Beach Boys(1997)

A very sentimental journey into the insights of life.

I caught this J drama Beach Boys about 4 months ago. Bought it online and finished it within just 3 days! Then I realized what the magic of this series is all about that first made it so famous a decade ago.


The Magic lies in the Characters, Theme and Settings!!


The Theme is quite a powerful one as it tells the lives of two strangers from the city taking a vacation to the peaceful beach to spend the summer. In truth, each of them are lost in life and somehow yearning for an answer. During their stay there at the inn, they gradually learn many things about life from both the hosts and guests of the inn. Initially strangers, both men soon become the best of friends as they learn much from each other.


Characters wise, all the main casts in this series really carry out their characters very well. This is especially true for Takashi Sorimachi who plays the happy go lucky personality, Hiromi, who everyone at first finds annoying and unrespectable. His character is contrasted well by the reserved and responsibility-driven Kaito played by Takenouchi Yutaka. Ryoko Hirosue looks really adorable as Makoto, the young bubbly girl who has lived all her life by the peaceful beach with her grandpa, and hopes for things to stay that way forever.


Even before the 1st episode ended, me and my sis were so engrossed by the feel of the settings and the characters' relaxing lifestyles at the beach that we developed a sudden yearning to go to for a beach vacation too, like the one in the drama. No kidding!!


This drama is said to be one of the classic of J dramas, though it received generally mixed reviews. Reason for those who didn't like it is mainly due to the rather stagnant plot curve. Unlike some other J dramas, Beach Boys adopts a relaxing and realistic pace to tell the characters' life at the beach. I have hoped for more too initially, but once I got to know and love the characters and the voice of the story, it became my own vacation, and not just merely a drama experience.


That was why when it ended, my heart took quite some time to detach from the characters and the beach, just like how one would feel returning home from a memorable trip overseas. The songs and music like 'Forever' and 'Sing A Love Song For Me' everytime reminds me of this heartfelt journey and have stayed with me even till now. The title of this site J Drama Forever, is also inspired from the theme song's title.


This is definitely the drama for you if you are looking for a way to take your mind off the hectic modern city life, and immerse yourself in nature and the things that truly matter in life...

*Episodes available.
*Synopsis(every episode) available.
Also, check out my version of the the 1st Episode detailed synopsis below.


Episodes: 12, + Special

Genre: Comedy

Viewership ratings: 26.5%

Broadcast period: 1997-Jul-07 to 1997-Sep-22

Air time: Monday 21:00

Songs:

• Theme: 'Forever' by Takashi Sorimachi with Richie Sambora

• Sub: 'Sing A Love Song For Me' by Yuko Yamaguchi

Scores:

• Forever (Chorus Version)

• Forever (Guitar Version)

• Masaru's Guitar Tune

• Bright Lights Big City

• Good Luck & Good Bye
  

Cast:

• Sorimachi Takashi as Hiromi Sakurai
  
• Takenouchi Yutaka as Kaito Suzuki
  
• Hirosue Ryoko as Makoto Izumi
  
• Inamori Izumi as Haruko Maeda
  
• Mike Maki as Masaru Izumi
  
• Akimoto Yuki as Sakura Yamazaki (Kaito's girlfriend)
• Hara Sachie as Hazuki Terao
  
• Hiraga Masaomi as the taxi driver
• Takeno Isao as the postman
• Kawaoka Daijiro as Yosuke, Makoto's classmate
• Sato Hitomi as Yuuko, Makoto's classmate
• Tsuji Kaori as Fujiko Hara (Hiromi's former girlfriend)
• Hiraizumi Sei as Kaito's boss

Theme:

• A getaway from the hectic city life to the relaxing beach to reflect on what we want, to find our true 'ocean'(the life we want to live).

General Synopsis

Upon getting thrown out of his girlfriend Fujiko's apartment, Hiromi (Sorimachi) decides to head for the ocean. En route, he crosses paths with Kaito (Takenouchi), an elite employee of a large multinational trading company in Tokyo who is running away from his problems at work after losing a key client.

The two stumble into a quiet Minshuku inn on the beach run by the aging surfer Masaru and his high-school-aged granddaughter Makoto. Hiromi immediately applies to work there for the summer, and Kaito is forced to join him after he loses his wallet. The two share a room, with Hiromi trying to make friends, and Kaito at first resisting, unimpressed by Hiromi's devil-may-care attitude. Slowly over the ensuing episodes, Kaito becomes more and more at home in this sleepy rural town, and begins to wonder if he should give up his pursuit of success in the big city, and live a carefree life like Hiromi.

Also, the unlikely friendship between Hiromi and Kaito strengthens as they learn the precious things in life from each other and the inn's boss, Masaru as well as the various visitors who come to the inn, each with own unsolved problems in life.


Episode 1 Detailed Synopsis


The prologue shows a child from a tropical island writing a note, which she rolls up, slots into a glass bottle, and throws off into the sea.

