Reviews

we need to be hornier.

tanaka keishi is a terrorist for taking that screen+shot right in his fucking face OMG . . . i started this show after hearing so many strong opinions about it. i wanted to give it a fair shot because i do think there was valid criticisms but i thought maybe at least the show would just be inoffensive. & now having started it that kind've makes it even more offensive. at first it was okay. they weren't really reinventing the wheel here this was a very standard j-drama. & then our couple started interacting more & i felt like i just got pushed down a hill ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　　 ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆ i think I'll start with suzume. he comes off as kind've patronizing. i think there is a truth in his character. there is definitely a demographic of gay people just like him. but i too am a cutesy gay man & it just feels like he has to remain in his cookie cutter. also personally this show should be a lot hornier. he is a gay man living alone for four decades he LITERALLY needs release. i always hate how feminine uke characters are always treated like smol boys some of us are perverted sluts MOST of us are perverted sluts. & this kind've goes to my problem on how being queer is written in this show. he definitely has thouight about being attracted to men before the show started along with aversion to women as love interests. but then we get the scene of his shock & awe seeing the dating app & it is completely framed as him only just now opening himself up to the idea of liking a man. which is an okay thing to explore. if you try & explore it. say something about this new feeling ,say something about the world you exist in that makes this an uncomofrtable new feeling ,one that makes you scared to feel it. & then tanaka's entire dialogue at the end is just so silly to me. how do you know that he is gay ? is it just gaydar intuition ? because it wasn't in the notes unless it's a language barrier & he wrote male lover. this kind've ties every different thing i have been talking about together but kazama shunsuke does too much in his acting performance sometimes. j-drama actors always get a little animated but i still have a problem with it here. he just does not feel like a real person & more of a caricature. i get harsher when it is a queer show. i am tired of safe " " we're just like you " " gay depictions. we are messy beings with complicated living experiences. sometimes it's fun to have boys' loves that exist in a fantasy land where we're all ignoring homophobia for a booktok prompt & trope but this isn't doing that. i want to see them go more. i want to feel intense catharsis seeing my fears & insecurities that makes straight people uncomfortable because they can't empathize.

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Measuring and matchmaking

Minister Wen was a bit flustered after getting measured for new uniform.😂 The gulping water to cool down spoke volumes.🤣 After measuring, while on the bus, she ruminates on her encounters with Wen. He is actually there waiting for her to get off the bus to talk. Here is where I wish she would have let him say what he wanted to say. She gave him a way out and he took it. If he can’t fight for her, he doesn’t deserve her. Qing is not only trying her hand at matchmaking, she is appointing herself as chaperone.🤣 To her credit, she at least got in the vicinity of correct unlike Wen’s matchmakers. I think she considers him a candidate because he is nothing like her brother. I don’t see Yi interested in anybody Qing can boss around.😝And is this the director’s assistance to distract from Wen? Qing has adjusted pretty quickly to the idea of Yi finding someone else so I am thinking her comrades must have had some influence. This is both better and worse for Yi. I had a good chuckle when she stashed the professor’s flowers in Qing’s pocket and said these are for you.😂🤣 Fu is shmoozing with directer Zhao. He wants him to drive his Mercedes around longer. I am disappointed that he isn’t firmer about leaving his gifted watch on. Yang , Directer Fang, and Wen are seeing Yang off with his new employer. The one thing I have appreciated this episode is that both Qing and Yang have less volume. My ears thank you. Wen notices Fu’s car but also the change in license plates. Here I fear his buddy may really be like Dalun. He is noting his friend commenting on the plates. It skips to the finishing up of the blind date meeting for Yi. Qing actually tries to sound like a mother explaining why Yi needs time.😝🙄 This child is very damn clueless on propriety. At this point the last thing Yi wants is a double date with sis and Yang so she sets up her own meeting at the studio and professor Xu rides off happily. He is an odd duck spouting out Italian phrases in Qing and Yang volume.😝😂 Yi’s response…are you done? She tells him quite candidly she doesn’t like him and that she likes someone else. 😂 Zhao visits Wen and has gifts. Wen is noticing his friend liking finer things. Wen understands that small bribes lead to bigger ones so he tells his friend to talk to him before anything happens. Qing 😂🤣 Yi has finally had it with her and treats her like the irritable child she is.😂🤣 Qing trying to talk softly is somewhere between a whisper and squeaking like when you have laryngitis.😝😂 Yi has had enough of their gossip and finally makes it clear she will file charges if they keep it up. Yay for her. She gets back to work and head seamstress shows up. She mentions that Wen assigned her the job. Her family shows up and the kids are hungry so Yi surprises her by suggesting they go to her place to get noodles. Wen and Zhao start well looking at new project site but things go downhill rapidly when a young man calls him brother in law and wants to use his car. Zhao tells him no and the kid flattens his tire for him. Zhao and Wen have it out about gift receipts. Here I think Wen goes overboard in accepting nothing, but after seeing his friend I understand why. He wants his friend to report the car and his friend refuses. Wen is totally pissed off and heading to town on foot and the episode ends.

