Second chance romances are my cup of tea and I was looking forward to seeing old flames being rekindled, old feelings resurfacing & causing all sorts of internal conflicts, and old misunderstandings being cleared so the romance jet is able to take off properly from the runway on its second go-round. Unfortunately, while we did get some of these things to some degree, I felt that it wasn't quite as well-executed/ well-written as it could have been.
For one, the relationship development between the two was almost non-existent - either for the high-school sections of the drama or the adult sections. The pair's relationship in high-school was already established from the get-go but with very little information on how it happened, which is fine as the adult portion was the main focus of the drama. But even the relationship development in the adult portion was given short shrift. Proper communication was lacking all the way through - they never really talked over or resolved their past issues, and they hardly communicated their insecurities or their needs & wants to each other, leading to all sorts of guessing games and possibly incorrect inferences all over the place.
From a characterisation & character depth perspective, the drama was also lacking, I feel. There were lots of flirtation and some sneaky manipulative behaviours from one side (the senpai) but the whys and motives from this man remained quite a mystery. He had the more complex issues from the past & the more devious personality but viewers were only able to scratch the surface of it, not plumb the depths, which made a lot of his actions come across quite shallow and or carried hidden motives (which remained hidden!) behind them a lot of the time. On the other side (the kouhai) was a confused & obtuse man who had his own ideas of the other person's character but never really bothered to confirm or check it out for himself - instead going into tailspins & reaction-mode and readily believing strangers instead of facing his partner properly. He never quite grew out of it even by the end of the show.
I guess it also did not help that the show threw in weird & sudden family drama and squeezed in a quick resolution which made the ending come across rather sloppy. All in all, I personally found this drama disappointing from what I thought had a rather intriguing start. Oh well.
PS: The passive-aggressive assistant was the best part of the drama for me, LOL. I found myself sitting up and looking forward to his few scenes everytime he appeared.
A show about a perfectly perfect male lead who falls in love with a perfectly perfect female lead's voice. He chases after her, they get together, and possibly live happily ever after. I say 'possibly' because I honestly don't know because I could not finish this drama, haha.
Don't get me wrong, I knew going into this drama that it would be a fluffy, feel-good, controversy-free, angst-free, complication-free and drama-free show, but I had no idea it was so everything-free that it had practically no personality left. Or rather, our main leads had practically no real personality and were, sadly, as exciting as a bowl of plain dishwater - colour-free, flavour-free, impurity-free. They were so perfect (especially the male lead) that they were unreal. And it also appeared that the entire universe and everything around them was also cosmically (I almost wrote comically, LOL) working everything out in their favour. The stars were so aligned in favour of them that whatever they needed, they got; wherever they went, they always met people full of goodwill towards them; whatever supposed obstacles in their way, were cleared with ease; friends and family were all pre-disposed to love them and treat them as the precious pearls they were. It was ridiculously fairytale and feel-good.
I can understand why this show appealed to many viewers, but sorry and sad for me, it totally did not work for me. I mean, I watch dramas partly as an escape from the nasty realities of the real world and to live vicariously through drama characters for a space in time, but I need *some* element of reality to ground me to the show, and *some* element of relatability that makes me understand & relate to the characters. I need to be able to resonate in some shape or form to the characters and be invested in their lives, their struggles and their issues; and to cheer them on towards overcoming them or learning from them; or to at least sympathise with them in their descent into tragedy, if necessary. But here... it feels like I'm just groping around in a cloud of mist.
The sad thing is, all the side characters in here had a great deal more personality & character than the main leads so it was not as if the show or producers didn't know how to write interesting characters. The secondary couples in here had crackle & pop, and even the other side characters had sparkle & sass. I tried really hard to persevere through this drama for them (the secondary couples and side characters) but had to throw in the towel at the half-way mark. It's a good show for viewers who are looking for feel-good, fairytale shows with perfect main leads - and I totally understand and accept that - but I'm sorry it was just too unrealistic and dreadfully bland for me.
One of the things I love about Jdramas are how they're so unashamedly bold in portraying quirky but complicated characters and their struggles with trying to navigate through life.
This sometimes-frustrating but charming little Jdrama depicts how a rather ordinary office lady who tried to blend into the crowd suffered from a nervous breakdown after finding out that she had been the subject of ridicule & use by her colleagues. She promptly resigns from her job and high-tails it out into the countryside as a means of escape & relief, but with very little finances on her she finds herself living in a cheap rundown apartment block with a set of rather varied & quirky neighbours and starts to slowly figure out what to do with herself through her interactions with them.
It's a heartwarming show about learning to live with oneself - warts and all. Our female lead may start off frustrating with her very submissive, doormat-type personality in the beginning as she tries to be someone she's not; and as she constantly tries to read the atmosphere of the room and adjust her reactions to minimise conflicts & tension. It's relatable on many levels as I am sure we all tend to subconsciously do this to varying degrees. It's also hard to see someone so caught up in trying to be someone she's not just for the sake of others only to have her efforts being ridiculed or mocked behind her back. I badly wanted the female lead to grow a spine and it was heartwarming to see her little baby steps towards this direction as she takes a break out in the countryside. It's not all smooth sailing as it can sometimes be two steps forward, one step back, but I found this to be very reflective of real life - we want to change ourselves for the better but it's all a series of trial & errors and learning.
Orbiting our female lead are a nicely varied cast of characters (each with their own distinct personalities and struggles) and how they square up against the female lead and how they gradually rub off each other. I particularly liked the in-depth exploration of one of the male leads - our female lead's ex-boyfriend portrayed so vividly by the versatile Takahashi Issei. His character was initially quite dislikeable with his two-faced personality but as the drama progressed, we see more aspects of his character and why he developed into the person he became. His character depth and exploration was one of the most fascinating and interesting aspects of this drama for me. I loved it and I loved how well Takahashi Issei was able to portray him in a way that made him sympathetic despite his really unlikeable traits.
I wouldn't necessarily call this a feel-good drama (though on some levels, it is one) because there's a lot of difficult moments and struggling but there's an overall heartwarming message embedded within which encourages us to learn to accept ourselves the way we are; and to learn to give ourselves a chance even though it might mean sometimes saying 'no' or sometimes facing some of the ugliness within ourselves and learning from it.
