Brush Up Life (2023)

Reiniciando

Uma história com um cotidiano normal, mas com um fator diferencial, após a morte pode reencarnar ou reiniciar sua vida. Cada fase da vida da Kondo Asami foi diferente e divertido a sua maneira. As conversas e cenas pareciam ter sidos filmadas de uma conversa comum do dia a dia, tudo muito natural, me senti fazendo parte da vida dela. Amei as reações dela e seu jeitinho de ser. A amizade das meninas foi o melhor e mais divertido de assistir. O plot dos episódios finais foi bem legal, e como se encaixou com as fases inicias. Tudo muito bem interligado, sem pontas soltas, sem deixar entediante, sem enredo muito mirabolante, simples, lindo e divertido.

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A must watch drama

This drama was great, one of the best I've seen. The story is so well constructed, all the actors portray such relatable characters, dialogue is so natural that the whole plot feels like it might just happen for real. After each episode I couldn't stop thinking about it and Brush Up Life became a hot topic among my own friends and family for the same reasons. The child actors also did an amazing job, not only are they cast well to fit perfectly for the adult versions of them but they way they act showing the same habits and quirks of the older versions was perfect. The first episode at first might seem boring or bland but its so necessary for it to be that way. I can guarantee that if you just push through the first 30 mins of episode 1 you will be hooked.

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An absolute banger of a drama.

An amazingly well written comedy that transcends the tired time-leap trope. The combination of an unreal cast and well-written, realistic dialogue brings the characters to life, so much that you can't help but miss them by the end of the show.

The screenwriting is brilliant, the story is well paced with rising stakes, great plot twists, foreshadowing, callbacks and solid character development. The show alternates between observational and situational comedy while the underlying story has darker undertones.

The cast is absolutely awesome with a great alchemy overall. Still, Andou Sakura's performance deserves a special mention with her full-body acting style, constantly matching her posture and motion to the emotional state of her character. This alone adds to the rewatchability of the show.

The soundtrack as well as numerous references to older television drama and anime not only help ground the timeline but are sometimes part of the plot.

Overall, this show is a must-watch, easily the best drama I've seen.

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Another GEM From Bakarhythm

Just wrapped up Brush Up life, a drama with the similar premise of another Bakarhythm drama, "Suteki Na Sen Taxi ", this time about a woman who, at death's door, is given the chance to be reborn and re-do her life all over again...As expected, with such a premise, this show was simply and utterly AMAZING!
From the get go I was entertained by the way main character Asami Kondo (Sakura Ando) took on the task of reliving her life with the intention of getting good points for her inevitable afterlife, and at first, the show was very wacky indeed! But as the show went on and the stakes got higher, what developed was an introspective and HEARTFELT drama, one that had me totally engaged and ENTHRALLED all the way to the end!!
Lots of opportunities for wackiness, but what really came through was the love of family and the power of friends and FRIENDSHIP, especially the kind you make when you are very young and carry with you throughout your entire lives.
This show made a point of how precious these kinds of things are and are meant to be cherished and not taken for granted!
As those who've seen Suteki Na Sen Taxi's more sombre episodes, Bakarhythm has an impeccable talent for mixing the most outlandish ideas with some of the sweetest and touching moments, and Brush Up Life was yet another gem!

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Underrated gem

This was a drama that I was on the fence about getting into and after starting it I have to say it is one of the better dramas I've watched in a long while. I'd put it in my top 10 with how enjoyable it was to go through. A lot of heartfelt moments that happen in each life and even though there is a goal of accumulating as much good points as possible it also showed the struggles with with that on how Asami's even doing good it sometimes was all that was wanted. Both the adults and the child actors did an incredible in each part of their story. I was curious with how this drama would be able to work with main character would coming back after dying multiple times and how they would manage to make each life distinct and not just repetitive but the writers did a great job again making each life interesting and unique with each life but can lead to similar paths. The plot twists in here weren't just there for shock value but actually had meaning which is a nice addition. Just because something is avoided, in this case death, doesn't mean it won't still happen or change something else around Asami or others.

10 episodes was a good amount for this show and its story-telling without having to stretch it out with unnecessary plot lines to fill time in. The multiple lives she had to live helped with that a lot because it didn't have to focus on just one story of Asami's life which made the show that much more enjoyable.

This is easily in my top 5 dramas for 2023!

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Beautiful heart-warming drama about what makes life worthwhile

This drama was recommended to me as one of the best Japanese dramas of this year and i wasn't dissatisfied. So far it's even in my top 5 of the best asian dramas i watched ever. With just 10 episodes there is not much to tell without spoiling too much and this is why i keep this review short as possible.

What i really loved was the mundane and light-hearted dialogues between the scenes, which made it so realistic, natural and relatable. The characters and character development are surprising and fascinating. The plot itself - though the theme itself is not new - incredible creative and the execution by an outstanding camera work and interesting narration really exciting.

