Salvezza e l'essere divorati (2026)

A sweet little bedtime fairy tale for red-flag lovers

To J-drama, or not to J-drama... that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of silly plot lines and questionable style choices, or to take arms against a sea of crappy cop-out endings and, by opposing, end them. To perish... to watch no more.

Sigh

So okay, we all know that a j-drama is a j-drama is a j-drama, and only rarely does one reach escape velocity and break through into something with crossover international appeal. Is this one of them? Probably not. Yet I still think that if you are a red-flag lover, this is worth at least one watch and possibly a rewatch or two or three.

Why. Well, for starters, this whole drama is a vehicle - a very sexy vehicle - for an up and coming ML actor, Noa. Noa's professional bread-and-butter is singing, and he comes from an idol music background. Which is why it surprised me that his ML debut was such a solid performance. The role itself doesn't really have much range or complexity, it's a good beginner role. But he is very convincing in it. And very very HOT. Plus his stylist did him right, his hair, clothes, makeup all totally on point. Which is such a relief in a j-drama where normally the style note is noticeably off-key. Not this time. In fact, everyone looks fairly good and no serious couture faux-pas were committed. (Although just as a side note, I cannot WAIT for japan to get over it's fixation with those weird triangle-cut bangs on girls that are skimpy and limp and cut directly on the eye-line so that when they blink, their bangs rustle around. Gawd.)

And in fact did you know, that the OST song 'Say Yes' which is a total banger, was performed by none other than the ML himself. It's really good, and it matches the show perfectly.

Cinematography was very good. Of course it was, this is a j-drama. They are masters of cinematography. Was this a masterful work, no. But it was good. Clean, creative, gorgeous.

But what makes this really super-watchable, aside from the HOTTT ML, is the hint of yandere that runs through it. I wouldn't call this story a true yandere. But as the show progresses, you can see the red-flag behaviors coming up over and over again, and sweet bunny-rabbit FL can't see it coming that she's slowly becoming immersed in a red-flag relationship, but we can. Like ML after they've only known eachother a short while, just casually asking to see her phone (which she just gives him!) and installing a location tracker app on it so he can always see where she is. She's like "oh how convenient!"

And so as the show progresses you can feel the possessive ML claustrophobia creep in bit by bit. For people who hate this toxic crap, it's gonna make them uncomfortable. But if you like that dynamic, it's tasty.

Another strength of this show is the very good grasp of human psychology that the writer employs as they weave the plot and dialogue together. We get to see how all the elements come together of low self-esteem, parental upbringing, maladaptive coping mechanisms, the search for acceptance, rejection, stockholming, protectiveness.... that meld together to create believable characters doing believable things, couched in a fairy tale of improbable plot.

The pacing is fabulous. J-dramas often cut straight to the chase, and are very low on 'filler'. This is one of those. So much development is crammed into it that each 30 min ep feels like an hour. Yet your attention span is not challenged by things moving too fast to follow.

Overall this was a very lovely amuse-bouche that makes you want seconds. But just don't expect any *overt* yandere, and don't hold out any hope that the ending will be satisfactory or indeed even make any sense. And you might really like it. Just a delicious sense of claustrophobia that slowly rises and takes over as the ML's possessiveness/obsessiveness becomes more and more intense. Good lord, he is almost inhumanly FINE. Admittedly he needs more acting practice under his belt, but this role suited his strengths so well, and he did a great job. Can't wait to see what Noa does next with his acting career.

Wasn't the greatest thing I've ever watched, but passes the bar for "rewatchable", which for me is anything 8 or above, so...

8/10

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SO GOOD!

Two words. So good! Holy crap this drama was so fun to watch. I love everyone’s acting here, especially noa’s. Everytime he appears on screen, I was so scared. The fact that he was able to make all my hair stand up everytime he’s being obsessive shows how good his acting is.

The plot is nice too. Imo, they really don’t give me anything to hate. Though I do feel like the ending lacks something. The ending is great and nothing’s wrong with it, don’t get me wrong. But I don’t know. It just feels rather ‘safe’. Then again, a good happy ending makes it worth the ride, so it does not really matter. 10/10 for me!

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