Boss : Intro

Boss – Spring 2009 [Fuji TV - http://www.fujitv.co.jp/BOSS/index.html]
Original Air Date: 2009-Apr-16 to 2009-Jun | Number Of Episodes: 12
Subbing Groups : TimeLesSub. Otsukaresamadeshita! (お疲れ様でした!)

I am watching the SD version of this drama with hardsubs by TimeLesSub. I love, love, love these subs. I love the font they chose, it’s a nice change and the stroke just gives the text the smallest lift off the video. It is super easy on the eyes and the font choice makes it fun without being ridiculous; it fits the overall feel of the show very well. One of the things I also enjoy is the way TimeLes”subs” *grin* EVERYTHING on the screen. Even signs, that appear within the drama for like a half of a second, they translate completely. Also, their way of delivering notes to the viewer is clean and clear. The colored box and font style contrast enough in the overall feel so that your eye is drawn to it immediately. Some people may find this method distracting but I don’t. I want to read the notes as they come up, if they blend in too much with the rest of the subs then it muddles the screen and the experience. I think that cultural notes should be a little like “Pop Up Video” style, where your attention is drawn away for a second, just like it would be if you had a Japanese translator next to you who might speak up suddenly to point something out to you while you’re watching. Great job TimeLesSub!

I have been looking forward to Boss ever since I downloaded the RAW Preview Special. I recognized several of the actors from previous dramas I had watched, namely Toda Erika (Code Blue), Nukumizu Youichi (Monster Parent and Queen Of Enka), and the super delicious Kichise Michiko (Maou and Bloody Monday). Shortly after I had watched the Boss Preview Special I was browsing Aja-Aja and found The Queen Of Enka which I consumed in just a few short days. You probably saw from my commentary that I absolutely madly loved Amami Yuki in the role but, to be honest, I did not recognize her at all until I looked her up on DramaWiki while I was writing my commentary. I was like, “Huh? She’s in Boss??” and I went back and watched the Preview Special again. She looks amazing and I was even more excited to see her in a different role. I wondered if she would be playing a completely straight character or whether it would incorporate her great comedic timing ability as well. Thankfully, I was rewarded with a bit of both!

Let me clarify something before I start …

(Remember boys and girls, the first step in effective communication is clarification of intent and direction!)

I have long since grown out of being offended or irritated by how other countries view women. The country I live in doesn’t even come close to viewing women properly either so the sick gender bias of Japan and Korea (sick as in “awesomely ginormous”) barely raises my eyebrow. Watching 90% of the men in Boss come down on Osawa-san every five seconds about how she’s weak, shallow, unqualified, doesn’t belong in what is clearly a man’s position, etc, was almost too repetitive to be effective. I’m actually about as far from a feminist as a woman can get. I generally think females are kind of obnoxious and I have proven in a variety of ways over the years that many women are biologically predisposed to irrational and psychotic behavior. Also, please note that while I may go on in this commentary about men and their small peni, I’m really just adding humor because I tend to be kind of an overly serious person and this commentary really allows me to have a bit of fun. (Speaking of serious, the proper plural of penises is penes, but I just like saying peni! *grin*) Boss takes kind of a humorous look at gender roles and is so overtly “Pro Woman”, that I decided to add bit of that in this commentary to play along. Please don’t become too distracted by it and miss the main points. And actually, despite the fact that Boss attempts to take a focus of “Pro Woman”, it kind of shoots itself in the dick in a way that I’ll address later.

Let me now define some of my “personal vocabulary” terms and make sure we start off on the same page …

(Remember boys and girls, the second step in effective communication is clearly defined terminology!)

In my personal vocabulary there are WOMEN and there are also FEMALES and there are distinct differences between them. Here are a few examples to help illustrate: Women buy expensive shoes, females bray until someone buys shoes for them. Women have periods, females have apocalypses. Women smile, females pout. Women work hard and try to break the glass ceiling, females hike up their skirts and have sex with their boss up against said glass. Women wear classy pencil skirts, females wear trashy mini skirts. Women watch Lost, females watch Survivor. Women don’t take any bullshit, females give a lot of it. Women have breasts, females have boobs. Women wear panties, females wear squirrel covers. Women are clever, females only think they are. Women do, females complain. Women drive men crazy, females are just plain crazy. Everyone clear? Awesome!

