Recently I began to watch this comedy drama called Binbo Danshi. In english, it just means the poor man. The lead character Kazumi (acted by Oguri Shun) is this really stupid idiot who started off lending money to everyone who needs it. He treats everyone for meals even when people offered to pay. How did he finance this expenditure? He borrowed money from the loan company. In a way this is fitting since I am reading up on finance related stuffs this holiday.

When he discovered that he had owed a million yen, he got a huge shock of his life. He just got accepted into a company and if the company learns of this, he would be fired. With this problem, he went to make a loan to this rich man nicknamed Omuomu who loaned him the 1 million dollars. In this way, the loan company can be repaid and the loan company will not go to his company.

Over the few episodes, he actually returned the 1 million dollars, but had to reborrow the money due to stupid reasons. Even when he returned the 1 million in the end, he continued to borrow a larger sum of money to help this guy that he knew. Although he is a stupid idiot, he is actually very cheerful and helpful, and changed the lifes of the people around him.

This drama gave me some things to think about.

Firstly, debt is a very bad thing. When you add in insanely high interest rates, the money can never be returned. Sometimes when you just happen to spend and spend without checking your credit card debt, you can rake up a huge bit of money which is extremely hard to repay.

Secondly, there is a story narrated by Omuomu. He cares about money the most, more than human relations because of this girl he loved. The girl worked hard and supported him whilst he was studying to go into law school. Eventually his girlfriend needed money for an operation, and the poor him had no money. His girlfriend passed away due to him being poor and then he worked hard to have a lot of money. I felt upset because I do not ever want to end up in a situation where I have no money to give my loved ones the operation that they need. In this world today, money is really an important thing. It is always better to have the money to afford the best medical treatment, than to have no money and watch your loved one die in front of you. Even Kazumi had the same problem when he was young. His elder brother died of an illness and even young Kazumi took out his piggy bank to save his brother, but the brother passed on before Kazumi had the chance to give his mother the piggy bank.

Binbo Danshi, although a comedy, actually has many lessons of life regarding money. It is always important to learn about money and how to have effective money management.

I just finished watching this Japan Drama, which is more commonly known as Hana Kimi, on Tuesday night. This is also the Japanese version of Hua Yang Shao Nian Shao Nv, where Ella from S.H.E. acted as Ashiya Mizuki. In the Japan version, my favourite Japan actress, Horikita Maki, acts as Ashiya Mizuki.

This is a 12 episode drama, as compared to 15 for the Taiwanese version. I have no idea which version is the “proper” one, since I have not seen the manga that this drama is based on, but there seems to be slight difference from the 1/2 an hour which I watched on TV for the Tw version. In my opinion, the Japan version seems much better. Or can I say, I enjoy the flavour brought out by the Japanese actors, especially on the character Natkatsu, who keeps thinking he is homosexual when he falls for Mizuki.

To be perfectly honest, Maki is a kawaii girl that doesn’t really seem very boyish. Natkatsu likes to talk to himself, and keeps doing hand signs when he talks to himself in his head. Most of the time he thinks positively of himself and his relationship with Mizuki (something I will do also in his position), but everytime it’s just his own thoughts. Mizuki treats him as a best friend and nothing else.

Mizuki is a Japanese girl from America, and transferred to Osaka High, an all boys school for a particular guy Sano Izumi. She pretends to be a guy, even wearing this tight thing underneath her clothes so that she looks flatter. In the past, Sano saved her once and ended up being knifed at the leg. From then on, Sano stopped high jumping, which Mizuki felt is a pity because Sano’s really good at high jumping.

Through joining Osaka High, and coincidentally ending up in the same dorm room as Sano, she manages to get into Sano’s world despite his cool personality. Sano ended up going for the high jump again, though he only managed to get a 2nd place in his first try.

The enjoyable part is that every episode has a different sub plot, typical of Japan Dramas, which I like. Every episode, something different will be done and there is much space for many characters to develop. The things that they do, like inter-dorm activities are pretty fun too. Somehow it makes me want to join them.

However I feel that the last episode (which is 2 hours long) is a little not-as-good. I feel that the ending could be more fun, but I shan’t be picky. There is much screen time of Maki too, and that is good. The last episode shows how they discovered Mizuki is a girl, and how they initially could not accept that they were deceived, to forgiving Mizuki and treating her completely like a guy!

This 12 part series is easy to digest and fun to watch. If you have the time, why not watch it? Hmm..Did I do something wrong?