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Sekai no Chuushin de, Ai wo Sakebu

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Revision as of 22:36, 20 July 2005 by YT (talk | contribs)
Crying out Love, in the Centre of the World (click to enlarge)
Relationship Chart (click to enlarge)
File:Sekai no chuushin de, ai wo sakebu.jpg
Crying out Love, in the Centre of the World (click to enlarge)
File:Sekai no chuushin de, ai wo sakebu22.jpg
Crying out for love, in the Centre of the World (click to enlarge)

Details

  • Name: 世界?中心??愛を??? / Sekai no chuushin de, ai wo sakebu
  • Also known as: Crying out Love, in the Centre of the World
  • Episodes: 11, 1 Special
  • Air time: Friday 10:00-10:54 PM
  • Genre: Love, Human drama
  • Viewership: 15.9 ％
  • Broadcasted by: TBS
  • Broadcast period: 2004-07-02 to 2004-09-10
  • Theme Song: Katachi Aru Mono ????るも? Shibasaki Kou

Cast & Credits

Produced by

  • 石丸彰彥

Directed by

Screenwriter

  • 森下佳?

Cast

42nd Television Acadamy Awards

Trivia

  • Based on best selling novel
  • Ayase Haruka was selected from 723 girls from the audition.
  • Ayase Haruka shaved her hair bald and went on a strict diet to lose weight.
  • Matsumoto Rio was considered to play Hirose Aki

Episode Ratings

  • Ep1：2004-07-02 18.5 ％　　
  • Ep2：2004-07-09 15.7 ％
  • Ep3：2004-07-16 15.2 ％　　
  • Ep4：2004-07-23 13.9 ％
  • Ep5：2004-07-30 16.5 ％　　
  • Ep6：2004-08-06 15 ％
  • Ep7：2004-08-13 14.5 ％　　
  • Ep8：2004-08-20 15.4 ％
  • Ep9：2004-08-27 15.9 ％　　
  • Ep10：2004-09-03 15.2 ％
  • Ep11：2004-09-10 19.1 ％　　
  • Special: 2004-09-17 15.3 ％
  • Average： 15.9 ％

Synopsis

"I thought I might be using a lifetime's happiness in a moment. I was that happy and she was that beautiful." A young boy stands on the red earth of Australia under its blue sky. It is 17-year-old Sakutaro Matsumoto. His time with the girl comes back to him. The colored sand runs through his hands and a tear appears on his cheek. He wakes up. It's 2004 and he is 34 years old and in Japan. He thinks "I have been in a world without her for 17 years." Returning home to see his old high school for the last time before it is demolished, Saku confronts anew the loss of the love of his life, Aki, to leukemia 17 years ago. Now a medical researcher at graduate school, he has been living as if half of him died with her since then. Based on the bestselling novel that sold over 3 million copies, the past and present come together in this love story that is both pure and sad.

Review @ JFan

File:Sekai3.jpg
Sekai no chuushin de, ai wo sakebu
File:Sekai2.jpg
Yamada Takayuk & Ayase Haruka

An Unforgettable Lost Love...

This was a popular novel and movie before it became a drama. You're going to have to forgive me this time, because I am writing this having never read the novel or seen the movie. I'm sorry that I can't make any interesting comparisons or tell you what they changed and what is the same. I am going to judge the drama on its own.

Matsumoto Sakutarou is an unmarried middle-aged man who has some type of job at a hospital (don't worry, it's not another hospital drama). It seems that he might have some health problems as he collapses at the beginning of the first episode. He's never been able to fall in love since high school, because he can never forget the girl he loved. Now, he lives only to keep her memory alive and he carries a vial of her ashes in his pocket wherever he goes.

The drama keeps flashing between the present, and back to the 80's when Sakutarou (Yamada Takayuki) is in high school and falling in love with Hirose Aki. Their romance begins when their class is attending a funeral for a teacher and Aki is giving a speech in the rain. Saku uses his umbrella to cover Aki as she is giving her speech.