In Boss we are dealing with a WOMAN. The thing is, the writer and director do an interesting job of trying to convince you that she’s really a FEMALE. However, the clever reality is that the only actual FEMALES in Boss are, in fact, the MEN. *grin*

In the West corner – a location associated with all those disgusting, ill-mannered gaijin – we have an equally awful eye-sore; a FEMALE! Despite the clear desecration that this 40 year old hag brings to our glorious dohyo, we have allowed her to participate in this bout so we can put her back in her proper place with the illusory power of our incredibly small penises! Wait a minute … who wrote this? That should say large! Yes, very, very large! Now, moving on! In the East corner – a location that represents all that is strong and superior – we have the ferocious Tiamatian yokozuna, MAN! With an insult spewing shrunken head growing from each vital appendage, MAN is a formidable rikishi who spews fire and poison in an effort to compensate for his truly microscopic penis! Hey … again? Who made these changes? Ok, just ignore that last part and … um … oh yeah! Let the battle begin! May the best and only MAN win!

At moment one of our introduction to Osawa Eriko-san she appears almost as a cliche. She’s hungover, naked, unsure of where she is, and in the bed of some guy whose computer she threw up on after drinking too much. The guy scolds her, albeit in a friendly manner, for inconveniencing him and tells her to get dressed. She trips getting out of bed and the sheet she is holding around her falls. We don’t, obviously see her full on naked, but the impression is made very clear. This sets up a simple bias in the viewer’s mind about what kind of FEMALE we are dealing with and for most people this kind of base level manipulation works. These, first impressions, or introductory impressions create a window upon which our minds scrawl a half formed character assessment (character as in “type of person” not as in “role played by actor”) and we watch the entire drama through this window that has been partly obscured by the scrawl. The creators are banking on the fact that the average viewer is easily manipulated by these kind of images and that you’ll make assumptions and have the prejudice necessary to drive the story forward.

In addition to this simple bias there is some basic subconscious manipulation as well. The shot at the right shows a selectively focused female bust on the screen for a few seconds while the main characters are talking. I am always delighted by these kinds of shots! Selective focus is a technique that directs attention toward things that are important and effectively de-emphasizes other things. It shouldn’t be confused with rack focus, which is the same concept, except that it’s done between two predetermined points usually to forcefully shift the viewers’ attention DURING a scene. For example, the hero is in focus in the foreground (predetermined point A) and then the camera quickly shifts focus to show the villain (predetermined point B), suddenly in sharp focus and sneaking up behind him. The shot I have grabbed is static and doesn’t change while you are viewing it which is why it is selective versus rack.

The actors in the background are in clear focus, indicating the emphasis, whereas the bust is slightly out of focus, de-emphasizing it’s importance to your conscious eye. However, this technique is actually forcing IMPRESSIONS into your SUBconscious eye. In addition to the blatant metonymic aspects of this image being effective, the association between the naked female torso, and the female on the bed that you have previously prejudged, is actually deepened aesthetically without you realizing it. The female on the bed becomes objectified in your subconscious mind; a meaningless female form with no substance or, at the very least, substance that you don’t believe you need to care about. Simultaneously though, for some people, selective focus is a trick that they recognize and they will automatically be drawn to the thing that is trying to be hidden. This tactic works in the director’s favor also because, either way, your mind interprets the image and you are still being purposely manipulated into thinking something that they want you to think, in other words, misdirected.

If you believe the bust is there simply because Nodate-san likes art and that the camera just happens to be filming from that location because someone was too lazy to find a better angle, then you probably thought Bruce Willis was actually alive in The Sixth Sense too. While a good film relies on writing and cinematography, it even more heavily relies on what the viewer’s mind will assume. Just like magic, which is more about relying on the way your brain is hardwired to work than it is about actual illusion or trickery. Your mind can trick you more quickly and more simply than any human being ever could. There is nothing really clever about knowing that human beings are predisposed to make assumptions because they are lazy thinkers and then creating media that manipulates based on that. It just means that the people making that media know how the brain works and that you don’t. What’s truly clever is knowing that your audience is predisposed, then assuming that they know that too, and using their mechanisms to NOT be tricked against them TO actually trick them. This is what makes Kim Ji-woon’s A Tale Of Two Sisters vastly superior to Shyamalan’s The Sixth Sense and why the American “remake” of Two Sisters, called The Uninvited, fails miserably.

