Quick Review #50: Brush Up Life - Winter 2023

Title: Brush Up Life / ブラッシュアップライブ

Rating: 7 /10 

Recommended for: 

For those who like quirky stories about the what-ifs in life if different choices are made, fans of Baka Rhythm's storytelling style or are fans of the cast especially Ando Sakura

Liked:

- Stories about people making different life choices when given a second chance to redo their lives after dying suddenly or in unexpected circumstances are aplenty. What made this different from the offerings to date is probably Baka Rhythm's unique quirky, sometimes cynical and yet meaningful storytelling style. The thing is, the repeating of the lead character's life wasn't just to "improve" the quality or outcome of her life but also consciously affect or change the same for the people around her. As such, compared to other stories which may be wary of the ripple effect on other people when the lead character's life is changed in any way, the different choices in this drama were done on purpose with specific aims.

- A very interesting cast line-up with Ando Sakura leading the pack with her natural acting that makes her look and feel as if she is Asami herself. Her interactions and chemistry with her co-stars are also something to keep a lookout for.

Disliked: 

- Much as this drama had won so many accolades and praise, my biggest issue with this was the repetition. By the time Asami was in her third lifetime, I was a bit bored with the process and almost wanted to drop off. Not that the story was boring or that the developments that came out differently due to her new choices were bad, it's just that too much of a thing (even if it may be good) will be too overwhelming. If the story was a tad shorter or some parts could be glossed over more quickly and the attention focused more on the more critical parts, I might have enjoyed this better. As such, I do feel that this is a good drama but maybe not to the extent of being a top-notch classic for me.

The 115th Drama Academy Awards (Winter 2023) - Best Drama

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Brush up life
2) Oooku Season 1
3) Wana no sensou

Voters Ranking Top 5

1) Maiagare!

2) Brush up life

3) Suki suki wanwan!

4) Yuugure ni, te wo tsunagu

5) Wana no sensou

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Brush up life
2) Wana no sensou
3) Oooku Season 1
4) 100 mankai ieba yokatta

5) Maiagare!

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Brush up life

2) Oooku Season 1

3) Wana no sensou

4) 6 byoukan no kiseki ~ Hanabishi Mochizuki Seitaro no yuuutsu ~

5) Keishichou Outsider

Source: The Television

The 115th Drama Academy Awards (Winter 2023) - Best Leading Actress

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Ando Sakura - Brush up life
2) Tominaga Ai - Oooku Season 1
3) Inoue Mao - 100 mankai ieba yokatta

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Ando Sakura - Brush up life
2) Fukuhara Haruka - Maiagare!

3) Hirose Suzu - Yuugure ni, te wo tsunagu

4) Inoue Mao - 100 mankai ieba yokatta

5) Tominaga Ai - Oooku Season 1

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Ando Sakura - Brush up life
2) Inoue Mao - 100 mankai ieba yokatta
3) Tominaga Ai - Oooku Season 1

4) Kitagawa Keiko - Themis no Kyoushitsu ~ Legal seishun hakusho ~

5) Fukuhara Haruka - Maiagare!

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Ando Sakura - Brush up life

2) Tominaga Ai - Oooku Season 1

3) Inoue Mao - 100 mankai ieba yokatta

4) Kadowaki Mugi - Reversal Orchestra

5) Kita Kana - Tokyo no yuki otoko

Source: The Television

The 115th Drama Academy Awards (Winter 2023) - Best Supporting Actress

Overall Ranking Top 3

1) Kaho - Brush up life

2) Nagasaku Hiromi - Maiagare!
3) Kinami Haruka - Brush up life

Voters Ranking Top 5
1) Takahata Atsuko - Maiagare!
2) Nagasaku Hiromi - Maiagare!
3) Kaho - Brush up life
4) Kuwabata Rie - Maiagare!
5) Matsumoto Wakana - Yuugure ni, te wo tsunagu

TV Reporters Ranking Top 5
1) Kaho - Brush up life
2) Kinami Haruka - Brush up life
3) Igawa Haruka - Wana no sensou
4) Yamashita Mizuki - Maiagare!
5) Matsumoto Honoka - Liaison - Kodomo no kokoro shinryoujo -

Judges Ranking Top 5
1) Nagasaku Hiromi - Maiagare!
2) Saito Yuki - Oooku Season 1

3) Katahira Nagisa - Wana no sensou

4) Ono Karin - Wana no sensou

5) Yamashita Mizuki - Maiagare!