30 Minutes into the first episode and i was already in love and was a little bit worried that i had too high expectation and will be left in the end with disappointed, but i can honestly say that it just keeps getting better and better and the surprising twists and unforeseeable turn of events were so funny and heartbreaking at the same time.

Beautiful and remarkable good directing and without exception with talented actors - especially the child actors.. Accentuated with music that especially when you grew up with certain japenese songs make you nostalgic and remember your own youth.

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It's all about the simple things

I really liked the plot.

There was a simple and comforting story to the core of it all and with each episode, the story added small details or changes which made it intriguing and curiously funny. Apart from the whole "beginning her life again" story, the focus is on human behaviour, family and most importantly friendship.

I binged this drama in 2 days and later recommended my family to watch it who also completed the drama with happy feelings.

The best thing to do is to head into this drama without having read any spoilers. It is a japanese drama, with an excellent cast of both young and adult actors and a solid story that brings it all to life, so if that sounds interesting give it a try and see how you feel after the first episode. The first episode seems kinda slow for the first 30 min, but after that it takes off so don't drop it until after the first episode if it wasn't your cup of tea!

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Rollercoaster drama

When I started binging this drama, I never thought I'd finish it in just one night. I went in blind, without even checking the synopsis. At first, I was like, "Is this gonna be all about the main character's daily life?" But man, was I pleasantly surprised! Despite all the chit-chat, I never got bored for a second. I was totally hooked on every single interaction, especially their awesome friendship.

But let me tell you, this drama was so much more than I bargained for. I connected with the main character on such a deep level. It was super relatable.
I get that not everyone's into slice-of-life stuff, but seriously, I gotta recommend this one to everyone. Just go watch it, trust me! At least watch 1 full episode before you decide to drop this drama.

I'm glad I watched this drama marathon because I don't have to wait anymore, on the other hand , I wish I had discovered it sooner.

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Repetitive, dragged and not funny

I feel the need to write this review to offer a bit of an alternative opinion to what seems to be the general consensus that this is a great drama.

I'm not sure what this was trying to be or what message is trying to convey. I didn't find it very entertaining either.
It started with an interesting premise but it went downhill very quickly.

One of my main problems with this drama are the plotholes. There is really no explanation on how things work, the main character is the one deciding what things are to be left or changed and we have to take it at face value. Who knows, maybe her friend Fuku-chan was actually not supposed to have a child, we'll never know. But that's the main problem, who decides what has to happen and what not, who decides what is good and what is bad. Maybe she saved her annoying teacher from being wrongly accused in the train situation but maybe later he killed his wife. We don't know, we just have to accept FL is somehow omnipotent and her choices are the best course of action. Somehow she also knows what to do or not to get shiny points for her next life.

It was generally passable until the friend Mari is also introduced as being in a repetition of her life, at that point I started to question if most people going by that logic are repeating lives or what are the rules on who is allowed and who isn't. Everything was already hold by a very fine thread but when the story line with the plane is introduced it was made so much worse. For starters why did they have to save all that people? They just decided so. Again, there is never an explanation on fate, morality or anything. One could argue that by them focusing all their energy and time to be pilots they missed making so many memories with the friends and enjoying life to the fullest, or that that plane crashing was meant to happen, or, and here it comes the biggest of them all, if the friends died in the plane, shouldn't they also be in their lives repetition or maybe they would have crossed the other door and reincarnated into something else in which case their deaths in the "repetition" timeline of the FL and Mari would be set to die no matter what since they wouldn't exist as humans or as themselves anymore. It's just never explained and it makes no sense.
The writers basically decided some people where allowed to be main characters, meaning people that could repeat their lives and the rest are just the puppets that follow a specific pattern.

If you have watched Groundhog Day (1993) and you enjoyed it you might like this, if you don't like a plot that pretty much repeats over and over I would say avoid this, it gets annoying, especially since the only repeated events in the life of the FL are the same ones EVERY single life with minor differences in general and a different career. It's a chore and the story is not so worth it. There are so many details in her career progression in each of her lives and what is the point? Especially the one where she's a producer.

I found it kind of stupid to go for the capitalistic stereotype of what is considered success when the FL only changes her career in each repetition and that somehow gives her different outcomes of what animal the guy in the desk tells her she's going to be in the next life. I guess we all should be doctors apparently. Equally stupid that something as silly as that guy disrupting the coming of age ceremony was full of comments about how he was going to be a microorganism in his next life. And it's not even the disrupting, is the fact of his aesthetics as well, it was very on the face of "if you don't dress society approved and behave how japanese society dictates you'll loose points at reincarnation", same kind of sentiment was shown when Mari says in her first life she was a gyaru for a while. Excuse me? If it had been done in a very funny way I could have taken this afterlife based on capitalistic success and japanese morals entertaining enough, but it falls way short of that.

