Japan Doramas: Through The Eyes Of A Fan

Tanaka Yuko as Oshin (age 16 to 46)

According to J-Fan, Japanese TV dramas (or "dorama" as they are often referred to outside Japan) are probably the biggest form of entertainment in Japan. The biggest and most popular actors and actresses in Japan appear in TV dramas, unlike in the U.S. where the biggest actors appear almost exclusively in movies. And Japanese TV drama has spread and become quite popular throughout Asia. The doramas can be categorized into two types: trendy and non-trendy. Usually, the non trendy type includes NHK dramas, "jidaigeki" ("period" dramas), children's shows etc.

The ones that being aired on our free national tv (8TV to be exact) right now are the trendy type. In fact, the trendy type has been garnering much attention in Malaysia. Yet, if we still remember, it was the non-trendy type that started winning the hearts of Malaysians. Let’s reminisce the days when we anticipated the airing of Oshin, Shogun, Ninja, Rin Hanekoma, Akantare and even Moero Attack! Malay vocalization helped us even better to understand the stories. I suppose, most of us already recognize the voices. Yup, the same voices are still being used in the Japan Animes aired on our local tv: for eg. Shin-Chan, Naruto to name a few.

I admit that I do have a 'thing' for anything Japanese: people and products alike. I’ve been buying boxes and boxes of J-Dorama vcds since 4 years ago. (please note, there is no hint of pride there whatsoever). In each box set, normally there are 7 – 8 vcds, rarely 9 – 10 vcds. I used to watch all the cds in one go – my sister and I call this process: vcd marathon. Believe me, I had stopped doing vcd marathon, now I manage to discipline myself to watch only 3 – 4 vcds per-day. :-p

After watching quite numerous number of J-Doramas, I could conclude that the essence in life of a Japanese is ‘spirit’. Be it love story or family story, they always cultivate the spirit of striving for the best. It is really rare to find them giving up on something. Even in mushy-mushy love stories where the characters usually fail miserably in their relationships, they always have this attitude of ‘tomorrow is another day’. What past is past, no need to cry over spilled milk.

And oh yes, the Japanese really value their time. They are also so engrossed with their jobs. I think this is the most interesting criteria of J-Doramas. The doramas always portray how their jobs are done, in details mind you. Let’s take one of my favorite dorama as an example: My Little Chef. The lead actress plays the role of a French Cuisine Chef. In each episode, the viewers will be exposed with methods of cooking a French dish. The same goes with Sushi Master, each episode gives a tip on how to prepare good sushis. Yummy and educational as well! Of course, stories with good food always have a special place in my heart :D

I also got to watch some detective doramas: Files of Kindaichi (adapted from Hajime Kindaichi Anime) and Fugoh Keiji among others. Most of these detective doramas are influenced by Sherlock Holmes’ method in deducting his cases. Though sometimes the plots are illogical, you get to learn lots of deduction skills! The best part is when you succesfully guess the right culprit of the case. If I’m not mistaken, this type of story is called ‘who’s dunnit’ story.

I also notice that some of the western values have been instilled among the Japanese. The most obvious are the Valentine and Christmas celebrations. Though most of them are not Christians, they celebrate Christmas as if they are. Buying each other presents during Christmas is a norm, complete with Christmas trees, Santa Claus, and even Christmas Carol in Japanese! As for Valentine, the girls and ladies will bake chocolate cookies to be given to their loved ones. This is the time when the popular lads will get lots of cookies, openly or in secret (by secret admirers, no doubt).

In case you are wondering why am I babbling about the western influence, I just want to state that it is hard for me to find a dorama in which the Japanese do not look up to the Westerners. This is what one of my Japan graduate friend said, “The Japanese call other Asians as Asians, but they refer themselves as Japanese.” I wonder why? Of course it is wrong to generalize the Japanese, but surely there is some truth in her remark, isn’t it?

To date, my most favourite J-Dorama is Proof of the Man (Ningen no Shumei) which will be aired on 8TV this coming Saturday. (8TV should thank me for promoting this dorama) The reason? It is the first dorama where I get to see the dark side of Japan: how there are still Japanese that hate Americans, the ugliness of its political world etc. Even the English used by the actors in this dorama is really good. I had watched some doramas where the actors are portrayed as people who speak English very well, but once you listen to them you know they only memorize it without even understanding the meaning.

