Review of Start Line

O.A. 17 Dec 05

Imai Shun (Yamada Takayuki), a runner who is supposed to be in the running to take part in the Olympics, suffers an injury after falling during the final selection race. Since then, he no longer takes part in any races.

Shun meets a blind senior high school girl, Mizujima Hitomi which is rather ironical as the name, Hitomi means eyes but she can't even see. After this meeting, Shun thinks that he will not see her again.

After he retires from athletics, Shun is approached by the Para-lympics committee to be a partner i.e. GUIDE for a blind runner. However, Shun is unable to accept this request as he used to be in the running to take part in the Olympics and he finds being a GUIDE as a disgrace.

A few months later, Shun accepts the request after he finds out that he is struck with an incurable illness and will not live for long...

Cast

Imai Shun (Yamada Takayuki)
He practised for 3 days only before filming the running scenes and said that he tried very hard to look as if he was running very quickly during the shooting.

This is his first role as a dying man and it was difficult trying to express the feelings of a person who knows that his days are numbered. In addition, this is the first time he has come into contact with the disabled and if he was in their situation, he feels that he might not have the courage to live on. Moreover, the disabled are still involved in sports actively and this gives him the motivation to work harder in future.

Mizujima Hitomi (Suzuki An)
She admits that she's not good at running and used spiked shoes which helped her to run slightly faster. This is the third time she has worked with Yamada so they have no problems while acting together. She says that the most difficult problem in potraying this character is how Hitomi feels about being blind.

As the filming was mainly conducted outdoors where the weather was very hot and sunny, the challenge was trying to act as if the sun rays has no effect on her eyes since Hitomi cannot see.

As Suzuki had acted as a girl who couldn't see, hear or speak in the past, she did feel sympathetic to the real-life character but she surprised Suzuki with her enthusiasm towards life. Taking on the role of a disabled person again, Suzuki feels that treating them as normal people is very important.

Kirino Ryuji (Tokito Saburo)
This is the first time he has played basketball on a wheelchair and it was tougher than expected. He learnt a lot of information on coping with the tough physical demands of the sport and was inspired at the cheerfulness of the disabled in trying to lead normal lives like everyone else.

Mizujima Kyoko (Tomosaka Rie)
She plays Hitomi's sister who works at the Para-lympics Committee and asks Shun to pair up with Hitomi for the race. She has a lot of explanation lines during the first half of the drama mainly with regards to the concept of Para-lympics. To the character Kyoko, the para-lympics is a very important event to her and her passion towards is not based on sympathy towards the disabled only.

Tohashi Nobuhiro (Suga Kenta)
He had initially felt that those who have artificial legs seem to walk easily but when he tried it for his role, he realised the pain and difficulty in it. As such, he had to practice for a long time before he could walk naturally during the filming.

Imai Michiyo (Ootake Shinobu)
She plays Shun's mother who is in deep anguish after knowing that her son is about to die. However, she tries to be brave and puts on a cheerful face while her son is still alive.

Ratings: 7.4%

To be frank, I didn't expect the ratings to go below the 10% mark. Maybe another TV station was showing something which was so attractive that it pulled the viewers away.

Well, I must say that I'm a bit disappointed. I expected more but the story felt somewhat corny to me towards the end. It seemed as if the scriptwriter was trying to squeeze everything within the 1 hr 40 mins so the flow of the developments was affected. If the story was at least 3 to 5 episodes long, the progression would have been better. Of course, dragging it along for 1 whole season might backfire too.

As for the cast, I thought they did reasonably OK considering how short this SP was. Even for Yamada who is the lead, he didn't have a chance to show the emotional struggle in Shun and just gave me the feeling that Shun 's emotions changed within a snap of the finger. One moment he detests anyone bringing up the topic of running and the next, he's ready to become a guide. Likewise for Suzuki An, I thought it would be a test of her abilities to play this blind girl but then she just seems out of place since the story did not give her enough time to show Hitomi's emotions.

To be frank, whether you watch ths or not doesn't make much of a difference. There are lots of room for improvement so I can only give it a score of 5 out of 10.