Toumin kuma 2014/01/17 fan report (didn't check through so I hope I'm coherent)

Ok, I made a mistake, Suzuki Anne's character name is HIBARI, not Hibiya. I typing this on my phone so I can't replace to the correct name (>.<)

Ueda was really excellent in his performance. There is still the "him" back from Romeo&Juliet, what I'll termed it as his acting portrayal, but I can see the improvement too, especially on his subtle facial expressions. He totally brought out the 狂 feel that Ninagawa-san chose him for. One second he is smiling happily, the next he is laughing like a maniac, and the next crying like a broken heart.

The play was 4 hours, but it feels that Ueda only appeared less than 50% of the duration. He had 5 scenes.

(I don't really understand the entire plot, but I asked my friends whose Japanese is better to explain to me after the show. We all agreed it's a complicated plot, even though thankfully Ueda's scenes are still kind of understandable... Pardon me if my understanding of the plot is incorrect below.)

Scene 1: With older brother nii-san

This is the scene where Ueda is total cute!! Reminds me of Kuuya from Runaway. The 2 brothers went to the harbor, it showed the really close relationship they have. Ueda kept jumping and bear hugging Nii-san (with his legs around Nii-san's torso) for I think 2-3 times. Ueda totally acted like the younger brother, a bit naive feel, a bit cute feel, a bit like "please dote on my, older brother feel". I think they were talking about the upcoming Olympics, the older brother seemed to be an athletic who will represent Japan. And I think Ueda also excitedly related the news that that he will be getting married, and that their family can fulfill the tradition of having a child by age 25.

Oh some description of Ueda's appearance: He's wearing really cool (I think sexy :P) eye make up. There's black eyeliner plus a bit of black eyeshadow at the outer edge of the eyes, really defined his eyes well. And he drew his brows too. There was a really light tinge of blusher on the cheek bones. But the ones that really stood out were still his eyes, they were sparkling (I'm serious, my friend agreed with me), it's like they can speak to us you know? And I really like the fact that he will always looks at the audience (when he can) as he delivered his lines (I noticed the other actors don't do that as much which I don't know why?) but it's like I can relate more to Ueda when he does that. He has also gotten rid of the habit of concentrating his attention more on his left side (problem in R&J and MP2). He was wearing a suit for all the scenes except the last scene. His hair in the first scene looked a bit trimmed from his recent appearance on bangumi, very handsome. Oh but he is really very thin D: I've never seen him so thin (as compared to the times in 2009 and 2010), he looked thinner than on TV (though expected since TV will widen your face), his cheeks have totally no meat at all, it's a bit sunken to the bones, sigh. I hope you will get to rest well after this butai, Ueda-kun.

Oh! And during this scene, the brother stepped on Ueda's crotch, I hope that doesn't hurt (actually I don't think it's painful). I think Ueda was like pouncing on Nii-san and they tumbled onto the floor and Nii-san tried to stop him (while they're on the floor) by stepping on away, actually it's like applying pressure and not stepping, I don't know how to describe orz Just, don't worry about Ueda junior.

Oh, and Ueda pulled down Nii-san's pants twice. I think the lines for this 1st scene must have been very funny, the Japanese fans behind me kept laughing.

Scene 2: With Hibiya-chan(? I think that's the character name for Suzuki Anne) and Hibiya's mother

This is the scene where Ueda's character asked for the hand of marriage for Hibiya from her mother. A fair bit of hugging here but it's nothing compared to the kissing scenes he had with Ryoko in R&J, so I didn't feel much lol.

Scene 3: Sushi bar

This is like a less than 1-minute Ueda appearance. Hmm, Hibiya and Nii-san met in the sushi bar earlier and I think they fell in love cos of common interest. When they were gone, Ueda came and said, "(he/she/they) are not here anymore!?" and the scene ended.

With the above, Ueda's scenes in part 1 of the butai ended.

Part 2 began and Ueda didn't appear until 1 hour later into the butai.

Just wanted to highlight one scene without Ueda: After Hibiya and Nii-san fell in love, they went to rendezvous in SPIDERS HOTEL (I'm amused by the name of hotel, and the stage setting looks really like those love hotel haha). Actually in general I feel all the sets have been nicely done and the costumes too.

