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Poor Characterization of the Female Lead
What’s up with the weird psycho vibe and the weird music that turns female lead Minori into a psychopath like figure? Just make her act more natural instead of doing these weird psychopath expressions, bug-eyes, creepy smile, fake baby voice, horror music, and hearing “whispering voices” as if she is some kind of crazy horror show. The female lead’s acting is so badly done that it’s comical. It’s natural that the character Minori wants to get revenge, but they make everyone else including the lying husband and his affair girlfriend look normal and make her look unhinged, ominous, and crazy. In the end, the man looks calm and innocent, and the two women- the wife and mistress are pitted against each other fighting like crazy psychos. I find that treatment of her to be quite misogynistic. Making the woman, the wife look crazy when she is the only one who is honest and the victim. The way she acts is so creepy and off-putting. The man-the husband and everyone else lie all day long, and keep a flat calm expression. But the one character that is the victim of all this is being made to look like a crazy person. She laughs to herself while rocking back and forth in a chair. I also don’t like the fact that she uses that innocent teenage boy Wataru to do her bidding and manipulates him so much. The poor boy becomes obsessed with her. Where does he even live when he leaves home? On the street? On a park bench? He’s a teenager with no money. Minori is responsible for that. What she did to him is still child abuse and criminal. She could have gotten revenge without ruining him at all.
Then Minori says she’s getting revenge and then goes around spreading her guts to everyone like the mistress and her son. She spent all that time and effort trying to seduce the mistress’s son just to spill her guts to him like an unhinged mess instead of laying low and making sure he was firm in her trap so that he could be more useful to her. Not exactly calculated is it? Just an unhinged mess. She squeezes half a bottle of ketchup on her husband’s omurice with this ominous music like she’s psycho. Why does she need to be so crazy - instead she can just openly talk to her husband instead of acting like a total weirdo. I get it- a wife would feel like she’s going crazy but this series makes her look like she has serious psychological problems apart from her husband’s affair, which is an attack on the wife’s role.
One dialogue of hers that I did appreciate was when the husband was seducing her and she was going along with it and her inner dialogue says, “It made me realize how ridiculous this is. Somehow the whole thing felt a bit comical.”
Starting episode 5 it starts to get quite interesting…but Minori goes off into the usual psycho crazy laughter with the ominous music starting episode 6. Come on stop make her the crazy one!
The actress playing Minori is very annoying with her baby voice and constant hyperventilating. She’s a grown adult but even to children like her own small son or the teenage boy of her husband’s mistress- she speaks like a baby to them. It’s weird like she’s infantilizing herself. Nothing about her voice sounds natural, like she’s putting it on. It’s offputting. Sometimes her acting also comes across as fake and overdone like her crying scene during the funeral conversation with her real dad, she’s like “Okaasaan!” And breaks down and she just looks so fake. She could be natural but instead she’s trying so hard even during a crying scene to look cute and doing the baby voice and pouty botox duck lips.. like no! It’s a crying scene be natural! Ugh. And she keeps blowing her cover with all the bad guys instead of keeping it cool and calculated which would have been a lot more effective and entertaining. This just makes me irritated like she keeps acting like a psychopath.
Then the scene with fake acting between Minori and her husband & mother in law revealing to them that she knows she’s the Tsukishiro chairman’s daughter (they know that well already). And all was fine until Minori starts doing these weird deranged expressions like bug eyes and pouring too much tea in the cup so that it overflows. Like she should be using that money for psychological treatment of her mental state. What is the point of pouring too much tea in the cup except to look like a psycho? What’s the point of that shot showing her stabbing herself with a fork with those weird whispering hallucination voices? Stabbing her self with a fork? (Episode 8) What kind of ridiculous idea is that? What is the point of those weird behaviors making her look like the creepy scary one? She is the victim in all this but the director and creators of this show made her look bad by doing this. They could have made her more cold and calculating and sharp, instead of a deranged bug eyed person. That’s why I call her characterization misogynistic. When juxtaposed with the husbands acting- he looks so calm and composed and happy go lucky most of the time, and only mildly serious when things go terribly wrong. He’s only ever thinking about himself which is not love. Even after his cover is blown in the office, he still acts like a chill, happy go lucky dude. Only halfway through episode 8, he actually cries and shows any real emotion- that contrast makes his wife Minori’s creepy overacting look even more unhinged and it’s often the way men describe their wives or women in general - crazy, unhinged, scary.
