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This review may contain spoilers
Breaking free from a father-daughter entanglement disguised in the game of Shogi
This is neither a conventional revenge story nor a thriller, so please manage your expectations accordingly. I'd call this a small, effective lesson in family therapy.
At it's core, this is an emotional and psychological drama depicting a girl yearning for her father's love; the father who abandoned her and her mother for Shogi. What she terms as revenge is in fact, her entanglement, and her way of interacting with her father through the game of Shogi. It's a character-driven story that doesn't waste its time on endless flashbacks or digging deeper and deeper into the trauma or the characters' decisions, rather it goes straight for the emotional punch and let's the viewer sit with the characters' plight and decisions, and lets them form their own learnings and hypothesis. Needless to say, I loved this.
Now on to the "revenge" and how this is a short lesson in some concepts from family therapy.
The first is the concept of 'differentiation of self'. Are we able to make rational decisions about ourselves (from a family perspective)? This is in contrast to people who make emotional decisions. If we are able to act rationally, then we have a high DOS, which means we have some level of detachment from the family and can make our decisions ourselves. We are an individual in our own right. Not a child, not a sibling, not a spouse.
Asuka's decision to play shogi and defeat her father came from (1) an emotional decision (2) because she was still entangled with her father (3) so that she would be able to interact with him (4) and one-up him.
Her act came from a place where she strongly identified with her father and his neglect - that became a huge part of her identity.
When she was finally able to play it with him in the finale - they were interacting and engaging with each other through the game of shogi. They were upholding that one promise that he made to her when she was a young girl. When she was able to defeat him, she was able to hold on to her dignity, but on a bigger perspective, she was able to finally bid goodbye to that abandoned girl trapped in that little house waiting to play shogi with her father. She was able to finally differentiate herself from him, and thus, we see her withdraw from shogi, we see her smiling in the last frame calling shogi 'fun'. She's now able to rationally enjoy the game, without a motive to defeat the father or without a motive to win. Shogi was an interest she picked up from her father, but it was never her passion / ambition to begin with, and her character finally breaks free and can appreciate that.
The second concept is that of emotional entanglement which I have explained to some degree above. Through the game of shogi, she was finally able to break that chain of entanglement, and create a boundary with her father. She can now make her decision to do what she wants, she can even greet him from a distance without feeling overtly attached or emotional.
If you are able to appreciate this family perspective of the drama, you'll be able to see why this was an effective, beautiful gem in the writing department.
The gloomy / darker colours created a competitive vibe, a darkness and I love how the last frame was such a contrast- a bright one, with sakura ( i think) blooming in the background. She has healed.
The acting was on point and effective; neither too dramatic, neither too subtle.
Direction was stellar, keeping every frame and scene effective, without adding fillers, or unnecessary information or detail. Just what a compact drama needs.
The score was minimal. It didn't stand out.
All in all, a gem, which unfortunately many people did not understand.
At it's core, this is an emotional and psychological drama depicting a girl yearning for her father's love; the father who abandoned her and her mother for Shogi. What she terms as revenge is in fact, her entanglement, and her way of interacting with her father through the game of Shogi. It's a character-driven story that doesn't waste its time on endless flashbacks or digging deeper and deeper into the trauma or the characters' decisions, rather it goes straight for the emotional punch and let's the viewer sit with the characters' plight and decisions, and lets them form their own learnings and hypothesis. Needless to say, I loved this.
Now on to the "revenge" and how this is a short lesson in some concepts from family therapy.
The first is the concept of 'differentiation of self'. Are we able to make rational decisions about ourselves (from a family perspective)? This is in contrast to people who make emotional decisions. If we are able to act rationally, then we have a high DOS, which means we have some level of detachment from the family and can make our decisions ourselves. We are an individual in our own right. Not a child, not a sibling, not a spouse.
Asuka's decision to play shogi and defeat her father came from (1) an emotional decision (2) because she was still entangled with her father (3) so that she would be able to interact with him (4) and one-up him.
Her act came from a place where she strongly identified with her father and his neglect - that became a huge part of her identity.
When she was finally able to play it with him in the finale - they were interacting and engaging with each other through the game of shogi. They were upholding that one promise that he made to her when she was a young girl. When she was able to defeat him, she was able to hold on to her dignity, but on a bigger perspective, she was able to finally bid goodbye to that abandoned girl trapped in that little house waiting to play shogi with her father. She was able to finally differentiate herself from him, and thus, we see her withdraw from shogi, we see her smiling in the last frame calling shogi 'fun'. She's now able to rationally enjoy the game, without a motive to defeat the father or without a motive to win. Shogi was an interest she picked up from her father, but it was never her passion / ambition to begin with, and her character finally breaks free and can appreciate that.
The second concept is that of emotional entanglement which I have explained to some degree above. Through the game of shogi, she was finally able to break that chain of entanglement, and create a boundary with her father. She can now make her decision to do what she wants, she can even greet him from a distance without feeling overtly attached or emotional.
If you are able to appreciate this family perspective of the drama, you'll be able to see why this was an effective, beautiful gem in the writing department.
The gloomy / darker colours created a competitive vibe, a darkness and I love how the last frame was such a contrast- a bright one, with sakura ( i think) blooming in the background. She has healed.
The acting was on point and effective; neither too dramatic, neither too subtle.
Direction was stellar, keeping every frame and scene effective, without adding fillers, or unnecessary information or detail. Just what a compact drama needs.
The score was minimal. It didn't stand out.
All in all, a gem, which unfortunately many people did not understand.
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