The Husbands of River Song! And just in case the intersecting subset of Whovians and Doramaphiles contains more than just me, I'll put this massive hint in a spoiler alert
The drama has a end history or end with Cliff-hanger to new season?
If it's following the book, there's a whole lot more to go. Ghost Bride was an international best seller a couple decades ago so there will be quite a few unhappy people if they don't keep going
I keep wanting to loan the FL my leather forearm guard, but I guess traditional Japanese archery doesn't use them? Cuz that bow string can really bite you back. On the other hand, the plot requires a bruised arm, so no guard for you girl
One of the things I loved about this movie was how they retrofitted famous western tunes with new words in order to meet the deadline for the "musical" mentioned in the synopsis. Hell, that's what I'd do if I was out of time.
Thus we get to hear really cute versions of "Summertime" from Gershwin's opera Porgy & Bess (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7-Qa92Rzbk), the Adagio from this Beethoven piano sonata (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuN3yCmHb_U) both expertly played and sung by Nakajima Kento, Naruse's moving song to the tune of Greensleeves, and a great closing number that features the Beethoven Adagio with Somewhere Over the Rainbow as descant.
I'm so glad they didn't try to be Les Miz or create a high school musical too big for the scale of the movie. Just out of curiosity, can anyone tell us how the music was described in the original manga?
There's a play within the play! And it's the masterwork you think it is! Ha. I love actors playing actors. I challenge you not to be charmed by this really well-crafted ice cream sundae.
If an angry Japanese dad squared off with an angry Korean dad, who would win? I've actually asked myself that question, and here it is on screen in the first five minutes of episode 1. I suspect the rest of the drama won't be as much fun, but it might all be worth it just for this scene.
"Kame fix"? Did you just mistaken Sato Takeru for Kamenashi Kazuya? Haha.I thought the FL is also incompetent,…
You're right! I said "Kame" when I meant "Takeru." Um....did you mean "IV" when you wrote "ID"? Hehehe.
Well, my denunciation of Shy/Clingy/Annoying/Dysfunction Not Otherwise Specified Female Leads sure hit a nerve with some of us romance lovers! But if we're all taking a moment to think about why we're attracted to romance dramas in the first place, if we're pondering why we respond to some cliches and not others and what all these choices say about ourselves....well, self-awareness is self improvement! Never a waste of time :)
Thanks for responding, everyone. Bree, I'd love to hear more from an actual nurse about our controversial Nurse Sakura-san. Do you like how this character is portrayed? Is she a good example of what actual female nurses are like in the workplace, or is the screenwriter placing us in some kind of alternate reality healthcare system?
Here's the thing. I'm already being asked to believe that medical malpractice doesn't exist in Japan. If I have to suspend my disbelief to include an obsessive, love-struck nurse in a liability-free fantasy hospital that operates like no other on the planet, I should be getting some darn good cinematic wisdom in return. Don't know when episode 4 will drop, but no sign of any wisdom yet. Nurse Sakura still drifts into interior monologues devoted to Takeru's hotness every time he tries to teach her how to NOT kill patients. *sigh*
You know, I love to have my high emotional intelligence validated as much as any romance watcher. I enjoy throwing myself into the reassuring embrace of a hot doctor who thinks my every flaw is absolutely adorable, and I, too, want to occupy a world where hard work and schooling are unnecessary since emotional intuition alone earns a handsome paycheck. I'm just as seduced as anyone by the notion of unconditional love. But when the cliche character peddling that myth also makes women look completely stupid, I draw a line. No guilty entertainment pleasure is worth denigrating women.
Enough already with the Shy, Clingy, Annoying, Dysfunctional, Asthmatic Toddler Female Leads who fall down every four steps because lazy screenwriters want a cheap way to portray female characters as helpless victims and also justify the existence of the male lead. (Btw, male characters never spontaneously face-plant, but I've seen horrifying doromas with six or more female collapses per episode.) In the real world, such female leads are called "victims," and, oddly enough, they tend to get victimized.
Now consider what human beings know about the power of visual images. We've learned, for instance, that if you advertise cigarettes with a cartoon camel, teen smoking skyrockets. Ban those images and teen smoking drops. Human beings really do instinctively imitate visual cues from infancy to adulthood. So if we can't help but accept screen stories as truth on some level, do we really want to saturate the world with images of man-obsessed women so frail they can't even stand up? This is what we want our daughters to see whenever they turn on the TV?
Add in the human truth that visual images are very powerful things, and eventually we have to conclude that with the great power of making visual entertainment comes great responsibility. I don't think Koi wa Tsuzuku lives up to that responsibility.
I'll wrap it up here, but there's a little more insight into why I find this whole drama so offensive and damaging, and why I hope the infinitely creative Japanese entertainment industry moves on to new and improved romantic cliches. Just say no to Koi wa Tsuzuku and that embarrassing female lead and watch the anime Katangatari instead! It's exquisitely beautiful, the heroine is strong and capable, and the leads have that grand romance you've been dying to see. https://animedao.com/anime/katanagatari/
I adore stories where the romantic leads don't share a language and are forced to communicate through pure emotion. What a fantastic little drama! There's no cringe-inducing romance stereotypes, no ridiculous characters with unwatchable mannerisms. Just two gentle and attractive people that fall in love and endure fascinating but realistic trials to be together. Jump in. You won't regret it!
