Gigi

Absolutely loved the FL, loved the person she grew to become, loved how her relationship with her parents developed, and loved the actress, she led the narrative brilliantly, but there's two key issues:

1. The age gaps, both with the characters and the actors: Fukada Kyoko was 16 years old when she filmed this drama, and that's very important because the FL, who is also 16 years old, has multiple sexual relationships with adult men, which means the teen actress was put in situations where she had to kiss these men and film intimate scenes.

And within the narrative, the age gap between the characters was also never a problem, at no point the men are questioned or criticized for having sex with a minor, quite the opposite, even the man who pays for teen prostitutes and who gave the FL HIV is eventually portrayed as a good guy at heart.

This is probably a matter of time period, this is a 90s drama after all and it seems like people just didn't care about protecting kids back in the day, not like we're perfect now, but I genuinely think a drama like this would get a lot of backlash today. Regardless, I think it's important to note this aspect of the cast/story and how problematic it is, just because a story is old doesn't mean we have to shut down conversations about what's appropriate and what isn't.

2. The ending: If the goal was to kill the FL, there were so many ways to do it well, and show how horrific AIDS was prior to all the medication we currently have, that allows people living with HIV to have full, happy and healthy lives, the English series It's A Sin is a perfect example of a well-done HIV/AIDS storyline. Instead, I think the goal of the writers was to shock the audience, and that made the ending be very rushed, very random and very poor, so I wasn't sad for the FL and her loved ones, I was just dumfounded.

Read More

The story is, of course, very touching, but the dialogue and acting are stiff and theatrical at times (especially the doctor) and the film is very jumpy, the editing is not smooth at all, it goes from scene to scene sometimes without a proper transition, sometimes it felt like I was watching a storyboard: scene A, now scene B, now scene C, etc., which I think it's mostly the low budget's fault.

I appreciate how the film didn't include a romantic storyline, because that's the one thing about the drama I was never a big fan of, but if you have to choose between the drama and the film, I definitely think the drama is the better option. It flashes out Aya's life more properly, her goals, friendships and family, while the film, because of its short runtime, focus more on the progression of her illness, ignoring her life prior to the diagnosis.

Read More

To be quite fair, I skipped so many parts of this movie, because it was just so unbearable to watch, that I'm not sure I can say if it was good or not, all I can say is that I feel.... unsure and angry and sad and disappointed in humanity.

It was a very well-made movie with fantastic acting from the entire cast, especially the children, and I'm happy it created so much anger that it led to change in legislations in South Korea regarding the sexual abuse of children and people with disabilities, but I don't think it needed to put the child actors in a position where they had to film such graphic scenes.

I think the graphic nature completely destroys any rewatch value of the movie, and I'm questioning the need to risk potentially traumatizing these children. There has to be better ways to explore sexual assault in movies, especially of minors, in a way that does not put the actors at any risk.

I hope they had psychological support during the filming process, because no art is worth hurting a child.

Read More