Source: The Television

Winners of the 26th Nikkansports Dorama Grand Prix (Spring 2022 - Winter 2023)

The voting exercise was conducted online between 30 March and 6 April 2023 where respondents chose from dramas shown between April 2022 and March 2023 for the 5 categories. A total of 74,832 votes were received with the most voters in terms of age group (in descending order) were those in their 40s, 50s, 30s, 20s, more than 60 and teens.

The total number of votes received are represented in brackets as follows:

Best Drama

1) Kurosagi (39,549)

2) Suki suki wanwan! (11,182)

3) Reversal Orchestra (3,315)

4) Shin Shinchoukouki (3,310)

5) 100 mankai ieba yokatta (2,720)

6) Shoujiki Fudousan (2,399)

7) Kindaichi shonen no jinkenbo (2,174)

8) My Family (1,780)

9) silent (1,641)

10) Yuugure ni, te wo tsunagu (1,295)

Best Leading Actor

1) Hirano Sho - Kurosagi (39,968)

2) Kishi Yuuta - Suki suki wanwan (11,350)

3) Nagase Ren - Shin shinchoukouki (4,472)

4) Yamashita Tomohisa - Shoujiki Fudousan (2,634)

5) Oguri Shun - Kamakuradono no 13 nin (2,577)

6) Michieda Shunsuke - Kindaichi shonen no jikenbo (2,329)

7) Ninomiya Kazunari - My Family (2,268)

8) Hayashi Kento - Hatsukoi no akuma (1,649)

9) Yamada Ryosuke - Ore no kawaii wa mou sugu shouhikigen!? / Shinainaru boku e satsui wo komete (1,628)

10) Kusanagi Tsuyoshi - Wana no sensou (1,401)

Best Leading Actress

1) Ando Sakura - Brush up life (19,559)

2) Hirose Suzu - Yuugure ni, te wo tsunagu (6,389)

3) Nagasawa Masami - Elpis - Kibou, arui wa wazawai - (6,289)

4) Inoue Mao - 100 mankai ieba yokatta (6,175)

5) Kadowaki Mugi - Reversal Orchestra (5,360)

6) Sugisaki Hana - Prism (4,128)

7) Kawaguchi Haruna - silent (3,871)

8) Yoshitaka Yuriko - Hoshi furu yoru ni (3,707)

9) Kuroshima Yuina - Chimudondon (2,799)

10) Arimura Kasumi - Ishiko to Haneo - sonna koto de utaemasuka? - (2,177)

Best Supporting Actor

1) Miura Tomokazu - Kurosagi (33,490)

2) Nagase Ren - Yuugure ni, te wo tsunagu (8,958)

3) Ukisho Hidaka - Suki suki wanwan (8,041)

4) Tanaka Kei - Jisoku kanou na koi desuka? / Reversal Orchestra (5,021)

5) Sato Takeru - 100 mankai ieba yokatta (3,889)

6) Meguro Ren - Maiagare! / silent (2,562)

7) Ichihara Hayato - Shoujiki Fudousan (2,456)

8) Hamada Gaku - My Family / Shin shinchoukouki (2,210)

9) Oideyasu Oda - Suki suki wanwan (1,342)

10) Yamamoto Koji - Kamakuradono no 13 nin / Kurosagi (1,336)

Best Supporting Actress

1) Kuroshima Yuina - Kurosagi (32,367)

2) Nakamura Yuri - Kurosagi (6,172)

3) Tabe Mikako - My Family (3,863)

4) Koike Eiko - Kamakura dono no 13 nin / Kyousou no bannin (3,707)

5) Kaho - silent (3,174)

6) Fukuhara Haruka - Shoujiki Fudousan (2,937)

7) Matsumoto Wakana - Tantei Romance / Yuugure ni, te wo tsunagu (2,824)

8) Shim Eunkyung - 100 mankai ieba yokatta (2,454)

9) Takiuchi Kumi - Reversal Orchestra (2,309)

10) Hirate Yurina - Roppongi Class (2,307)

Thoughts about "Brush up life" Ep 1 - Winter 2023

If you have watched the dramas written by Baka Rhythm, you probably have a feel as to what you can expect to see in "Brush my life". 

For the first part prior to the death of the heroine Kondo Asami (Ando Sakura) - nicknamed Aa-chan, it is filled with lots of seemingly never-ending and somewhat bland dialogues between her and the people around her such as her family, friends and colleagues. There are also many monologues spoken from the perspective of Asami after she goes through the second round in life. However, these conversations aren't as meaningless as they seem because there are some interesting observations and viewpoints about the things we encounter in daily life but may not have paid attention to or thought about seriously. In addition, what made these conversations a lot more bearable to watch is the cast members' skilled delivery in making the chats look like something you and I could have also done so the lines flowed very smoothly and didn't come across as "staged" or pretentious or preachy.

