etoks21

What are you talking about? She was well into pathological levels of self-delusion, lying, and cheating when she met the ML.

I totally took her to be mentally ill, especially in that ultimate confrontation scene in which she accused the ML of things he would KNOW he didn't do, such as sleep with some woman the night before or something. Yeah, she's nuts.

The sequel could be her time in the psych ward, but with a different actress, please.

You are nuts. It COULD have been a good movie, but Ishikawa destroyed it. She played the exact same, unsympathetic character she played in the other film I saw her in. She's terrible, and totally not believable as somebody the ML would fall in love with.

So are you saying the real-world consequences of her cheating and psychopath-level of lying shouldn't be allowed to effect her? wow

She's lucky the ML didn't throw her out the window near the end.

"An indie film depicting the sad, toxic love story of a manipulative, sexist insecure young man and a mentally and emotionally broken young woman who's been mistreated, abused and taken advantage of by every man in her life."

Clearly, you watched this while high. You have everything ass-backwards.
She was the liar, cheater, and manipulator from the start. How did he manipulate HER? How is he "sexist?" The movie shows us almost nothing about WHY she is the way she is, but she's already that way at the beginning of the movie.

Moreover, Ishikawa is a terrible actress. She comes off here as a pouty baby totally unwilling to be responsible for her own choices. ugh That squeaky-voiced, scrunched-face pout she falls back on so often is the exact same vibe she used in the other film I saw her in. Her range as an actor is from A to B.

I'm guessing you're a neo-neo-feminist, one of those who believe women are NEVER culpable in the choices they make. Some evil man made them do every negative thing they ever chose to do, right?

Bravo!

ugh. ML was great. I found the FL miscast, annoying, and not at all believable.

This could have been a great movie.
Kaneko Daichi is excellent as the ML and the plot was intriguing. However, I cannot bear the sour-face, pouty-mouth, baby-voice acting of Ishikawa Ruka. Terribly miscast, she simply wrecked the movie for me. This character needed to be a disturbed but attractive, young woman. Ishikawa played her as an annoying, off-putting little snot. There is nothing about her that Daichi's character would have fallen in love with. Spare me.

More below.
Not recommended.

5/10

Almost halfway through but fighting right now to keep going. How does this little Ishikawa Ruka keep landing roles, especially in which we're to believe men drop at her feet? In both movies I've seen her in, she seems like a precocious nine-year-old with boobs, who for some reason has sex like she's a pro. Her resting-face expression is that of someone on the verge of a sneeze. ugh

I don't find her appealing in any way, and her acting is marginal. She does that Japanese weak, helpless, squeaky-voice woman thing over and over. Perhaps she appeals to straight men with Lolita fantasies, but I'd think even they would want someone cute. I checked her bio expecting to discover she's a nepo-baby, but that doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm stunned to see she won a Japanese prize for Best New Actress for this film. I guess the competition was weak in 2020.

A live-action adaptation has to stand alone, on its own merit. Most of any given audience will NOT have read the source material. So yay for you if having read the webtoon helps you imagine things that aren't on the screen for the rest of us, but those things still aren't there, they are in your head.

I don't know why so many MDLers have difficulty grasping this concept.

Has their age difference ever been addressed? Not that it's scandalous or anything. You know I don't care about that. But in the childhood flashbacks it seems Hiro is clearly several years older than Kai, and it seemed a little odd to me from the beginning that at those ages, an older kid like Hiro would deliberately befriend a significantly younger kid like Kai.

The childhood age difference seems like 5 or 6 years to me, which is a lot at that age. Honestly, the first time they were shown meeting at that age, I thought maybe there was a pervy motive on Hiro's part. Now THAT would be an interesting development. MDL would blow up. lol

Do you find the childhood age difference to be that much, or am I over-reading it?

I loved the look of death Kai gave Kaneko when he came to rescue Hiro, drunk from the restaurant. "He is MINE, bitch!" lol

Totally agree. I have gone from loathing Mizuki to relishing his presence in the plot. As I said above, he's about the only interesting aspect of the show. As the nerd has become more and more improbable as Sakae's love interest, Mizuki has become a welcome heaping teaspoon of spice.

Nerd = milquetoast
Mizuki = spicy enchilada

You say you hated it all the way through. Curious as to why then, you kept watching til the end?

I just looked at the LFLS page. I remember reading the synopsis, rolling my eyes, and taking a pass. I'm not a fan of supernatural-ish BLs, as the ones I've seen have been...stupid.

But, based on your recommendation and the raves in the comments, I will give it at least a two-episode try. Thanks!

My first understanding was that Mizuki only came sniffing around Sakae again because he'd just broken up with his then-BF and as such, had no place to live. You'll recall how he sweet-talked an unrealistically compliant Sakae into letting him both work AND live at his place. ''

It seems he's not great at taking care of himself independently, and relies on a succession of boyfriends for affirmation and a place to live. It doesn't seem to me in the least, that he came back because he wasn't over Sakae.

It would be great if the smooch that started to happen at the end of ep. 6 actually progressed into the real thing, and even better if Hisashi walked in on it with Mizuki's tongue down Sakae's throat. This show relies heavily on devices like that, so that may well be what we're up for next week.

Hell, I'd like to see Mizuki/Sakae do the deed on the bartop, and THEN Hisashi walks in. lol He's just not believable as a love interest for the handsome/sweet/sincere Sakae. Too bland, dorky, and awkward. Every time they're supposedly having a romantic moment, all I can think is "why?"

"Dickmatized." lol Can I steal that one? I think I was dickmatized twice in my life, thinking back. As such, I made a fool of myself.

So, it appears we are in agreement on love triangles. :) I'll have to take a look at "Love for Love's Sake."

Regarding the comment just below this one, it IS painful to see how Hiro has been broken and used by the corporate world, and deliberately so. However, to me, that is the most interesting aspect of this show; the dichotomy between how valuable Hiro is at work, as we heard from his senior, and how he's been made to feel the opposite of that as a strategy by the company he works for. I hate them.

That part of the show is of more impact to me than the relationship between Hiro and Kai. It's like we got one hilarious, and intriguing, hand job at the beginning, and then the focus completely shifted to the work-related stuff. It's fine, but kind of uneven. I do enjoy Kai's quirky, no-nonsense affection for and possessiveness of Hiro. He's sweet, caring, and a bit scary, as Hiro's nice senior found out when Kai came to pick up the wasted Hiro (on ONE glass of beer?) at the restaurant.

I like Kaneko, the senior, very much. Professional, caring, respectful, and hard-working. Among the assholes over the years, I had a couple bosses like that. I was remarkably more productive and happy working under them.

BINGO! This is exactly what I suggested in comments above! I swear I didn't steal the thought from you. :D

Yes, and Mizuki's shady behavior is the only interesting thing about this show.

I'm thinking the newbie has been planted at the office by Mizuki to cause Hisashi to have to keep canceling on Sakae. What do you think?