今とはまた違う草彅さんの魅力：ドラマ「先生知らないの？」の感想 The Attractiveness of Young Kusanagi which is somewhat different from what he is now: My impressions of his drama called ‘Sensei Shiranaino? (Don’t You Know, Teacher? )’ - Turkeyriceの勝手に英訳ブログ　Turkeyrice's Blog Written in both Japanese and English

　どうしても観たくなって中古のDVD を購入してしまいました。「先生知らないの？」は、1998年にTBSで放送されたドラマです。当時22歳の草彅剛さんが、小学校の新米教師を演じられています。

　I really wanted to watch this drama again, so I bought its DVD. The drama called ‘Sensei Shiranaino? (Don’t You Know, Teacher? )’was aired on TBS in 1998. The main actor was Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, who was 22 years old at the time, and he played a fresh teacher in elementary school.

　まず感じたのは、25 年という歳月の重みです。今のドラマではあり得ないような設定や台詞に溢れています。そもそも主役の先生が元チーマーという設定に笑顔になります。

　What I felt first was that many things have changed in the past 25 years. In this drama, there are lots of settings or lines that are never seen in current ones. In the first place, the setting that the main character is a teacher who used to be a ‘teamer (a Japanese English word that means hoodlums who used to hang around Shibuya in the 90s)’ makes me smile.

　それでも、教育というものの本質は変わらないのでしょう。草彅剛さん演じる木下優作の、生徒を思いやる言動に胸を打たれます。このドラマが心に残っていたのは、教室の前に貼られた「一人ぼっちになる勇気を」という言葉に当時、自分が共感していたからだと思います。

　Even so, the essence of education has never changed. Yusaku Kinoshita, the teacher played by Tsuyoshi Kusanagi, is really considerate of his students and what he says and does for them really moves me. The reason why this drama has stayed in mind for a long time was that there was an impressive phrase, which I empathized with at the time somehow, that was posted on the front wall of his classroom and it said, “Have the courage to be alone”.

　それにしても、当時の草彅剛さんはカッコいいです。今とは違った魅力に溢れています。ドラマの主演としては三作目ということで、役者としても伸び盛りの頃だったに違いありません。

　At any rate, Kusanagi in this drama is so cool. The attractiveness was somewhat different from what he is now. This drama was the third one for him to play the main character, so it was the period for him to grow as an actor.

　このドラマにおける木下優作の熱血教師ぶりは、「僕の生きる道」における高校教師、中村秀雄のことなかれ主義とは正反対です。どちらも同じ人間が演じているとは信じられません。草彅剛さんの俳優としての力量は、こんなところにも表れています。

　Kinoshita’s enthusiasm as a teacher in this drama is totally different from the don’t-rock-the-boat attitude of Hideo Nakamura, a high school teacher played by Kusanagi in a drama called ‘Boku no Ikiru Michi’. It is hard to believe that the two characters were played by the same person. This is another proof of his skill as an actor.

　次回は共演者についてふれたいと思います。

　I’m going to mention other actors in this drama next time.

Words and expressions

・設定　→　settings

・台詞　→　lines

・そもそも　→　in the first place

・それでも　→　even so

・～に思いやりのある　→　be considerate of ~

・共感する　→　empathize

・～する勇気をもつ　→　have the courage to ~

・それにしても　→　at any rate

先生知らないの? [DVD]