BIG IN JAPAN
Oda Yuji
 It' very easy to make fun of the
Japanese police force: The tacky uniforms, the anachronistic reliance on bicycles, and the
unpleasant habit of forcing confessions to get a conviction. In cinema, the adventures of omawari
(uniformed police) and keiji (detectives) have over the last decade been
portrayed most successfully in the Abunai Deka (Dangerous Cop) movies,
which bore quite a debt to Hollywood's Lethal Weapon series. Recently, however, the genre
has been turned around and revitalized, thanks to a surprise smash hit taken from a
popular TV drama and starring actor Oda Yuji as an unorthodox sleuth. The film's title, Odoru
Daisosasen, has been translated awkwardly as "Jumping Big Investigation."
Perhaps a more poetic interpretation would be "The Dancing Detective."
Oda Yuji was born in Kanagawa Prefecture in 1967, and attended the renowned private school
Touin Gakkuen. His school career showed a strong flair for sports, but a knee injury sent
his ambitions in a different direction, and he applied for and entered drama school. His
first break came in the movie Boom Boom Boom in 1987, and he afterwards found
himself typecast as a school dropout. He had great trepidation about taking on the role of
Kanuchi Nagano in the TV drama Tokyo Love Story, but producer Ota Ryo persuaded
him to accept. His sensitive portrayal of the shy young man from Ehime, trying in his
tongue-tied way to win the girl of his dreams, captured the hearts of audiences, and led
to a string of small screen appearances.
In the mid-'90s his screen persona changed as he was offered more mature roles to explore,
leaving his teen idol days behind him. Okane ga nai (Got No Money) in
1995 featured him as a feckless salaryman in a Japanese reworking of The Sweet Smell
of Success, while Seigi wa Katsu (Victory of Justice) cast him as a
lawyer hiding a multitude of secrets. Around this time TV dramas were becoming more
adventurous and controversial in their subject matter, and Oda brought great sensitivity
to his next role, the part of a man who finds his girlfriend has previously been a victim
of rape, in the 1996 hit Mahiru no Tsuki (Midday Moon).
As is usual in Japan's entertainment world, he also pursued a career as a pop musician
(singing the themes of many of the shows and films he appeared in), and made many
commercials, memorably switching from DoCoMo to their rivals, Ido, in early 1999.
1997 saw his career take a huge leap forward with the debut of Fuji TV's Odoru
Daisosasen. He repeated the role of Detective Aoshima in the film version released
mid-1998, pursuing another well-known "tarento" - Koizumi Kyoko, playing a
serial killer who leaves a macabre calling card at the scene of her killings.
His fans are anxiously waiting for news of his next project, the movie White Out,
which will be released in early 2000. In the meantime, his album My Pocket was
released in September 1999, and he can be seen glowering moodily from the screen in the
Pokka coffee TV commercials. "I got it," he breathes huskily in English. Looks
like he certainly has.
John Paul Catton |
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