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Entry tags:
- drama,
- je,
- kame,
- kami no shizuku,
- review
[REVIEW] Kami no Shizuku - 01
This took me forever to write! I deserve some cake now. ^_^
Disclaimer: I've only read a couple of chapters of the manga and I know absolutely nothing about wine, so my reviews are based solely on whatever happens in the drama. If I screw up with the terminology somewhere, feel free to set me straight.
Kami no Shizuku - le premier verre (the first glass)
Plot: Our hero, Kanzaki Shizuku, gets the series off to a rather depressing start by mounting the stairs to his mother's grave, where he finds his father, a man who should probably be a high-ranking yakuza somewhere. At least, that's the impression I get. The old man leaves a bottle of wine on the grave, which doesn't go down well with his son. I can see his point. Leaving flowers on a grave is traditional. Leaving a bottle of expensive wine on a grave is an invitation not only to vandalism, but drunken vandalism. Shizuku pre-empts any possible vandals and smashes the bottle himself, and it's when the scent of the wine hits him, to the sound of something sparkly and mystical, that we know wine isn't just wine anymore.
And speaking of wine, here's our spunky and ever-so-slightly deranged heroine, Shinohara Miyabi. She's pretty passionate about wine, and she knows a lot. (Not that it's hard to know more than Shizuku.) When a restaurant patron is disgusted by a glass poured for him by Miyabi, Shizuku steps in with an adorable smile and god-like decanting skills, if the fairytale music and everyone's shocked expressions are anything to go by. I'm expecting someone to sprout wings and take off any minute now, folks.
Hurrah! The wine is saved, its original flower-like fragrance brought out, and no heads are rolling tonight. Especially not Shizuku's, because he's a beer company employee who won't drink wine. Miyabi explains, to those of us who are clueless about wine, exactly how this miracle occurred. (I confess, I paid very little attention. I'm not a wine drinker. I'm barely a drinker. I will happily gloss over the technicalities.) Behind the scenes, Miyabi tells herself she's only drinking the wine to study it, which I imagine is what Kame has been saying to himself while preparing for this role, right before he gets plastered. The wine doesn't just smell like flowers - it makes the drinker feel like they're in a feel of flowers. (Think of the bread reactions in Yakitate! Japan, and you can see where this series is going.) Miyabi has never experienced anything quite like it.
Back at the office, and Shizuku has been moved from Sales to Wine. His bosses are obviously insane. Do they not know what an excellent salesman Kame is? Don't they know how hard he works at concerts to pimp out Crunky, and merchandise, and anything else he can to get us to part with our cash? Still, the transfer is made, and Shizuku does his best to get to know his new department. The new boss seems friendly, but the rest are a mixed bunch and there's some definite hostility over the possibility than Shizuku is merely trading on his dad's name as a famous wine critic.
But he wasn't doing it before, and he certainly isn't doing it now, because world's most annoying ringtone heralds a call about the unfortunate death of his father. Shizuku heads back to the Kanzaki house, which is really quite lovely, and you can tell immediately that things aren't as they should be. Other than his father lying in bed with a cloth over his face, I mean. The lawyer fills us in: Kanzaki-sensei was sick for three years, and his son wasn't allowed to know. Shizuku's upset about this in an understated way, because he was the old man's only relative.
Cut to tall, dark-haired guy in long coat approaching the house. Only relative, huh? I think not.
The sinister stranger (accompanied by even more sinister organ music) times his entrance perfectly, just as Shizuku hears from the lawyer that actually, the matter of his inheritance is not as clear-cut as it should be. Tomine Issei is the newcomer's name, and he's a wine critic, adopted one week ago by Shizuku's father. A bit sudden, you might think, and if Kanzaki-sensei hadn't died from pancreatic cancer I'd be pointing the finger at this guy. Shizuku's more irritated than anything else. His father's found a way to mess with his mind from beyond the grave.
The lawyer explains the inheritance contest. Six fantastic wines, and one that's even more so, 'Kami no Shizuku'. (Okay, I didn't get very far with the manga, but shouldn't there be thirteen in total? Not seven? I guess they had to chop it down for the drama. It's not like the Koreans are producing it, after all.) Whoever can correctly identify all of them gets the inheritance.
Shizuku is immediately suspicious of his newfound older brother; Tomine admits he wants Kanzaki's incredible wine collection. Sibling relations are not improved when the lawyer has them compete for the right to live in the house. Shizuku thinks this is stupid, that no one can possibly identify the name and year of the last wine his father ever drank, but Tomine, expert that he is, proves him wrong by going into ecstasies (of a somewhat technical fashion) over the glass. It doesn't take him long to come up with an answer, but Shizuku doesn't want to play. (Actually, he looks like he's about to cry.) Faced with the possibility of Shizuku giving up before he even starts, Tomine suggests they change the rules, and simply describe the wine to see who can produce the wording closest to their father's, with the outcome to be decided in a week.