A low self-confidence and overworked salaryman (Hirokuni) finds himself cohabiting with an acquaintance from his childhood (Kai) after a random street encounter reunites them - and what follows is a curious state of affairs where Hirokuni whose life has been one of eat, work, eat, work, suddenly finds himself having to adjust to having another person in his home who would cook and seduce him; while Kai tries to build a relationship with Hirokuni despite his fear of forming relationships due to abandonment issues of the past.
Frankly, 6 short episodes of this busy cocktail of character & circumstantial issues is far too short to really do any of them justice so for viewers looking for any in-depth exploration on any of the subjects would find themselves rather disappointed. The show would bring something up, briefly touch upon it and then promptly forget to deal with it as it brings another issue to the fore. If you're lucky, one or two things get a resolution but in such a succinct & superficial manner it doesn't quite feel organic or authentic.
Relationship development is also patchy as Hirokuni spent large swathes of time working in the office and was unable to really have much meaningful interaction with Kai. A lot of their foundation was built on childhood throwbacks & memories but as adults, they struggled to build any lasting foundation with each other almost until the very end. It's a decent watch if one doesn't expect the show to do much with its characters except to sit with them for a short space of time as they wrestle with their internal issues.
In a world where gods, humans and demons co-exist together; in a world there kingdoms rise and kingdoms fall; and in a world where the supernatural intertwine with the material, a girl of complicated but noble origins attempts to carve out a place for herself and along the way she accumulates friends, enemies and 3 love interests who will impact and change her life in ways unexpected.
There were so many things about this drama which I really enjoyed. The world-building, the beautiful cinematography & sets which breathe life into this fantasy world, and my most favourite of things --> well-written characters and their web of complicated relationships.
Our female lead is the main protagonist and I loved how the drama begins by setting a dramatic backstory to her origins & to her relationships; and when we meet her again many years later we see a very different person. The drama then drips tidbits of her life experience which inform the way she lives, the way she sees the world, and her personal life philosophy. As she interacts and meets more people throughout the drama, especially the 3 male leads, we see how her life experience and her way of thinking impacts the way she views & relates to every one of them. Each male lead has his strengths & imperfections and we get taken on a journey as they jostle & manouvre their way, not just around the female lead, but also through their own challenging life circumstance. I loved the way the drama weaved this beautiful tapestry of relationships together, it made the viewing of this show so compelling.
As for the romance, well, I loved it. I loved how each male lead brought something to the table yet also took something away from it. For me, there was no clear winner because I enjoyed the portrayal of each character & their relationship dynamics with the female lead a lot; and the more the drama progressed, the more I enjoyed the increasingly complicated tangle. And for those who love a lot of romantic angst & pining, this drama served it up in spades!
My only gripe is that some scene transitions can come across abrupt, and that the motivations behind a particular villain couple were not made particularly clear nor convincing to me; but aside from that, I really enjoyed this first season adaptation of the novel and I'm looking forward to its continuation (whenever it deigns to air itself, LOL).
A high-school boy inadvertently cross-paths with a gang member, takes him home under duress and finds that it's all more than what he expected. Meanwhile, there's more than just one sort of excitement happening within the gang...
This might all sound very exciting but I'm afraid this is very much a sanitised version of mafia/ gang insider politics and turf wars, it feels a little like teens trying their hand at playing mafia bad boys. It doesn't help either that the story/ plots have plenty of gaps which the viewer has to fill in by themselves in order to cobble together an idea of what's going on. This is my personal issue with writer Lin Pei Yu's stories i.e. she writes stories where there's lots of fill-in-the-blanks whether it's plot-wise or character-wise or relationship-wise. For viewers who like to give free reign to their imagination, this style of story-telling is great as it gives flight to all sorts of fancy and can be fun to experience. Unfortunately, I'm not really that sort of viewer and prefer to be able to have a more coherent offering.
There are two couples here - a main couple & a secondary one. The main couple had more screen time and the show took a bit more time to develop their relationship from near-hostile strangers to lovers which I liked despite its patchy fill-in-the blank progression. The high-school boy had a bit of sass to him initially though that sort of poofed into thin air once he fell in love and they were in a relationship (why does this always happen?). The secondary couple had a cute little blonde firecracker of a boy to keep the pair interesting but that was only for half of the pair. In all honesty, the little firecracker's character was, to me, the most consistently written one in this entire drama. Everyone else appeared to suffer from bipolar/ disassociative personality disorder to various degrees & measure as their personalities and motives changed in what can be out-of-the-blue (i.e. fill in your own blanks). There is also (arguably) a more subtle older third couple which is heavily implied by the drama, and this one probably fascinated me the most with its mysterious untold backstory but alas their screen time was pathetically little and inconsequential.
In any case, this show was really a mixed bag to me - sometimes entertaining, sometimes frustratingly incoherent.
Set in the 1950s, Japan is in the midst of rebuilding & adjusting to the post-war era and a 400-year old ryotei (traditional Japanese restaurant)'s survival is on the line with a decline in customers. Having only daughters, the family is forced to bring in a son-in-law from a rich family to help shore up its financials; and in a strange twist of fate the eldest daughter finds herself in an arranged marriage with their 19-year-old third son. The both of them slowly find themselves adjusting to their new life as they learn to work together to overcome the various challenges in their way.
Considering how this show is about the survival of a ryotei, it's inevitable that the emphasis of this show is on Japanese food and cooking. Each episode features one or two special dishes and there's even an accompanying recipe narration for viewers with a culinary bent - for them to try their hand at reproducing some of these yummy creations. Word of advice, please don't watch this show hungry!
Food and cooking aside, this drama also showcases some of my favourite things : tradition & culture. From how food is delicately & precisely prepared in a traditional kitchen (the way our female lead handles the food & implements is like watching an exquisite and elegant dance); to the customs, forms and norms of its day; and to how our female lead slowly tries to break down the gender (and racial) discrimination entrenched in a largely patriachical society, was food for thought (pun intended).
