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sambart93 · 7 years ago

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2017.10.11 Kansu Domino Review!

It’s been SUCH a long time since I’ve seen either IkeP or Seto in the flesh and on stage (Ike’s last was that disappointed called DANSUI, and Seto’s was the partially interesting Kanbotsu), and this play was getting a lot of good reviews and my friend who’s a Seto fan was keeping track of it all and said it looked good.

Official Site here Official Twitter here Press Coverage 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 PreOrder DVD 1, 2

CAST and CHARACTERS

Seto Koji as Makabe Emoto Tokio as Samon Kojima Fujiko as Akiyama Suzuki (Zukki) Hiroki as Arata Yamada Yusuke as Toro Ikeoka Ryousuke as Tamiya Yahata Miyuki as Hiraoka Chiba Masako as Oono Katsumura Masanobu as Yokomichi

STORY

A rather strange car accident occurs. There was no traffic light next to the pedestrian crossing that Tamiya (Ikeoka) was next to. A car came flying around the corner and into a curb. But it stopped centimeters away from Tamiya; both Tamiya and the driver Arata (Suzuki) are either with no injury or small injuries. The person in the passenger seat however, Arata's wife, is in critical condition. Witnesses were Makabe (Seto), Akiyama (Kojima) and Samon (Emoto). It is now up to the insurance company to determine and find out what really happened when Makabe suggests Samon had created an invisible wall with his mind to stop the car from hitting his best friend Tamiya, which leads them to investigate under that hypothesis with the help from recently HIV positive confirmed victim Toro (Yamada).

NON-SPOILER REVIEW Overall: I was very surprised when the story decided to take a supernatural route. I was expecting it to be like the dorama Galileo where it’s could be explained completely with real science. But I was down for the whole ‘invisible wall’ supernaturalness but wasn’t what I expected. This stage was good; it was a solid story and a solid stage, the performances were as expected. But there was nothing...special about it nor was there any twist or anything amazing to it. They’re all very well establish actors and they all performed as expected and accordingly. The story is actual rather slow moving too; a lot of just simple talking in a room among themselves so I spent quite a lot of time with my eyes closed because they didn’t visually need my attention. But the scenes where it got real crazy or there was fighting or there was something happening, I was very much ears AND eyes focused. It’s a good stage. Just nothing... wow-factor. We all know how I feel about predictability. Rating: 7/10

SPOILER REVIEW

PreShow

I’m going to be totally honest, the moment I saw Naya freaking Takeru walk through the door, I mentally flipped my shit and fell out my seat (mentally). Me and Naya keep going to the same things on the same days - just like me and Shiramata xD he tried so hard to not look obvious; he was really shy and timid looking. But he has great style; I notice his signature jock-jackets anywhere! His fashion sense is so good! I always want his damn clothes xD anyway, so I saw him and I literally spent quite a bit of time flicking over to him >.<

Mikami was there too, along with Koudou Shouri from PATCH -- wait... why didn’t Shouri and Takeru sit together? ALSO why did Takeru clearly have a ticket and a set seat like a normal audience member, but Shouri changed his seat about three times because the staff were shuffling him and Mikami around... wtf?! That’s weird thinking back... did Mikami get in free cos he’s a D-Boys and his plus one was Shouri so they didn’t have a set seat cos they didn’t have to pay, but Naya had to fork out for a ticket?! Oh my if that’s true.... it’d make sense though, because one time Shuuto (Miyazaki) came to As You Like It and he literally got the most back seat available... unless they decided to come at the very last second so they paid but staff are like ‘whatever seat is available’.

Anyway, enough kangeki conspiracy theories and the weirdest that is WE Entertainment.

TO THE SHOW!

So the play ends up being about someone with supernatural powers and it’s called Domino because the powers only stay with one person temporarily until they pass on to another and this power can literally do anything if you will and want it enough. And that it what happens.

Like I said above, it surprised me that this ended up being more mysterious and supernatural and magic than I was expecting; BUT I’m glad they kind of throw that theme out there within the first 15 minutes or so.

I really like the set up; we started with some random characters here and there and then eventually they all came together. The biggest mystery I had was Yamada’s character; I didn’t realise for a while that he was working for Seto until he was in the same room with Seto. But I love how his character genuinely ended up liking Tamiya and co. so wanted to get away from Seto who was clearly messed up mentally and was giving off toxic vibes the entire time.