Tell me again why the female lead needs to be murderously incompetent, willing to risk patient lives as long as she gets the attention of the hot doctor she targets for marriage? Do writers and directors of Japanese romance dramas just flat out hate women? Ugh. I'll get my Kame fix somewhere else. This atrocity is absolutely offensive and unwatchable.
Can anyone tell me if I'm going to be forced to listen to the quartet play Vivaldi's Four Seasons or the Pachelbel Canon? Cuz I'll run screaming if they play a bunch of classical music warhorses.
I had no idea the 2016 Korean drama Cinderella and the Four Knights was based on Atashinchi no Danshi or I would have watched it much sooner. I veered away because I mistook the synopsis to imply an age-gap romance for which I wasn't in the mood at the time. Here's a hint, but it's a tiny spoiler you'll learn by the end of Episode 1: The rich, middle-aged Shinzo has a terminal illness. His relationship with Chisato is warmly told in mostly flashbacks, but the romance mentioned in the synopsis is not a young girl and an older man. So if that's holding you back, dive in!
Thus we get to hear really cute versions of "Summertime" from Gershwin's opera Porgy & Bess (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7-Qa92Rzbk), the Adagio from this Beethoven piano sonata (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuN3yCmHb_U) both expertly played and sung by Nakajima Kento, Naruse's moving song to the tune of Greensleeves, and a great closing number that features the Beethoven Adagio with Somewhere Over the Rainbow as descant.
I'm so glad they didn't try to be Les Miz or create a high school musical too big for the scale of the movie. Just out of curiosity, can anyone tell us how the music was described in the original manga?
Well, my denunciation of Shy/Clingy/Annoying/Dysfunction Not Otherwise Specified Female Leads sure hit a nerve with some of us romance lovers! But if we're all taking a moment to think about why we're attracted to romance dramas in the first place, if we're pondering why we respond to some cliches and not others and what all these choices say about ourselves....well, self-awareness is self improvement! Never a waste of time :)
Thanks for responding, everyone. Bree, I'd love to hear more from an actual nurse about our controversial Nurse Sakura-san. Do you like how this character is portrayed? Is she a good example of what actual female nurses are like in the workplace, or is the screenwriter placing us in some kind of alternate reality healthcare system?
Here's the thing. I'm already being asked to believe that medical malpractice doesn't exist in Japan. If I have to suspend my disbelief to include an obsessive, love-struck nurse in a liability-free fantasy hospital that operates like no other on the planet, I should be getting some darn good cinematic wisdom in return. Don't know when episode 4 will drop, but no sign of any wisdom yet. Nurse Sakura still drifts into interior monologues devoted to Takeru's hotness every time he tries to teach her how to NOT kill patients. *sigh*
You know, I love to have my high emotional intelligence validated as much as any romance watcher. I enjoy throwing myself into the reassuring embrace of a hot doctor who thinks my every flaw is absolutely adorable, and I, too, want to occupy a world where hard work and schooling are unnecessary since emotional intuition alone earns a handsome paycheck. I'm just as seduced as anyone by the notion of unconditional love. But when the cliche character peddling that myth also makes women look completely stupid, I draw a line. No guilty entertainment pleasure is worth denigrating women.
Enough already with the Shy, Clingy, Annoying, Dysfunctional, Asthmatic Toddler Female Leads who fall down every four steps because lazy screenwriters want a cheap way to portray female characters as helpless victims and also justify the existence of the male lead. (Btw, male characters never spontaneously face-plant, but I've seen horrifying doromas with six or more female collapses per episode.) In the real world, such female leads are called "victims," and, oddly enough, they tend to get victimized.
Now consider what human beings know about the power of visual images. We've learned, for instance, that if you advertise cigarettes with a cartoon camel, teen smoking skyrockets. Ban those images and teen smoking drops. Human beings really do instinctively imitate visual cues from infancy to adulthood. So if we can't help but accept screen stories as truth on some level, do we really want to saturate the world with images of man-obsessed women so frail they can't even stand up? This is what we want our daughters to see whenever they turn on the TV?
Add in the human truth that visual images are very powerful things, and eventually we have to conclude that with the great power of making visual entertainment comes great responsibility. I don't think Koi wa Tsuzuku lives up to that responsibility.
I'll wrap it up here, but there's a little more insight into why I find this whole drama so offensive and damaging, and why I hope the infinitely creative Japanese entertainment industry moves on to new and improved romantic cliches. Just say no to Koi wa Tsuzuku and that embarrassing female lead and watch the anime Katangatari instead! It's exquisitely beautiful, the heroine is strong and capable, and the leads have that grand romance you've been dying to see. https://animedao.com/anime/katanagatari/