Long Vacation (1996)

It took a long time for me to write a review of my all time favorite dorama, Long Vacation. The dorama which started everything. I have a deep relationship with this dorama because of many reasons, one of them because this is where I met my first love: Takuya Kimura! Yeah, I fell in love with him as an actor, and I have developed my attraction in tv series and movies because of him and this series. This dorama also became hit in Japan, and since take a role in Long Vacation, Takuya Kimura has become the main lead actor who always bring his series to the high rating program every year. In order to write from a different point of view describing of how I feel about this dorama, I decided to watch this dorama again. Funny thing is, no matter how many times I watch this dorama, it always make my heart flutters in a certain way.

Long Vacation starred by Takuya Kimura (as Sena Hidetoshi) and Tomoko Yamaghuci (as Minami Hayama). Takuya Kimura brilliantly portray a passive guy Sena as a charming and to die for guy. I usually don’t prefer the passive guy, but I don’t know why Takuya Kimura nailed it. I’ve never seen Tomoko Yamaghuci in other series, but surely in this dorama she is the Sun. She could make this dorama fresh and warm. Sena is a 24 year old guy who actually is a piano master candidates however stucked as a piano lesson teacher. Minami is a 31 year old lady who face the sunset time of her model career. They both met at the Sena’s apartment when Minami is left by her fiancee at her wedding day. Her fiancee share apartment with Sena, but when Minami came it was too late because her fiancee already gone. It is basically a romantic drama involving a guy and a lady who live together and started to get to know each other, console each other, and love each other as the time goes by. I will review this dorama from the point of what I love most, first of all are the main leads Sena and Minami.

What I love about Sena and Minami interactions is that they inspire each other to live. Not just some random meaningless romantic scenes, but a deeper connection between two humans through their conversations and acts. Sena is a shy guy, really.. he is too kind and introvert, a total opposite of Minami who is really bright and cheerful. However, they are actually could see the world from the same perspective. It is shown by the small moments but deep for me. Like when Minami and Sena laugh at certain jokes of the movie while their partner couldn’t see that funny at all. Sena might be really passive and too cool, but when Minami sad and depressed about her why-everything-goes-wrong life, it is Sena who consoled Minami to take that time as a vacation from God. To not rush, to not try hard, just let everything flow in its natural way. What Sena said was also the meaning of this dorama title. I might not realize it when I watched this dorama 16 years ago for the first time, but this version of me now.. see that moment as one of the touching and deep scene that I love most in this dorama. Another of the sweetest moment was when Minami try so hard to learn piano, to show a miracle to Sena due to his plan to giving up Piano from his life. I think, it is nice to have someone who like Minami in my life everytime I’m planning to leave my dream. They developed to love each other without their realization, but not in a cliche way. They support each other to stand up on their own feet again after their dark moments. I think that’s one side of relationship between man and woman which really hard to find in this nowadays romantic drama/tv series.

Other thing that I love most from this dorama is the soundtrack. La La La Love Song by Toshinobu Kubota ft Naomi Campbell, Deeper and Deeper by Cagnet and all of the piano pieces. I still listen to the songs up to now, I have them in my phone playlist. I read that because of this series, there were many guys want to learn piano. It’s really cool wasn’t it? The effect of this dorama was really huge!  I think the music director of this dorama is a real genius, because the music matched with the mood of every scenes. I used to confuse with the music without lyric; what does the musician want to tell about on their pieces? Somehow, I could get it in this dorama. Every sound of the piano could tell a thousand words and miraculously  moved my heart.

To sum up, I think that this dorama is a must watch series for those who are thinking that their life going nowhere, they have to try to think it as their long vacation from God. Because no matter how hard we try, there always be moments like that. About the romantic relationship, make us think that the strongest reason for man and woman could be in love is maybe because despite of the difference personality we might have but when you can find someone who sees and thinks the same view as you do and could pull you out from the despair sea, you’ve successfully found yourself a home, you’ve found the one who you want to be with forever.

Anyway..if you never listen to it, you should try to listen Close to You and Minami: Sena’s Piece. They are really awesome piano tunes 🙂

 

 

Why We Jump

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s famous ted talk: The Danger of A Single Story has been parked in my mind for this couple of weeks. I know how people portray the millennials in this era. I’ve read many articles about millennials, because of course, I am one of them. The plus sides, the minus sides, let’s say I am all aware of that. However, the contents of what I’ve been read, somehow, feels like made by non millennials. I get this feeling of being judged, although they’ve complimented us somehow in the beginning.

I had this discussion with a gene X person, he said that he doesn’t like the fact that kids nowadays (yeah the gene Y people/millenials refer to the “kids”), easily give up on something. I read many articles also said that us, millennials, have the low level of struggling on something. I also remembered, when there is a seminar/workshop for the supervisors (all of them are gene X people) about how to deal with millennials. When I asked what the seminar was about, I am shocked that they view that millennials are some kind of new threats of the companies. I always smile while reading or listening to that. Until one day, that ted talk suddenly calling me out. How the supervisors, or upper managements of many companies see us the millennials, are.. how do I put it in a word ya? like.. hurts? I think it is time for me, as one of the millennials, to tell what we really think about it. About why we did what we did.  Because of course, people will have the different mindset, if they know the stories from different angles.

First of all, they don’t like us being creative but at the same time, we’ve become so selective about what we’re gonna do. Giving up so easily in the workplace because we’ve been treated bad by our supervisors are not a proud thing to do for them. They basically told us that it is okay to accept all of those harsh comments or  being scolded because it is for our own good. We have to stick with our place for a long time, no matter how hard the condition we live in. Well, what I want to say for these: Why should we? We live in a numerous of options, flying in our heads. We’ve been exposed on the internet. We know what the better condition out there that we might get. We know how others could go to work without being treated that bad, so why we should not giving the bad things up? I guess, it’s all about the freedom of choose. We all are in fact different. That’s why everything comes with preferences of user nowadays. We live in the era of preferences are important. So I think, we could choose to give up to something because we think that it doesn’t suit us, when we can. Of course it will be a different story when we can’t give up because we have to do that no matter what. What I want to elaborate is for me, it is acceptable to giving up your workplace when you think it irritates you. Because you live just once, and it’s so wasting of your your time to do something when you think you’re not into it or you’re not “clicked” with your surroundings.

Secondly, about how short the time we want to be in one office. If 2 months to 2 years are the average of millennials usually work in one place. Of course it freaks the Gene X supervisors. Many companies try to be as casual as they could, because millennials like to be treated fairly and not too serious. Wearing jeans for example, become one of the human capital program in a big company. Why do you think they do that? To make us the millennials stay for a longer time! Moreover, the booming of startup companies also become the threats of the classic conservative companies now. The casual management, with flexible working hours are the strong points that usually be considered by us. We already live in a high level of stress world, what we need is an environment where we could explore our ideas without being pressed too much. Also, the variety of jobs and experiences are ones of the main reasons. We want to try as much as we can. We want to take the opportunity to try. We’ve been exposed to new career such as blogger, or vlogger, or youtuber. This kind of job doesn’t exist in 25 years ago right? We are thinking that there are many new ways, many opportunities, out there. And we see that there others who’ve succeeded which led us to believe that we can do it too. It’s normal, because courage is contagious.

Well, of course we make mistakes. We are just humans afterall.. But, what I want to say is, don’t judge us. Because we have our own reason. No matter if you agree with our reasons or not, but let us learn in our own way. If we must fail, then we will fail later, but at least we try. Don’t mock us for being free spirited. Just accept that we are different, and respects each other’s decisions to jump in and jump out as much as we want.