Seto did just as I expected; amazing, flawless acting. He really put himself into this character. He looked absolutely exhausted by the time the stage finished and I think it’s easy to see how mentally exhausting his character is.

His character is an oddball. He’s seeing a doctor/therapist who is also his mother(?) but I cannot remember why he’s going.. at first when he suggests the invisible wall, he just says it rather off-handishly but thinks it’s interesting enough to investigate; but then you see he’s forced Yamada to install cameras and listening devices into this innocent person’s house (Samon) and he’s forcing Yamada to lie to a group he’s genuinely become friends with. And then Seto starts to get very controlling and possessive like he’s the leader of the group, even overpowering the insurance investigator(!). And we lead to the climax which is; turns out Seto is the Domino and was all along; it was him that created the invisible wall, it was him who ends up curing Yamada of HIV, it’s him that willed Tamiya to have unrequited love from Oono who ends up falling for Samon. This is one massive plot that he wanted to happen and therefore did happen. Which leads him to lose control of his power a little at the end by smashing a few lights and almost(?) killing Akiyama in a rage, and being unable to fix her so he mentally breaks down hard on stage.

I really wish they hadn’t made it so much ‘SETO IS THE MAIN CHARACTER’ even down to the poster, because it just made it completely predictable and obvious that he was gunna be the Domino. So I wasn’t shocked when literally RIGHT at the end they all learn and realise it’s him. It kind of took away from Seto having his breakdown; would’ve been more impactful if we had all gone through the breakdown together with the character at the end.

It was a really interesting play as you can clearly read above, BUT a lot of it is just talking in a room about what they should do and how they should prove that Samon is the Domino - who made the wall in order to save his friend Tamiya during the crash - so I didn’t miss anything by having my eyes closed most of the time because the main acting and information was coming through their voices.

AND! The scenes that did have action or something happening, I was totally absorbed in it! For example, there’s at least two great scenes with Zukki who is just desperate for the Domino to be revealed and to use the Domino to heal his wife as she’s pretty much in a coma and heavily injured, one time is when he approaches Samon on the street one day and starts calm like ‘will you come see my wife?’ and of course Samon is like ‘....why? Why me?’ but Zukki quickly cracks and tries to drag him but luckily Yamada turns up in time and pushes Zukki away; unfortunately this reveals to Samon and Tamiya that Yamada knows Zukki. Another point is when they’re watching the video of Samon and co but none of them will make a move and obviously this pisses him off - he wants his wife saved NOW. He did great being this depressed and easily-angered character. The end scene is very good too! The last 10/15 minutes are very action packed when Seto’s having his breakdown.

Emoto is an actor who I’ve always enjoyed and he did well in this too. He was playing a writer who know one knew his face. And I really enjoyed Zukki and Yamada’s scene together. And Yamada just being a HIV character in this was great and the character talks about his struggles and when he begs Samon to wish for him to be cured and how Samon doesn’t freak out when he learns Yamada has HIV. The way they dealt with the HIV was very well done. No one ran for the hills when he told them (except Zukki); everyone was really accepting and that ‘it’s no longer a life sentence’ etc which was really nice -- especially in Japan where most diseases are very hushush and shunned.

Unfortunately, Ikeoka didn’t get nearly as much exposure onstage as I would’ve wanted/liked BUT it was refreshing to see him play a character who didn’t have any comedy in him. It was nice seeing him play completely serious for once and he did it really well! I just wish he got a hell of a lot more work because I personally feel he deserves it. Hopefully this stage gives him that exposure to managers and casting directors etc.

Finally:

They filmed the day I went, but don’t think it’ll be used, as someone’s phone went off literally 4 mins into the damn play -__-

After the Show

Naya was adorable! He tried so hard to sneak out. And then when I left, he was right at the entrance which a manager, so I ‘casually’ walked right past him and right in front of him. But to be honest, he wasn’t the one having the problem of sticking out; I was! Everyone was looking at me; either cos I’m white or cos of how tired I may have looked(?). But even the shit ton of kankeishas were pausing to look at me *sweats*. It’s been a while since I’ve had this much gaijin pressure on me...

But anyway, yes Naya! ADORABLE! And I want his jacket! xD