Undeniably, my observation is based on the sample of doramas that I bought and watched. There are more doramas out there, with various type of genres and plots. Still, being a J-Dorama fan, I manage to grasp here and there some Japanese words and sentences. My favorite words: Utso (You are lying!), Asoka (Oh, like that) and many more... :D. Hmm.. see what dramas could do to you.

Note: Zakiah-chan, please correct any wrong impression about Japan and Japanese. After all, I’ve never been to Japan :)

Saturday Night Cooking With Iron Chef Ida-san

yummy ayamas chicken balls

+

shredded cabbages

+

look at the power puff girls hiding behind the vegetables!

the result = mouth-watering tomyam ready to be eaten

(note: i forgot to capture the pic of tomyam paste)

no doubt these two dishes look gross (they are actually: i. sardines cooked with shallots & chillies and ii. fried sausages), but still; they managed to dissapear faster than the tomyam :D

delicious moist cheese cake: supposed to be the dessert

but somehow it mysteriously turned into appetizer ;)

my masterpiece: of ladle and chillies, love the color contrast

Subhanallah! Check out the ‘twisting’ molecules of H2O, i like this pic the most

Last but not least, I need to mention that I couldn’t do it without my assistant Chef, shuhada aka shada the cekodok master :D, plus the saturday nite event photographer!

Dilema Orang 'Comel' & 'Sihat'

Situasi 1

A yang 'comel': Aku nak tambah nasi lagi, tolong sendukkan

B yang tak 'comel': Patut lah badan kau 'comel'


Situasi 2

B yang tak 'sihat': Tambahlah lagi nasi

A yang 'sihat': Tak pe lah, dah kenyang

B yang tak 'sihat': Oooo... kau diet ya


Situasi 3

A yang 'comel': Aku takut lah tinggal sorang-sorang

B yang tak 'comel': Aik! Badan besar pun takut?!


Situasi 4

B yang tak 'sihat': Wah, makin berisi kau sekarang! Senang hati ya...

A yang 'sihat': Hmm... (dengan nada malas nak layan)


Nota: Kesemua situasi di atas ada kena mengena dengan penulis

Meniti Senja

Judul: Meniti Senja
Pengarang: Sawako Ariyoshi
Penterjemah: Thaiyibah Sulaiman
Penerbit: Dewan Bahasa & Pustaka

Untung hidup dalam lingkungan dunia akademik, saya boleh akses buku-buku di perpustakaan bila-bila masa. Boleh juga jumpa buku-buku yang susah hendak didapati di pasaran (ataupun yang tidak mampu dibeli), malah boleh meneliti dahulu dan kalau berkenan boleh beli terus di kedai buku. Contohnya buku bertajuk Meniti Senja ini. Sebelum ini saya pernah meminjam buku bertajuk Kepulangan karangan Osaragi Jiro yang juga diterjemahkan ke bahasa Melayu. Tertarik juga dengan kandungannya. Lalu saya cuba meminjam karya terjemahan yang lain pula. Hasilnya? Meniti Senja memang tidak mengecewakan.

Judul asalnya 'Kokotsu no Hito', diterbitkan pada tahun 1972 dan menjadi bestseller di Jepun ketika itu. Penulisnya Sawako Ariyoshi mengambil masa bertahun-tahun menjalankan penyelidikan dalam menghasilkan buku ini. Secara ringkasnya, cerita ini berkisar tentang cabaran menjaga orang tua. Watak utamanya Akiko merupakan seorang wanita bekerja yang telah berumahtangga dan mempunyai seorang anak lelaki: Satoshi yang bakal mengambil peperiksaan kemasukan ke universiti. Kisah ini bermula apabila ibu mertua Akiko meninggal secara tiba-tiba dan tanggungjawab menjaga bapa mentuanya: Shigezo jatuh ke pundak Akiko. Ironinya, sebelum kematian ibu mertua Akiko, dia dan suami: Nobutoshi telah lama tidak mengendahkan keadaan Shigezo lantaran perangai buruknya yang suka menghina Akiko.