The story then begins with Hiromi, the carefree and jovial freeloader being thrown out of his girlfriend's apartment for living off her without a goal or career in life. With nowhere to go and nothing to do, he decides to set out for a vacation to spend the coming summer.
Meanwhile, the story switches to Kaito Suzuki, a businessman working in a big company, who has just been taken off from a crucial company project due to his mistake. Unwilling to let his girlfriend, Sakura know about his job suspension, he plans to use a vacation as a good excuse to rest and think things through.



The scene then moves to Makoto, a bubbly and cheerful female student cycling back home after school. At the shore of her grandfather's minshuku inn, she discovers a glass bottle drifted ashore, but most of the note's writing are too smudged to be legible, apart from the last sentence which wrote 'God bless you. We are the beachboys.' She later pins the note up on her room's wall.





On his way to the far off beach, Kaito runs into Hiromi, whose car has broken down halfway. He drops off to help push his car, and is soon frustrated by Hiromi's nagging about his pushing strength that he pushes it so hard causing the car to roll off uncontrollably downhill with the both of them clinging on either sides, breaking the nearby minshuku inn's signboard in the process, before finally coming to an abrupt stop before the tide at the shore. The impact throws them into the water. Hiromi is amused but Kaito reacts irritated for ending up all drenched. The inn keeper Masaru and his granddaughter Makoto watch on, lost for words.



Both of them then take the inn's baths without the inn keeper's knowing. When asked by Makoto how long they wish to stay, Hiromi tells Makato that he intends to become an employee there while Kaito insists under Makoto's prompting that he is a customer, unlike Hiromi. Just when he reaches for his wallet to pay, he realizes his wallet is missing. After a fruitless search, he knows quite certainly it had fallen into the water when he was thrown off the car.

Without money to pay for a room, he is told to stay in the vacant employee's room with Hiromi, whose over active and talkative character annoys him greatly.
The next morning, the guys are woken by loud music from the kitchen's radio, where an early Hiromi prepares breakfast. To their surprise, it tastes real good as Hiromi has always been the cook at his girlfriend's apartment, though they, especially Kaito, aren't impressed when they find out he has been freeloading on his girlfriend without a job all this while.

That night, both of the guys are asked to dine at bar tended by the pretty lady boss, Haruko just up the road. Kaito leaves promptly after he finishes eating while the rest stay on with a group of gangly looking customers who pay with money from a wallet they picked at the shore only earlier. When the man holding the wallet accidentally drops Kaito's identity card, Hiromi helps him pick up and meanwhilst, sees Kaito's picture on it. The gangly customers quickly slips off, with Hiromi, Haruko, and Makoto chasing fast behind afterwards. After a hilarious struggle and wrestle with the guys, Hiromi manages to recover Kaito's wallet.



Kaito expresses gratitude to Hiromi with reserve back at his room. A letter comes next day, addressed to Masaru from Makoto's mother, Keiko, who wishes for Makoto to move to the city to live with her. Makoto however, refuses when Masaru breaks this message to her. Shortly, Masaru tells Hiromi and Kaito to leave, saying he is closing down the inn for good. After Masaru's much insistence, both of them pack up and leave for the train station. Midway, they wave widely at the road to Makoto watching from her classroom's window. Unaware of their sudden departure, she waves back smiling as her classmates close around her to watch.

Kaito bids Hiromi farewell at the train station. Back at the inn, Makoto is surprised to hear about the guys' departure and Masaru's plan to close down the inn. At the usual restaurant, Kaito is asked by Sakura about his plan for the rest of his vacation. Kaito has not quite made up his mind what to do, but as he peers through the high glass to the far ocean against the horizon, he feels he isn't ready yet to leave the peaceful beach. On the train ride back to the beach, he looks out the train window and sees the back of Hiromi looking towards the sea, with his car along the highway, which Kaito presumes to have broken down again.


As a moody Makoto stands at the shore staring at the sea, the familiar voices of Hiromi and Kaito draw near, and they once again emerge in the same manner as their first meeting, clinging onto the either sides of the car rolling down the slope splashing into the water eventually. Towards the episode's end, Makoto narrates that all children who are born in the wonderful season of summer, are fortunate and happy.




Special Episode Synopsis

3 months have passed since the events on the beach. Makoto and Haruko now runs the Minshuku inn left down by Masaru. Much has changed, though both of them still miss the summer days in the company of Hiromi, Kaito and Masaru were still around. Now Kaito works for a marine biologist (Kirishima Karen) whereas Hiromi dates the daughter(Shinohara Ryoko), of a Hawaiian hotel owner, who he now works for. When Kaito's work takes him to the southern island, he and Hiromi run into each other once again. One day Haruko wins an air ticket to the island to pay the boys a surprise visit with Makoto. However, their excitement soon turns to disappointment as they begin to realize that both Hiromi and Kaito are no longer the carefree and happy personalities they used to be...