The Sixth Sense relies on SEVERAL tricks throughout the film to keep the audience manipulated, whereas A Tale Of Two Sisters uses ONE definitive and infallible trick right at the beginning to cement your belief for the entire film. The Uninvited uses CONTINUOUS instances of the tricks from BOTH movies and the whole effect is then completely negated. Americans are too shallow to be insightful and that is usually why films made by foreign writers and directors tend to fascinate Americans so much who then try to put their own spin on them and fail. If you lack the ability to do something yourself because you don’t understand how to do it, trying to copy someone else won’t make it any clearer or truly successful. Learn from others and then apply that knowledge to your personal growth or projects in your own unique way. Copying others only shows weakness, not strength.

With this initial planted impression in your mind as to what kind of female Osawa-san is, it seems as though the creators of Boss want the audience to fall into close agreement with the first couple of fire breathing Manheads that you meet at the outset. Boss launches almost immediately into it’s first Overcompensation Reaction (OR) a little over three minutes into the episode. This “OR” is more of a private one act play from Manheads Yada-san and Tanba-san who don’t so much dislike Osawa-san so much as they, at the beginning, have no expectations of her. They, who represent the Metropolitan Police Department, believe her to be completely under-qualified for the job but they overlook it because of the good publicity the MPD will receive for having the first female Division 1 chief. Yada-san purposely attempts to undermine Osawa-san’s success by telling all of the other department chiefs to purposely withhold their elite staff and, in fact, send their rejects to her division.

To undermine someone means to “weaken someone secretly” which presupposes that the person you wish to weaken is already, in your eyes, strong or a threat. If the MPD believes a female is incapable of doing the job or that she is under-qualified then where is the danger in her actually having capable staff? Here is where the Manheads are first shooting themselves in the dick. If she succeeds using rejects, she will seem even more powerful and capable than if she succeeded having an elite team, upon whose superior skills her success could be attributed to. By purposely sending her rejects it suggests that they believe she might succeed unless they do something to ensure her failure. It’s not until she forcibly shatters their belief that she is useless that she becomes a problem. The threat she represents as a CAPABLE woman becomes the focal point of their issue with her, not the fact that she’s simply sans penis. While they sit around and wait for her to embarrass or humiliate herself by failing, she in fact, does exactly that to them by succeeding. For this stupidity the Manheads shoot off a collective 2 inches. BLAM!!

I am completely ignoring the insanely obvious fact that soon after that scene is over her friend Nodate-san refers to her as a “fighting DOG” and that in order for her to succeed she has to “dig her teeth in” and that he has “taken her leash off” and freed her so that she can “bite down hard”. This is just disgusting so let’s just assume all the inferences here are NOT accidental and move on *rolls eyes* … Actually I’m going to shoot off an additional 2 inches for the “bitch” and “submissive” references. BLAM!! Ok … now … moving on!

The next Manhead is a familiar one; square, empty, and single brain celled. He represents a collective consciousness of prejudice and, most likely, has the largest amount of penial insecurity based on the extreme level of his sexist attitude. Onoda-san is a die hard Mancop. He’s very experienced, grizzled, probably has a high rate of success with his cases, and a long standing marriage to a wonderful, loyal, woman who provides him with zero sex. Onoda-san dislikes Osawa-san on principal. She’s a female. Period. There is no other problem here. She has breasts and therefore she has to leave. His police tape says, POLICE LINE. BREASTS KEEP OUT and because she’s not “swingin’ down below”, she has no place at a crime scene and no business being a Division 1 chief. On top of disliking her for having udders and wearing perfume, Onoda-san has the additional opportunity of holding her personality responsible – which is totally fair – for the incompetence of her team who, in addition to being completely unmotivated, are trampling HIS crime scene like window lickers. For Onoda this is a no brainer, and he clearly has no brain in his head since he feels the need to spout the obvious in order to beef up his position. During his “OR” he declares that “All Division 1 investigators are male.” Domo arigatou Onoda-san! Clearly, without you we’d all be under the mistaken impression that Osawa-san wasn’t the only female and that maybe there were some hidden hermies in the MPD. For this blind stupidity and Chanel No.5 bashing the Manheads shoot off a another 1 inch. BLAM!! In Onoda-san’s defense though, on a serious note, any woman who would wear perfume to a crime scene is hideously inappropriate.