Regarding the story, doesn’t Tsukishiro think it’s odd that Minori- his daughter has married the son of his housekeeper? And the housekeeper is Minori’s mother in law? It should be obvious to him what is going on because technically those two parties should have nothing to do with each other. But somehow they both show up with Minori’s son at the grandfather’s funeral acting like the perfect family- did Tsukishiro think nothing of this? It’s suspect! Or maybe he doesn’t think at all? And as far as the cheating husband and mother in law goes, waiting for 17 years and then waiting for the chairman to die is quite and unrealistically long time to put on an act as if they’re family with Minori just to get her inheritance right? They just be awfully patient and didn’t get even one slip of the truth in those 17 years? Seems unrealistic but I guess Minori was too idealistic with her rose colored glasses to see the truth even if it were right in her face. Maybe this was all her own lucidity and waking up too.
The only actor that I truly thought was natural eith the appropriate acting and expressions for the situation was the guy who played Wataru. The actress playing the wife Minori was way too weird/deranged/psychopathic like she’s the main attraction at a horror show, the husband way too chill like he’s in a Blue’s Clues kid’s show, and everyone else honestly did a better job than the actress playing Minori. While the story was interesting and well written, the acting and execution was severely lacking, mainly due to Minori.
And 7 years later poor Wataru is still in “love” with Minori after that initial manipulation, seduction, and abuse of her power as a teacher when he was a minor. Just because he’s older now doesn’t mean he’s healed from it all. He simply carries on the wound calling it love, and tries to have a relationship with Minori while she tries to ignore him but falls into it again. And what’s with Tsubasa? Minori’s son looks the exact same 7 years later as if he never grew up from 5 years old. And here is 40 year old Minori hooking up with 25 year old Wataru after the sins she committed towards him as a minor. Time for her punishment now?
Well if the kid she manipulated as a minor comes back, who knows if it’s love or a trauma bond from the abuse? How can it be love? But Minori San has no other options. Anyways the very last shot in the last episode that shows the fork drop to the ground as in the first scene is interesting. As if to say.. did it all really happen or is it a hypothetical dream?
Then Minori says she’s getting revenge and then goes around spreading her guts to everyone like the mistress and her son. She spent all that time and effort trying to seduce the mistress’s son just to spill her guts to him like an unhinged mess instead of laying low and making sure he was firm in her trap so that he could be more useful to her. Not exactly calculated is it? Just an unhinged mess. She squeezes half a bottle of ketchup on her husband’s omurice with this ominous music like she’s psycho. Why does she need to be so crazy - instead she can just openly talk to her husband instead of acting like a total weirdo. I get it- a wife would feel like she’s going crazy but this series makes her look like she has serious psychological problems apart from her husband’s affair, which is an attack on the wife’s role.
One dialogue of hers that I did appreciate was when the husband was seducing her and she was going along with it and her inner dialogue says, “It made me realize how ridiculous this is. Somehow the whole thing felt a bit comical.”
Starting episode 5 it starts to get quite interesting…but Minori goes off into the usual psycho crazy laughter with the ominous music starting episode 6. Come on stop make her the crazy one!
