It had happened many times that I expected to see one kind of story, but it turned out to be the usual kind of Japanese TV drama series - some tragic past, some family problems and some tear-squeezing moments of reconciliation. Be prepared to read a very cynical comment on this drama now, since I am merciless to anything that irritates me.
spoiler alert, as usual
story and characters
This dorama is to be viewed as social. It deals with such modern problems of Japanese society as marriage and divorce, low birth-rate, upbringing of children by full families and lone mothers, public condemnation of people without hearing their point of view etc. Some ideas were even clever. At least I agree with this one
This dorama is absolutely not supposed to be viewed as an interesting story to follow. The characters are almost lifeless and have nothing personal in them - just archetypes: a father who hides his feelings from his family so much that he uses violence against them (huh?), a careless mother who dates different men despite her age but turns out to be all loving and caring in fact, an elderly woman who finally gets free from her husband and feels she does not need to take care of her children anymore but turns out to be depressed because of her feeling of guilt due to lack of love to her husband (that was just one weird story, I tell you) - all of them are to be understood and forgiven. In Japanese dramas everyone is to be forgiven because they had their reasons, no matter what drama you watch. Sometimes those reasons are realistic and understandable, sometimes they make you feel disgusted, but in any case, you, as a viewer, are to 'understand and forgive'.
You are supposed to forgive even our main Hero who promised not to abandon his wife, but eventually decided to move on without her. It's not my imagination. It's what he said himself.
The trick of constantly repeating important phrases - like Hikari's song 'I met a bear' or Masazumi's 'I'm so tired because I'm so pure' - soon got kinda annoying and made me want to skip them, even if they take no more than 10 seconds. Repeating important moments from previous episodes also got annoying, even though I'm used to such flashbacks and usually don't complain about that.
And the ending was obvious - not from the very beginning, no, but somewhere from episode 9. I mean when you see that everything is going so smoothly but there is too much time left before the end, it's a SIGN. And you know what? It's ok that the ending is so utterly predictable, but what's not ok is when you see that this or that trick was done only for the sake of creating a story that would make you cry. Like, the Heroine says such 'proper' words... By the way, even if this story is about fighting the society that makes such people's life hard, what she says does not really strand away from the mainstream way of thinking - family values, hard work at one's workplace and positive thinking.
And in the end they look up at her photo promising that they'll move on and the air is filled with light.
And the ending was obvious - not from the very beginning, no, but somewhere from episode 9. I mean when you see that everything is going so smoothly but there is too much time left before the end, it's a SIGN. And you know what? It's ok that the ending is so utterly predictable, but what's not ok is when you see that this or that trick was done only for the sake of creating a story that would make you cry. Like, the Heroine says such 'proper' words... By the way, even if this story is about fighting the society that makes such people's life hard, what she says does not really strand away from the mainstream way of thinking - family values, hard work at one's workplace and positive thinking.
acting
Here is the main question, an unsolvable one, by the way. Was it the goal of the director or was it a mistake in casting? Shibasaki Kou was doing her best in depicting fast eye-moving, but that did not add any life to her character. Other actors at least did not irritate me, but I have mixed feelings about that. I could not really feel any sympathy towards any of the characters, but taking them as they are, I guess the actors did their best to portray them.
Now guess what? Kuroki Hitomi is a former Takarazuka actress. Just after seeing her I thought she could not be an ordinary human, and I was right. Her acting was implying she's not. And this is what I felt before I checked on her, not after I read about her theatre experience. I guess her appearance was the sole joy of this series.
Now guess what? Kuroki Hitomi is a former Takarazuka actress. Just after seeing her I thought she could not be an ordinary human, and I was right. Her acting was implying she's not. And this is what I felt before I checked on her, not after I read about her theatre experience. I guess her appearance was the sole joy of this series.
music
was nothing special, just your average drama soundtrack. Also, no matter how much I listen to Shiina Ringo (who suddenly started spelling her name as Sheena?), I can't get myself to like her because most songs of hers sound the same to me, so I beg your pardon, dear fans.
conclusion
Like I said, this is a story of poor people who became victims of their circumstances and the society they live in, and you are expected to understand them, forgive them and cry upon their fate without thinking very much.
I guess I can't swallow it.
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