The age-gap romance is slowburn and subtle. I liked that they first started out with polite & civil distancing but how that slowly grew into respect for each other as they tried to work together to make their ryotei a viable enterprise. Watching how the female lead slowly grew in courage & confidence in her skills, while the male lead went from youthful prejudice to warm respect & support was very sweet.
It's a short production even for a Japanese drama with each episode hitting around the 25-minute mark so aside from our main leads, other characters were not really very fleshed out; and some of the conflicts/ tension in the show were either very summarily resolved or swept under the carpet. Not the best show to watch in terms of characterisation but I doubt that was its main aim. Still, it was a lovely show and very watchable for the Japanese food & traditions, and for a sweet relationship progression.
A young boy once met a girl on his birthday and lost touch with her; only to reconnect with her again at the wedding of his best friend many years later. They quickly became a couple but when a tragedy happened, he somehow found a way to reverse time and attempt to prevent the tragedy from re-occuring again.
This is a movie about time-travel do-overs. As usual among this genre there's usually very little explanation on how the whole time-travel phenomenon came into being but this movie isn't meant to expound on that aspect so take everything with a pinch of salt. The movie primarily focuses on the romance and on our main leads' desperation in trying to reverse the tragedy of losing a loved one in their lives. The movie generally tells a simple story, and the do-overs primarily last only a single day so it's not messy or complicated - it's an easy, low-brain-energy watch.
Our main leads are visually pretty and pleasant to look at on screen, and there's lots of romantic scene montages of them being in love, but I'll be honest I wasn't really that much invested in their romance (or in their tragedies) because the movie didn't really take the time to develop their relationship from individuals into a couple before we're thrown into the time-travel do-over scenarios. As a viewer who needs to first be invested in their established relationship before being invested in their relationship troubles, this was another case of not really building a strong enough foundation (at least for me) for the story to stand on.
In any case, this is a relatively simple and (to me) rather low-angst time-travel do-over romance movie that is best watched for the pretty leads playing at being in love.
I like a good unrequited love angst & secret pining story, and this drama certainly leans heavily on it, but I have to confess I also found that there was also a lot of subtle distancing, long periods of hesitation, second-guessing & confusion, and awkward discomfort between the two boys as they tip-toed around each other trying to fathom what the other person was thinking/ feeling or trying to figure out what to do with themselves. While this sort of dynamic is indeed to be expected in such a situation, I personally felt it became a little too oppressive.
Considering the fact that they were supposed to be childhood friends, I was expecting to see a more comfortable dynamic with the way they treated each other on good/ more relaxed moments, which would have escalated the friendship stakes more, or made me believe that they were a pair who were closer to each other than anyone else. As things stood, there was just a whole lot of anxiety, confusion, nervousness & worry between the boys, so much so that I couldn't really buy-in or believe in their close friendship/ relationship and that doused quite a bit of my emotional investment in this couple. This just a personal preference though because I'm the sort of viewer who needs to first be invested in their purported established relationship (i.e. close childhood friends) first before I can be invested in the progression & changes within it, and I felt that the drama didn't lay down a sufficient enough foundation to justify all the angst & pining going on.
Still, for viewers who enjoy friends-to-lovers trope, and a lot of unrequited love angst & secret pining, this does fit the bill.
For a short little J-BL (runtime under 2 hours), this was such a warm & wholesome watch. Featuring a city boy (Amane) who, fully aware of his sexual preferences, had adopted a lackadaisical approach to love & relationships, and who had also learnt to put on a cheerful facade as a shield behind which to hide his hurt. He arrives at Enoshima, an island off the Shōnan coast of Japan, to stay with his grandmother, and there he meets Ryuji whose open, kind & considerate personality starts breaking down all the barriers Amane had wrapped around himself.
The warm, sunlit & idyllic backdrop that is Enoshima is such a perfect pictureque place as a setting to a story about fresh starts & new beginnings. I mean, it's been used before in another J-BL with similar themes, but while that other J-BL was focused on surfing, this one took us more inland and showcased other beauties of the island as the boys walked & hiked their way around. I liked it.
While this was, in essence, another BL about boys in high-school and about the process of falling in love, what I really liked about this one was that, while a larger portion of the show was given to Amane and his little internal struggles as he tries hard not to fall in love with his newfound friend, a decent portion was also given to Ryuji as we see how he works through not just a personal baggage of his own but also as he thinks about how to face Amane in a considerate and honest manner. There's actually a healthy amount of communication and conveyance of feelings going on, and it's really heartwarming to see.
It's a short but warm & feel-good BL with strong themes of acceptance and of trying to be true to oneself, even though it can sometimes be scary & vulnerable.
Picked up due to my soft spot for second-chance romances, this drama kicked off with the main couple meeting again many years later after a rather bad breakup and what followed is a journey about them finding their way back to each other.
As someone who enjoys the relationship development aspects of a show the most, the first half of the drama was my favourite part as the show gradually built on our main couple's relationship-healing process. We find out through little flashbacks of the past what their relationship was like (high-school first love), and see how the many years of estrangement led to an initially wary, careful & cautious tip-toeing around each other after meeting again. The estrangement didn't last too long though because they still harboured strong feelings for each other, and what followed after their reconciliation are exquisitely sweet scenes of them delighting in being back together again. Their time apart & maturity of age had taught them how to treasure each other much better with their second go-round, and it was lovely to see just how affectionate, cuddly & loving they were in their interactions. The couple intimacy depicted here was really first-class.
Perhaps because our main couple had learnt to appreciate their reunion better, their relationship afterwards rarely hit any speed bumps or trouble. One can say it was smooth sailing all the way; and the drama went into slice-of-life mode in the second half of the show, with the focus on how they managed their long-distance relationship (he is a SWAT captain of the bomb disposal division and had to be away on critical & confidential missions for long swathes of time). There were travelogues of their little meetups across the country as they tried to snatch bits of time with each other. The scenery of some of the inner parts of China were really breathtakingly beautiful as the viewer gets taken to deserts, snow country and canyons.
However, as much as I enjoyed the scenery and the couple intimacy, the slice-of-life mode and the languid pacing as the couple gradually ticked off their major life events together started to get a little uninteresting for me. I'm not really a fan of slice-of-life because I find they often depict people going about their everyday activities without much character or relationship development - and the 2nd-half of the show fell exactly into this category for me.
