AnHua

Nothing is perfect, nor are we

At a first glance this drama looks simple : a love triangle trope meant to examine the choices of the leads- what people chose to do? why? which are their lingering regrets & to what their insecurities leads to.
What is different is that this drama was not afraid to explore very realistic and complicated women. Nothing is shallow in it and sometimes only a complicated woman can truly understand another one.
The dialogue is one of most thought provoking I' ve ever seen ,even if sometimes funny it just hits home and it hits hard.

" Sometimes we think what we are chasing is happiness, but perhaps what we truly love is pain."

On top of the great writing , acting & music were splendid! Everything was perfectly connected from title, to OSTs lyrics and placement in the episodes.
10/1O ❤️

Ps: I do recommend this one to a mature audience because it hits the right spots if you are able to understand through experience the career or family relations of the leads.

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Revenge vs Protection

Across the Furious Sea is a cinematic ride for those who like their drama grim, gritty and in constant unpredictable movement. A cat and mouse game of revenge versus protection that conveys in subtext the disparity of parenthood between the classes.
Ultimately this is a story about facing the truth , whether about oneself, or those we love and accepting responsibility for our actions & treatment of others.
It has violence both bloody and sexual but the real darkness is in the characters.
While it was messed up, sad, tragic , thrilling and so well done at same time ,the end message of the movie comes across the sea loud and clear.

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Ancient food is food for the mind

What I liked

✅️ great concept
✅️ educative content besides the food display
✅️ though provoking dialogue
✅️ minimalist setting
✅️ the couple. The drama focused showing non typical relationship tropes , but mostly on the communication between the FL& ML and how they got to understand eachother. Couples cooking together and enjoying dinner together daily is a rarity nowdays ,that it gives a good feeling just by watching.
✅️ found my people 😃 This couple drank coffee regardless of the time of the day and couple of times a day 😁

What I found annoying :

🚫 the mustard colour pallete. I got used to it by the end of the drama ,but sometimes it felt depressing.They wanted to convey a warm atmosphere through the colours but the effect was quite opposite, tiring
🚫 the filming style in first 2 eps. I think the director wanted to give the impression of a sneak peak into a real couple life and not a drama, so it looked like I was following and filmed them. Luckily this changed from ep 3 onwards coz it would have been a deal breaker 😅
🚫 the fact that they found all the ancient recipes they made delicios. Look ,I am a foodie too , but that does not mean I like everything. It would have been more realistic if at least one dish would have been crap 😅

That being said I will be watching season 2 if it gets subbed😅

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Great music does not compensate a weak plot

Glass Heart - it was Good, it could have been amazing

This became Hongrang 2.0 for me , a great drama( loved first 6 eps) downrated by weak plot and rushed ending with forced romance.

✅️ Visuals, styling ( omg those sweaters 🤩) cinematography , production quality top notch 💯
✅️ Music, loved all the songs , so good, so catchy. Do note half of this drama is music. We see them performing a lot of songs , and the story is often told via the songs lyrics. I liked that but if you are not a fan of the music you might not like it. I one have not skipped any music scene. 💯 energy and feels!
✅️ Good and positive life messages. Kind and honest characters.
✅️ Male leads. All have amazing screen presence. The tensions among them and their on screen chemistry was awesome. My favorite scenes were between Toya - Naoki and Naoki -Sho
✅️ the hands homoerotic two scenes 🔥 those were fire and unexpected.
✅️ acting

😐 while all the 3 female characters we saw had good acting I kept telling myself their screen presence pales compared with the male leads. I mean the trio and even Jun are all show stealers. Couldn't help to wonder how the drama would have looked if FL have been played by Imada Mio or Anna Sawai for example.

🚫 this drama would have been better without any romance. The kiss scene felt forced and flat.
🚫 if they wanted some romance focus, they should have developed more Akane - Kazushi relation. That ship was sailing and can't belive how cute was jealous Jun 🤩. I was so rooting for him.
🚫 the plot was the weak side. Except a good twist in ep 5 it was predictible, even nonsense sometimes and that is a pitty because there could have been so many other band related interesting topics they could have explored.
Overall still a good watch 8/10 ❤️

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I would make sake even if it kills me

This was not your typical documentary. The narrative was interesting, I had no problem following it but it was not linear at all.
The focus is as the name says it, not that much on the process of making sake but on the people from Nato region involved in this job. From toji masters, to apperentices , regular brewers and their families , we see the diferences in perspective,gender, responsability, impact and passion for a tradition transmitted from a generation to another. We get some information on the history of sake , earthquake that distroyed the area and festivals related to Sake.
"The brewing of sake is like fighting mytical fungi "
I especially liked the circular ending of the documentary linked with nature cycle.
On the negatives the pace is slow to very slow and the filming style and resolution are not good. But it was made 10 years ago , so keeping that in mind.

Would I recommend it? Only if you are interested in the topic and have no issues with slow watches, otherwise not.
7/10

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