Queen Of Enka : Complete

Enka no Joou – Winter 2007 [NTV - http://www.ntv.co.jp/enka]
Original Air Date: 2007-Jan-13 to 2007-Mar-17 | Number Of Episodes: 10
Subbing Groups : quashlo with help from gryzze and tianj. Otsukaresamadeshita! (お疲れ様でした!)

I watched the 704×396 .avi soft sub of this drama. I want to begin by getting down on my hands and knees and thanking everyone involved with subbing this drama from the bottom of my enka-loving heart. The typesetting work, the timing, all of the extensive notes and vocabulary provided are outstanding and the quality of the RAWS is amazing! I have to also extend my thanks to jtranla at Aja-Aja for submitting the information regarding this series. It is only thanks to a recent feed from the Aja-Aja website that I was even made aware of the existence of this drama.

It is thanks to all of you that I was able to experience this amazing drama and share all the deep, poignant, and beautiful lessons and messages therein with my friends and family. Taking wisdom from Asian drama and applying it to all areas of my life would be impossible without the work of individuals like yourselves. The drama itself will be watched by everyone in my tribe I assure you. I don’t know how many people would step up and sub a drama like this and that is why you have my utmost gratitude for taking the time to bring this drama to the community.

Do not be thrown off by the title, “Queen Of Enka“. While this may be your “grandmother’s music”, this definitely is not your grandmother’s drama. *grin* Generally I implore everyone not to judge a drama by it’s title or a badly written synopsis on DramaWiki. In the case of this drama, however, the title is perfectly appropriate but the description of it doesn’t come close to doing this brilliance any justice whatsoever.

Queen of Enka is an amazingly crafted “drama within a drama”, as well as being a parody of drama itself. It carries within it several ingenious aspects that pay homage to classic kung-fu films, demonstrate nuances of Japanese comedy, and even educate the audience on the deeper meaning of how various Kanji characters are written. All of this is done while showing appreciation and understanding for the tradition, meaning, and power of enka music.

Thanks to some awesome quality RAWs, I was able to watch the 59th Kōhaku Uta Gassen this past New Years. It was particularly awesome because there were some seriously great enka performances including, yes, Jero. Watching him perform, Umiyuki, with his mother crying in the audience was truly a spectacular moment. While one of my Japanese friends calls enka “music for old people”, I happen to love it. I LOVE enka. Yeah, I said it. I love it. And no, not just because of my boy Jero. *laugh* I liked it long before he showed up. I have no idea how I was even introduced to enka originally. I must have heard it years ago in a historical Japanese film – I used to watch them kind of ferociously growing up – and I sought it out as much as I could over the years. Even though I grew up in an African American home, I was exposed to a wide variety of music. I am thankful to my parents for a lot of things, but mainly for having had music as a steady diet as a child. The house was always filled with music. There was jazz, funk, and r&b on my father’s radio, while my mother liked a regular stream of what I used to call “elevator music” on Lite 100.5 – i.e Barbra Streisand, Christopher Cross, The Carpenters, etc. I had a love of theater growing up so I listened to a lot of Broadway tunes, classical music, and opera. I played the violin and clarinet through my early school years because I was in love with Barbara Mandrel and Benny Goodman. I tuned into The Boston Pops on the radio on Sundays and on top of all of that I loved marching band, furious fiddling, kodo drumming, and swing music. Nowadays, I listen to almost no American or heavily lyrical music.

There is absolutely no music like enka in America. The only comparison that can be made to enka musically, on the U.S. side, is probably blues. Enka is often called the Japanese version of blues and I sometimes say that when I’m describing it to people. However, while many enka melodies have fundamentally Western-like harmonies, we don’t have the capacity for the same kind of passion. “Enka lyrics are usually about the themes of love and loss, loneliness, enduring hardships, and persevering in the face of difficulties, even suicide or death.” ^[wiki] Our country is far too young and far too arrogant to be able to create music of that depth. “Enka suggests a traditional, idealized, or romanticized aspect of Japanese culture and attitudes.” ^[wiki] The majority of popular American singers/performers sing mainly for money, fame, and for their own twisted version of self-therapy, rather than for the purpose of tying the strings of peoples’ hearts together with strong emotional themes. Emo music is not enka. Power ballads are not enka. Tori Amos is not enka. And as much as I loves me some Babs, Streisand-sama is not enka either. Though … *ahem* … some of her music comes damn close. *cheeky grin*

Queen of Enka is a very straightforward drama that uses the traditional lyrical content of enka as a foundation for communicating the hardships, difficult decisions, and painful moments of Ookochi Himawari-san’s life. At the same time, it is also a very clever comedy that parodies the repetitive and melodramatic elements of enka while also taking potshots at the genre of melodrama itself. I love this kind of programming because, not only does it perfectly juxtapose comedy and tragedy, it shows how multidimensional the storytelling in some Asian drama can really be.

