60 minSeason 1 • Episode 11
LatestHaru Satonaka is the captain of an ice-hockey team, a star athlete who stakes everything on hockey but can only consider love as a game. Aki Murase is a woman who has been waiting for her lover who went abroad two years ago. These two persons start a relationship while frankly admitting to each other that it is only a love game. …The result is the unfolding of a drama of people with their respective pasts and with their pride as individuals.
Acting
Kimura's smoldering vulnerability; Takeuchi's quiet devastation.
Cinematography
Ice rink as emotional landscape—cold, beautiful, isolating.
Score
Melodramatic J-pop ballads that hit way too hard.
Takuya Kimura
Haru Satonaka
Yuko Takeuchi
Aki Murase
Kenji Sakaguchi
Yamato Hotta
Matsumoto Kōshirō X
Tomonori Ikegawa
Ryuta Sato
Makoto Shimamura
Saori Takizawa
Saeko Sonoda
Saburo Tokito
Kengo Anzai
Yuriko Ishida
Yoko Anzai
Koichi Sato
Yuichiro Hyodo
Noriko Nakagoshi
Yuri Aizawa
MEGUMI
Chika Ishikawa
Shosuke Tanihara
Keisuke Natsukawa
Tetsu Kayama
Reiji Yamamoto
Kazuki Namioka
Naritoshi Nishida
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
This reunited Kimura and Takeuchi after their iconic 1996 drama 'Long Vacation,' making fans wait eight years for this emotional reunion.
Pride exemplifies the 'renai dorama' boom—Japanese romance dramas where love is a battlefield and communication is optional. The ice hockey setting was unusual; most starred salarymen or doctors.
JP
