L13

There's absolutely nothing explicit in it, so no, it's not. There's a brief discussion of masturbation, which is appropriate for teens and up. Unless you think 15-year-olds don't know what masturbation is?

What a weird question. No.

They're not airing it to promote brother-sister reproduction? This show has nothing to do with the Japanese birth rate.

OMG, the first episode was so fun and reminded me of my own relationship with my mother. If the rest of the drama holds up, it will join Into the Ring as another great Park Sunghoon romcom.

Ugh, THANK YOU. Overacted, underwritten, conventional schlock that gets a pass from horny viewers who've never seen a good thriller in their lives.

I'm intrigued by the pilot. It's funny this and Barakamon premiered in the same week; they're two very different shows about a dude who's facing a professional crisis and moves from Tokyo to the Japanese countryside to find himself.

ECOTVsubs are subbing it, I think. Search for their profile on Twitter if you can't find their blog using Google. You'll have to set up a profile on their site, but it's free and easy.

I agree Yang Yang is pretty stiff here. His character in the novel is a bit of a cipher as well; it's not clear whether he still has feelings for Xu Qin as soon as they reconnect or only becomes aware of his feelings/falls back in love with her later, and it's not clear when exactly he decides to forgive/pursue her, or even why he's in love with her in the first place. At the end of the novel it's revealed he saved up money over the years to buy the house she always wanted when they were together in school, but if he had no intention of getting back together with her, why did he do that? Why didn't he give up on the idea of buying the house when he was drummed out of the special forces and gave up on Xu Qin? If he did it just to spite her, when did his feelings change again? Was his initial indifference to her a mask hiding boiling hot anger and if yes, why did that never really come through?

Again, his character is very vague in the novel IMO. A competent screenwriter tasked with adapting the novel for TV would add some scenes to clarify Song Yan's feelings and motivations, but in order to really elevate the character and breathe life into him, you need an actor who can make Song Yan feel like a real person, and Yang Yang isn't the right guy for the job.

He played a similarly stoic man in You Are My Glory, but the script there did more to showcase his emotions/character development, so although Yang Yang wasn't very expressive, his character was fine. He was helped a lot by the script.

I have to say I don't find Zhang Bin Bin impressive either, though. He tends to overact with his voice. But I agree Wei Daxun is doing a good job.

I see, thank you!

Where did you find the subs? I've been looking everywhere, but I can't even figure out who's subbing it.

I also don’t get why she needed constant in-patient treatment and to spend her days in bed, other than to look pitiful and frail, but she wasn’t there for 13 years. I think it was mentioned at some point that she lost her memories a year before Anzu entered the Mitarai home. We don’t really know what triggered it, though. I agree that part of the story needed more work to make sense.

No.

I tried watching the first episode on dramacool, but the subs there were so bad they didn’t even get the FL’s name right but kept calling her “Emperor Ziyuan” (with all the misunderstandings that come from that). Are there better subs somewhere and will this drama be on Viki, iQiyi or Netflix? Since they provide their own subs, which are coherent at least.

I doubt a toddler could sit through 12 hours of any TV show for adults. Just show him some of OJS’s scenes and tell him about his character?

Eh, no worries, I just gave my personal interpretation!

OK, after watching the whole thing, there were some stupid and/or implausible moments, as there are in almost every drama, but overall it was a fun and engaging watch, and I really liked the final episode, which didn't drag out the conflicts and dramatics with last-minute nonsense but instead took its time giving every character proper closure. It's so rare to find a drama whose last episode doesn't feel rushed or incoherent but simply lets you spend time with the characters and the fallout from their actions, and shows you what their lives are going to be like from now on.

And I didn't expect it, but I was pleasantly surprised that the drama turned out to be a romance. The romantic subplot never fully took over the narrative, but it was there from start to finish and especially in the final episode, which worked out pretty well. It ended on a nice note.

I interpreted their scenes to show that Yuzu probably liked him back but decided against pursuing him because she felt it would be inappropriate and reckless (because she initially sought him out under false pretences and felt guilty about that, because of the difference in their socioeconomic circumstances, because his mother had already intimidated Yuzu and was crazy enough to have her own son tracked, because she thought he had a girlfriend, because they were technically step-siblings and his mother had ruined her life, etc.—all valid reasons IMO!), And then Shinji turned out to have started the fire 14 years ago and that added a whole new layer of emotional complication/indebtedness/guilt to their relationship.

But they did exchange texts cheering each other on in the final minutes of the drama, and their siblings are living together/will get married, which will give Yuzu and Shinji opportunities to see each other in the future, and their mothers decided to move on from the whole mess and make peace with each other, plus Makiko ended up divorcing that deadbeat too, which makes their family connection less creepy. So I choose to believe that if Yuzu and Shinji still have feelings for each other in a couple of years, the obstacles to their relationship will seem less significant and their pain will have eased enough to allow them to get together, maybe. I think there's a good chance!

I'm on episode 4 and there are a lot of fun things about this drama so far. Makiko's insanely creepy treatment of Kiichi, Kiichi's transformation from a kind teenage heartthrob into a violent hikikomori, the shockingly absent father and how unjustly he took everything from his daughters, including his name, and gave it to his stepsons, the general air of campness... If this was a kdrama, it would be much more conventional and boring in tone, but melo and thriller jdramas are good at knowing when they need to go crazy instead of trying to be 'realistic' or 'good.'

This is a very small detail, but I love how adult Anzu's style when she is at home actually resembles that of her child self (e.g. the dorky glasses and unfeminine tracksuits she wears, which link her to her past self), but when she's undercover as Shizuka she looks and comports herself like a totally different person. They styled her character really well in all three of these environments to make it all fit together.

This should be coming out soon, no?

She pisses me off so much. Like fine, I get that she had a valid reason to be terrified of her husband and his family, SURE. But she's just such a weak and annoying person! She demands to know everything about her adult daughter's life and to be able to dictate her daughter's every decision, yet at the same time she requires constant care, careful handling and appeasement/accommodation as if she's the child in their relationship. Pick a lane, lady! And stop lying about everything and screaming at your child to "stop" or "cut it out" like you're the victim when she asks completely valid questions about her own background.