Amami Yuki, who I cannot wait to see in the upcoming drama Boss, is pure genius as the Queen of Enka. She is an actress who I can very easily compare to Kanno Miho, who played the beloved Haruse Kiina. Both actresses have their share of Television Drama Awards and have a massive variety of roles to show for their many years of hard work in the entertainment industry. Kanno-san won Best Actress for Kiina in the most recent Drama Awards, but in all seriousness, the role of Ookochi Himawari is much more complex and dynamic to play. Dramatic acting can be taught in any dime-store performing arts center. However, the ability to perform humor, coupled with dramatic expression, while wrapping it all in physical comedy, is not something you learn even in “Fame” school.

Good comedy does have a standard methodology that can be taught like farce, pregnant pauses, and slapstick, but it’s impossible to teach comedic timing – you have to have a natural ability somewhere in you to begin with. Think silent film genius Charlie Chaplin, the queen of comedy Carol Burnett, or the amazing Jim Carey. You can’t learn that in school, folks. It’s inherent. The Japanese culture, in a general sense, has an amazingly diverse, flexible, and complicated sense of humor. Each region seems to have it’s own distinct style and some of them are even popular cross-regionally. It is because of that fact that find it difficult to grasp how Amami-san could have been “passed by” (accolade wise) in her role in Queen Of Enka back in 2007. Perhaps though, that said more about the declining popularity of enka (which the drama also talks about) in Japan than it did Amami-san’s performance.

Amami-san is not the only one in this drama that pulls off an astonishing performance. All of the child actors in Queen of Enka are absolutely extraordinary! The children in this drama play crucial roles in the overall story; they represent hope, redemption, and the brightness of new beginnings. Children are our future, and at the exact same time, they are also our past. While their eyes are wide, our eyes, through the trials and realities of living life, have become narrow. In our children we shouldn’t mourn our lost innocence, though, instead we should see the potential in ourselves to become better adults through their purity. Children are mirrors upon which you can see all of your flaws as well as all of your perfections. Within them you can see aspects of yourself and hints of your true character. They are delicate and need proper care and polish so they can accurately reflect both beauty and ugliness. The expression of these sentiments is flawlessly executed in how the various main characters evolve. The lessons the adults learn are passed onto the children of course, but a fair portion of the wisdom that emerges from the adults is inherited first from the presence of the children themselves.

In addition to the two children Himawari-san takes into her care, there is another child who is the primary guiding influence for almost all of her difficult decisions; her younger self. Acting as her conscience, the younger version of herself always appears when Himawari-san is at a low point in her life. Eternally 13 years old, the ghost of Himawari-san’s traumatic childhood seems at first disappointed that she has grown up to be cowardly, unsuccessful, and unmarried. Psychologically speaking, it is easy to see how these early appearances are representative of how Himawari-san feels about her own life up to that point. Things change as the plot structure develops and Himawari-san begins to realize that what is really important in her life is making sure other people are happy. Through this, her younger self also develops a subsequent understanding that living a happy life is much more than having success, money, and being married. Her influence develops into more of a reassuring wisdom that is in line with what the adult Himawari-san is already naturally inclined to do. Their relationship, or rather the evolution of her coming to terms with her life choices, is beautiful to watch and a powerful message for anyone who struggles with finding themselves, defining their character, and knowing which paths to choose.

Queen of Enka examines issues that, on the surface, come across as common, expected, cliche, and even outrageous. The destinations that Himawari-san ends up at are usually predictable with absolute accuracy. Given the standard conventions of melodrama and the use of enka lyrics as a vehicle of emotional delivery and manipulation, it’s impossible to go wrong in getting the message across. However, you must remember that the journey Himawari-san takes is also worth examining closely, in addition to exploring her unique way of seeing the world, the people in her life, and appreciating her own unique place in the universe. How she learns things is as important as what she learns. In the end though, it is how she goes on to teach those around her that is the most beautiful thing about Himawari-san’s character.

In my commentaries of the various dramas, I try to demonstrate a different way of viewing them by exploring some of the underlying themes that most people might completely miss or simply take for granted. It is easy to watch something and take everything as being simply common sense without taking the time to explore the root of where such “sense” actually comes from. Digging below the surface of the obvious can sometimes wield richer rewards as well as deeper insight.

Thank you again to quashlo, gryzze, and tianj as well as Aja-Aja and D-Addicts for making this journey possible for an English speaking audience. You have my gratitude and eternal support for your efforts. Arigatou gozaimashita!

• Favorite Line: There are far too many to really mention. Almost every poignant moment in this drama is worth mentioning.
• Favorite Scene: Himawari vs Sadako janken.

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• Hancho : Intro
• Godhand Teru : Intro