In any case, this drama overall feels like a mellow & languid slice-of-life show about second-chance romances and about the challenges of being in a relationship with a SWAT officer where half of him belongs, not to family, but to the country. There is a mix of military action, vast scenic landscapes, and a low-angst, fuss-free journey of a cuddly healthy main couple.
What started out as a movie which featured a high-school male lead with a hero-complex meeting an ostracised & bullied junior girl, and who eventually develops a saviour-type friendship-mild romance with her, takes a bizarre turn for the weird when sci-fi elements started coming into play in the second half of the show.
To be fair, the movie did drop some hints with its early references to UFOs, but I thought it was primarily used as a metaphor for an oppressive force in a person's life - which might also be it - but it's difficult to tell because I honestly had no clear idea what on earth was happening by the last one-third of the movie. I half-felt I was space-warped into a different dimension altogether with how the show took a turn in its storytelling and my brain is struggling to compute...
In any case, this movie isn't a nice or warm watch. It has stark themes of school bullying, parental abuse and physical violence featured. Best consumed only if one is interested in a dark, gloomy, saviour-complex science-fiction material set in high-school with UFOs and a serial murderer as significant plot devices.
Well put! This niche j-drama tries to unravel layered complex human diversity in a bottled up Japanese culture,…
Indeed, one of the main lessons in this drama is that open & honest communication is key to building healthy relationships, because nobody can read what is in our minds, and to assume other people should automatically 'get it' is a great & stupid fallacy. Because this show also shows us just how different everybody's way of thinking can be.
You are right, nobody in this how has the right answer, but that's because there IS no right answer. Everybody has different views and priorities. Coming to a mutual understanding of each other is the key point. :)
This drama centers around a main protagonist (Mukai) who, having found that he had reached the 'ripe' age of 33 without being in a romantic relationship for the last 10 years, starts having a bit of a 'mid-life' crisis. He begins to ponder about what makes a meaningful life and starts on his search with a veritable merry-go-round of relationships.
This premise might sound a bit like Playboy 101 with its 'speed dating' style setup but don't be fooled. This isn't really a romance drama, nor is it even a rom-com. This is actually a drama about adulting - and the drama uses every single character in here (including the merry-go-round of girls) as a vehicle to showcase just how diverse, varied and complicated human beings are. Each character in here has vastly different outlooks and views about life, about what they want for themselves, what they look for in their partners or relationships, even the type of relationships they are after. It's like the drama decided to take 20 different people off the street and showcase the stunningly vast diversity humanity can be capable of when it comes to personal views, choices and priorities. Mukai is simply the fulcrum or the central pillar upon which each character rotates around.
I feel this show's aim is to try and showcase to their audience that human beings are unique, complicated and full of our own vagaries; and that navigating through this world which is entirely populated by us complicated messy people is a challenging adventure. But every single one of us has to learn to find our own way, and it begins with not only finding out about ourselves but also taking the time to find out about others. There's no real endgame here because life is one big long neverending adventure.
I can see why this drama appealed to a lot of viewers. The production team really laid on the romance vibes here with the soft lighting, mood music and slo-mo closeups of our main leads each time they looked at each other. The male lead also really suited his role as an aspiring professional athlete with his very toned & lithe physique and believable training/ competition sequences. His character was also the most fleshed out and had the greatest focus as he struggled with his height and his performance. The life of a competitive athlete is an unforgiving and painful one, and this drama did well in showcasing some of the difficulties competitive athletes faced - whether it was physical limitations, mental resilience, emotional fluctuations or personal setbacks. I liked this aspect of the drama best.
However, precisely because this drama was about competitive sports and it closely featured the dynamics between an athlete and his coach, this was where I had a major issue. As someone who had undergone competitive training in the past, I found the portrayal, the behaviours, the actions & the decisions of the coaches in here (including the female lead) to be highly unprofessional and sometimes even unethical. The coaches in here never tried to communicate with their athletes, never addressed their mental or emotional problems, and even used threats, blackmail & physical violence as motivational devices. I highly despised this entire coaching environment which the drama portrayed, and found it all very triggering. As a result, I could not enjoy a massive chunk of the show and even developed a great distaste for the female lead who was truly unprofessional in her capacity as assistant coach.
This had a knock-on effect on how I perceived the romance - unfortunately, I disliked it. I saw professional and character breaches everywhere, and did not find the whole thing romantic despite all the manufactured romantic atmosphere and despite the very steamy kisses and intimate scenes (which, to give credit, were wow wow wow). So, from a personal standpoint & background, this drama was one big pile of yikes for me, romantic atmosphere notwithstanding. Sorry.
When a teen model finds herself moving from high-end Tokyo to a remote seaside village due to her parents' relocation, she cross paths with a local rebel classmate and an unconventional love blossoms between them.
I thought this was going to be a movie about teen love (which it is) but the 'teen love' outer covering is a sheepskin hiding a wolf underneath. That is to say, this movie came across a great deal more adult in its portrayal of the chaos, irrationality and messiness of teen love with dark themes such as attempted rape, alienation and disassociation running underneath.
There's a rather indie-like feel to this movie with its disjointed pacing and abrupt scene transitions. Some parts of the movie give off a distinctively haunting or surreal feeling with its prolonged underwater shots, gloomy ocean skies and flickering fire scenes; while others showcase the weird energy that exists in youngsters by having them constantly on the move to the tune of a shaky camera. It's not a movie a viewer can follow with rationale or logic - it's a movie that comes across chaotic, evocative and emotional in the way it's filmed and in the way the characters interact with one another. As a result, I feel this is a movie where the viewer needs to insert or interpose a lot of their own thinking and interpretation into the show, leading to mixed results.
I, for one, found it oddly bizarre and fascinating in some ways but was also emotionally detached from the characters and from the events going on because the movie never quite explained anything and left it very much to viewer interpretation. However, it's certainly not a fluffy teen romance - it's more like depressing, open-ended teen angst - so a mindset adjustment is definitely needed prior to watching.
