Yoshiwara Uradoushin is my favourite show this season along with Petro no Souretsu and surprisingly both remain unsubbed. Yoshiwara is the famous red light district from the Edo period that jdoramas fans would have seen in Jin and also in the movie Sakuran. Watching Yoshiwara Uradoshin makes me want to replay Ryu ga Gotoku Kenzan! but I've got to finish Ao no Kiseki before Sen no Kiseki II comes out end of September on top of watching all the interesting jdoramas this season.
Koide Keisuke and Kanjiya Shihori play childhood friends Kamimori and Teijo. Teijo's dad got into gambling debt and had to marry her off to an abusive husband. Shades of a Yamada Yoji movie, Kamimori runs off with Teijo and they end up going to Yoshiwara for Teijo's brother. I was getting a strong OMFG it feels like a Yamada Yoji dorama from episode 1! Something happens in Yoshiwara and Kamimori ends up working at there as a doushin or policeman.
Yoshiwara Uradoushin is just right up Ozaki Masaya's alley and plays to his writing strengths. Similar to his Tokumei Kakaricho Tadano Hitoshi and Tokumei Tantei series, its basically short stories about beautiful women living in a harsh world and a hero or in Uradoushin's case a couple who help these women.
Its a bleak world where girls are sold to brothels at a young age to pay their fathers' debts and must work of their contracts with most dying of disease. Its a world where women are used as property and are never to leave Yoshiwara until they pay off their debts or get bought by a rich dude. Uradoushin is not a gritty realistic show though it still portrays things from the Edo period like any suspect is bound to get tortured. Its a feel good show with equal parts comedy and drama that is set against a harsh backdrop and that makes for interesting stories.
I love the casting and how beautifully its shot. The only complaint I have is the fighting which can be pretty bad. We have stupid unnecessary wirework in the first episode and the group fight in episode 5 was poorly choreographed with boring camera angles and people waiting their turn to run at our hero with arms in the air. The swordplay can look very fake at times and I'm not talking about the lack of blood. If only the fighting were more consistent..
Ability to read simple kanji is a must for Uradoushin. Its all in old Japanese and they've got words that I could not even find in my Japanese to English dictionaries like 妻敵討ち (megatakyuchi) which doesn't sound like what the onyomi is suppose to but you can get the idea from the individual kanjis.
I really love watching Yoshiwara Uradoushin. The stories for 5 episodes have been great fun. You can't go wrong with a feel good show about a cop working in a prostitution zone and the various characters that live in it. I love this show more than I should but I'm usually partial to Ozaki Masaya's writing. Plus one cannot have enought Kanjiya Shihori. :)
Hopefully the 2nd half of the show is just as good and the fighting gets better.