Anyway, back to the scene above, OMG Nii-san and Hibiya were kissing hotly and tumbling on bed! And Nii-san only had a pair of briefs on so I think his fans must have fainted from blood loss lol. (But I'm not interested haha.) But I was thinking I'm kinda glad that it's not Ueda doing this scene oops...my heart is not ready to see it with my own eyes.

Scene 4: Going crazy with Hibiya's mother

So Ueda's character found out that his fiancée and brother slept together. This is his first scene in part 2, but to fit the character's state of mind, he came out with messy hair (his hair was previously artfully waxed and styled in part 1), smudged eye make up which I supposed is to show his character's lack of sleep. His tie had also been loosen to show a disheveled state.

This is the start of crazy Ueda and many fans' hearts (mine included) started to break as he portrayed his devastation over what had happened. His face was wet with perspiration (I don't think there were tears but I'm not entirely certain.) I recall Ueda once said (maybe the year before or last year) that he hopes to have a role as an intelligent criminal. I used to doubt his ability to carry out such a role. After today, I think he will definitely do a good job if he has such a role, so I really hope this butai will open more acting doors for him. Previously (at scene 1) I said it's like his eyes will talk to you and now it's that you don't even feel his acting, I feel that he is the character and his eyes are really reflecting the character's emotions and turmoil.

Scene 5: Going crazy with older brother

Finally, (I think this is the last 20min of the butai), we came to his last scene. Ueda's character went back to the harbor that he and his brother went in the 1st scene. He called his brother and confronted his brother about the affair. (I'm not too sure if I should call it an affair cos it seems like the brother did not know Hibiya is Ueda's character's fiancée?)

Okay then the plot got too complicated for me to understand, this is (what I remember) from my friends' take on it:

Ueda's character's job was in the trading of military weapons. He kidnapped Hibiya, set off bombing at some Middle East country, and then called his brother to coerce the brother to take the blame (he's a public figure as he's an Olympic representative) for the bombing in exchange of Hibiya.

During the call, Ueda displayed more of the character's craziness, it reminded me a bit of Monster Night but maybe 6 times crazier. He also took off his jacket and his shirt is almost sheer since he perspired a lot. And then he rolled around the floor a bit (going crazy) and I get to enjoy a bit of his collar bone (he was lying down on the floor with top of head facing the audience) fufufu.

Nii-san did "confess" that he's the one who did the bombing to the press. I think Ueda went crazy a bit more and then disappeared off the stage. Frankly speaking, his very last moment on stage didn't make an impression on me cos I was feeling lost by the plot by that time...

At the ending scene, there was no Ueda. Nii-san delivered the ending punch line that explained the title - "try sleeping next to a hibernating bear" but the only thing I could understand is that is the punch line but I can't figure out the link...

There was also a very important theme reviving around dogs: the ancestor of Ueda's character (the bear hunter) always appear alongside with dogs when hunting the bears, and Hibiya is a dog descendant (somewhat). I don't understand this theme, if someone does, please explain to me!

Finally finally (4 hours!), the butai ended. The applause was really really loud, everyone clapped loudly even for the supporting cast. And I think Nii-san's fans' applause sounded almost as loudly as Ueda's. I wanted to do a standing ovation but I was shy so I didn't stand at first.

The curtain call went like this: 3 rows of supporting actors, then the 4 main characters came to stand in front.

And then the 3 rows went off, and 1st row (Ueda was in 1st row) remained and that was when I noticed people on my floor (I was at 2nd level, though it feels more like 3rd level...) so I stood up too to clap :D

And then more people started to stand, and when the curtain fell, the applause continued. So the curtain lifted up again and this time, I saw that the ground floor audience all stood up (so nice!) and Ueda finally smiled (he was looking kind of serious, like thankful but in a formal manner before this) so it was really good to see him smile before the curtain dropped the final time. My hands were red and sore by the time we stopped clapping fufufu.

Ueda-kun, you deserved my standing ovation, you really acted very well with such improvement. I am extremely proud of you, あたしの永遠の一番好きなアイドル！♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎♥︎

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