Fairer? Yes, but Shizuku's still not interested. Tomine insists, however, that he at least try the wine. The glass makes it all the way up to his lips before what I can only assume is the scent triggers an image of a flying hat (a flashback), and the glass hits the floor. Shizuku makes a quick getaway but is intercepted by the pretty owner's daughter from Bambino, lurking in the corridor for no apparent reason. He brushes off her attempts to give condolences and introduce herself but doesn't leave the house just yet, pausing to ponder exactly what the hell's going on. While the audience does the same, the opening sequence rolls by like some kind of glossy wine advert which should be accompanied by a smooth, seductive voiceover. (Where's that radio voice of yours, Kame?)
And on with the show. Miyabi turns stalker, tracking down Shizuku when he's out and about and by dint of not listening to a single word he says, manages to accompany him when he's off to see a client. He's not thrilled at being identified as his father's son, particularly when it's by someone clearly obsessed with wine. She drags him into a restaurant that's not even open yet, and at this point, he sort of grins helplessly and gives up against the force of her insanity. I like this girl, even if she's so into wine that she feels sorry for it when she catches the restaurant's owner pouring it down the sink.
Unfortunately, our heroes have a front-row seat for a family quarrel: the harrassed owner vs. his wilful daughter, who's been out drinking all hours and wishes he'd died instead of her mother. Shizuka, the daughter, flounces off, which means she's the only one not around to be horrified when Miyabi's stomach growls and demands food. The owner kindly offers to make them some. Miyabi's in heaven, at least until she hears that the place is going out of business.
It's all the fault of Tomine, of course, who gave them a horrendously bad review in a magazine, driving away all the customers. (While they talk about him, he's elsewhere, tasting wine with a bunch of women who clearly think he hung the moon.) Miyabi wonders if there's some way to help. Shizuku insists that it's just wine, that you don't have to have wine when you eat, and that it's just wrong to build your life around wine. Oh dear. He's just insulted Miyabi's entire philosophy, no?
Back at the office, the Bambino lady turns out to be Saionji Maki, of the Saion Corporation, and she knew his father well enough to know that the son hates wine. Shizuku's bosses finally seem to understand this (presumably because she leaned on them) because they're transferring him back to Sales. Given that he doesn't seem to do much work anyway, you have to wonder why *any* department would want him. Miyabi ambushes him on his way out to tell him how great wine is, and declares that she's going to save the restaurant, with or without his help. Shizuku, possibly sensing a way to irk his older sibling, reluctantly offers some tactical advice and discovers once again that his new friend likes to communicate by hitting people. (Kame must be used to that after all these years knowing Jin, surely?)
The next minute appears to belong to another series entirely, possibly one involving vampires, high towers, and people sticking pointy fangs - and other, less pointy things - in each other. Tomine Issei and Saionji Maki are sufficiently acquainted to hang out in bathrobes and plot fiendishly over large glasses of wine while creepy organ music plays.
Back to our heroes, who are much shorter than the villains and generally nicer people. Miyabi takes Shizuku to a bar and introduces him to Fujieda, the owner, who gives them each a glass of the wine given zero stars by Tomine. Shizuku still doesn't want to drink, but Miyabi more than makes up for it; she ends up calling him 'Shizu-kun' as it's too difficult to say his name properly while inebriated. (Shizuku's face is a picture at this point.) Shizuku starts to unload some of his father issues, but Miyabi's already out of it.
Fortunately, the bartender is listening. Well, it's traditional, isn't it? He asks if wine was the only problem between them. Before Shizuku can figure out how to answer that, Miyabi wakes up and gets them both out of there. While I wasn't looking, an incredibly pretty girl got behind the bar - I suppose she works there - and she, too, knows the Kanzaki name. There are some amazingly gorgeous women in this series. Kame must love going to work.
The next day, Miyabi's caught Shizuku at work again. I don't know why she doesn't just get a job at 'Taiyo Beer' - she's there often enough! She gets the shock of her life when Shizuku starts talking about the scents of the wine rejected by Tomine, in the context of the whole dining experience, and reveals that he's always been sensitive to scents. Irritated, Miyabi declares that she wants to drink it again, and actually buys a whole bottle.
The bottle, alas, doesn't last very long, and it's not because she's downed the lot. A mysterious stranger (yep, another one, and this one speaks French) brushes past and accidentally knocks the bottle to the ground, breaking it. (I never thought learning French would help me understand J-dramas, I have to say.) The stranger takes them back to the quaintly-named 'Chateau Robert', where he digs up (no, really) a couple of bottles of expensive wine as an apology. Despite her token protests about having to go to work after this, Miyabi eagerly accepts the wine.
