Gaki N Me If you love to talk about the world, love Asian idols, this is the place.

Tenshi ga kieta machi/天使が消えた街/The City of Pure Souls
My goodness, did I cry, from episode 1 onwards, through 4, and the last episode. Unspeakable lump most of the time in the last episode...and finally burst out crying.

Koichi is so good in this one. I don't understand why some people say he couldn't act.

He plays the role of Tatsuro, a guy who lets other box him for 1 minute for 1000 yen, and lives in a dump. He survives barely as he repays debt of a friend. Then comes a retarded half brother played by one of my favoirte singer Fujii Fumiya who is in his inner world babbling along.

From that moment on, even without any music, it was very touching. Koichi may not have the best facial expressions as Tsuyoshi but his body language is astounding. When he walks, you know he is carefree, and when he pushes, you know he is angry and mad. He excels in meanness and anger and frustration. Absolutely the best. But pretty lacking in the kissing department. The whole series has only 1 kiss.

Nevertheless, the story really draws you in. The girl Tamaki played by Uchida Yuki is so lively that you will feel comfortable with her chirpiness and she's just perfect perfect for Tatsuro.

Then Tatsuro's childhood friend who grew up from the same orphanage tries to help him climb out of his vicious living....and triads/loan sharks are involved. Poor Tatsuro.

I think the cast is superb. Everyone did very well, and it's a very moving story. But most of all, the burden on Tatsuro is the heaviest of all and...well, if there are another 20 episodes, I will still watch it even if I have to cry my eyes out....






I chanced on a Japanese article and realized that there indeed was a human punching bag in Japan. Akira Hallelujah was an ex-boxer and to get himself out of financial debt, he did just that in the streets. Read this article here.


Human punching bag ultimately got KO'd
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fd20060430t2.html


In Andy Lau's movie, Love on a Diet, he in his 600 lbs fat suit also played this role where he became a human punching bag to raise funds to support his fat girlfriend to go on a diet in an expensive dieting clinic. Korea apparently also made it in a movie called Crying Fist.