She begins to like him a lot after that. Saku begins listening to her favorite radio program, and even writes in a letter which is actually a story based on Aki, except that he adds in the detail that she has leukemia. He wins a Walkman cassette player for his letter, but Aki becomes furious with him for basing the letter on her, and especially adding in the part about the disease. For her birthday, Saku records an apology to her and gives it to her with the Walkman. She forgives him, and they begin exchanging an audio diary every day from that day on. The narration from the middle-aged version of Saku pops in and tells us that it was her last birthday.

All this time, Aki's father is opposed to her having a boyfriend because she is a senior in high school and needs to be preparing for her exams. She is also helping to organize the school's production of Romeo and Juliet, but they haven't yet decided who will play Romeo and Juliet.

The country setting is made to look very pleasant and tranquil, as in most dramas that take place in the countryside. Name always hangs out with his classmates Ryuunosuke and Akiyoshi at a small stand that sells takoyaki. And they drink coke out of those cool bottles that they used to use in the 80's. Ryuunosuke looks older than Saku and has a punk appearance with his slick hair. He's always offering love advice to Saku because he seems older than him (though he actually isn't). Akiyoshi is a kind of pathetic guy who lives in a temple. He wants to find a girl and marry her right away before his father forces him to become a Buddhist monk. In the first episode, he likes Aki too, but he gives up when he realizes that she likes Saku.

Saku's grandfather runs a small photo shop in town, and he is always begging Saku to come over and spend time with him. In the second episode, he tells the story of a girl he loved during the war before he married Saku's grandmother. He gets Saku to help him steal some of her ashes from her grave, so that when he dies they can be mixed together with his own so that they may be together in the afterlife.

The events of the story are given a lot of weight by the fact that we know Aki is going to die. The title means "Shout Love at the Center of the World". It's a very passionate drama about love that never dies, even decades after one of the two has passed away. It may not sound so interesting from the description above, but somehow the way it is presented is very good. There was a lot of commercial hype surrounding this title before it starting airing, and it lives up to the hype in my opinion.

I should probably see the movie too, but the drama on its own is quite good so far.

Source: JFan

Related Articles

TBS Highlights

Crying out Love, in the Center of the World was a huge multimedia success, performing well as a book, TV program, and DVD. It gave rise to a new word in Japanese, formed by abbreviating the first part of the title: Sekachu ("in the center of the world?). Since its theatrical release on May 8, 2004, it has for over 18 consecutive weeks. In a 123-day period, it has drawn 6.2 million filmgoers, and box-office receipts have totaled 8.3 billion yen. It is the fifth-most successful live-action film in Japanese cinema history.

With associated publishing ventures (sales of over 1 million comics, 470,000 copies of the novelized version, and 40,000 DVDs about the making of the film, issued before its first screening), Sekachu has become a model for mixed-media projects building on a movie format and moving beyond it. The original novel has sold over 3 million copies since the movie was released. Although the first edition in 2001 sold only 8,000 copies, it is now the highest-selling novel ever in Japan. A serialization as a drama on the TBS network was very successful. Sekachu is also being launched in South Korea. It scheduled to open across that nation as early as October 2004, and is being remade in a South Korean version.

Source: TBS

On The Box: What to Watch

Sekai no Chushin de, Ai o Sakebu begins Friday, July 2 at 10 p.m. on the TBS network. Based on the best-selling novel of the same name, this tale of youthful romance and innocence, is set in 1987.

This early preview is necessary because the producer has announced that the short, first scene in the first episode will be a key to understanding the overall story. The not-to-be-missed opening scene is filmed in Australia, the first of three scenic guest appearances the continent will make in this drama.

Heroine Aki (Ayase Haruka) is cute, smart, popular and good at sports. She has it all until she is diagnosed with leukemia. Yamada Takayuki stars as 17-year old Sakutaro Matsumoto, who falls in love with her. (Ogata Naoto plays Matsumoto at age 34.) Matsumoto is invited back to the old hometown by his high school teacher because the school, so full of memories, is about to be demolished.

Extracts from The Daily Yomiuri Jun 25, 2004

Other Resources

Pictures

File:Sekai22.jpg
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