Featuring the high-school love shenanigans of a girl who'd always been in love with her childhood friend and always believed that she would be the heroine in her own love story, only to receive a nasty shock when said childhood friend started dating an overlooked fellow girl-classmate. Cue silly hijinks as she tries to regain her lost 'heroine' status, and the pond gets muddier when a playboy classmate of hers also starts paying her some attention.
It's a live-adaptation of a manga and my word, they really did lather on all the manga-like effects from the over-exaggerated facial expressions, to literary illustrations coming to life, to cliche romance tropes, etc. If this sort of over-representation is something the viewer can't stand, this movie will really grate on the nerves. I myself am not really a big fan of this sort of crazy over-acting paired with the in-your-face comedy because I find it really takes me out of the flow of the story or the character, but since this was the movie's inherently deliberate vibe, I tried to go along with it.
The excessive manga-exaggerations and comedic beats aside, this was actually quite an interesting story of a girl who came to realise that just assuming she could automatically be the heroine in her own love story without actually doing anything to earn it was one big mistake; and I personally found it interesting watching how she learned to be more proactive, and to examine herself more, and to consider exploring other options out there. Characters which started off cliched and one-dimensional here slowly took on more layers and facets to them as the movie progressed, I liked this unpeeling & exploration process.
In the end, it's a bit of a mixed bag for me because I actually liked the underlying story & themes in here, but the comedy seemed to have drowned a great deal of it out, and half-trivialised/ diluted them. But that's J rom-com manga adaptations for you sometimes.
I'll be honest, I'm not usually someone who enjoys marriage-of-convenience, contract relationships and cohabitation tropes, but this one turned out to be a bit of an exception. For one, the male lead might have started off business-like and a bit cold, but I liked that he had a surprisingly kind and thoughtful side to him which showed itself quite quickly & a great deal more regularly the more the drama progressed. He also started warming up to the female lead rather fast, was observant about her and tried to care for her in his own way. He even cooks and cleans.
Since this is also a rom-com, the drama was also peppered with humourous moments, with some of the best parts arising from our main couple's daily contract requirement to live-stream their 'loving couple' interactions out onto the web (I liked this a lot, it forced the main couple together often as they had to put on a variety of performances for their audience, LOL).
However, it being a manga adaptation, the drama unfortunately isn't exempt from your typical third-party plot-device inteferences, sigh. There are two significant ones here that play quite incisive roles. I think I would have minded them less if the drama took pains to flesh them out, provide some context and background early in the show concerning their individual motivations for doing what they were doing, but nope, the drama decided to only do this as last-minute reveals. The character depth in this show is painfully shallow - and this could arguably also be said for the main leads too.
Still, as a rom-com, this one fulfils its subgenre to a Tee, and the relationship development between our main couple is actually believable, sweet and cute. The female lead's large and boisterous family also added sparkle to the couple dynamic, and some of the friendships this couple made were heartwarming too. It's an easy, fun and cute rom-com to watch.
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For one, the relationship development between the two was almost non-existent - either for the high-school sections of the drama or the adult sections. The pair's relationship in high-school was already established from the get-go but with very little information on how it happened, which is fine as the adult portion was the main focus of the drama. But even the relationship development in the adult portion was given short shrift. Proper communication was lacking all the way through - they never really talked over or resolved their past issues, and they hardly communicated their insecurities or their needs & wants to each other, leading to all sorts of guessing games and possibly incorrect inferences all over the place.
From a characterisation & character depth perspective, the drama was also lacking, I feel. There were lots of flirtation and some sneaky manipulative behaviours from one side (the senpai) but the whys and motives from this man remained quite a mystery. He had the more complex issues from the past & the more devious personality but viewers were only able to scratch the surface of it, not plumb the depths, which made a lot of his actions come across quite shallow and or carried hidden motives (which remained hidden!) behind them a lot of the time. On the other side (the kouhai) was a confused & obtuse man who had his own ideas of the other person's character but never really bothered to confirm or check it out for himself - instead going into tailspins & reaction-mode and readily believing strangers instead of facing his partner properly. He never quite grew out of it even by the end of the show.
I guess it also did not help that the show threw in weird & sudden family drama and squeezed in a quick resolution which made the ending come across rather sloppy. All in all, I personally found this drama disappointing from what I thought had a rather intriguing start. Oh well.
PS: The passive-aggressive assistant was the best part of the drama for me, LOL. I found myself sitting up and looking forward to his few scenes everytime he appeared.
Don't get me wrong, I knew going into this drama that it would be a fluffy, feel-good, controversy-free, angst-free, complication-free and drama-free show, but I had no idea it was so everything-free that it had practically no personality left. Or rather, our main leads had practically no real personality and were, sadly, as exciting as a bowl of plain dishwater - colour-free, flavour-free, impurity-free. They were so perfect (especially the male lead) that they were unreal. And it also appeared that the entire universe and everything around them was also cosmically (I almost wrote comically, LOL) working everything out in their favour. The stars were so aligned in favour of them that whatever they needed, they got; wherever they went, they always met people full of goodwill towards them; whatever supposed obstacles in their way, were cleared with ease; friends and family were all pre-disposed to love them and treat them as the precious pearls they were. It was ridiculously fairytale and feel-good.
I can understand why this show appealed to many viewers, but sorry and sad for me, it totally did not work for me. I mean, I watch dramas partly as an escape from the nasty realities of the real world and to live vicariously through drama characters for a space in time, but I need *some* element of reality to ground me to the show, and *some* element of relatability that makes me understand & relate to the characters. I need to be able to resonate in some shape or form to the characters and be invested in their lives, their struggles and their issues; and to cheer them on towards overcoming them or learning from them; or to at least sympathise with them in their descent into tragedy, if necessary. But here... it feels like I'm just groping around in a cloud of mist.
The sad thing is, all the side characters in here had a great deal more personality & character than the main leads so it was not as if the show or producers didn't know how to write interesting characters. The secondary couples in here had crackle & pop, and even the other side characters had sparkle & sass. I tried really hard to persevere through this drama for them (the secondary couples and side characters) but had to throw in the towel at the half-way mark. It's a good show for viewers who are looking for feel-good, fairytale shows with perfect main leads - and I totally understand and accept that - but I'm sorry it was just too unrealistic and dreadfully bland for me.
