Masharu Fukuyama(福山雅治) stars along side indie singer and actress Fujiwa Sakura( 藤原さくら) in the drama and its directed by Hiroshi Nishitani(西谷弘) and Shin Hirano(平野眞). I'm not too surprised that Fukuyama would pick this type of drama to be apart of. It's right up his alley with music being the main focus of the plot.
The way in which this drama was shot could be called kinda of boring. You kind of just move from one place to the other and they all are on seen on the inside. A club, A Japanese style apartment, or Sakura's place of work. You don't really get a wide view of much to begin with but some shots caught my attention. The shots when the leads took the time to walk and talk with each other was eye candy. One the shots done about the city of Tokyo really amazed me. you go to see the city of Tokyo full of life with motion of starting the day and ending the day. A shot that episode 10 contains is just so nice to look at. The scene showcased the city of Tokyo in the evening as the sun is setting and the sky is a bright orange. Pictures of cities and nature scenery always does something to my heart. The club where Fukuyama's character and his friends hang out also brought a lot of excitement to the show as this is where the music of "Love Song" is mostly presented. The atmosphere is chill but you also get the sense that the club was a lot more lively years before. Shots when Sakura performs gives you two view points of singing what the audience sees and seeing what she sees as a performer.
Fujiwa Sakaura takes the spotlight in this drama so much so that you forget who is the veteran and who is the newcomer. She must have done thorough research on people who have disabilities because she took her character and lived in her shoes through out the whole drama. Not once did I think that her stuttering as an act as i watched her journey. I believed I was watching a young girl who was taking the steps to cope with her disability and found music along the way. I'm sure most people will watch this drama for Fukuyama but Sakura has such a charm that you can't stop looking at her. Masharu Fukuyama filled his role well has a doctor with past emotional scars during his time as a musician but he didn't do anything extraordinary with his role. I don't blame him per say because the script let him play it really safe with the storyline.(More on this in a second.) The chemistry between both leads was good because they both shared a passion for music but sometimes you felt like you were watching something that was so wrong. The emotional connection was definitely there but one side keep pulling away with the other side took the time to realize her feelings only to be left out to dry. The costars did their job filling in the empty spaces between the times our two leads were not on screen. They made me actually interested in their stories so this was a good thing. Masaki Suda(菅田将暉) is always the third wheel in dramas with his over dramatic self. I was happy to see him again and can't wait to see Death Note: Light Up The New World. A lot of the actors casted were given dead give away roles that didn't require them to work to hard. The only person who had sometime to prove in this drama was Fujiwa Sakura. Fukuyama is old enough to be Sakaura's father and at times in the drama it seems as much. This is why i felt wrong watching them together at times. It wasn't his age for my but the way he acted with Sakura to make the viewer feel like his was nurturing his daughter to be a better musician instead of his lover. Fukuyama is cool as hell and if you know of his career then you know as much but I didn't watch this drama to see him continue to show me how cool he is as an musician. He got a whole long career that says as much. I wanted that award winning performance that he showed in the Galileo series but that was nowhere to be seen in "Love Song"
I didn't have a huge problem with the plot of "Love Song" like other people seem to have. I'm a very realistic person and I have watched a ton of Japanese cinema to guess where this story was going to go based on the cast and the theme. I'm Japan, Having a relationship with someone who is older than you is considered taboo and people will look down on your relationship. Sadly, Japanese people as a whole care a lot about what other people think of them so this whole concept is a no no! I wondered how "Love Song" would approach this topic. Guess what? THE DRAMA DOESN'T TOUCH ON THE TOPIC AT ALL! ZIP ZERO, NOTHING!!!! The writers and producers missed out on a great opportunity to really touch this issue and maybe open a few peoples eyes, that love is a concept that sees no age, gender, or color. Instead we got a storyline that treaded lightly over the subject and even kept using conflict after conflict to keep from having to touch the subject at all. The drama was still pretty good overall and like I stated above, I look at dramas realistically and things don't always go the way you hope that would go. Still sometimes something good comes out of all the misfortune in the end.
"Love Song" should change it's name to "We put a newcomer and a huge star in a drama together to help boast her career." It worked too since Fujiwa Sakura's newest album charted on the music charts for ten weeks. I'm actually about to go look up her music now and give it a listen. I'm in love the music featured in "Love Song". Check out this drama if your a fan of Fuku, you like music, or you want to find a new female Japanese artist. Be warned though, There is a possibility that you might feel like you wasted your time by the drama's conclusion.
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