There are, I think, oysters to accompany this, which, coincidentally, were what Tomine had before sipping the wine at Ma Famille. Shizuku, who appears to be part-bloodhound, smells both wine and oysters and pieces together the sequence of events with the help of a flashback explaining how food and drink should complement each other. He still doesn't drink. Miyabi urges him to do so to save the restaurant, which might be the best excuse I've ever heard for having a glass of wine. Robert has some helpful advice on how to contact Bacchus (well, that's not quite how he put it), and as befits a reference to the God of Wine, the music takes a turn for the religious as Shizuku finally drinks from his glass.
But it's the second glass that gives him a reaction. Shizuku and Robert dance and twirl around, singing in French - very cute but quite batty. Miyabi covers her ears.
Don't ask me how but they've managed to persuade Tomine to give Ma Famille another chance. Not content just to save the restaurant, they want to save the father-daughter relationship too by having Shizuka take over from her deceased mother as the sommelier. Things are tense, but looking up.
There's 'gunfight at the OK Corral' type music as the gunslinger - sorry, the wine critic - steps into the restaurant, probably not at high noon, and once again has oysters with Chablis. Only this time, he gets cheap Chablis, for reasons explained by Shizuka. The sea urchin mousse goes well with its accompanying wine too, but disaster strikes when it's time for the main course! Shizuka stumbles, dropping the container and spilling most of the wine, which was poured in there an hour ago to air, or whatever. Basically, if they open a new bottle now, the taste will be wrong.
Unless of course the wine is poured from a great height by Shizuku and his god-like decanting skills, which Miyabi is in awe of. Tomine enjoys the result, trying to make like he's a nice guy by complimenting the staff and saying he's happy that they got something out of his harsh review a year ago. (Shizuku, to judge by his expression, is not convinced.)
Cue sinister music again as Tomine correctly states that the third glass of wine he drank was poured by someone with greater abilities than Shizuka, at which point, Shizuku reveals himself. Tomine does the villainous glasses thing, making me wonder if he's ever played a live-action Inui, or possibly Crawford, as if anyone's going to see the future in this series, I'd pick him. An argument ensues over Shizuku's issues with critics and their right to judge, leading to Tomine swishing out with a warning that their rematch is due in three days.
Of course, the truth comes out now. Miyabi's horrified by Shizuku's utter lack of interest in his father's wine collection (and money), but before the argument gets too far, father and daughter, now reconciled, come out to celebrate with a bottle of the mother's favourite wine. Even Shizuku drinks, this time experiencing a field of a hundred flowers...the same scent as the bottle broken on his mother's grave. It hits him when he runs back to the grave and looks at the label - it's not that his father didn't take flowers. He just took them in liquid form, that's all.
At the Kanzaki house, all the players are assembled for the showdown. The lawyer, the critic, and the mystery woman he's sleeping with. Shizuku, however, is nowhere to be seen, and if he doesn't show up soon, he'll lose by default. (He's at work...actually doing work, for a change. At least until the Personnel Dept. call him in.) Keen to avert a tragedy, or possibly just desperate to get in Kanzaki's house, Miyabi seizes the wine and threatens to drop it - or at least change the taste - unless they either allow her to fight in Shizuku's place, or agree to wait for him to show up. Even the lawyer gets in on the menacing bit. Frankly, if I was Shizuku, I wouldn't even *want* to live in this house. It's too creepy.
Just as Miyabi runs out of room, Shizuku shows up...followed by Robert, to the sounds of creepy organ music. Robert turns out to be an old friend of Shizuku's father, invited as a witness to the contest, though the music suggests that he's more likely there to flip a switch that brings some hideous creature to life in the basement.
The wine is poured. Tomine goes first, coming up with a painting metaphor for the wine. Looks like to be a wine critic, one must also be an art critic. The smug look he gives Shizuku just before setting down his glass makes me want to hit him, I'm sorry to say.
Shizuku calls on Bacchus for help, drinks the wine, and promptly has a flashback to his mother's death when he was five. Of course, it was in a vineyard. That explains the flying hat images. Poor kid, no wonder he's so screwed up. He went to offer her grapes he'd picked, she reached out for them...and collapsed. Shizuku's crying in the present as well. For him, the wine represents the last memory he has of his mother. It's a wine of farewells.
Tomine wins that round, having identified the very picture Kanzaki-sensei associated with the wine, but even he seems - slightly - moved by Shizuku's revelation. Shizuku doesn't care about the house, and still has no interest in the inheritance...but he doesn't want to lose to his father, either, so he'll continue the competition. Many issues, this boy has.
At least he takes the wine with him. And it's confirmed that Saionji Maki was responsible for his near-transfer back to Sales, which he declined. Knew I didn't trust her. While Shizuku and Miyabi walk off in the sunlight, happy and at ease, Robert shares a moment of mirth with the lawyer, marvelling over Shizuku's talent despite his amateur status, and the villainous duo slink off down the corridor, looking mean.
