(Jdrama review) A Sharply Graceful Girl

Original title: Hannari Girori no Yoriko-san (はんなりギロリの頼子さん)

Director: Hiroyuki Yamaguchi

Writer: Yosuke Kaneko, Yukiko Asano (webcomic)

Network: KTV

Episodes: 4

Release date: April 24 - May 15, 2018

Duration: 24 minutes

Genre: romance: traveling

Casts:

Yui Yokohama as Yoriko Shindo

Masaki Nakao as Yuichi Yamada

Kaho Tsuchimura as Junko Ikegami

Atsuya Okada as Shunshuke Ikegami

What do you expect from being transferred from Tokyo to Kyoto? Kyoto is relatively smaller than Tokyo, of course, and do you expect to perform better here, with some mistakes in your name card on the first day of your new workplace? 

 

Yuichi Yamada was transferred to Kyoto due to his lack performance in his work. He was asked to write some articles about Kyoto. His-know-nothing-about-Kyoto brought him to go around Kyoto places that look the same to him. One day, two French tourists asked his help to give them guidance to see around Kyoto. With all his might, he was willing to help them. Unfortunately, he himself was lost in his direction. There, he asked a tobacco shop owner about the right direction. To his surprise, the tobacco owner could speak French fluently. From the moment, Yamada put his interest to the shop owner.

Yoriko Shindo, the shop owner looked unfriendly with her sharp look and cynical smirk on her lips. But the truth is she was generous in her heart. She gladly showed direction to the lost tourists, lend her bike to them, help a father who lost his daughter, and the most important is she was really resourceful to Yamada as a magazine article writer. She seemed to know everything about Kyoto, every tradition, every meaning of things, every corner of Kyoto, but one strange thing is she didn’t speak with Kyoto accent even though she was born in Kyoto. She held the secret for herself.

The Sharply Graceful look

The tiny friendly tobacco shop

I happened to see Masaki Nakao in the casts list that I automatically click the drama. It has only four episodes with 24 minute duration. And it is SUBBED! YEAY! Well, one thing I like from Japanese dorama is the duration and the number of episodes. But 4 episodes is too short, I guess. 

The lucky new resident to meet the tobacco shop owner

Most of the houses in Kyoto located in the corner has this kind of stone

The answer for putting the stone there 😄

Watching this drama is like having a travel in Kyoto yourself. Yoriko is like a living guide book for lost tourists or a new resident like Yamada. I found that Kyoto keeps its beautiful charisma with almost similar streets (that make people lost), some tradition like sweeping in their neighborhood, some legendary stories of shrine, some traditional cuisine that Yoriko explain in detailed, including the difference between the real Maiko or Geisha with some tourist whose makeup take after Maiko, and many other things. Yoriko herself kept her own secret why she hid her Kyoto dialect.4 episodes are merely enough to know more about Kyoto, I assume. Not to mention the interaction between Yamada – Yoriko is only about Kyoto and Kyoto. To have such romantic feeling is too instant. So far, I did enjoy watching this short dorama. The sharp look of Yoriko only happened in the beginning of the drama, the look gradually turned to be gentle, especially while she was smiling😊😊😊Well, I recommend the drama for every one who wants to get to know Kyoto side story. I tried Googling about Kyoto, but I found is a bit different from brief explanation from Yoriko which is more detailed with more background. 

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