This sometimes-frustrating but charming little Jdrama depicts how a rather ordinary office lady who tried to blend into the crowd suffered from a nervous breakdown after finding out that she had been the subject of ridicule & use by her colleagues. She promptly resigns from her job and high-tails it out into the countryside as a means of escape & relief, but with very little finances on her she finds herself living in a cheap rundown apartment block with a set of rather varied & quirky neighbours and starts to slowly figure out what to do with herself through her interactions with them.
It's a heartwarming show about learning to live with oneself - warts and all. Our female lead may start off frustrating with her very submissive, doormat-type personality in the beginning as she tries to be someone she's not; and as she constantly tries to read the atmosphere of the room and adjust her reactions to minimise conflicts & tension. It's relatable on many levels as I am sure we all tend to subconsciously do this to varying degrees. It's also hard to see someone so caught up in trying to be someone she's not just for the sake of others only to have her efforts being ridiculed or mocked behind her back. I badly wanted the female lead to grow a spine and it was heartwarming to see her little baby steps towards this direction as she takes a break out in the countryside. It's not all smooth sailing as it can sometimes be two steps forward, one step back, but I found this to be very reflective of real life - we want to change ourselves for the better but it's all a series of trial & errors and learning.
Orbiting our female lead are a nicely varied cast of characters (each with their own distinct personalities and struggles) and how they square up against the female lead and how they gradually rub off each other. I particularly liked the in-depth exploration of one of the male leads - our female lead's ex-boyfriend portrayed so vividly by the versatile Takahashi Issei. His character was initially quite dislikeable with his two-faced personality but as the drama progressed, we see more aspects of his character and why he developed into the person he became. His character depth and exploration was one of the most fascinating and interesting aspects of this drama for me. I loved it and I loved how well Takahashi Issei was able to portray him in a way that made him sympathetic despite his really unlikeable traits.
I wouldn't necessarily call this a feel-good drama (though on some levels, it is one) because there's a lot of difficult moments and struggling but there's an overall heartwarming message embedded within which encourages us to learn to accept ourselves the way we are; and to learn to give ourselves a chance even though it might mean sometimes saying 'no' or sometimes facing some of the ugliness within ourselves and learning from it.
Frankly, 6 short episodes of this busy cocktail of character & circumstantial issues is far too short to really do any of them justice so for viewers looking for any in-depth exploration on any of the subjects would find themselves rather disappointed. The show would bring something up, briefly touch upon it and then promptly forget to deal with it as it brings another issue to the fore. If you're lucky, one or two things get a resolution but in such a succinct & superficial manner it doesn't quite feel organic or authentic.
Relationship development is also patchy as Hirokuni spent large swathes of time working in the office and was unable to really have much meaningful interaction with Kai. A lot of their foundation was built on childhood throwbacks & memories but as adults, they struggled to build any lasting foundation with each other almost until the very end. It's a decent watch if one doesn't expect the show to do much with its characters except to sit with them for a short space of time as they wrestle with their internal issues.
There were so many things about this drama which I really enjoyed. The world-building, the beautiful cinematography & sets which breathe life into this fantasy world, and my most favourite of things --> well-written characters and their web of complicated relationships.
Our female lead is the main protagonist and I loved how the drama begins by setting a dramatic backstory to her origins & to her relationships; and when we meet her again many years later we see a very different person. The drama then drips tidbits of her life experience which inform the way she lives, the way she sees the world, and her personal life philosophy. As she interacts and meets more people throughout the drama, especially the 3 male leads, we see how her life experience and her way of thinking impacts the way she views & relates to every one of them. Each male lead has his strengths & imperfections and we get taken on a journey as they jostle & manouvre their way, not just around the female lead, but also through their own challenging life circumstance. I loved the way the drama weaved this beautiful tapestry of relationships together, it made the viewing of this show so compelling.
As for the romance, well, I loved it. I loved how each male lead brought something to the table yet also took something away from it. For me, there was no clear winner because I enjoyed the portrayal of each character & their relationship dynamics with the female lead a lot; and the more the drama progressed, the more I enjoyed the increasingly complicated tangle. And for those who love a lot of romantic angst & pining, this drama served it up in spades!
My only gripe is that some scene transitions can come across abrupt, and that the motivations behind a particular villain couple were not made particularly clear nor convincing to me; but aside from that, I really enjoyed this first season adaptation of the novel and I'm looking forward to its continuation (whenever it deigns to air itself, LOL).
This might all sound very exciting but I'm afraid this is very much a sanitised version of mafia/ gang insider politics and turf wars, it feels a little like teens trying their hand at playing mafia bad boys. It doesn't help either that the story/ plots have plenty of gaps which the viewer has to fill in by themselves in order to cobble together an idea of what's going on. This is my personal issue with writer Lin Pei Yu's stories i.e. she writes stories where there's lots of fill-in-the-blanks whether it's plot-wise or character-wise or relationship-wise. For viewers who like to give free reign to their imagination, this style of story-telling is great as it gives flight to all sorts of fancy and can be fun to experience. Unfortunately, I'm not really that sort of viewer and prefer to be able to have a more coherent offering.
There are two couples here - a main couple & a secondary one. The main couple had more screen time and the show took a bit more time to develop their relationship from near-hostile strangers to lovers which I liked despite its patchy fill-in-the blank progression. The high-school boy had a bit of sass to him initially though that sort of poofed into thin air once he fell in love and they were in a relationship (why does this always happen?). The secondary couple had a cute little blonde firecracker of a boy to keep the pair interesting but that was only for half of the pair. In all honesty, the little firecracker's character was, to me, the most consistently written one in this entire drama. Everyone else appeared to suffer from bipolar/ disassociative personality disorder to various degrees & measure as their personalities and motives changed in what can be out-of-the-blue (i.e. fill in your own blanks). There is also (arguably) a more subtle older third couple which is heavily implied by the drama, and this one probably fascinated me the most with its mysterious untold backstory but alas their screen time was pathetically little and inconsequential.