Shizuku and Miyabi take their prize back to the bar, where Shizuku quite enjoys himself until Fujieda brings out a bottle of the same wine but a from 1985, rather than 1990. The scent of this one gives Shizuku a vision of...old books? A dark study or library, I don't know? It looks mysterious, though. He says he can't drink this wine. I'm intrigued. Could it be more traumatic flashbacks? 1985 would be the year of Shizuku's birth, so I doubt he's remembering anything from that year!
----
It's the first episode of the series, so a few words on the characters.
Kanzaki Shizuku: Once again, Kame is playing a guy surnamed Kanzaki. Typecast? But that's about all that Shizuku and Hiroto have in common, as the closest Hiroto's getting to fancy wine is blagging his way into a college party. Shizuku dresses nicely, has a decent watch and isn't desperate to get his hands on his father's money, which suggests that he's probably doing okay for himself, even if he isn't worth a fortune. When he's interacting normally with people, he seems pleasant enough, but the moment someone brings up wine or his father, he gets prickly and at this stage it's a bit tricky to get a handle on him beyond that. We don't see many genuinely happy smiles, unfortunately. My initial impression of Shizuku is that he is content to coast through life on a fairly shallow basis, not risking himself on anything that would require too much of him emotionally, doing well at maintaining his surface character. His competitive spirit only emerges when he flashes back to his mother's death, which makes me think he's only prepared to take on a challenge like this when he has something personal in it - his memories, and his relationship with his father, rather than the two billion yen wine collection that right now, has little meaning to him.
Shinohara Miyabi: Oh, she's a cute one. A tad ditzy, a trifle obsessive, more or less shameless and very, very determined. Got a lot of fighting spirit, she has, and she's quick to rope in anyone she thinks might be able to help her. In contrast to Shizuku, she easily gets emotionally invested, to the extent of pitying wine when it's poured away. In this odd little partnership, she's the one with the knowledge and he's the one working on instinct (hang on a sec, I'm having Gabriel Knight flashbacks) although their personalities would suggest that it was the other way around. I think they'll be a good team.
Tomine Issei: I want to throw things at him. I understand his reasons for being a wine critic, but I think he forgets that there are human consequences to his actions. Arrogant, self-confident, and certain about what he wants, and he's not averse to playing dirty to get it. If he'd been elisted (rather, adopted) by Kanzaki on the understanding that he participate in the challenge in order to give Shizuku an appreciation for wine, and receive some compensation for his trouble, I could warm to him - maybe. He did have one or two moments where he seemed almost human. But I don't think that's the case - or if it was before, it certainly isn't now Kanzaki's dead - as Tomine's own interests clearly come first in his mind. It does make for a more interesting series to have a real villain, of course. ^_^
Saionji Maki: And speaking of villains...well, I've never been inclined to trust anyone slinking around in that much fur, especially with the company she keeps and the influence she appears to have. I wonder what her stake in all this is? I assume she's already rich, but as she doesn't appear to have any interest in wine herself, I guess she wants the inheritance through Tomine? But he was only adopted very recently and I assume they were together before that, so...? Too early to say. Greedy girlfriend along for the ride?
-----
Music: I absolutely loved the music in this episode. For the most part, I thought it was very fitting, albeit a trifle over the top. But then, in a drama where people have such extreme reactions to wine, I imagine that's necessary! The sinister moments, of which there were many, were enhanced by creepy music of the sort you'd expect to find in a horror, where you know you're not going to feel safe. Gentle piano underscoring sad, touching scenes, and there were a fair few of those as well. I'm just not so sure about the upbeat numbers in the lighter scenes. I thought they were nice, particularly the very Western piece playing when Shizuku saved the day at Ma Famille, but the piece playing at the end, when Robert and the lawyer are talking, sounds more like it belongs in a school drama.
Obligatory Kame commentary: Probably not Kame's best work, but it's the first episode and he doesn't have a hell of a lot to work with right now. Rather, Shizuku only has two real modes at the moment - "normal" and "angsty". Kame can do "normal" in his sleep - shake a few hands, smile politely, make nice with the coworkers - and he's got "angsty" down pat, but we haven't had many opportunities to see what else he can do with the character yet. He cries far more beautifully than any human should be allowed to, of course, and I think he does a pretty good job with Shizuku's wine/daddy issues, but maybe I'm just remembering how amazing Kame was playing Hatanaka Kousaku in One Pound Gospel and making unfair comparisons. Mostly, he spends his time pulling odd, quirky faces over wine and trying to act like a sane, rational person.
Best Scene: I actually have a real fondness for Shizuku's expression when Miyabi calls him 'Shizu-kun' in the bar. It's just so "Huh???". I also enjoyed listening to Kame speak French, though why there was a random scene in French there, I have no idea, since Robert speaks Japanese the rest of the time.
Conclusion: I am terribly sad that Kami no Shizuku is doing so badly in the ratings because I actually enjoyed the first episode very much. There's mystery, intrigue and suspense, which I love. There's cute girls, insane and otherwise. There's random French, OTT wine reactions, sinister music, angsty flashbacks and of course, pretty, pretty Kame. How can I not like a series with all that going for it?
