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bluelovesorangesmile episode one (and I've now decided I will only watch the episodes as they get subbed and not before): And now for a very Special PSA: Racism is bad! Smiling bravely through the pain and injustice because you can ganbatte your way through everything! Villainy and prejudice through a myopic lens of feel-good-social-commentary, an uplifting love story by way of Lifetime, and more triumph over adversity than you can wave an adorable cellphone accessory tie-in at!
I am going to try to rein in the snark for this review and try to break down Smile in three parts: the message, the story structure/plot, and the characters.
SMILE, from the beginning was always going to be problematic to review, simply because it had the whiff of A Very Special Public Service Announcement about it, and was also publicized that way: A UNIVERSAL HUMAN LOVE STORY! He's half-Filipino and half-Japanese, with a troubled past, trying to start again. She's the beautiful and bright school girl who has a tragic secret. Together, will they mend their broken spirits with a SMILE? You get my drift - I could hear the voice-over in my head, with emphasis on the racial issue turning into an Issue. TBS: We Know DRAMA!
Not that I don't think racial issues and the unspoken tension between Japanese and gaijin, and the growing mixed-population in Japan is not a worthy topic to explore in dramas - of course it is. I can certainly see thecynicalrational business side of casting Matsumoto Jun and Aragaki Yui in it - to appeal to the broadest demographic possible, you want to have bankable, popular faces to get your message across. But it strikes me as taking an almost too safe, predictable approach and blunts the effect. Because the thing is, there are more and more half-Japanese/mixed talents in the public eye, and quite a few of them are extremely popular (see: Shirota Yu, Sawajiri Erika, Becky, Yu Darvish), and there must be actual half Filipino/half Japanese out there, so I am disappointed that TBS didn't gamble and put out a casting call for an unknown - which to me would have done the publicity push just as well as casting "a member of Arashi and one of the current It Girls" in the leads.
But I'm not a Japanese tv executive and I certainly can't speak for what piques the audience at home's interest. All of my reviews/gently snarky (and not) commentary is through a very particular filter - like anyone's, really. You bring your own life experience when watching television (DOING ANYTHING), even if it is an escapist bit of comedy fluff, whether it's the universal feeling or a specific event - oh, that's happened to me, or someone I know.
When Smile works, it is on those broad terms : because at the center of it, it is about the underdog who is trying to make his way in a hostile/alien society. Because Vito's 'otherness' is at best a cosmetic Issue - his mother was a neglectful Japanese hostess who abandoned him as soon as he graduated from junior high, his father was Filipino and absent very early on, divorcing himself from Vito's mother and Vito. Vito's never been to the Phillipines, has been in Japan all his life, probably only speaks Japanese. He has assimilated into the mother culture (and let's get to it, Matsumoto Jun basically looks like a Japanese person with a caramel tan in Smile.) Vito is Japanese but shunned for something that's beyond his control. And when Smile isn't hammering in that point: OMG LOOK AT HOW RACIST EVERYONE IS, JAPAN ISN'T LIKE THAT, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS 'PURE' JAPANESE, and Vito is just a character and not an Issue, it is much easier to watch.
I am going to try to rein in the snark for this review and try to break down Smile in three parts: the message, the story structure/plot, and the characters.
SMILE, from the beginning was always going to be problematic to review, simply because it had the whiff of A Very Special Public Service Announcement about it, and was also publicized that way: A UNIVERSAL HUMAN LOVE STORY! He's half-Filipino and half-Japanese, with a troubled past, trying to start again. She's the beautiful and bright school girl who has a tragic secret. Together, will they mend their broken spirits with a SMILE? You get my drift - I could hear the voice-over in my head, with emphasis on the racial issue turning into an Issue. TBS: We Know DRAMA!
Not that I don't think racial issues and the unspoken tension between Japanese and gaijin, and the growing mixed-population in Japan is not a worthy topic to explore in dramas - of course it is. I can certainly see the
But I'm not a Japanese tv executive and I certainly can't speak for what piques the audience at home's interest. All of my reviews/gently snarky (and not) commentary is through a very particular filter - like anyone's, really. You bring your own life experience when watching television (DOING ANYTHING), even if it is an escapist bit of comedy fluff, whether it's the universal feeling or a specific event - oh, that's happened to me, or someone I know.
When Smile works, it is on those broad terms : because at the center of it, it is about the underdog who is trying to make his way in a hostile/alien society. Because Vito's 'otherness' is at best a cosmetic Issue - his mother was a neglectful Japanese hostess who abandoned him as soon as he graduated from junior high, his father was Filipino and absent very early on, divorcing himself from Vito's mother and Vito. Vito's never been to the Phillipines, has been in Japan all his life, probably only speaks Japanese. He has assimilated into the mother culture (and let's get to it, Matsumoto Jun basically looks like a Japanese person with a caramel tan in Smile.) Vito is Japanese but shunned for something that's beyond his control. And when Smile isn't hammering in that point: OMG LOOK AT HOW RACIST EVERYONE IS, JAPAN ISN'T LIKE THAT, THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS 'PURE' JAPANESE, and Vito is just a character and not an Issue, it is much easier to watch.
