#suits japan

[ikft]

Thoughts on Season 1 of Suits:Japan

I finished the first season of the Japanese adaptation of Suits (conveniently titled スーツ which is just a transliteration) I was actually really surprised by how faithful it tried to be, to the point where whole chunks of dialogue are taken from the original and even certain stylistic elements of the sets are copied.

But Japanese society is both more conservative and much more patriarchal than American society, not to mention Japan is a completely different country with different laws and different institutional structures. It would be impossible for them to translate the American series without any changes. Most of the storylines wouldn't make sense set in Japan exactly like they are in the original. It was interesting to see what they changed and what they kept.

(I'll be referring to the characters by their original names to keep it from being confusing but, yes, all the characters actually have Japanese names)

They made a lot of little changes to make Mike more palatable to a Japanese audience. He no longer smokes pot so all the drug-related storylines were either adjusted to make Mike unaware of the drug element, or changed to alcohol instead. Jenny is not Trevor's girlfriend in this version, she's his little sister. When Trevor betrays Mike to Jessica, it's not because he caught Mike sleeping with his girlfriend but because Mike has broken his little sister's heart by liking someone else. Since Mike never sees her as more than a little sister, the love triangle between Mike-Jenny-Rachel is maintained but does not complicate Mike's "nice guy" image. Instead of Mike flipping between his affection and attraction to both girls, Jenny essentially casts herself as Mike's pseudo-housewife--cooking him dinner when he comes home and checking in on Grammy--and Mike just accepts this without reciprocating any romantic feelings. Mike seems oblivious to the context of allowing his "childhood friend" to essentially play his wife and it's only after he corrects several people who refer to Jenny as his girlfriend that he decides to clarify his non-feelings with Jenny.

Across the board, a lot of the romantic and sexual content of the show is removed. Scottie is swapped out completely for a minor male character they used in another plotline. And then fake!Scottie is himself swapped out for Robert Zane, who is styled as a much more traditional villain with much stronger loyalty to Hardman whereas in the American version he was definitely more neutral. The character who shows up originally as the Japanese version of Vivian Tanaka at times fills in for Scottie, Alison Holt, and Zoey in scenes. Her relationship with Harvey is a bit flirtatious but not at all sexual.

In fact, Harvey has basically no personal life at all. We get one classic Harvey Specter man-slut scene where he's in a tuxedo taking a beautiful woman to the Phantom of the Opera only to ditch her for work. But immediately we find out that it actually wasn't a date at all, he asked her out to set her up in order to help a client.

Donna is basically just Harvey's secretary. They don't have much notable banter, there is no can opener (they do have this weird thing with gum but it's not a pre-trial ritual or anything) Although she does what she does against Cameron, it's not portrayed as anything other than normal loyalty.

The closest thing Harvey has to sexual tension is with Jessica ... but not the way he does in the original. They made Harvey ten years older, so the mentor-mentee relationship between him and Jessica is gone. The actors are about the same age!

They cut basically all the associates' storylines 😭 I mean those were some of the best/funniest interludes in the original. No rookie dinner, no Bainbridge briefs, there is a Harvard quiz but Mike loses (not sure why they changed that) This means Mike and Rachel do not actually interact that often, despite Rachel still being the primary love interest. And just like they toned Mike down, they toned Rachel way waaaaaaayyy down. She's a classic good girl, a bit robotic and drone like in her seriousness.

But they kept many of the cases! Even cases that seemed like they could not work outside of a NYC setting like Harvey defending Ray post-traffic accident. They make a lot of cosmetic changes--McKernon Motors is changed to a luxury watchmaker--but nothing so severe that you do not recognize the original immediately.

On the other hand, there are some changes that would make fanfic readers nod their heads in approval: Mike buys the suits from Rene (and charges them to Harvey's account), Harvey pays for Mike to get a new apartment, when Harvey asks Mike how he took tests for female customers in his cheating side hustle Mike tells Harvey that sometimes he dresses up like a girl. And ... Harvey might have sent Mike to Harvard Law in the end? It's a little vague ... In the last episode Harvey hands Mike a ticket to Boston and a check for some absurdly large sum of money and tells him he has two years, go have some fun. Mike responds "I'll only need one year" (although Harvard Law is a three year program so fuck both of you)