The setting here is somewhat similar to "Suteki na sentakushi" except that the person who goes back in time to "redo" his/life is different each time and the one sending them back is the taxi driver played by Takenouchi Yutaka. And his passengers aren't dead or do not end up dead at the end of the journey. In this drama though, Asami is given a second chance to relive her life after she dies due to a traffic accident but this time, she is equipped with the knowledge and skills as an adult and the ability to "predict" what will happen next because she had already gone through the same events. However, I don't think she will actually come back to life at the end because her purpose in doing a round 2 is ultimately to make sure that she ends up being reincarnated as something else better by chalking up good deeds and brownie points to change her fate rather than end up as an animal in a country, both of which she knows nothing about. Going by Baka Rhythm's style, we probably would not get a teary farewell at the end when Asami goes for her reincarnation but more of like a quirky yet thoughtful conclusion that marks the end of her lifetime.

Much as I quite enjoyed what happened in this episode up to the point just before Asami started her round 2, the second part where she started off as a baby was largely built upon her monologues about her thoughts which I must admit were generally funny to watch. However, given the physical limitations that the No.2 Asami had as a baby and later a toddler and a kindergartener and she would have to avoid arousing suspicion by staying "normal", there was simply a lack of action and interaction with the people around her since she couldn't be rattling off words as soon as she was born or simply walk and run much earlier than other babies without even crawling. Especially the part when she was trying to stop her friend's father from having an affair with their kindergarten teacher (which was what happened in round 1 of her life), the actions that Asami did and yet were not detected by the adults around her just felt too exaggerated to be believed. Imagine a kid leaving the house twice late at night alone, walking a long distance just to get to the public payphone in the playground, managing to escape the policeman who met her by chance, getting home unscathed and her deeds totally unknown to her parents - this just felt too fantastical and unrealistic to me. 

Of course, given the fantasy angle of this drama where Asami gets to relive her life, some degree of exaggeration and unrealistic settings might be needed but I hope this aspect can be toned down a bit and not end up as a distractor. Thankfully, it looks like the timeline will be fast-forwarded quite a bit by Ep 2 where Asami is at least a teenager by then so it should be more fun to see her attempt to change her relationships with others and help others change their fates.

At this early stage, we haven't seen much about the other characters beyond their relationships with Asami. Even for her two buddies Miho a.k.a. Miipon (Kinami Haruka) and Natsuki a.k.a. Nacchi (Kaho), their occupations and their past experiences are still unknown. I am guessing that these will be gradually revealed as Asami goes through her round 2. The challenge now for me though is keeping track of who is who as many of the characters are addressed by their nicknames rather than first names or surnames. And to be honest, it's quite unusual to see so many characters introduced within half of the first episode. 

One thing worth noting is, the three buddies' dressing is identical in terms of colour tone - brown and earthy shades. I wonder if there's a special meaning behind this arrangement or just to show that they have become such good friends that they even fancy similar fashion styles.

One huge attraction of this drama is the nostalgia/retro aspect as Asami goes through life again from the late 80s to the present era. There are many items and happenings from the yesteryears which bring back lots of memories for those who had gone through those times so it will be like a walk down memory lane for many of the viewers. Even for the younger ones, I think that these retro years' elements will still be a great eyeopener for them to see how life was like back then. It seems like the official Twitter account posted a summary of the past songs and retro items featured in Ep 1 and will probably do the same for subsequent episodes so that will be very useful to viewers especially if you want to look for the past hit songs that were featured in the drama.

It's still too early to tell how this drama will turn out but the first episode was decent enough to hold my attention and interest for about 80% of the time. I will probably give this another 2 or 3 episodes to see if it's worth staying till the end. However, for those who don't really like lengthy dialogues or Baka Rhythm's sometimes cynical, sometimes quirky style of comedy, this episode's first 20 minutes or so might be quite difficult to sit through.

Preview of "Brush up life" - Winter 2023

Title: Brush up life ブラッシュアップライフ

Official website: here

Official Instagram: here

Official Twitter: here

O.A. Start Date: 8 Jan 2023

Timeslot: Sundays at 10.30pm

Broadcast by: NTV

Cast: Ando Sakura, Kaho, Kinami Haruka, Matsuzaka Toori, Kuroki Haru, Tanaka Naoki, Shida Mirai, Nakajima Hiroko, Sometani Shota, Ichikawa Yui, Noro Kayo, Uraji Nuno, Suzuki Kosuke, Miura Touko, Takemori Sento, Sasaki Shiho, Tomite Ami, Nakata Kurumi, Nomaguchi Tooru, Usuda Asami & Baka Rhythm