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hundred + eighty+eight days

a very solid start to be honest. i really enjoy the scene sequence ,they do a really good job cutting between both of their lives. brief scenes like in the start of our cast in their different seats in life ,all of the missed connections between wataru & sonoko at every train intersections. the mr. children's concert at the start & her dropping her mask was really nice. it's a very well+made show with a cookie cutter story & characters & dialogue. if this was a recent drama i might've been very apprehensive about it how cliche it is but here i am rocking with it as a future generation looking back at a classic. i do like how well each character is set up here. i am doing a fresh restart half+way into this show because i forgot who is who & who feels what. i can't really strand kayano. you show up unannounced to this man's apartment ,he invites you in & you immediately stick your nose into his business like girl . . . & don't raise your fucking voice at me like what ?

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Empress dowager director says no feudal thinking here😝

Qing is with director Fang whining because she doesn’t think Yi should be allowed to ever be interested in another man. Wonder how she would feel if the director said she and Yang not compatible and can’t get married? Her youth and devotion to brother quite evident. This is why Yi takes it in stride and the director finds it adorable. Yi and head seamstress agree there is something missing from clothing line and seamstress suggests a walk. This is kinda sad that Yi didn’t think this permissible. She mentions her bike and Qing is out fixing it. She has no clue what her sis in-law is capable of when Yi says where she’s been on a bike and carrying it if something happened. Qing is so sure she is lying that she mocks the very idea. She wants that bourgeois tag on Yi’s forehead saying fragile and spoiled with no work capabilities. Wen spots her as she’s sketching and Yi finds herself on an unexpected adventure. They have noodles at a friend’s new eatery and Wen wants to supervise how to eat. When she serves him soup his friend wants served too.😂They are so like Ao and Dalun with Yi Sun in back. It took his friend a minute to get why Wen wanted him to slow down. When the car overheats, Wen finds fruit and friend tells her about the jeep’s military exploits. It is hilarious that Wen doesn’t want his friend to have any.😂 Yi eats one and hands him the rest. Wen isn’t as enthused with that but he gives his friend permission. It is really funny watching the buddy be Wen’s wingman.😂🤣Wen wants to be gallant and wash her handkerchief but slides in the water instead. He is embarrassed but he brushes it off pretty well. She finds herself invited to the daughter’s bday party where she sees Wen has a HS aged son and the daughter. The children spend the bulk of their time living at school which is part of the concessions a single dad has to accept. Yi offered to go help in the kitchen but Wen takes her to his study instead. His frugality is noted when the chair collapses under her. 😂🤣Looking around the house this has to remind her of how her husband would live if necessary. There is a nice selection of books and music but there is a complete absence of decorative decor. He watches her look through his books and notes she takes out the one her husband did not get to read. Their conversation is interrupted by director and the nurse who wasn’t invited. She puts the nurse and Yi in the kitchen to show off the young woman’s culinary skills. I do not understand why she thinks Wen would want to date someone barely older than his son. Can you picture that nurse his stepmom? She is as hopeless as his buddy if she thinks that doe eyed school age girl would appeal to an honorable, refined and educated middle aged man. Here she shows she is the labor party wife and not scholar magistrate mentality. Wen takes the nurse to the study for a chat and the director takes Yi out for one as well. It is funny how she declares feudalism with women having to stay single forever is abolished while simultaneously being the empress dowager director declaring Wen must have the proper wedding alliance. 🙄😝 It is so funny when these people pronouncing judgment never see themselves doing the same thing. She brushes the children aside for her important conversation when it was supposed to be their day and it is their home.😝🙄Yi tells her straight up that they have read her diary and know her thoughts on what she finds important. She just wants to make a living and doesn’t expect anything. Now the dowager pshaws that notion and said she should make opportunity. She might just have to lower her expectations. Her arrogance is straight up royal full of yourself crap. The crime they accuse Yi of.😝🙄Minister Wen has put it in simplest enough terms that the nurse finally understands. She is far from stupid she just naively believed wholeheartedly the exaggerations and flat out lies the director told her. And she gets mad at Wen rather than the one who lied.😝 Director empress dowager has made it clear Yi doesn’t measure up. She boldly tells her conversation with Yi and that she sent her on her way. Wen is annoyed he is in hot water with his guest and that director took it upon herself to be the head of his home.😝 Yi works all night and is slammed with a new ‘have to do’ task. She must make them uniforms. She says she isn’t familiar with men’s clothing and someone more capable should do it. The seamstress slams it down and says refusal is not an option. I really wanna know where her creative mind will take her with this task. As far as empress dowager director Fang goes, Wen has an ace if willing to use it. She wants her lackey Yang and he wants to date Yi. He will swap a Yi for a Yang. Neither will like that arrangement, but both would get their way where it matters most to them. I really hope this comes into play because I would love to watch her face through this negotiation. How much does her chosen boy really mean to her?