Disclaimer: I've only read a couple of chapters of the manga and I know absolutely nothing about wine, so my reviews are based solely on whatever happens in the drama. If I screw up with the terminology somewhere, feel free to set me straight.
Kami no Shizuku - le premier verre (the first glass)
Plot: Our hero, Kanzaki Shizuku, gets the series off to a rather depressing start by mounting the stairs to his mother's grave, where he finds his father, a man who should probably be a high-ranking yakuza somewhere. At least, that's the impression I get. The old man leaves a bottle of wine on the grave, which doesn't go down well with his son. I can see his point. Leaving flowers on a grave is traditional. Leaving a bottle of expensive wine on a grave is an invitation not only to vandalism, but drunken vandalism. Shizuku pre-empts any possible vandals and smashes the bottle himself, and it's when the scent of the wine hits him, to the sound of something sparkly and mystical, that we know wine isn't just wine anymore.
And speaking of wine, here's our spunky and ever-so-slightly deranged heroine, Shinohara Miyabi. She's pretty passionate about wine, and she knows a lot. (Not that it's hard to know more than Shizuku.) When a restaurant patron is disgusted by a glass poured for him by Miyabi, Shizuku steps in with an adorable smile and god-like decanting skills, if the fairytale music and everyone's shocked expressions are anything to go by. I'm expecting someone to sprout wings and take off any minute now, folks.
Hurrah! The wine is saved, its original flower-like fragrance brought out, and no heads are rolling tonight. Especially not Shizuku's, because he's a beer company employee who won't drink wine. Miyabi explains, to those of us who are clueless about wine, exactly how this miracle occurred. (I confess, I paid very little attention. I'm not a wine drinker. I'm barely a drinker. I will happily gloss over the technicalities.) Behind the scenes, Miyabi tells herself she's only drinking the wine to study it, which I imagine is what Kame has been saying to himself while preparing for this role, right before he gets plastered. The wine doesn't just smell like flowers - it makes the drinker feel like they're in a feel of flowers. (Think of the bread reactions in Yakitate! Japan, and you can see where this series is going.) Miyabi has never experienced anything quite like it.
Back at the office, and Shizuku has been moved from Sales to Wine. His bosses are obviously insane. Do they not know what an excellent salesman Kame is? Don't they know how hard he works at concerts to pimp out Crunky, and merchandise, and anything else he can to get us to part with our cash? Still, the transfer is made, and Shizuku does his best to get to know his new department. The new boss seems friendly, but the rest are a mixed bunch and there's some definite hostility over the possibility than Shizuku is merely trading on his dad's name as a famous wine critic.
But he wasn't doing it before, and he certainly isn't doing it now, because world's most annoying ringtone heralds a call about the unfortunate death of his father. Shizuku heads back to the Kanzaki house, which is really quite lovely, and you can tell immediately that things aren't as they should be. Other than his father lying in bed with a cloth over his face, I mean. The lawyer fills us in: Kanzaki-sensei was sick for three years, and his son wasn't allowed to know. Shizuku's upset about this in an understated way, because he was the old man's only relative.
Cut to tall, dark-haired guy in long coat approaching the house. Only relative, huh? I think not.
The sinister stranger (accompanied by even more sinister organ music) times his entrance perfectly, just as Shizuku hears from the lawyer that actually, the matter of his inheritance is not as clear-cut as it should be. Tomine Issei is the newcomer's name, and he's a wine critic, adopted one week ago by Shizuku's father. A bit sudden, you might think, and if Kanzaki-sensei hadn't died from pancreatic cancer I'd be pointing the finger at this guy. Shizuku's more irritated than anything else. His father's found a way to mess with his mind from beyond the grave.
The lawyer explains the inheritance contest. Six fantastic wines, and one that's even more so, 'Kami no Shizuku'. (Okay, I didn't get very far with the manga, but shouldn't there be thirteen in total? Not seven? I guess they had to chop it down for the drama. It's not like the Koreans are producing it, after all.) Whoever can correctly identify all of them gets the inheritance.
Shizuku is immediately suspicious of his newfound older brother; Tomine admits he wants Kanzaki's incredible wine collection. Sibling relations are not improved when the lawyer has them compete for the right to live in the house. Shizuku thinks this is stupid, that no one can possibly identify the name and year of the last wine his father ever drank, but Tomine, expert that he is, proves him wrong by going into ecstasies (of a somewhat technical fashion) over the glass. It doesn't take him long to come up with an answer, but Shizuku doesn't want to play. (Actually, he looks like he's about to cry.) Faced with the possibility of Shizuku giving up before he even starts, Tomine suggests they change the rules, and simply describe the wine to see who can produce the wording closest to their father's, with the outcome to be decided in a week.