In any case, this show was really a mixed bag to me - sometimes entertaining, sometimes frustratingly incoherent.
Considering how this show is about the survival of a ryotei, it's inevitable that the emphasis of this show is on Japanese food and cooking. Each episode features one or two special dishes and there's even an accompanying recipe narration for viewers with a culinary bent - for them to try their hand at reproducing some of these yummy creations. Word of advice, please don't watch this show hungry!
Food and cooking aside, this drama also showcases some of my favourite things : tradition & culture. From how food is delicately & precisely prepared in a traditional kitchen (the way our female lead handles the food & implements is like watching an exquisite and elegant dance); to the customs, forms and norms of its day; and to how our female lead slowly tries to break down the gender (and racial) discrimination entrenched in a largely patriachical society, was food for thought (pun intended).
The age-gap romance is slowburn and subtle. I liked that they first started out with polite & civil distancing but how that slowly grew into respect for each other as they tried to work together to make their ryotei a viable enterprise. Watching how the female lead slowly grew in courage & confidence in her skills, while the male lead went from youthful prejudice to warm respect & support was very sweet.
It's a short production even for a Japanese drama with each episode hitting around the 25-minute mark so aside from our main leads, other characters were not really very fleshed out; and some of the conflicts/ tension in the show were either very summarily resolved or swept under the carpet. Not the best show to watch in terms of characterisation but I doubt that was its main aim. Still, it was a lovely show and very watchable for the Japanese food & traditions, and for a sweet relationship progression.
This is a movie about time-travel do-overs. As usual among this genre there's usually very little explanation on how the whole time-travel phenomenon came into being but this movie isn't meant to expound on that aspect so take everything with a pinch of salt. The movie primarily focuses on the romance and on our main leads' desperation in trying to reverse the tragedy of losing a loved one in their lives. The movie generally tells a simple story, and the do-overs primarily last only a single day so it's not messy or complicated - it's an easy, low-brain-energy watch.
Our main leads are visually pretty and pleasant to look at on screen, and there's lots of romantic scene montages of them being in love, but I'll be honest I wasn't really that much invested in their romance (or in their tragedies) because the movie didn't really take the time to develop their relationship from individuals into a couple before we're thrown into the time-travel do-over scenarios. As a viewer who needs to first be invested in their established relationship before being invested in their relationship troubles, this was another case of not really building a strong enough foundation (at least for me) for the story to stand on.
In any case, this is a relatively simple and (to me) rather low-angst time-travel do-over romance movie that is best watched for the pretty leads playing at being in love.
Considering the fact that they were supposed to be childhood friends, I was expecting to see a more comfortable dynamic with the way they treated each other on good/ more relaxed moments, which would have escalated the friendship stakes more, or made me believe that they were a pair who were closer to each other than anyone else. As things stood, there was just a whole lot of anxiety, confusion, nervousness & worry between the boys, so much so that I couldn't really buy-in or believe in their close friendship/ relationship and that doused quite a bit of my emotional investment in this couple. This just a personal preference though because I'm the sort of viewer who needs to first be invested in their purported established relationship (i.e. close childhood friends) first before I can be invested in the progression & changes within it, and I felt that the drama didn't lay down a sufficient enough foundation to justify all the angst & pining going on.
Still, for viewers who enjoy friends-to-lovers trope, and a lot of unrequited love angst & secret pining, this does fit the bill.
The warm, sunlit & idyllic backdrop that is Enoshima is such a perfect pictureque place as a setting to a story about fresh starts & new beginnings. I mean, it's been used before in another J-BL with similar themes, but while that other J-BL was focused on surfing, this one took us more inland and showcased other beauties of the island as the boys walked & hiked their way around. I liked it.
While this was, in essence, another BL about boys in high-school and about the process of falling in love, what I really liked about this one was that, while a larger portion of the show was given to Amane and his little internal struggles as he tries hard not to fall in love with his newfound friend, a decent portion was also given to Ryuji as we see how he works through not just a personal baggage of his own but also as he thinks about how to face Amane in a considerate and honest manner. There's actually a healthy amount of communication and conveyance of feelings going on, and it's really heartwarming to see.
It's a short but warm & feel-good BL with strong themes of acceptance and of trying to be true to oneself, even though it can sometimes be scary & vulnerable.
As someone who enjoys the relationship development aspects of a show the most, the first half of the drama was my favourite part as the show gradually built on our main couple's relationship-healing process. We find out through little flashbacks of the past what their relationship was like (high-school first love), and see how the many years of estrangement led to an initially wary, careful & cautious tip-toeing around each other after meeting again. The estrangement didn't last too long though because they still harboured strong feelings for each other, and what followed after their reconciliation are exquisitely sweet scenes of them delighting in being back together again. Their time apart & maturity of age had taught them how to treasure each other much better with their second go-round, and it was lovely to see just how affectionate, cuddly & loving they were in their interactions. The couple intimacy depicted here was really first-class.
Perhaps because our main couple had learnt to appreciate their reunion better, their relationship afterwards rarely hit any speed bumps or trouble. One can say it was smooth sailing all the way; and the drama went into slice-of-life mode in the second half of the show, with the focus on how they managed their long-distance relationship (he is a SWAT captain of the bomb disposal division and had to be away on critical & confidential missions for long swathes of time). There were travelogues of their little meetups across the country as they tried to snatch bits of time with each other. The scenery of some of the inner parts of China were really breathtakingly beautiful as the viewer gets taken to deserts, snow country and canyons.
However, as much as I enjoyed the scenery and the couple intimacy, the slice-of-life mode and the languid pacing as the couple gradually ticked off their major life events together started to get a little uninteresting for me. I'm not really a fan of slice-of-life because I find they often depict people going about their everyday activities without much character or relationship development - and the 2nd-half of the show fell exactly into this category for me.
In any case, this drama overall feels like a mellow & languid slice-of-life show about second-chance romances and about the challenges of being in a relationship with a SWAT officer where half of him belongs, not to family, but to the country. There is a mix of military action, vast scenic landscapes, and a low-angst, fuss-free journey of a cuddly healthy main couple.
