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I just read on wikipedia that one of my favorite dramas Beautiful Life is a record holder!

Here's more from wikipedia:

Beautiful Life (ビューティフルライフ Byūtifuru Raifu?) is a drama of "Toshiba Nichiyo Gekijo (東芝日曜劇場 Tōshiba Nichiyō Gekijō)" on TBS Television. It was first shown in Japan from 16 January to 26 March 2000.

Beautiful Life is a massive success, and holds the TV rating record of drama in Japan over the 30 years (41.3%).

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The story is about Okishima who is one of the best hairstylists in the salon where he works and Kyoko Machida who works at a library. Kyoko is wheelchair bound due to a disease that first started to manifest itself when she was 17.

The two main characters meet one day while driving on the highway. I think Kyoko cuts in front of Okishima or something like that. Anyway they argue and later Okishima styles Kyoko’s hair for a magazine shoot. When the article comes out it focuses on Kyoko’s disability, not her beauty which was not Okishima’s intent.

It’s a very sweet love story and a bit of a tear jerker. I loved it! One day I will watch it again.

I wanted to add one thing about why I absolutely adored Beautiful Life.

There was a scene where Okishima and Kyoko are on a bridge I believe or some scenic local (forgive me it’s probably been 5 years since I’ve seen this drama so I don’t remember exact details). Kyoko makes a comment and Okishima kneels down so he can see the scene the way she sees it, from her wheelchair.

He said he wanted to see the world, how she sees it. In other words he wanted a “paradigm shift,” which is what the entire drama is about.

I’m going to put it on my to-do list to watch this drama again by the end of this year.