Lebih mengejutkan Akiko dan keluarganya, hanya setelah Shigezo terpaksa tinggal bersama mereka, barulah mereka tahu yang Shigezo sebenarnya telah nyanyuk. Anehnya, Shigezo cuma mengingati Akiko dan cucunya Satoshi meskipun sebelum nyanyuk, dia amat membenci mereka. Nobutoshi, anak sendiri pun tidak dikenali Shigezo hingga beberapa kali Nobutoshi dianggap pencuri yang menceroboh masuk. Hanya Akiko yang bersungguh-sungguh menjaga Shigezo hingga dia kerap bercuti oleh kerana keletihan menjaganya. Suaminya buat lepas tangan, malah Nabutoshi rasa meluat melihat bapanya sendiri dalam keadaan nyanyuk begitu. Sebetulnya, Nobutoshi nampak bayangannya sendiri dalam kelibat bapanya. Dia tidak sanggup memikirkan yang dia juga akan jadi nyanyuk sedemikian.

Hingga satu ketika, anak mereka Satoshi sampai meluahkan, "Mak, ayah.. janganlah hidup selama itu!" Ayat tersebut sangat memberikan kesan kepada mereka berdua hingga mereka mula memberi perhatian lebih tentang maklumat-maklumat berkaitan orang tua dan kenyanyukan. Meski Akiko berasa lelah dan adakala benci menjaga bapa mertuanya, dialah juga yang berasa sunyi dan menitiskan air mata apabila Shigezo akhirnya meninggal dunia.

Buku ini sebenarnya ingin menekankan peri pentingnya mengambil berat kebajikan orang-orang tua kerana generasi muda sekarang juga bakal melalui proses tersebut. Kesan daripada novel ini, masyarakat Jepun kini ada subjek khas di sekolah mengajar pelajar-pelajar tentang penjagaan kebajikan orang tua. Berdasarkan pengalaman peribadi saya sendiri, alhamdulillah saudara-mara dan orang-orang terdekat di sekeliling saya memang menjaga kebajikan ahli-ahli keluarga yang telah tua dan nyanyuk. Tiada yang dihantar ke rumah orang-orang tua.

Yang sangat menarik perhatian saya dalam buku ini ialah betapa terperincinya penulis menggambarkan keadaan orang-orang tua yang nyanyuk contohnya: melarikan diri tiba-tiba dari rumah dan mampu berjalan jauh-jauh tanpa henti, keupayaan makan dalam kuantiti yang sangat banyak, dsb. Teori-teori tentang sebab-musabab kelakuan sedemikian juga dinyatakan. Membaca buku ini ternyata menambah ilmu saya tentang penyakit nyanyuk.

Sedangkan terjemahan sudah cukup menarik, saya fikir karya dalam bahasa asalnya pasti lebih bagus. Alangkah baik kalau saya boleh menguasai bahasa Jepun!

Al-Fatihah Untuk Arwah Emak

Semalam, 16 April 2006; genap dua tahun arwah emak saya kembali ke rahmatullah. Bukan saya hendak mengikut adat bangsa Jepun atau Korea yang sememangnya ada upacara khas mengingati ulangtahun kematian ahli keluarga mereka. Sekadar hendak mengingatkan diri sendiri supaya tidak lupa mendoakan arwah emak. Cukuplah saya tidak berupaya menjadi anak solehah sewaktu arwah masih hidup, besar harapan saya agar dikurniakan Allah kekuatan beramal dan seterusnya memberikan manfaat kepada arwah emak di alam barzakh.

Rasanya lirik lagu Ummi atau Mother nyanyian Sami Yusuf (Ya, lagi Sami Yusuf) paling sesuai menggambarkan perasaan saya:

Blessed is your face Blessed is your name My beloved

Blessed is your smile Which makes my soul want to fly My beloved

All the nights And all the times That you cared for me

But I never realised it And now it’s too late Forgive me

Now I’m alone filled with so much shame

For all the years I caused you pain If only I could sleep in your arms again

Mother I’m lost without you

You were the sun that brightened my day Now who’s going to wipe my tears away

If only I knew what I know today Mother I’m lost without you

Mother... Mother... O my mother How I long to see

O mother “Your mother, Your mother, Your mother” Is the saying of your Prophet

In my heart, in my dreams You are always with me mother

You went and left me O light of my eyes O comfort of my nights

You went and left me Who, other than you, will embrace me?

Who, other than you, will cover me? Who, other than you, will guard over me?

Your pardon mother, forgive me