Charbonnel

Honestly this became a bit too gruesome for me, 4/5 episodes watched. I’m normally not bothered by violence in shows, but having done combat sports, the use of gore as a gimmick bothers me. I know that wrestling in particular is more performative than most. It’s also painful to see such a sweet, earnest person become what she has.

This whole thing makes me wonder more about the real Dump Matsumoto.

Enjoy the ride if you do! Maybe you’ll notice some details you missed before too~

WHY DIDN’T I HEAR ABOUT THIS SOONER?

To those who have watched, is it a cinema release in Japan? Wish I were there. The original is one of my all time favourites.

I’m not usually a fan of this type of spoiler, however this time I really do appreciate it, thank you. I can also appreciate the writing that must have gone into that because it manages to sound hopeful.

Honestly this week’s episodes broke my heart a little. I’m appreciating the approach of broaching both sides on such sensitive and heavy topics, but I cannot now see any comfortable outcome.

Knowing Kant’s empathy, he’ll suffer whether Tew finds out or not, because he knows how Tew views what he did, and has to live with that. The question is whether he chooses honesty, accepting loss of his love and prison time, or to live with knowing he can never be fully honest with Tew.

In the relationship I want honesty but with honest would come a painfully bitter end, which I also don’t want. The only ray of sunshine I could imagine beaming down to save things is if Tew somehow witnessed a compassionate euthanasia event and his perception is changed by it.

Personally I am very here for Style and Fadel - very out of character from me - but I adore how straightforward Style is. I love that he doesn’t suddenly change completely and comes to his own answers. It’s honestly refreshing. It’s also my first time watching Joong and Dunk and suffice to say I’m a fan.

Kant and Bison - who I started the show for - just make me anxious now honestly…but at the same time I don’t know how I want their story to go, so I’m in for the ride, in whichever direction this roller coaster goes.

I hadn’t looked so closely at the poster, thank you!

I don’t think Kan has anything to do with the KCL (potassium chloride). He shows true compassion and although he may be ‘assisting’ some patients, I don’t think he’d do it that way. We saw him use (strongly implied) morphine/heavy anaesthesia. Only way the KCL is him is if he’s utilising it by mixing chemicals for a painless result.

I suspect the KCL is someone linked to him, but not something he knows. I can’t make any solid guesses about this, but it could be a grudge.

The director has motive (jealousy) if he knows how Boss adores Kan secretly.

Boss could have the motive of wanting to make Kan’s job easier but getting it wrong. Director would then cover for Boss and blame Kan.

It could also be someone we haven’t met or focused in on yet. If it is a grudge, it could be someone stalking Kan, and following up his painless route with the KCL. Bear in mind morphine/anaesthetics Kan is using in terminal patients could be overlooked.

I don’t think the nurse has anything to do with the KCL either, since she knows and is involved in what Kan is up to.

Thiu’s seeming inept could be due to his position in all this? Yes, he’s a fancy cop who ascended ranks in the city and gave it up to care for his mother - who he is now grieving.

But also, things tend to work differently in the countryside, he is an outsider to all the connections and history that everyone else will know. Having all that plus his own sense of loss to contend with is a lot.

With Kan, we see things that Thiu doesn’t. He’s definitely had his suspicions, yet every time they have lead him to be the fool for suspecting Kan. Kan’s disarming personality, positive reputation, and compassion are all very real.

I totally get what you mean! I noticed it’s the same writer and universe too. I’m curious to hear which you enjoy more~
Personally I find myself preferring this so far ^^

I love how the story is told in such a way that leaves viewers who haven’t read the novel with plenty of questions. The slow-burn aspect to the romance is fitting, although I’d daresay the story would still be engaging and intriguing without it because of how strong the writing is so far.

Also enjoying how essentially, the audience perspective is close to that of Thiu/Tew. We know the tiniest bit more than he does, enough to make it seem like we should suspect certain characters, but we’re still so far off from the full picture and that kind of storytelling I really do love.

Edit: I’m making a guess and replying to my comment with a spoiler tag.

Totally understand your frustration - however, paradoxically, I’d say this is exactly why their art has appeal. Liking Japanese media is more niche than liking, say, Korean media for this reason. However, Korean media has grown to target a global audience, and if Japan did the same, it would affect the cultural context that informs their dramas.

Japan’s closed-off-ness is what preserves their culture that the world praises and finds interesting. You don’t have the same depth of experience in most globalised nations without going pretty far from the beaten track.

I still relate to your frustration as I was lucky enough to study there for a year and easily access Japanese media, and now I’m back to assessing if it’s even possible to find it.

Loving how the shots linger, how the characters pause, how there’s so much silence and so much ambiguity, yet there is compassion and depth. This kind of storytelling is it for me.

Indeed, and I speak it. However the reason that surprised me was because it was the first film I went to see in Japan that was in dialect, and I hadn’t done my reading on the setting or synopsis beforehand.

Had I known where it was set I wouldn’t have been so surprised. I also, with hindsight didn’t realise how heavy they are with it because all of my friends there also spoke heavy dialect.

This comment totally didn’t remind me of 25ji, Akasaka de…

About the kiss - they are high schoolers who have never kissed before. Honestly went better than my first one. I liked it personally, I think it was fitting of the moment.

It’s a strange choice for that subtitle. Hirukawa’s response doesn’t translate too well because it’s largely implicit in a way Japanese often is and English is not. A direct(er) translation is “That’s a big leap to make…”, which doesn’t sit too well English.

It could be he means a leap of logic, in which case he’s suggesting kissing doesn’t have to relate to already liking, or that therefore the steps are out of order (kiss first, grow/work out feelings later). Some would not establish a ‘like’ before kissing, for example.

The other potential meaning, which I lean more towards personally, is that it’s a huge leap asking for Hirukawa to answer that question at that point in time. They haven’t known each other that long and although admittedly the sudden asking for a kiss is unusual, it may not be ‘like’ right now or understood as such.

So to some extent I see it as explorative moment from Hirukawa and so rather than a yes or no, he’s pointing towards the context. It’s a vulnerable moment from him and Minase, not being in the vulnerable position himself, asks for more from Hirukawa instead. This could also be ‘skipping steps’ because Minase asks Hirukawa to open up more without doing the same himself.

Hope this helps! ^^ (If you saw this before the edit, I deeply apologise for the typo. No clue how that happened.)

I needed the quiet introspective approach taken by this drama. Happy to be watching this one. It isn’t loud, overstated, in-your-face, decisions, thoughts, and connections aren’t instant. There’s use of silence, and relatively minimal use of music, in a pleasant way. Looking forward to the rest.

I think it’s partly a cultural context issue. It’s a story that works in a Thai drama, but there are interactions that hinge on a very Thai style of interaction, which makes it feel weird translated over this way.

I can’t easily imagine any direct replication of this story (let alone as scene-for-scene as this) would comfortably fit a Japanese-style rom-com. It’s kind of like literature translation - while some will translate directly, if you want to strike a chord with the audience, make it give readers of that language the same impact. (There’s room to reword and restructure a paragraph to get that effect.)

What I could imagine working is a far looser adapting of the original story. Keep the characters and their attributes, but don’t copy and paste the script without accounting for context.

If you want the chemistry and atmosphere that Rain and Phayu, the in-your-face comedy from this has got to go. The current way they execute the comedy dissolves any tension they built up in my opinion.

I saw this one in cinemas, since I was living in Japan at the time. If you spot my reviews on Japanese films near the release date, this is usually the case. Sorry this answer won’t help you, but I wish you luck!