The L Word in the Jdrama World – Part 1: The Cast

June 14, 2012 — 3 Comments

I guess it must be the Blogathon week, I just couldn’t shake that feeling that I had to talk about The L Word one way or the other… again. What better way to talk about than combining it with MY FAVORITE topic as of lately~ JDRAMA!

A while back [1], I found a post where a fan talked what Japanese stars they would pick if they ever wanted to remake The L Word in Japan. Of course, I went a step further. I thought about the HOW TOs in the adaptation of a Japanese The L Word… because, well- for starters, Japan in not the USA. Also, I can’t show Showtime content on Japanese television. Not if I want to use my dreamcast~~~

 

I made this Jdrama character chart because I take this sh!t seriously. LOL

Since creator Ilene Chaiken was adamant in saying Jenny Schecter was the main character of the show – and the original poster’s idea was to have Yu Aoi be Jenny~~~ and since Yu-chan is MY favorite actress, who am I to deny this? Plus, I can see her pull this off AND make her a likable character.

By the way, my version of The L Word would be called Sekai no Kizuna (世界の絆), meaning “bonds of the world” or “ties of the world” — and OBVIOUS reference to The Chart.

I haven’t picked characters’ names because… since it’s Japanese, I would need to mull over them to match their personalities to the characters used in their names. I’m not picking names just for the sake of picking names. Though, “Tim” can totally be a “Hiroshi” LOL

Let me introduce my cast and my reasons.

Starring:
Yu Aoi as Jenny
Mirai Moriyama as Tim
Lee Hyori as Marina
Misster Chris 赖紫纶 as Shane
Mikako Ichikawa as Tina
Miki Nakatani as Bette
Kimiko Yo as Kit
Meisa Kuroki as Carmen/Molly
Asami Mizukawa as Alice
Toda Erika as Dana
Eita as Mark

My most controversial picks would be~ first, casting Lee Hyori in a freaking Japanese drama. First of all, my pick for Marina would have been Gong Li — nuff said. I settle for Hyori because I always thought Marina felt a little “exotic” in The L Word. I wanted her character to get an accent, and as amazing as it’d be to find a gorgeous Japanese actress that has a kick ass Latino-Spanish-French-accented Japanese, I’m settling for Korean-accented Japanese.

And I don’t even know if Hyori would be able to speak a lick of Japanese. In any case, I could settle for English.

Plus I felt a bit uncomfortable to have Jenny and Marina so far apart in age to cast someone like Gong Li or Asuka Kurosawa — in the case we wanted to have a Japanese cast.

My second most controversial pick would be casting Season2 Mark, instead of casting another character… like a Helena, or Moira/Max, or Lara or Papi. First – I love Eita, I have a bias. I know. But I also thought adding Mark to the story would give Shane a bit more than just the Ladies’ Girl background. Plus, it takes me back to the time when Eita was Takeru [1] and was besties with Ruka. I want that with Mark and Shane.

Lastly- Shane. Shane is very important [1]. To me, Shane was THE center of The L Word universe. Everyone is connected to Shane, and the picking of Shane for a Japanese adaptation was, to me, very important. However, after thinking about it for a LONG LONG LONG time, I couldn’t pick a Japanese actress to embody the amazingness that is Shane… so I visited our Taiwanese neighbors to pick~

Misster Chris.

I’m taking a huge gamble here. I don’t even know if Misster Chris can or could speak Japanese. But this would be my dreamcast, and she makes perfect sense in the theory world of Sekai no Kizuna. But who’s better at Tomboy swag than Taiwan? Seriously.

What you think? Do you have any objection?

Also, my intro song to the show — for some reason — would be Kaela Kimura’s cover version of Marshmallow (Mashimaro, マシマロ) [Xiami].

In my next post, I’m going to try and talk about the things that I would include in Sekai no Kizuna — in those seemingly perfect 11-12 episodes xD

Part of the 2012 LGBT Blogathon.

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