Entertain your BRAIN Robert J. Terry 12/2005

UTB Offers Great New Programs: Gokusen and Tenka

UTB, that is, United Television Broadcasting, has started showing two great new programs. On Sunday nights at 9:00 pm, it presents Gokusen, the story of a seemingly demur young teacher assigned to a high school class from hell, filled with juvenile delinquents and surly teenagers. Naturally she will be overwhelmed by the task facing her… or will she? Then, every weekday morning at 7:30 am UTB offers a program which is the diametrical opposite, Tenka. This program is set in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture, which is in the back country of Japan, and the heroine is a teenage girl named Tenka (“Heavenly flower”) who is naïve and earnest, a beautiful representative of what Japanese call “Yamato nadeshiko,” (“Classical Japanese ‘Pink’ flower”), the pride of Japanese culture.

Gokusen stars Nakama Yukie, one of the most popular actresses in the Japanese entertainment world today. She plays the teacher, Yamaguchi Kumiko (who is also known as “Yankumi,” yes, this is complicated and it gets even moreso, but just wait…) who is the granddaughter of the leader of the Ooedo yakuza crime family. (That’s where she got the “Yankumi” name.) She is a teacher at the “Little Lamb Nursery School” when she is assigned to the Kurogiin High School. One of the children in her charge addresses her at that point by placing his left hand on his left knee, outstretching his right hand towards her and going into a crouch while saying, “ohikae nasutte.” (This is a classical yakuza expression, indicating that the speaker is about to make a formal statement. The conceit of the scene lies in the fact that it is incongruous to hear this word in the mouth of a child. In a similar way, Yamaguchi often speaks in a pristinely ladylike way, only to suddenly revert to a rough, masculine style of speech when she has to confront a brutish opponent.)

The final episode of Gokusen garnered a fantastic 23.5% share of the audience on the night when it was broadcast in Japan, and the series averaged a 17.4% share overall. This is an indication of the popularity of the show. Gokusen (which has an uncertain derivation; perhaps it is an amalgamation of  “gokudou,” which is defined in the dictionary as “awful behavior or someone who behaves that way” and “sensei” or “teacher”) is packed with throw-away jokes and sight gags that keep the viewer entertained. It is subtitled in English and is highly recommended.

Tenka is the exact opposite of Gokusen. It focuses on the struggle to maintain traditional Japanese values in the modern world. It stars Fujisawa Ema as Sato Tenka, a teenager in the eleventh grade in high school living in Sendai, Miyagi Prefecture whose family runs a shop called Suzumeya selling sasakamaboko fish cakes. (This is a famous product of Sendai. One can also purchase it in Japanese supermarkets here in Los Angeles. It is flat in shape and one can often see people in the program eating it.) Tenka’s life is thrown into turmoil one day when she receives a letter that says that her grandfather made a promise to have her bethrothed to the grandson of a comrade in arms during the war. This grandson contacts her and tells her that he is prepared to fulfill the promise. Of course, complications ensue.

Tenka, which is subtitled in English, offers viewers the opportunity to see how life is lived in “ura-Nihon,” the backwaters of Japan where the tempo of life is slower and the old values are still appreciated. That is part of the script, but is also interesting to see the sights in the city as they are photographed, the main streets as well as the fields out in the countryside. (In addition, it is interesting that the website of the program lists a consultant on staff credited with insuring the authentic rendering of the dialect used in the script.) The program also shows the festivals in the area, such as the summer “Tanabata matsuri” as it is celebrated in Sendai on July 7th. One almost feels as if one were a participant in the events.

Mornings are made just a little bit brighter by tuning in to see Tenka. It is a great way to start the day. The reader is urged to take a look at the program to see what it is all about.

Gokusen, Sundays at 9:00 pm on Channel 18; Tenka, weekday mornings at 7:30 am on Channel 18; both programs subtitled in English