mugen2727do
Unusual
It is absolutely captivating! It has xcellent written story, stellar acting, perfectly matching music.It is not at all a standard Japanese drama, at least I have never seen something similar among them until now.
Be aware, it is very creepy and emotionally hard, very revolting and in every respect surprising.
Even if it was a hard one, I must say that it deserves 100% its time watching.
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Surprisingly good
The writing is excellent, there is a lot of self-irony that is absolutely unexpcted in japanese drama.The synopsis is a bit misleading. The driving theme is jealousy, but there are several levels of the stories
(yes there are several stories!). I found the acting excellent and the actors were very carefully and well chosen.
The whole is accompanied by the appropriate music. The short time of each episode contributes to an alert
rhythm; all unnecessary fillings were deleted. I was almost deceived by the final - a typical japanese one
- but the very last minutes are great: it is not 100% the expected japanese final!
Even if it is not the big revolution, this drama is much better than its actual renomee.
It is 100% worth its watching time!
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100% lumped clichees
This drama benefices of several very cute and potentially promising actors.However, this capital is ruined by several greedy production mistakes.
My initial enthusiasm vanished at about episode 5, but I watched it till the end.
The writing is dilettante: the story is based on a very rich and long manga.
Instead of making either a longer series (such that the actors can develop and
we may enjoy them for longer) or making a clever selection, the writer lumps
too much together, so much that the actors do not have the occasion to show
what they eventually could. The story rashes from one "kyun" moment to another.
There is zero opportunity for depth, very often there is no logic and
the acting is forced to be reduced to a minimum,
As a result, we get 10 episodes of 45 minutes each with 100% lumped clichees.
There is almost no camera work, sadly.
The director seemed to be focused only in product placement which is pushed
to hilarious limits (e.g. the clothes they were supposed to wear inside the sauna).
The whole gives the impression of a rushed, low cost, high profit production.
Unless you like these actors very much and you are fond of 100% clichees,
watching this drama is a loss if time.
This drama is worth about 25% of its watching time.
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Perfection
This drama is brilliant. Each detail is thoroughly thought.Even each tone and move of each actor during the opening song is perfectly matched
to the situation and way of being of the persons in the drama. This is why they put the actors
to "play" the song.
The drama is a great piece of art: starting from the excellent acting, going through
sophisticated camera work, a careful choice of wording and the amazing construction of the story.
Each every (short!) episode is build from a few very precise even shorter sequences
that some times are continued in other episodes such that a web of
different stories hangs together, giving a myriad of different images, different feelings,
different impressions on each of the persons. This construction and the way it is told to us
both together confer a veritable taste of real life.
The theme and the language are very unusual for a Japanese drama.
I watched many Japanese dramas mainly for listening to the language;
this one gave a new dimension to my Japanese knowledge. Sometimes
I wish to see the Japanese subtitles of it...
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Art
I watched this movie in Japanese with English subtitles at a Japanese film Festivsal.As I understand a bit of Japanese and due to my experience in watching dramas and movies that are subbed
by various persons with various skills, I was horrified by the provided official translations.
Fortunately, what was said had less importance than how it was said -- this is an art film.
The show consists of four unrelated stories; one actress is playing the main role in all of them,
hence it felt like four theater pieces. The acting is very good! A various range of feelings
are conveyed. It is not an easy movie -- I was a bit depressed and full of consideration
for what the Japanese people must have felt during the very hard time of covid.
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Pleasant and Modern
I watched this movie with English subtitles at a Japanese Film Festival.I liked very much the movie, as most of the movies by this director.
While it is for sure an rt film, it is good enough to have success to the larger scale of audience.
Very impressive in this movie are the beautiful views: nature with mountains and lake with strips of fog,
but also the small streets in the shopping center in Tokyo, the lovely details of the old public bath,
the authentic small Japanese (but also Ethiopian) restaurants, the lovely portraits of the old men and women.
We feel the delicacy and the love of the film creators towards their subjects.
The story is credible at every moment and I feel it gives a good slice of life. It has the right amount of tragic
and of poetics.
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Art
I watched this movie with English subtitles at a Japanese Film Festival.It is an art film, a fact that you recognize from the first seconds till somewhere to the middle of the movie.
The work with the camera is very searched, at the begin it is really hard to follow its movements and
unexpected view angles, yet after a while you get used with it. The voice of the main lead tells the story
as she is writing her journal -- almost the whole movie.
The camera, the story, the acting -- all work together in order to convey very good the feelings that the creators
wanted to convey. Many of the spectators around me were crying or laughing or happily smiling or even singing
according to what happened on the screen.
I liked very much to see the power of friendship at action and the strength of the main lead.
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