Conclusion, is this worth tracking down and watching? Mmmm... depends, if you're a fan of J-dramas and love Suits you will probably be amused by how familiar characters and stories pop up. But to be honest, one of the things that made the show so compelling to me was the moral ambiguity of the main characters. It's a show about corporate lawyers, people typically portrayed as villains or henchmen are in fact our heroes and people who want to follow the law tend to be villains unless they get with the program and start enabling the Harvey Specter's Fantastic Crime Wave (Sean Cahill, we're looking at you)

[giveamadeuschohisownmovie]

So…I just found out there are Korean and Japanese remakes of the tv show “Suits”:

At first, I was surprised this was a thing. But the more I thought about it, the more it made sense. “Suits” is absolutely the kind of show that’d be big in Asia (gorgeous people in suits, corporate politics, drama, romance, etc).

(Okay, side note. It amuses me that in the Korean version, the actress playing Donna Paulsen even has reddish hair just like her American counterpart)

[sublimerences]

Wammy kids Evangelion au… aka pain and suffering squared

[zegalba]

‘Healthy Capsule’ at the Sanyo Pavilion for Expo 1970 in Suita, Osaka, Japan.

[theyshapedlikefriends]

Blåhaj has a son???

[surfingkaliyuga]

“行軍するジオン軍地上部隊。ポーランド・ポズナニ近郊。0079年3月。/ Zeon ground forces on the march. Near Poznan, Poland. March 0079.” illustration from the M.S. Era. Mobile Suit Gundam 0001-0080. Popular Edition artbook released in 2008.

[doctorsiren]

I think he would play baseball in high school 😁

[redsamuraiii]

Ryosangata Riko (S2E9)

[handlinepic]

[nintendonut1]

Happy Mario Day!

[ikft]

Finally tracked down the Japanese version of Suits 😜

They're mostly following the original's storyline but some of the changes made are interesting.

They made Mike much more innocent. He's not carrying a briefcase of weed, he's carrying a briefcase full of cash to buy the weed. He also doesn't smoke himself. In Japan, simply possessing even a small amount of weed is treated as a much more serious crime, I was wondering how they would handle this. They ended up having him not know what he's carrying or why until the last moment. Unlike the original Mike who knew from the very beginning.

Harvey and Mike's conversation and how they get to Mike's mastery of the law and photographic memory actually makes a bit more sense. They argue about whether or not Mike could be convicted for carrying around a briefcase of cash.

In this version when Harvey hires Mike he makes him change his name to a client of Harvey's who has a similar name and a law degree ... covering their tracks but committing identity fraud, I guess? Also I don't totally understand how no one at the firm seems to notice this? And maybe the client actually knows and gives his approval? ... unclear at the moment.

There's no "Harvard rule" but they still maintain the weird obsession with Harvard, which seems especially odd since ... why would you want a lawyer who went to law school in a country that didn't teach the laws and procedures of Japan? Bonus LOL, Harvey still sends Mike to check out Harvard and build his cover. Just instead of being a short flight or train ride from NYC to Boston it's a 14 hour international flight 😂 😂 😂

They've kept a lot of the features of Harvey's office for some reason. The records, the autographed balls ... except they're more baseballs and ... a sole football for some reason? I know basketball isn't huge in Japan but ... football?

Rachel is the chief paralegal (which makes a billion times more sense than "they gave me an office because they value me") but still has to call Mike "sensei" LOLOLOLOLOL

The Japanese Donna is wonderfully sassy so far. It seems she gives Mike the thumbs up to Harvey basically to fuck with Harvey more than anything else, because while they try to do the "running from the cops" joke the way they do it makes it really hard to believe she ever could have believed he was kidding or cracking a joke.

They seem to be trying to reproduce at least some of Louis's weirdness ... doubt they'll be any mudding though. Especially since public bathing is normal in Japan.

Harvey pays for Grammy's care personally AND gets Mike a new apartment ... fanfic writers rejoice!

[caterpie]

Gundam vs. Hello Kitty (2020)

[alphamecha-mkii]

[zegalba]

Kiko Mizuhara for Sleek Magazine (2022) Photography: Josh Wilks - Director: Ana Takahashi

[fashionsfromhistory]

Suit

Yohji Yamamoto

Fall/Winter 1993-1994

LACMA (Accession Number: AC1997.179.1.1-.2)

[alts-photography]

One more Gundam and crow :3