The Manhead ichiban in this episode is the MadManBomber, Nogaki Taizo-san. Nogaki-san is bent on revenge and he could care less about gender. Man or woman, if you have wronged him, you’re gonna get blown up, end of story. As a result of this Equal Opportunity Revenge, Nogaki-san doesn’t appear to be a Manhead when we encounter him. In reality however, he’s actually the worst and most lame kind there is; a whiney, bitchy, FEMALE Manhead. I know, right? Ewww! When Osawa-san comes in to interrogate him, he treats her with the same level of disrespect that he treats the male officers because for him there is no one – male or female – that is even close to his level of intelligence. And eventually, believe it or not, he actually gives her MORE respect than the men because she demonstrates an extensive knowledge of bomb making. It’s all about the brains, not the bewbs! Thank god! There may be some hope for this man after all! Just as you’re thinking there is one intelligent big head in the room, it all goes to crap.

When women use their BRAINS, mens’ peni seem to SHRIVEL in this drama. The shrivelage seems to set off a chain reaction that goes from withered sausage to the brain and then from the brain to the mouth and out comes the “OR”, which in this case is actually Manvomit because it’s so rancid. Nogaki-san is the winner of “Smallest Dick In The Dohyo” because he only starts puking gender insults AFTER he is made to appear foolish. In addition to actually trying to physically attack her after being defeated by her ingenious tactics, he ends up lobbing a final wad of puke at her on his way to jail in the form of the words “Flat-chested!”. Yeah, THAT’S mature. Not only does he get defeated, he gets decimated by INTELLIGENCE; something he highly respects; and by a WOMAN, whom he clearly does not respect. And all he’s got, after being a brilliant engineer of bombs and near perfect murders, is an insult to her breast size? Epic fail, Lameass-kun! It’s Game Over for the Manheads who now must shoot off the rest of their dicks AND their sacks. BLAM! BLAM BLAM!!!

For all this talk about peni, I forgot to mention that Osawa-san has one too. I bet you didn’t know that some women have a penis. See how you learn so much reading this blog? Now, it’s not ALL women mind you, it’s only reserved for certain types of women. It’s truly an evolutionary miracle! As women have evolved within an ever changing environment, it was inevitable that nature would adapt certain women into creatures that are, not only able to survive, but to successfully advance in a male dominated world. Hence some women do have a penis …

… it’s called INTELLIGENCE.

Think about it:

Think on that for a while. *grin*

In America, the two things that don’t seem to go together is that a woman can be attractive and intelligent. When a woman is pretty here, it’s usually a big shocker to people that she is also smart. This drama makes it seem that in Japan simply being a woman is enough to make intelligence shocking. I bet that if this drama was made in America the focus would be on how Osawa-san was a beautiful woman and she would be constantly underestimated because of her attractive qualities. She would probably dress provocatively and use the fact that men were drooling over her to distract them, pull the rug out from under them, and then use her intelligence to crush and humiliate them.

Osawa-san is a triple threat. She is beautiful, she’s taller than most of the men, AND she’s intelligent. Bing, bam, boom, baby! Osawa-san’s DoomBringer, which we’ll call, “Big Tellie Q”, seems to really bring the pain by the end of this Gender Sumo bout, though it’s really not much of a match since the rikishi are blowing their own heads off from stupidity before things really get rolling. What I find really funny is how Osawa-san’s “BTQ” is considered, by a few of the Manheads, to be “profiling”. Every time she assesses something correctly it’s like some mind-boggling technique that she trained for in the United States Criminal Psychology Division or something. Hello? It’s called “being able to see your little raisins quivering” guys. It really doesn’t take a shrink to notice how much you’re overcompensating and acting like a jackass whenever there’s a real “pair” in the room. The level of insecurity these sausage searching puppets display is truly astounding and I’m amazed that they’re not checking their pants every two seconds: “Is it still there?! Oh good good. Is it gone? Oh no, I just checked. Great. OMG! A woman! Where did it go!? Hey buddy where did you run off to! Come back!”

