[REVIEW] Ooku~ Tanjou

[sukaretto]

Ooku~ Tanjou (Arikoto~ Iemitsu-hen)
Japanese Drama

Episodes: 10

Genre: Period Drama, Historical

Cast:

• Sakai Masato as Madenokouji Arikoto
• Tabe Mikako as Tokugawa Iemitsu
• Tanaka Koki as Gyokuei
• Hirayama Hiroyuki as Inaba Masakatsu
• Minamisawa Nao as Yuki
• Omi Toshinori Murase Masasuke
• Danta Yasunori as Matsudaira Nobutsuna
• Naitou Takashi as Sawamura Den'emon
• Aso Yumi as Kasuga no Tsubone

Synopsis:
     During the reign of the shogun, Iemitsu, an epidemic causes the population of men to sharply drop, leading to an ooku where the role of men and women are reversed and so “the women become the shogun, served by 3000 handsome men”...and so with that, the unimaginable and grand scale story begins.

     The 2010 movie version was set during the period where Yoshimune, the eighth shogun, was in power, where the role reversal of men and women were not uncommon. However, this drama dates back to the time where Iemitsu, the third shogun, was in power, and this story could be considered as “episode zero.” This drama will dramatically portray the schemes, jealousy, and the pure love that emerge at the Edo castle, with the mystery of “how the sex role-reversed ooku came to be?” as the backing plot.

info credits: http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Ooku_~Tanjou

Sukaretto says:
p.s. spoilers coming up.
     this drama started as something really intense until it softens up to the end (and made me weep my eyes out, of course). and from the first episode, i've been imagining Kasuga's horrible death. they didn't give me that. she didn't suffer, she was honored instead. okay, if it wasn't for her, Iemitsu (Tabe Mikako's role) wouldn't be there, but do you really have to resort to killing everyone just to have it your way? well, if she didn't kill one or two persons in front of Arikoto, he wouldn't be in the Ooku too right? to think that's how it was in the early days. i know this is fiction but surely, the past wasn't that far off from what they're showing us. i was really worried with Gyokuei in the beginning, i thought he'll die too. instead, he became a concubine, and fathered a princess and then turned back to being a monk. and poor Masakatsu, i thought he'll go back to his family after her mother died.
     the cast was great. i mean, every single one of them. i wonder why it was only Tabe Mikako who won an award. i just wish that in every wiki, they would add the whole cast. i wanted to know the names of the other but i can't find it anywhere. their faces are familiar but i just can't remember their names.  

My Ratings: i'll give this 4/5 :)