Gintoki

I'm writing this review based on both parts. I have to admit it was a bit hard for me to get into the story. The first part I kept putting on hold for weeks, just because I couldn't understand what was happening or what I was watching. I have a hard time getting into shows if I don't understand/don't care abt the characters. Which at first, I didn't. But it also took me a while to warm up to them, which added to me putting it off. Either way, around the 7th episode mark I started getting engrossed. Which, in my case, is too late so I think they could've done a better job keeping the mysterious aspect of the 7th ep up until the end of the second part. Because the first half of the first part was just a bit dull, since I had expected more based on the description and trailer of the drama.

But that aside, after ep 7 I saw what the show was actually worth. The way they handled everything up until the end of the first part was great, the actors did such good jobs portraying their pain and trauma. But what was actually the turning point for me was the second part, where I kept binging the drama as much as I could because there was so much to unravel. Unpacking a little trauma then going further and unpacking another, it was perfect to me. There was enough mystery to keep me going whilst actually starting to understand the characters more.

I can't say much about the portrayal of DID in the drama, since I barely know anything about it. But it did turn out to make the drama more interesting because it showed that trauma isn't clean, never has been. It goes to show that such a "small" thing for others, something they can call an accident or brush off as something from the past, can have such a huge impact on the victim's life. Hsiao Tung missed a huge part of her life simply because some boys thought it would be a good idea to "mess" with her. More than then years of her life was led by Tian Qing, who was visually impaired. It goes to show how her body, during the time she was asleep in the hospital after she cut open her face, made up an alter to take care of her. Her brain took an actual person's name and impairment upon herself, made up a certain personality and protected her for years on end. The host (the body that hosts the alters) lost ten years of her life, of her parents, her friend and her lover.

I think the show did a great job at portraying her trauma. I really do. Also, a reply to the person who wrote a review about how a murderer is always a monster, I'd like to agree. Except, I don't think he was romantiziced. Or at least, that's how I interpreted the show anyways. Maybe the writers actually did romantizice everything he did.

My reasoning for this is that he never wanted to be a murdered. The first time he stabbed Ouyang Ti was because he was young, hurt by what happened to the girl he loves (I'd like to think the inherent hate he held for Ouyang Ti drove him to this as well, not only Hsiao Tung). The murders he executes later on were all very well thought out. Sure, some stuff went a bit over the top. Like how the bad guys were a bit cartoony like the comment said. The first season did a better job at portraying them, while the second did sort of try to justify them getting killed. But aside from that point, I think everything blended nicely. The first time he followed that one guy was because he thought he was healing when he didn't have the luxury to. Here you can see how not actual love, but the idea of if you love her you'll do this for her took over his mind. It wasn't something he wanted to do. It'd barely been a year since he'd gotten out of jail, he'd worked a lot to save up money. It had been about ten years since the accident, and his lover had forgotten about it too. Well, until she strangled him and told him he didn't have the right to heal while she was stuck in the past. So I'd like to think this sentence of hers morphed his ideas. If he'd wanted to kill them, he'd have done it long ago. He'd beaten up one of the assailants, but didn't go as far as to kill him. It didn't even cross his mind. He wasn't someone to go out of his way to kill people, especially not so cleanly. You can tell, because his first kill was sudden, one out of rage. He had followed him, but he might not have actually killed him. It wasn't until he saw that the guy was still a piece of turd that he killed him in a bout of rage.

After this he knew he'd be caught, and if he were to then why not kill the others. It's not easy to kill, I'm pretty sure it takes a lot of guts which I'd never like to find out actually, so maybe they could have done a better job working around this problem because we barely saw any remorse. Aside from putting on the music. I don't think he put it on to make it more scary for them, because during his second kill you can see the begging is eating him up. So he puts on his earphones. Only during his fourth kill does he loudly put on the music, maybe wanting to scare off the person he's about to kill. Or merely trying to drown out his noise. It's up to interpretation.

Nearing his last you can see the anger, because the last two were the ones he hated the most. One of them abused his wife, who in turn abused her kid. While husband was on the phone, smoking on his balcony, his kid was screaming and begging his mom not to hurt him one floor below him. Did he not hear him? I doubt it, he'd have seen the bruises forming on the kid's body someday. And this was not the first rodeo, judging by how the kid hid the MOMENT his dad hit his mom. It had become a routine. So no, I don't think he randomly killed people because "oh I killed plenty already".

He saw himself in the kid (which actually made him go and kill his father more easily too probably, the moment he heard his father try and take his wife's money he didn't even bat an eye. He was so calm. He just knew this was the end for the guy. What better way to end the road than to start with the person who made you the way you are, right?). So when the wife came downstairs after hearing her husband scream, you could literally see what Jen Yao was thinking. If he didn't kill her either, this wasn't going to end. He couldn't bear to see the kid suffer. Not because he cared about the kid, no. But because he saw himself. Hence why he ended up killing the kid too. We could hear screams in between, yet his younger version asked to die. I don't think the kid did. This one's mind boggling, but it showed how lost he was. Especially his screams right after and the way he only carried the kid to his bed, out of respect. I'm not justifying his actions, not at all. But I don't really see where they're romanticized either?

If we're talking about how Hsiao Tung wasn't surprised or angry at him for doing all that, or growing distant from him. They clearly said she was still just like a teenager, because time hadn't been running for her when her alters had taken over her body for years. When she came back, it probably seemed like the next day for her. Except with all the info on everything that happened in those years, but probably shown like a movie. She didn't experience those things first-hand, so her mind is still hung up on that day. She hasn't seen the way Jen Yao killed those people in cold blood, how they begged, or how he cleaned it all up so calmly afterwards. She only heard that he killed them, only knew they wouldn't bother her again and that she was free.

Everyone in this story, the people from whose narratives the story has been told, has been through stuff that messes with your psychology. Yun Chen was abused, helped Jen Yao kill those people. Big K was abused as a kid and had a gambling addicted father, said himself he experienced the same things as Jen Yao. He didn't stop him even though he knew. The reporter, forgot his name, had lost his sister due to suicide because she had been a victim of tape. He clearly explained he hated Jen Yao, until he realized he was the one person that could relate to him on a personal level. Many people in the show didn't romanticize Jen Yao, they just understood that if he hadn't done it, no one would've. He still was on death row, he still got killed, and he was scared to die but he knew he deserved it too. Despite the love he held for Hsiao Tung, he let go of her because he knew he wouldn't be able to life with himself if he were to be let out. Or that Hsiao Tung deserved someone better, not sure which of the two (the main point I'd have loved to know actually. Did he do it out of love, or the idea of love. How much did he love her? Because I couldn't see Hsiao Tung in the new body, so idk. It went a bit too fast I think, the romantic aspect? The yearning I saw, but for what exactly? The past was perfect). So yeah. Idk.

Great show, just a few things that could've made it perfect.