ManPride, much like the FEMALE psyche, is a questionable and severely unappetizing thing. ManPride is something akin to a forced blowjob in my personal vocabulary; some guy holds you down and shoves handfuls of SPAM down your throat assuring you that it’s delicious while secretly hoping you die. The female psyche is like actual SPAM. It’s a lot of leftover garbage, which should have been thrown away, that is forcefully squeezed into a small, pressurized space, and that shocks, confuses, and disgusts you when you finally manage to open it. In both cases you’re getting something that’s an imitation of what it should be; an illusion; a substance that is a pale substitute for what you really want to experience. Men who are afraid of women, and females who are secretly envious of men, are nothing but bad actors in an equally bad play that’s running an endless matinee at The Theater For The Utterly Mundane. If you’re not bored to tears by such performances, you should at least be severely annoyed.

Now, as much as I’ve tried to inject some humor into this commentary, I now have to get back to my usual voice and really get down to the core analysis of why Boss fails at what clearly is it’s primary task; to be progressive.

I mentioned two main ideas at the very beginning. One was that Osawa-san is a WOMAN and not a FEMALE and the other was that the creators of Boss want you to think that she’s FEMALE so they can trick you by the end. This manipulation is not really all that clever if you remember that Boss is made for a Japanese audience and not an American one. The Japanese audience, most likely, will be swayed by these early metonymic visuals in addition to not having too many expectations of Osawa-san in the first place. There is probably a general idea that goes something like: “While she puts on a good game face and does her best to exceed far past everyone’s expectations, ultimately she is still a woman in a man’s job and it will be interesting and entertaining to see how she handles it.” The creators are counting on the audience having a bias and then they use that bias to setup the masterful ending that surprises you. Osawa-san is doing the same thing in the drama itself; she is using the preconceptions that all the men have to carry out her plan of getting the murderer to confess. If a bias against her didn’t exist within every key character, then she wouldn’t have been able to win. Every person’s bias becomes the very thing that guarantees Osawa-san’s success as well as solidifying the dramatic impact of the ending for the audience. If you were surprised at the end of the scenario then you were easily manipulated by the same contrived conventions and assumptions.

Osawa-san is not only qualified for her position, but she’s much better at it than most of the other chiefs. She also shows an ability to recognize the strengths of, and encourage the participation of, everyone in her team even though she was assigned “substandard staff”. She very capably saves her own face while throwing mens’ idiocy back into theirs using a combination of intelligence, sharp wit, and psychology. Why then, for the love of all that is Holy, does she show off her BREASTS at the end of the episode? In that move, in that lame physical retort, Osawa-san sets women back about a few centuries and becomes just as overcompensatory as the men who keep swinging their dicks around throughout the drama. It’s the equivalent of saying, “I’m all those brains and tits too.” Why? Why? Why? Who gives a crap and why would you even focus on that at the end of an episode that is all about how Osawa-san uses her MIND to succeed? Why does she need to prove ANYTHING at the end, let alone responding to something as stupid as some deflated man’s last attempt at childishly asserting his masculinity. All of Osawa-san’s credibility is lost in this moment and if you don’t see how then you’re either a Manhead or a FEMALE.

There’s really no difference between this and how many of my fellow African Americans are always talking about equality and race de-emphasis, but they are always the first the throw the race card onto the table when they want something done FOR them. Osawa-san doesn’t want to be looked down on or treated differently because she’s a woman, but at first insult to her femininity, she sticks out her chest as if to say, “Yes! I’m smart. Yes! I’m clever. AND LOOK! You bring the Kodo and I’ll supply the drums!” I’m not saying she’s gotta bind those puppies up like Yentil, I’m just saying she doesn’t need to respond to taunts with them like she’s showing off a Louis Vuitton purse to cover up the fact that she’s wearing Crocs. Osawa-san can’t just simply be a good division chief? She can’t just simply be a skilled investigator? She can’t just simply be strong and intelligent? She has to be A PAIR OF DECENT SIZED BREASTS also? For shame and so vulgar. This moment is not progressive, it’s completely REGRESSIVE, and defeats the purpose of the entire episode in one frame.

I really am intensely curious to see how this drama plays out and whether the writer of the show will redeem himself. So far though, the characters are all very intriguing – albeit cliche – and the story is drawing me in. Unlike the secondary cast in Majo Saiban and Hancho, I want to learn more about Osawa-san’s “rejects” and their individual stories. As with Mr. Brain, look for my Otaku Rant and further thoughts after I’ve consumed a few more episodes!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to TimeLes for this release!

• Queen Of Enka : Complete
• Majo Saiban : Intro
• Kiina : Intro
• Monster Parent : Complete
• The Quiz Show : Intro
• Hancho : Intro