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Working against feudal thinking

The director is trying to push Yang’s promotion and Wen is the only holdout. She argues like Yang with him but she makes no more progress. He tells her to let the committee decide. This is a two edged sword for her. She swings it often to bend other’s wills but now that it swings against her she is frustrated. Wen has a very cute daughter. Yi was quite patient with her when the child was restless waiting on dad. Seems she likes art too but Wen refused Yi giving her a sketchbook because he doesn’t want it seen as a bribe. At the hospital Wen wants to tell the nurse he’s not interested but she gets called away by her job. Yang makes excuse to see Qing. I want to find it cute but still struggling. My bias against him is quite strong. It is interesting to me that he chose the same gift as Wen for Yi, a pen. Here he wants Qing to practice her calligraphy. He has invented his own style. This was a surprise for me that gives me a bit of hope for him. He did not want to just be seen as a master’s copier. He wanted anything he wrote down to be recognized as his work specifically. I did not expect one so zealot in behavior could have an understanding and appreciation of individuality. This is the first time I have something in agreement with him. Our handwriting and signature is how we can be seen on paper. It lets the world see our style and personality on paper. Wen gave Yi Yuan’s interrogation file and his final letter. It was a hard gift to receive but it gave her an insight to his last thoughts. Yang and Qi cornered her about going to a meeting and Yi surprised them by saying yes. I found it humerous that Qing tries to have him learn an inside voice instead of yelling. She is the first one to counter his complaints about the dark with why didn’t you bring them? He had to reflect for a moment. He brought candles and expected her to have the matches.😂He sees her as his complement and she really is. Usually this is where I get a warm fuzzy at a budding romance, but I can’t get past the stereo shrieking they will do.😝😂 Maybe they will both learn inside voices. Yi shares her husband’s last letter instead of the prepped speech Yang had written out for her. I like that she both respected and defied their attempts on interpreting her public thoughts. In the workshop a granny comes in and starts beating on a young worker. Her husband died early and she had remarried. The first mother in law counted it a betrayal because their custom was to stay single for the rest of their days after husband died. Here is where Yi stood up all pro party lines. Too bad director wasn’t there to witness. She forcefully told the Gma that in new China the feudal ways were no longer the standard. That they were allowed marriage and the freedom to work and make their place within the party. Here the first bit of understanding why the old regime was ousted. These were her own pet peeves with men ordering her about— deciding who and when she could marry, and claiming her inheritance, work and earnings for themselves. Now women were on an equal status for work. The new girl is the one that told on the young girl’s whereabouts. They were from the same town and new girl thought that was a way to diminish competition. Yi catches her in the act of gossiping and calls her on it. The Gma has actually started a brawl on the work floor and is escorted out. Qing and the leader hold her to task for gossiping against the widowed martyr. Here is where they missed what should have been addressed. The old woman trying to enslave a young girl to family tradition and feudal thinking. Here is where the party showed they were of like ilk because they did not value Yi as a person, but as the wife of a revered martyr. I think they expect her to keep that status indefinitely. Qing asking if she was so naive about rumors. However, in spite of her coarse criticism she is right. Lies told often become truth to the masses that don’t care or bother about what is really true. The irony is she never considered repeated accusations by the party made false evidence believed as truth. It’s the flip side of the coin. Yang has received a job offer as a reporter and Wen is all for it. As he re aligns the sofa doilies he is practically doing a happy dance that Yang will be gone and in a job where he can’t be as harmful to others with his judgments. The director tries to corner Wen about begging for Yang to stay. Wen is not biting and now director can feel what it’s like to be manipulated by party job offers. Qing has made herself Yi’s personal assistant. She wants to stick like glue to her. Yi questions why. I think there is a low key desire to learn how to date from someone she respects. Yi sees her as an extension of Yang’s monitoring and Qing can’t deny it. When Qing won’t leave, Yi does. Yi is appreciating the new freedoms in the workplace due to new leadership. But the strings attached monitoring of all things personal wears at her soul. This is why she told Wen she is appreciating the party more but sees herself better as one who watches the watchers. I love her determination to take the difficult but most true path for herself. She will follow nobody blindly. Aunt SiYun and her father taught her that very early on. She has her aunt’s spine and determination to follow a course of her choosing. She is starting to find it.

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