Totto terebi

If you’re not familiar with the history of Japanese film or television and you don’t know anything about Tetsuko Kuroyanagi, you probably won't enjoy this as much, but I still think it's a very enjoyable insight into a time when the great colossus was just getting off the ground in Japan. Mitsushima Hikari gives one of her best performances here. The episodes are less than half an hour long, and they move along briskly. In every episode a guest star comes in and shows off (or doesn’t), but you still notice. I probably enjoyed Miura as Charlie Chaplin the most. I enjoyed all the episodes and maybe only the last one felt a little weaker than the previous ones, but maybe that's because it was half a farewell and half a promise that Tetsuko Kuroyanagi's life is not over and she is still full of enough life to keep annoying TV viewers. The series is quite sentimental, so anyone who doesn't like sentiment probably shouldn't watch too much of it. Basically, the only big fly in the ointment was that Kuroyanagi, played by Mitsushima, didn't age at all. A brief look, perhaps for some an inspiring one, at the life of a hyperactive and extravagant lady who just so happened to be there at the birth of NHK. A weaker 5 stars. (20.09.2016)