Chugakusei Nikki (2018)

Se cerchi una storia d'amore romantica e lineare, questo drama fallisce. L'utilità di Chugakusei Nikki sta nel suo valore di studio antropologico e psicologico.

1 - La critica alla pressione sociale giapponese: Il drama mostra come la società nipponica giudichi e distrugga chi esce dai binari del "collettivamente accettabile". La lentezza serve a far pesare sullo spettatore la stessa claustrofobia che provano i protagonisti.

2 - L'evoluzione del tempo: La seconda parte della serie compie un salto temporale di tre anni. Qui la lentezza iniziale trova la sua giustificazione: serve a dimostrare che quello di Akira non era un semplice "capriccio infantile" e che il legame, nel bene o nel male, ha retto al peso del tempo e della distanza.

3 - La catarsi della crescita: L'utilità finale sta nel vedere come entrambi i personaggi debbano essere "separati e distrutti" dal sistema per poter poi rinascere come adulti consapevoli. Solo quando Akira diventa legalmente un adulto, le dinamiche possono finalmente sbloccarsi.

Chugakusei Nikki è come una tazza di tè verde lasciata in infusione: è amara, richiede tempo e non a tutti piace il sapore. Non è un'opera utile a intrattenere con leggerezza, ma a esplorare i confini della moralità, dell'ossessione e della crescita personale attraverso la lente della pazienza.

Se lo specchio della cultura giapponese (fatto di non-detti, sguardi di tre minuti e decisioni prese dopo ore di riflessione) non fa per te, è normale trovarlo inconcludente. A volte, i drama giapponesi non vogliono "andare da nessuna parte", vogliono solo farti stare seduto lì, a disagio, insieme ai protagonisti.

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"Don't judge the book by its cover"

First let me start this review with a mini rant

The only concern I see people having with this drama is that they said it normalize pedophilia. My defense on that matter is you would only consider a person a pedophile if he/she is occasionally attracted to children which in this case she's not because she was not attracted to him because he's a child. I know most will not agree with that argument but let's say you are correct and she's a pedophile. Does this drama normalize that psychiatric disorder? BIG NO. She's attracted to him but didn't take advantage in fact she was despised the whole time, the school, students and the society. The drama won't make you feel they are romanticizing that idea. As for the matter that it might affect the thinking of underage viewers. Do those kids have parents to guide them? Then what about stories like Robin Hood, mistress protagonist, serial killer etc. are those stories being normalize just because they were made? If you are inclined to call it a trash just by reading the synopsis then I am sorry but with that kind of logic I just couldn't help but think you are DUMB.

Chugakusei Nikki portrays the forbidden love between Hijiri, a middle school teacher and Akira, one of her students. The drama follows their story for the course of several years. There will be time skip in the middle of the drama, 3 years to be exact, when Akira is 18 years of age. The characters are well written, Hijiri was portrayed really well as an inexperienced teacher, adult yet not matured, and also Akira as rebellious and confused teenager. Side characters are interesting too especially Haraguchi and Shotaro, it's also interesting to see their love story develops. Their love is somewhat similar yet different. The plot is sensitive but the drama handled it tastefully, it is nowhere near as creepy as you might think. This show is also grounded to reality in that every emotion these characters portray is very relatable. What I also like is the pacing it's very balanced which makes every episode engaging. The drama also knows how to play with our emotions. The director is just so good on how to build tension and also how to end every episode. Expect roller coaster of emotions, it's highs is wonderfully high and it's lows is absolutely devastating, there's even couple of scenes where I was on the edge of my seat and to think this drama is not a thriller.

~ A good rain chooses the right time to fall and so it falls ~
~ When it comes to spring, the rain is certainly falling ~
~ It follows the wind and secretly enters the night ~
~ While the wind is blowing, the rain continues to fall until night ~
~ And moistens everything softly, without any sound ~
~ Silently, almost making no sounds at all, it makes everything wet ~

This poem in episode 1 summarizes the whole drama. It is a metaphor to the kind of love between Hijiri and Akira, a pure love similar to dramas such as Sekachu, Endless love series, Koizora, Be with you, Heavenly Forest etc. Pure love genre if you would know is what popularizes Asian drama. It basically portrays a couple that faced many obstacles. Pure love in sense that even after so many years they still long for each other. We haven't seen this genre for quite some time and I already see upcoming dramas with similar genre. This drama will trigger another pure love era.

Cinematography is just captivating. I love how they capture the green landscape on camera, the shot during sunset, falling rain drops, fireworks and that weird fish eye effect they always use. Those are not just gorgeous shots but also serve as a symbol to what these characters feel. That's beauty about Japanese drama, it is full of symbolism and just like what I always said, great cinematography is similar to great painting, it is not just beautiful but also captivates you, will make you move closer and examine the painting and not just say "oh this painting is beautiful". Music in this drama is just perfect, it underlines the mood and helps showing the emotions of each characters. It is a really great piece of background music. With great drama comes great ending song and "Prologue" by Uru is just like that. It's not just a great melody because if you read the lyrics it will make sense why they choose it as the ending song.

The acting is just brilliant but other than the acting, the casting needs more praise. They just casted right people for the roles, Arimura Kasumi for example, she has this cute, inexperienced image and if you watch the drama having that image made her portrayal of hijiri so effective. They also cast a rookie for the role of Akira, it a nice decision by them as it requires a certain rawness to the character. It doesn't mean Okada Kenshi is not a great actor though. He is indeed fantastic as he provides the intensity and angst to the role. They won't call him a super rookie is he is not. The side characters are also well casted, if you follow Japanese drama long enough you would be familiar with Yoshida you and Natsukawa Yui, they were both underrated actresses. Their characters played an important role to the story and they played them really well. Aside from Akira, it's the portrayal of those characters made this drama so much better.

Final episode will be tomorrow but I decided to make this review because what ever happen this drama will go down as one of the best Japanese drama I've ever seen and definitely my best Japanese drama this year. End game won't decide the rating this drama should get in my opinion because just like they said the journey is more important the than destination. More than just a drama but also an experience.

Edit
I've just watched the last episode and I don't want to spoil anything but it is indeed one of the best Jdrama ever!!!

Best Student-Teacher Romance Drama List
https://thatjapanesedramaguy.blogspot.com/2019/10/best-student-teacher-romance-japanese.html?m=1

Check my Blog for other reviews & other JDramas stuffs. (｡◕‿‿◕｡)
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