To be fair, the movie did drop some hints with its early references to UFOs, but I thought it was primarily used as a metaphor for an oppressive force in a person's life - which might also be it - but it's difficult to tell because I honestly had no clear idea what on earth was happening by the last one-third of the movie. I half-felt I was space-warped into a different dimension altogether with how the show took a turn in its storytelling and my brain is struggling to compute...
In any case, this movie isn't a nice or warm watch. It has stark themes of school bullying, parental abuse and physical violence featured. Best consumed only if one is interested in a dark, gloomy, saviour-complex science-fiction material set in high-school with UFOs and a serial murderer as significant plot devices.
You are right, nobody in this how has the right answer, but that's because there IS no right answer. Everybody has different views and priorities. Coming to a mutual understanding of each other is the key point. :)
This premise might sound a bit like Playboy 101 with its 'speed dating' style setup but don't be fooled. This isn't really a romance drama, nor is it even a rom-com. This is actually a drama about adulting - and the drama uses every single character in here (including the merry-go-round of girls) as a vehicle to showcase just how diverse, varied and complicated human beings are. Each character in here has vastly different outlooks and views about life, about what they want for themselves, what they look for in their partners or relationships, even the type of relationships they are after. It's like the drama decided to take 20 different people off the street and showcase the stunningly vast diversity humanity can be capable of when it comes to personal views, choices and priorities. Mukai is simply the fulcrum or the central pillar upon which each character rotates around.
I feel this show's aim is to try and showcase to their audience that human beings are unique, complicated and full of our own vagaries; and that navigating through this world which is entirely populated by us complicated messy people is a challenging adventure. But every single one of us has to learn to find our own way, and it begins with not only finding out about ourselves but also taking the time to find out about others. There's no real endgame here because life is one big long neverending adventure.
However, precisely because this drama was about competitive sports and it closely featured the dynamics between an athlete and his coach, this was where I had a major issue. As someone who had undergone competitive training in the past, I found the portrayal, the behaviours, the actions & the decisions of the coaches in here (including the female lead) to be highly unprofessional and sometimes even unethical. The coaches in here never tried to communicate with their athletes, never addressed their mental or emotional problems, and even used threats, blackmail & physical violence as motivational devices. I highly despised this entire coaching environment which the drama portrayed, and found it all very triggering. As a result, I could not enjoy a massive chunk of the show and even developed a great distaste for the female lead who was truly unprofessional in her capacity as assistant coach.
This had a knock-on effect on how I perceived the romance - unfortunately, I disliked it. I saw professional and character breaches everywhere, and did not find the whole thing romantic despite all the manufactured romantic atmosphere and despite the very steamy kisses and intimate scenes (which, to give credit, were wow wow wow). So, from a personal standpoint & background, this drama was one big pile of yikes for me, romantic atmosphere notwithstanding. Sorry.
I thought this was going to be a movie about teen love (which it is) but the 'teen love' outer covering is a sheepskin hiding a wolf underneath. That is to say, this movie came across a great deal more adult in its portrayal of the chaos, irrationality and messiness of teen love with dark themes such as attempted rape, alienation and disassociation running underneath.
There's a rather indie-like feel to this movie with its disjointed pacing and abrupt scene transitions. Some parts of the movie give off a distinctively haunting or surreal feeling with its prolonged underwater shots, gloomy ocean skies and flickering fire scenes; while others showcase the weird energy that exists in youngsters by having them constantly on the move to the tune of a shaky camera. It's not a movie a viewer can follow with rationale or logic - it's a movie that comes across chaotic, evocative and emotional in the way it's filmed and in the way the characters interact with one another. As a result, I feel this is a movie where the viewer needs to insert or interpose a lot of their own thinking and interpretation into the show, leading to mixed results.
I, for one, found it oddly bizarre and fascinating in some ways but was also emotionally detached from the characters and from the events going on because the movie never quite explained anything and left it very much to viewer interpretation. However, it's certainly not a fluffy teen romance - it's more like depressing, open-ended teen angst - so a mindset adjustment is definitely needed prior to watching.
It's a live-adaptation of a manga and my word, they really did lather on all the manga-like effects from the over-exaggerated facial expressions, to literary illustrations coming to life, to cliche romance tropes, etc. If this sort of over-representation is something the viewer can't stand, this movie will really grate on the nerves. I myself am not really a big fan of this sort of crazy over-acting paired with the in-your-face comedy because I find it really takes me out of the flow of the story or the character, but since this was the movie's inherently deliberate vibe, I tried to go along with it.
The excessive manga-exaggerations and comedic beats aside, this was actually quite an interesting story of a girl who came to realise that just assuming she could automatically be the heroine in her own love story without actually doing anything to earn it was one big mistake; and I personally found it interesting watching how she learned to be more proactive, and to examine herself more, and to consider exploring other options out there. Characters which started off cliched and one-dimensional here slowly took on more layers and facets to them as the movie progressed, I liked this unpeeling & exploration process.
In the end, it's a bit of a mixed bag for me because I actually liked the underlying story & themes in here, but the comedy seemed to have drowned a great deal of it out, and half-trivialised/ diluted them. But that's J rom-com manga adaptations for you sometimes.
Since this is also a rom-com, the drama was also peppered with humourous moments, with some of the best parts arising from our main couple's daily contract requirement to live-stream their 'loving couple' interactions out onto the web (I liked this a lot, it forced the main couple together often as they had to put on a variety of performances for their audience, LOL).
However, it being a manga adaptation, the drama unfortunately isn't exempt from your typical third-party plot-device inteferences, sigh. There are two significant ones here that play quite incisive roles. I think I would have minded them less if the drama took pains to flesh them out, provide some context and background early in the show concerning their individual motivations for doing what they were doing, but nope, the drama decided to only do this as last-minute reveals. The character depth in this show is painfully shallow - and this could arguably also be said for the main leads too.
Still, as a rom-com, this one fulfils its subgenre to a Tee, and the relationship development between our main couple is actually believable, sweet and cute. The female lead's large and boisterous family also added sparkle to the couple dynamic, and some of the friendships this couple made were heartwarming too. It's an easy, fun and cute rom-com to watch.