Fairer? Yes, but Shizuku's still not interested. Tomine insists, however, that he at least try the wine. The glass makes it all the way up to his lips before what I can only assume is the scent triggers an image of a flying hat (a flashback), and the glass hits the floor. Shizuku makes a quick getaway but is intercepted by the pretty owner's daughter from Bambino, lurking in the corridor for no apparent reason. He brushes off her attempts to give condolences and introduce herself but doesn't leave the house just yet, pausing to ponder exactly what the hell's going on. While the audience does the same, the opening sequence rolls by like some kind of glossy wine advert which should be accompanied by a smooth, seductive voiceover. (Where's that radio voice of yours, Kame?)
And on with the show. Miyabi turns stalker, tracking down Shizuku when he's out and about and by dint of not listening to a single word he says, manages to accompany him when he's off to see a client. He's not thrilled at being identified as his father's son, particularly when it's by someone clearly obsessed with wine. She drags him into a restaurant that's not even open yet, and at this point, he sort of grins helplessly and gives up against the force of her insanity. I like this girl, even if she's so into wine that she feels sorry for it when she catches the restaurant's owner pouring it down the sink.
Unfortunately, our heroes have a front-row seat for a family quarrel: the harrassed owner vs. his wilful daughter, who's been out drinking all hours and wishes he'd died instead of her mother. Shizuka, the daughter, flounces off, which means she's the only one not around to be horrified when Miyabi's stomach growls and demands food. The owner kindly offers to make them some. Miyabi's in heaven, at least until she hears that the place is going out of business.
It's all the fault of Tomine, of course, who gave them a horrendously bad review in a magazine, driving away all the customers. (While they talk about him, he's elsewhere, tasting wine with a bunch of women who clearly think he hung the moon.) Miyabi wonders if there's some way to help. Shizuku insists that it's just wine, that you don't have to have wine when you eat, and that it's just wrong to build your life around wine. Oh dear. He's just insulted Miyabi's entire philosophy, no?
Back at the office, the Bambino lady turns out to be Saionji Maki, of the Saion Corporation, and she knew his father well enough to know that the son hates wine. Shizuku's bosses finally seem to understand this (presumably because she leaned on them) because they're transferring him back to Sales. Given that he doesn't seem to do much work anyway, you have to wonder why *any* department would want him. Miyabi ambushes him on his way out to tell him how great wine is, and declares that she's going to save the restaurant, with or without his help. Shizuku, possibly sensing a way to irk his older sibling, reluctantly offers some tactical advice and discovers once again that his new friend likes to communicate by hitting people. (Kame must be used to that after all these years knowing Jin, surely?)
The next minute appears to belong to another series entirely, possibly one involving vampires, high towers, and people sticking pointy fangs - and other, less pointy things - in each other. Tomine Issei and Saionji Maki are sufficiently acquainted to hang out in bathrobes and plot fiendishly over large glasses of wine while creepy organ music plays.
Back to our heroes, who are much shorter than the villains and generally nicer people. Miyabi takes Shizuku to a bar and introduces him to Fujieda, the owner, who gives them each a glass of the wine given zero stars by Tomine. Shizuku still doesn't want to drink, but Miyabi more than makes up for it; she ends up calling him 'Shizu-kun' as it's too difficult to say his name properly while inebriated. (Shizuku's face is a picture at this point.) Shizuku starts to unload some of his father issues, but Miyabi's already out of it.
Fortunately, the bartender is listening. Well, it's traditional, isn't it? He asks if wine was the only problem between them. Before Shizuku can figure out how to answer that, Miyabi wakes up and gets them both out of there. While I wasn't looking, an incredibly pretty girl got behind the bar - I suppose she works there - and she, too, knows the Kanzaki name. There are some amazingly gorgeous women in this series. Kame must love going to work.
The next day, Miyabi's caught Shizuku at work again. I don't know why she doesn't just get a job at 'Taiyo Beer' - she's there often enough! She gets the shock of her life when Shizuku starts talking about the scents of the wine rejected by Tomine, in the context of the whole dining experience, and reveals that he's always been sensitive to scents. Irritated, Miyabi declares that she wants to drink it again, and actually buys a whole bottle.
The bottle, alas, doesn't last very long, and it's not because she's downed the lot. A mysterious stranger (yep, another one, and this one speaks French) brushes past and accidentally knocks the bottle to the ground, breaking it. (I never thought learning French would help me understand J-dramas, I have to say.) The stranger takes them back to the quaintly-named 'Chateau Robert', where he digs up (no, really) a couple of bottles of expensive wine as an apology. Despite her token protests about having to go to work after this, Miyabi eagerly accepts the wine.
There are, I think, oysters to accompany this, which, coincidentally, were what Tomine had before sipping the wine at Ma Famille. Shizuku, who appears to be part-bloodhound, smells both wine and oysters and pieces together the sequence of events with the help of a flashback explaining how food and drink should complement each other. He still doesn't drink. Miyabi urges him to do so to save the restaurant, which might be the best excuse I've ever heard for having a glass of wine. Robert has some helpful advice on how to contact Bacchus (well, that's not quite how he put it), and as befits a reference to the God of Wine, the music takes a turn for the religious as Shizuku finally drinks from his glass.