The actress playing Minori is very annoying with her baby voice and constant hyperventilating. She’s a grown adult but even to children like her own small son or the teenage boy of her husband’s mistress- she speaks like a baby to them. It’s weird like she’s infantilizing herself. Nothing about her voice sounds natural, like she’s putting it on. It’s offputting. Sometimes her acting also comes across as fake and overdone like her crying scene during the funeral conversation with her real dad, she’s like “Okaasaan!” And breaks down and she just looks so fake. She could be natural but instead she’s trying so hard even during a crying scene to look cute and doing the baby voice and pouty botox duck lips.. like no! It’s a crying scene be natural! Ugh. And she keeps blowing her cover with all the bad guys instead of keeping it cool and calculated which would have been a lot more effective and entertaining. This just makes me irritated like she keeps acting like a psychopath.
Then the scene with fake acting between Minori and her husband & mother in law revealing to them that she knows she’s the Tsukishiro chairman’s daughter (they know that well already). And all was fine until Minori starts doing these weird deranged expressions like bug eyes and pouring too much tea in the cup so that it overflows. Like she should be using that money for psychological treatment of her mental state. What is the point of pouring too much tea in the cup except to look like a psycho? What’s the point of that shot showing her stabbing herself with a fork with those weird whispering hallucination voices? Stabbing her self with a fork? (Episode 8) What kind of ridiculous idea is that? What is the point of those weird behaviors making her look like the creepy scary one? She is the victim in all this but the director and creators of this show made her look bad by doing this. They could have made her more cold and calculating and sharp, instead of a deranged bug eyed person. That’s why I call her characterization misogynistic. When juxtaposed with the husbands acting- he looks so calm and composed and happy go lucky most of the time, and only mildly serious when things go terribly wrong. He’s only ever thinking about himself which is not love. Even after his cover is blown in the office, he still acts like a chill, happy go lucky dude. Only halfway through episode 8, he actually cries and shows any real emotion- that contrast makes his wife Minori’s creepy overacting look even more unhinged and it’s often the way men describe their wives or women in general - crazy, unhinged, scary.
Regarding the story, doesn’t Tsukishiro think it’s odd that Minori- his daughter has married the son of his housekeeper? And the housekeeper is Minori’s mother in law? It should be obvious to him what is going on because technically those two parties should have nothing to do with each other. But somehow they both show up with Minori’s son at the grandfather’s funeral acting like the perfect family- did Tsukishiro think nothing of this? It’s suspect! Or maybe he doesn’t think at all? And as far as the cheating husband and mother in law goes, waiting for 17 years and then waiting for the chairman to die is quite and unrealistically long time to put on an act as if they’re family with Minori just to get her inheritance right? They just be awfully patient and didn’t get even one slip of the truth in those 17 years? Seems unrealistic but I guess Minori was too idealistic with her rose colored glasses to see the truth even if it were right in her face. Maybe this was all her own lucidity and waking up too.
The only actor that I truly thought was natural eith the appropriate acting and expressions for the situation was the guy who played Wataru. The actress playing the wife Minori was way too weird/deranged/psychopathic like she’s the main attraction at a horror show, the husband way too chill like he’s in a Blue’s Clues kid’s show, and everyone else honestly did a better job than the actress playing Minori. While the story was interesting and well written, the acting and execution was severely lacking, mainly due to Minori.
And 7 years later poor Wataru is still in “love” with Minori after that initial manipulation, seduction, and abuse of her power as a teacher when he was a minor. Just because he’s older now doesn’t mean he’s healed from it all. He simply carries on the wound calling it love, and tries to have a relationship with Minori while she tries to ignore him but falls into it again. And what’s with Tsubasa? Minori’s son looks the exact same 7 years later as if he never grew up from 5 years old. And here is 40 year old Minori hooking up with 25 year old Wataru after the sins she committed towards him as a minor. Time for her punishment now?
Well if the kid she manipulated as a minor comes back, who knows if it’s love or a trauma bond from the abuse? How can it be love? But Minori San has no other options. Anyways the very last shot in the last episode that shows the fork drop to the ground as in the first scene is interesting. As if to say.. did it all really happen or is it a hypothetical dream?
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