Hana Yori Dango J-drama: Episode 06

HanaDan pushes the cheesiness limit: a dramatic return, a failed double date, and a mom face-off. And this viewer laps it like a dog in heat.

Rui returns and demands more screen time, thus, further complicating the already unstable Tsukushi-Tsukasa relationship. When Tsukasa finds the lurv of his life in the arms of his best-friend, the next possible scenario is almost guaranteed to be, erm, very colorful. Ahhh… choosing between a wussy Rui and an idiotic Tsukasa? No wonder Tsukushi is confused.

Meanwhile, Mommy Dearest briefly displays a pained expression beneath her creepyfying smile which blows the ‘Android Mom’ theory to dust. Nice acting, btw. The brief show of humanity is immediately squashed as she bribes the Makino household with a whopping 300M yen (approximately 2.5M USD), in cold hard cash. My money-grubbing paws, due to my recent exorbitant anime purchases, would have accepted it without batting an eyelash. Fortunately (or unfortunately; depending on your morals), the Makino family and I do not see things eye to eye. So Makino mom dumps salt over Mommy Dearest’s head. Audiences clap with delight. I truly like this Makino household in this J-Drama version.

An oh-so-shiny cellphone becomes an important plot device of the week. However, this development leads to a blinding glare on the TV screen. *shudder* I don’t care if it’s supposed to be uber-expensive or what-not but that phone is plain fugly. Period. Speaking of fugly, Yuki’s choice of men is not exactly spectacular. Rude and utterly obnoxious, not to mention immensely fugly, her boyfriend needs to be taught some manners. Tsukasa obliges and I cheer for the display of violence. But of course, Tsukushi misunderstands the situation. Oh, well. They have issues.

Random thought. Hmmm. I am starting to theorize that the F4 actors are hired based on their performance on smooching scenes. Really. On the first episode, Akira demonstrates a not-so-bad, err, skill during his brief smooch with one of the hoochies. In this latest installment, Shun shows a non-sloppy kissage during the first act. I would like to assume that Jun will perform splendidly in this department too. Now, it’s up to Soujirou-dude to complete the circle. Now, why you ask I am highlighting such trivial matters? Well, if you have seen one too many Asian dramas — may it be Taiwanese, Japanese, or Korean –, you may have noticed that the smooching scenes are usually cringe-worthy and unappealing. And a bad kissing scene is plain depressing.