The Actors
Rape-Huggist: Nakama Yukie ♀
Rape-Huggee: Kaneshiro Takeshi ♂
The Context
He is a famous songwriter and she is his top popstar. She was friends with his deceased wife and he has since gone into a deep writer's block. Nakama Yukie's character has fallen in love with him and is jealous when he starts banging a 17-year old girl with AIDS. Yeah, it's a pretty heavy dorama in the "Dying girl" genre, but it's a shame that statutory rape aspect is mostly overlooked - probably because he has great hair.It's so wavy!
So as a last desperate attempt to steal him while he is freaking out and tearing up some paper with failed lyrics on it, Nakama makes a running rape-hug.
The Result
Sadly, on so many levels, he choses to keep banging the 17-year-old AIDS girl.
Sadly, on so many levels, he choses to keep banging the 17-year-old AIDS girl.
The Depiction
We are treated to some really dramatic action-pack closeups. First he tears up the paper and his face, and then we see her rage face as she runs towards him like Braveheart in the final battle. Just before contact we get a long shot, just as she almost slips over on the paper scattered over the floor. I'm convinced that this wasn't intentional, but this dorama was from the late 90's when it was probably too much effort (or too costly) to re-shoot a scene. I love Yukie Nakama as much as any heterosexual, but honestly, she isn't a great actress. Or at least, she is always cast as a hardass and good at everything when she quite clearly isn't. She is much convincing as in Kamisama Mou Sukoshi Dake as a shallow pop-star and I truly love the fact that in this scene she stuggles with a primary form of human locomotion.
Look at Nakama with her legs akimbo, rescuing her balance with the rape-hug.
For some reason I don't find this scene very awkward, despite the whole statutory decision and the AIDS girls thing. Maybe it's the lack of balance that brought in some unintentional comedy, or maybe it's the fact that the victim is a guy. Or it could be that being rape-hugged by Yukie Nakama - probably the sexiest woman in Japan for a solid decade - doesn't seem like such a bad deal. What I'm saying is, for so many reasons, he made the wrong decision, this should have been a regular hug and the drama could have ended right here.
Video
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