Saeng

Occasionally, there is a drama that gently touches one of my soft spots, and it finds that spot so precisely that I find it very hard to see if there are any flaws.
"The Proper Way to Write Love" is one of them. After I finished it, I immediately queued it up again, something that hasn't happened for at least two and a half years, and then I proceeded to watch it another two times withing the next weeks -- and that has happened only once before, with "Secret Crush on You".

I love "The Proper Way to Write Love" not only for the central issue of a person who has been an outcast and a victim in his teenaged years and learns to let go of the past, I also love it for the way it slowly, almost imperceptibly, lets their protagonists change (Natsuo's is even less visible than Hiro's) and the way it develops their relationship dynamics.

The drama tells a small love story about two young men who both bear mental scars from their time as teenagers at high school (one more visible than the other), who learn to clumsily express their feelings and learn to read the other's expressions -- which directly ties back to the Japanese title. It's a story that shows us how they grow together through little "adventures", with a slice-of-life feeling that reminded me of "Rokuhodo Colorful Days" or "The Four Yuzuki Brothers".

Others might find it mundane, even boring. They might say "why should I care about a random little boy cutting flowers or about a hair styling competition"?
However, this is not about these things themselves -- it's how Hiro and Natsu react to these events. It's how they learn to do things together. And it's how we see what is important to them, and how they learn to understand each other and how they learn to adapt to the other's presence in their lives.

In a way, this is a very Japanese drama; in which the protagonists are neither rich nor famous, their lives are very average, and meaning comes from paying attention to the little things.

And here's one of the few things that could have been better. If the little things are important, and if it's about the small changes in the protagonists' lives, then I would have loved to see more close-ups of them. The actors certainly have great ability, and it's clear that they are excellent at expressing emotions. Unfortunately, the director not only adheres to the usual Japanese way of often using wide shots, they also seem to have a fondness for not focusing on the person who is speaking. There were more than a few scenes where I would have liked to see Natsuo's or Hiro's expression when they talked, but they were just outside of the frame we were seeing. I'm sure this was a deliberate choice, since there are many shots where the frame, the lighting and the colours are obviously chosen with great care.

But in the end, I only care for this aspect because I love the whole so much that I want to see more details than there are shown (I would love to see more of Natsuo's life at school outside of his interactions with Hiro, for example), so I'm not sure I would be satisfied, even if there were more close-ups of Hiro and Natsuo.


Was it good?
I find it hard to give an opinion on whether it was "objectively" good. I do think that the actors were excellent and that the overall technical quality was above average -- and that it all felt rather Japanese.

Did I like it?
Yes! Yes! And Yes! It is one of those stories that touches a weak spot of mine -- but not so that it hurts, but so that it feels more as if someone gently applies balm to an old and itchy scar.

Would I recommend it?
Yes. Maybe not to those who need melodrama and big emotions, and not to those who are looking for the love story of the ages.