Iryu / Team Medical Dragon
Posted on April 3rd, 2009
Iryu
[Rating: 9.5/10]
Genre: Medical drama
Katou Akira is a brilliant and ambitious young doctor who aspires to score a professorship by writing a thesis on the infamous Batista Heart operation. She manages to convince Asada Ryutaro, a talented doctor experienced with operating in resource-lacking warzone regions to head the team. However Asada has a bit of a regenade reputation, and it will take more than a bit of convincing with the higher ups that the Batista project will pull through. To top it off they have to deal with the board of professors who are more concerned about the hospitals reputation than the patients.
I’m really glad that I decided to watch this because it was brilliant. I had previously watched another drama centered around the Batista operation, Team Bastista no Eiko (2008 version) and doubted Iryu would match up to it. Another day I’ll make a post on Team Batista, but both series were very different, not what I was expecting at all! Team Batista was more on the operating procedure, Iryu was focused on the hospital politics. The entire team was just amazing, the main cast all shone in their own way, from the good to the bad guys. My favourite members of the team were Miki and Fujiyoshi. Miki just stood by Asada the whole way with this unwavering spirit, definitely the glue and mood-lifter of the team. Without her they’d probably have fallen apart a little. And Fujiyoshi was the perfect pillar of silent support once he was in. Strongest point of Iryu? The cast! So many of my favourite Japanese actors! Sasaki Kuranosuke (probably the main reason I decided to watch this) as Fujiyoshi and Mizukawa Asami as Miki (beautiful and confident as always!). And I thought it was Koike Teppei’s best performance (as the bumbling intern Ijyuuin) I’ve seen to date, he should definitely play more serious roles instead of the cute boy next door stuff.
A surprising performance was Kishibe Ittoku who played Noguchi ‘the devil’, the power hungry professor overseeing Katou’s thesis. He looked so pissed and devasted at the end I almost felt sorry for him ( almost)… and and Kitamura Kazuki as Kirima Gunji! I knew he’d be brilliant. The man has played the strangest assortment of roles, and has been great in all of them. I notice he’s normally in a grey character role – his characters are both good and bad. I do hope Gunji and Akira get back together though, I was rooting for them despite knowing how manipulative Gunji had become. I would say the cast was all equally strong with none of them overtly trying to outdo the other. It was really a team! And despite the serious atmosphere of the drama, there were a couple of moments that made me go “Awww…!” This drama is definitely earning a place in my ‘re-watch’ category.
Filed under: ** jdrama, medical