But it's the second glass that gives him a reaction. Shizuku and Robert dance and twirl around, singing in French - very cute but quite batty. Miyabi covers her ears.
Don't ask me how but they've managed to persuade Tomine to give Ma Famille another chance. Not content just to save the restaurant, they want to save the father-daughter relationship too by having Shizuka take over from her deceased mother as the sommelier. Things are tense, but looking up.
There's 'gunfight at the OK Corral' type music as the gunslinger - sorry, the wine critic - steps into the restaurant, probably not at high noon, and once again has oysters with Chablis. Only this time, he gets cheap Chablis, for reasons explained by Shizuka. The sea urchin mousse goes well with its accompanying wine too, but disaster strikes when it's time for the main course! Shizuka stumbles, dropping the container and spilling most of the wine, which was poured in there an hour ago to air, or whatever. Basically, if they open a new bottle now, the taste will be wrong.
Unless of course the wine is poured from a great height by Shizuku and his god-like decanting skills, which Miyabi is in awe of. Tomine enjoys the result, trying to make like he's a nice guy by complimenting the staff and saying he's happy that they got something out of his harsh review a year ago. (Shizuku, to judge by his expression, is not convinced.)
Cue sinister music again as Tomine correctly states that the third glass of wine he drank was poured by someone with greater abilities than Shizuka, at which point, Shizuku reveals himself. Tomine does the villainous glasses thing, making me wonder if he's ever played a live-action Inui, or possibly Crawford, as if anyone's going to see the future in this series, I'd pick him. An argument ensues over Shizuku's issues with critics and their right to judge, leading to Tomine swishing out with a warning that their rematch is due in three days.
Of course, the truth comes out now. Miyabi's horrified by Shizuku's utter lack of interest in his father's wine collection (and money), but before the argument gets too far, father and daughter, now reconciled, come out to celebrate with a bottle of the mother's favourite wine. Even Shizuku drinks, this time experiencing a field of a hundred flowers...the same scent as the bottle broken on his mother's grave. It hits him when he runs back to the grave and looks at the label - it's not that his father didn't take flowers. He just took them in liquid form, that's all.
At the Kanzaki house, all the players are assembled for the showdown. The lawyer, the critic, and the mystery woman he's sleeping with. Shizuku, however, is nowhere to be seen, and if he doesn't show up soon, he'll lose by default. (He's at work...actually doing work, for a change. At least until the Personnel Dept. call him in.) Keen to avert a tragedy, or possibly just desperate to get in Kanzaki's house, Miyabi seizes the wine and threatens to drop it - or at least change the taste - unless they either allow her to fight in Shizuku's place, or agree to wait for him to show up. Even the lawyer gets in on the menacing bit. Frankly, if I was Shizuku, I wouldn't even *want* to live in this house. It's too creepy.
Just as Miyabi runs out of room, Shizuku shows up...followed by Robert, to the sounds of creepy organ music. Robert turns out to be an old friend of Shizuku's father, invited as a witness to the contest, though the music suggests that he's more likely there to flip a switch that brings some hideous creature to life in the basement.
The wine is poured. Tomine goes first, coming up with a painting metaphor for the wine. Looks like to be a wine critic, one must also be an art critic. The smug look he gives Shizuku just before setting down his glass makes me want to hit him, I'm sorry to say.
Shizuku calls on Bacchus for help, drinks the wine, and promptly has a flashback to his mother's death when he was five. Of course, it was in a vineyard. That explains the flying hat images. Poor kid, no wonder he's so screwed up. He went to offer her grapes he'd picked, she reached out for them...and collapsed. Shizuku's crying in the present as well. For him, the wine represents the last memory he has of his mother. It's a wine of farewells.
Tomine wins that round, having identified the very picture Kanzaki-sensei associated with the wine, but even he seems - slightly - moved by Shizuku's revelation. Shizuku doesn't care about the house, and still has no interest in the inheritance...but he doesn't want to lose to his father, either, so he'll continue the competition. Many issues, this boy has.
At least he takes the wine with him. And it's confirmed that Saionji Maki was responsible for his near-transfer back to Sales, which he declined. Knew I didn't trust her. While Shizuku and Miyabi walk off in the sunlight, happy and at ease, Robert shares a moment of mirth with the lawyer, marvelling over Shizuku's talent despite his amateur status, and the villainous duo slink off down the corridor, looking mean.
Shizuku and Miyabi take their prize back to the bar, where Shizuku quite enjoys himself until Fujieda brings out a bottle of the same wine but a from 1985, rather than 1990. The scent of this one gives Shizuku a vision of...old books? A dark study or library, I don't know? It looks mysterious, though. He says he can't drink this wine. I'm intrigued. Could it be more traumatic flashbacks? 1985 would be the year of Shizuku's birth, so I doubt he's remembering anything from that year!
