interesting for the press and one reporter wants to make a 24h close up.
Anyway, In
the meantime, Kumai’s father dies and Kumai falls in depression. He runs away.
Kumiko suddenly finds him while he was beaten up and rescues him. She brings
him back.
The
reporter publishes the story - a story about a violent yakuza teacher who beats
her students. Kumiko is forced to resign and for the sake of her students she
does. When Sawada and the others find out what she did they decide to resign as
well. But Kumiko comes, kicks ass and saves the day... sorry she just asks the
teacher to take good care of the students.
After the
touching speech the head teacher decides that they need Kumiko in this school
and rips it apart. That means Kumiko can stay at this school and they all
celebrate with the can kicking game, where we learn that Sawada has three other
love rivals.
Conclusion
I love the
nostalgia! But seriously I couldn’t remember most of it. I don’t know why I
just couldn’t. I’m almost certain that I did see it. But when I watched the
first season I always thought “What? Did this really happen? Did I really see
this a few years ago?” Sometimes I just couldn’t remember. If I honest, the whole
drama I nearly forgot. So I forgot that Eiichi Wentz appears in the drama. You
know, the American guy. Especially him you shouldn’t forget because he looks
non-japanese. But yeah... I forgot him... I’m really asking myself if I watched
the drama then. But this has also its good side. I mean so I could dive into it
again and so I could cry like a waterfall at the end.
So, what
else can I say? I like the drama. It’s about friendship, school and learning
something for life. It has a lot of charm and a lot of funny scenes (especially
this one where Uchi, Kuma and Noda run fully armoured towards Sawada and
Minami). But it has also cute scenes like the episode with Yuta, the little boy
of the nurse (all he wanted was to see his mommy *sob sob sob*).
The actors
were okay but Jun Matsumoto was a little stiff as Sawada. But it was his third
drama and it’s Jun Matsumoto for god’s sake!
Shun Oguri
was good at least what we saw of him, he wasn’t in the drama too much. That’s a
pity. But Jun makes up for it ;)
The only
thing I can complain about is the song. It gets so annoying and it never leaves
your head. (“I saaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay,feeeeeeeeeeeeel your
breeeeeeeeeeeeze. Anytime, anywhere, in your heaaaaaart!” You know what I
mean?)
All in all it's a must see drama if you are a fan of Asian Drama or MatsuJun or Shun Oguri or of course Yukie Nakama. It's like I said: It's fun, it's crazy. You'll enjoy it.
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