Taiyou No Uta [J-Dorama] (2006)

* Title: Taiyou no Uta
* Title (translated): Song to the sun
* Episodes: 10
* Genre: Drama | Romance | Sad
* Broadcast network: TBS
* Broadcast period: Summer 2006
* Air time: Friday 10:00-10:54 PM
* Opening Theme: Shibasaki Kou - Invitation

Cast
Yamada Takayuki - fujishiro kouji
Sawajiri Erika - amane kaoru
Matsushita Nao - tachibana asami
Tanaka Kei - oonishi yuuta
Satou Megumi - matsumae misaki
Kobayashi Mao - miura keiko
Becky - emily
Kaname Jun - kudou youhei
Katsumura Masanobu - amane ken
Takenaka Naoto - miura osamu

Sinopsis
"TAIYOU no uta" or "A Song to the Sun" stars Sawajiri Erika from 1 LITER no namida as Kaoru. Kaoru has a genetic disorder called Xeroderma pigmentosum or "XP" for short. The disorder disables the skin's ability to fix mutations, thus Kaoru must avoid sunlight and can only go outside at night time. Not only that, but the type of the disease that Kaoru has also affects the brain, and thus she has been told that she may not live beyond 20.

Now, she is just turning 19, and every year her parents have a bigger birthday party for her to celebrate the fact that she is still alive. Kaoru dreams of becoming a musician, and plays her guitar and sings on the street at night. She sends her audition tapes to several record companies, but none of them accept her. One letter of rejection she gets has a message on it written by hand that says, "Have you ever really been in love before?"

As you can see from the cast list, Yamada Takayuki is in this drama too. How does he fit in? Well, one day when Kaoru was staying in the hospital, she saw Yamada's character outside carrying a guitar. He looked sad as he gently set the guitar down on the corner next to some garbage, paused and looked at it for a while, and then walked away. Kaoru took the guitar and decided to become a musician, but she has always wanted to meet Yamada's character some day and ask him why he threw the guitar away.

Yamada's character is a guy named Kouji who spends his time doing cheap part time jobs. He is also 19 years old. He's a pretty depressing guy who says that he doesn't have any dreams for the future. Obviously, there is something in his past that he wants to forget. In a flashback, we see him with the guitar fighting with some guys in order to protect a girl. We'll have the watch the later episodes to find out what it means.

Kaoru finally gets a chance to meet Kouji when she happens to see him on the street while she is playing her guitar. She runs after him and asks if the guitar is his. Kouji denies that he has ever seen the guitar and throws it into a bush. While Kaoru goes to pick up the guitar, Kouji disappears.

Kaoru doesn't see Kouji again until her friend Misaki invites her on a group date that she arranged with one of Kouji's friends. When Misaki realizes that Kaoru and Kouji already know each other, she and Kouji's friend leave them alone together.

They find out a little more about each other, and learn each other's names, but they mostly find out that they don't get along very well. Their outlooks on life are too different. Kaoru knows that her life may not last much longer (keep in mind that Kouji still doesn't know about Kaoru's disease), and she has nothing but dreams and a desire to live to fulfill them. Kouji, on the other hand, says he doesn't have any dreams at all and "wouldn't mind if he died tomorrow." Kaoru, knowing that she could easily die any day, doesn't like this attitude at all.

The next time they meet, Kaoru is being harassed on the street by some guys who want to take her somewhere. Kouji comes to her rescue and takes her away on his scooter. That's the end of the first episode.

So, overall, I think this drama is really, really good. I've only seen three episodes, but I like it a lot so far. This is a good one for you kids this season. It sucks that I'm not going to be in Japan to see a lot of the middle episodes.

Of course there are a lot of rehashed elements from other dramas that you can see in "TAIYOU no uta". For one thing Sawajiri Erika is playing a girl who has a deadly disease again, just like she did in "1 LITER no namida". That drama and this one are the only major roles she's had, so now for some reason she has become known as the girl who plays terminally ill characters. And the guy is played by Yamada Takayuki this time, which is exactly the same as his position in sekai no chuushin de, ai o sakebu. And, as in "sekai no chuushin de, ai o sakebu", the theme song is by Shibasaki Kou, just so that we can't help but be reminded of "sekai no chuushin de, ai o sakebu" every time we watch his drama.

The parallels to other dramas in "TAIYOU no uta" are hard to ignore, and maybe more than a few too many. And for another thing, dramas that were too similar to "sekai no chuushin de, ai o sakebu" - casting-wise - have already been made (byakuyakou).

Nevertheless, you can't argue with good entertainment. I like the story and characters of "TAIYOU no uta" a lot. There's also a movie version in which the part of Kaoru is played by the singer, Yui. So, watch the drama and go see the movie. There's a lot of entertainment to be had, and lots of tears to be cried.

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• Episode 01
• Episode 02
• Episode 03
• Episode 04
• Episode 05
• Episode 06
• Episode 07
• Episode 08
• Episode 09
• Episode 10 Final
  

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