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It's the first episode of the series, so a few words on the characters.
Kanzaki Shizuku: Once again, Kame is playing a guy surnamed Kanzaki. Typecast? But that's about all that Shizuku and Hiroto have in common, as the closest Hiroto's getting to fancy wine is blagging his way into a college party. Shizuku dresses nicely, has a decent watch and isn't desperate to get his hands on his father's money, which suggests that he's probably doing okay for himself, even if he isn't worth a fortune. When he's interacting normally with people, he seems pleasant enough, but the moment someone brings up wine or his father, he gets prickly and at this stage it's a bit tricky to get a handle on him beyond that. We don't see many genuinely happy smiles, unfortunately. My initial impression of Shizuku is that he is content to coast through life on a fairly shallow basis, not risking himself on anything that would require too much of him emotionally, doing well at maintaining his surface character. His competitive spirit only emerges when he flashes back to his mother's death, which makes me think he's only prepared to take on a challenge like this when he has something personal in it - his memories, and his relationship with his father, rather than the two billion yen wine collection that right now, has little meaning to him.
Shinohara Miyabi: Oh, she's a cute one. A tad ditzy, a trifle obsessive, more or less shameless and very, very determined. Got a lot of fighting spirit, she has, and she's quick to rope in anyone she thinks might be able to help her. In contrast to Shizuku, she easily gets emotionally invested, to the extent of pitying wine when it's poured away. In this odd little partnership, she's the one with the knowledge and he's the one working on instinct (hang on a sec, I'm having Gabriel Knight flashbacks) although their personalities would suggest that it was the other way around. I think they'll be a good team.
Tomine Issei: I want to throw things at him. I understand his reasons for being a wine critic, but I think he forgets that there are human consequences to his actions. Arrogant, self-confident, and certain about what he wants, and he's not averse to playing dirty to get it. If he'd been elisted (rather, adopted) by Kanzaki on the understanding that he participate in the challenge in order to give Shizuku an appreciation for wine, and receive some compensation for his trouble, I could warm to him - maybe. He did have one or two moments where he seemed almost human. But I don't think that's the case - or if it was before, it certainly isn't now Kanzaki's dead - as Tomine's own interests clearly come first in his mind. It does make for a more interesting series to have a real villain, of course. ^_^
Saionji Maki: And speaking of villains...well, I've never been inclined to trust anyone slinking around in that much fur, especially with the company she keeps and the influence she appears to have. I wonder what her stake in all this is? I assume she's already rich, but as she doesn't appear to have any interest in wine herself, I guess she wants the inheritance through Tomine? But he was only adopted very recently and I assume they were together before that, so...? Too early to say. Greedy girlfriend along for the ride?
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Music: I absolutely loved the music in this episode. For the most part, I thought it was very fitting, albeit a trifle over the top. But then, in a drama where people have such extreme reactions to wine, I imagine that's necessary! The sinister moments, of which there were many, were enhanced by creepy music of the sort you'd expect to find in a horror, where you know you're not going to feel safe. Gentle piano underscoring sad, touching scenes, and there were a fair few of those as well. I'm just not so sure about the upbeat numbers in the lighter scenes. I thought they were nice, particularly the very Western piece playing when Shizuku saved the day at Ma Famille, but the piece playing at the end, when Robert and the lawyer are talking, sounds more like it belongs in a school drama.
Obligatory Kame commentary: Probably not Kame's best work, but it's the first episode and he doesn't have a hell of a lot to work with right now. Rather, Shizuku only has two real modes at the moment - "normal" and "angsty". Kame can do "normal" in his sleep - shake a few hands, smile politely, make nice with the coworkers - and he's got "angsty" down pat, but we haven't had many opportunities to see what else he can do with the character yet. He cries far more beautifully than any human should be allowed to, of course, and I think he does a pretty good job with Shizuku's wine/daddy issues, but maybe I'm just remembering how amazing Kame was playing Hatanaka Kousaku in One Pound Gospel and making unfair comparisons. Mostly, he spends his time pulling odd, quirky faces over wine and trying to act like a sane, rational person.
Best Scene: I actually have a real fondness for Shizuku's expression when Miyabi calls him 'Shizu-kun' in the bar. It's just so "Huh???". I also enjoyed listening to Kame speak French, though why there was a random scene in French there, I have no idea, since Robert speaks Japanese the rest of the time.
Conclusion: I am terribly sad that Kami no Shizuku is doing so badly in the ratings because I actually enjoyed the first episode very much. There's mystery, intrigue and suspense, which I love. There's cute girls, insane and otherwise. There's random French, OTT wine reactions, sinister music, angsty flashbacks and of course, pretty, pretty Kame. How can I not like a series with all that going for it?