It was also convenient that the four of them lived single their whole lives, I guess because the writers knew they wouldn't be able to handle the story if there were partners and children involved, so only the background characters were allowed that kind of progression.

I'm assuming part of the comedy in this show is supposed to be the way they accentuate the roundabouts of Japanese communication, I get it really, but I just simply didn't find it funny, I found it as frustrating as it is in real life.
This also brings me to the fact the FL was not really a very likeable person and there is not much of a change in her all throughout. Sure, she says at one point she started doing the things to be nice not for the points but it doesn't change the fact she's doing exactly the same things and we're not really being shown anything new.

Overall I can't recommend this drama, watching too much repetition already felt such a waste of time, it's only a comedy in the sense it's not a melodrama and the story isn't that engaging. Some might say it's ultimately a story of friendship and while yes partially it is, it's questionable when in most of the FL's repeated lives she didn't spent that much time with the friends (she even complains to them in one of them because they visit her too much) and it's not shown like she misses them that much in the timelines she chose to not have a relationship with them. For this reason as well, I really didn't care much for that ending and it didn't make sense either how they managed all to be reincarnated into the same thing considering they were only given one option every time? Works for cute effect I guess.

Music is fine, they clearly played with the nostalgia trip in that aspect a lot. But it felt like they wanted to precisely get some easy points for doing that. I recognised many of the songs and brought me back in time, but sorry, it's not enough to make this show good, I'll rather just go and listen to the music without watching this.

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Changer ton passé, tu peux te brosser !

Un Drama peut en cacher un autre. C'est clairement la réflexion que l'on a au fur et à mesure de notre progression dans Brush Up Life tant on ne sait plus à quoi s'attendre d'un épisode à l'autre. Annoncé au départ comme de la SF, ayant pour thème une énième voyage dans le temps. On s'attendait à revivre les sempiternelles scènes de dizaines d'œuvres ayant déjà abordé le sujet. Shitteru Wife ou Back to the future, vers quelle comédie ce drama va lorgner ? Certainement pas vers le romantisme absolu du premier, car c'est le génialissime Bakarhythm qui œuvre au scénario. Une fois de plus, il dépeint la société japonaise, avec son humour, parfois noire, mais toujours absurde et tout en retenu. La série prend donc des aspects protéiformes, lorgnant autant vers le questionnement philosophique que le burlesque. La vie, la mort, le bonheur, les frites ou les appareils de massages du téléachat. Ce drama est une pièce maitresse de l'humour intello à la japonaise faisant rythmer les mots avec la stupidité des gents et plus généralement de la condition humaine. Une œuvre d'étude dans les UV de civilisation japonaise à l'étranger et que je vais décortiquer comme un maquereau en sushi.

Pour ses acteurs déjà, qui non contents de faire déjà partie de la Dream Team des trentenaires pour les personnages principaux, sont accompagnés de pléthore de featuring d'un épisode à l'autre. Ando Sakura (Shoplifter, Manpuku) transcende toujours ses premiers rôles grâce à sa joie de vivre communicative, même si ici, le rôle demande plus de retenue. Accompagnée de Kaho, Kinami Haruka ou Matsuzaka Tori (Perfect world), on aurait pu s'arrêter là, mais Kuroki Haru, Nakamura Toru, et bien sûr Bakarhythm himself nous feront le bonheur de leur présence.

On appréciera la vision du scénariste sur la famille, le travail, l'école, réglant ses comptes au passage avec le système éducatif japonais. Il prend le parti de décrire plusieurs vies pour le même personnage qui devraient être normalement très différentes, mais pas tant que cela, finalement. Il a trouvé en Ando Sakura sa muse pour interpréter ses névroses. Woody Allen n'est surement pas loin avec cette proportion à se moquer de lui tout en dénonçant les travers de la société. On aime la modestie dont il fait part et qu'il a su insuffler au personnage principal et à ses congénères Quel que soit le degré de réussite dans les différentes vies proposé à notre héroïne. L'humour d'écalé, notamment les scènes du purgatoire, fait mouche. Même si certaines séquences lunaires ou trop longues en conversations et silences ont parfois du mal à capter notre attention sur la durée.

Comme souvent avec les dramas de Bakarhythm et c'est ce qui pourra rebuter nous occidentaux ne maitrisant pas les subtilités de la langue, une voix off, petite voix intérieure du personnage principal, est omniprésente. Le flow aussi de celle-ci pourra devenir légèrement irritant, allant jusqu'à commenter ses propres commentaires. Mais pour les adeptes des réseaux sociaux, ses saillies verbales dérangeront peu. Les silences gênants étant une marque de fabrique de notre comique, il en use et en abuse sur la longueur de ses 10 épisodes. Après le 3e justement, on commence à se demander où veut-il bien en venir. Va-t-il tourner en rond pour ternir sur la longueur et nous perdre complètement ?

Eh bien finalement, pas du tout. Bien contient que revivre incessamment les mêmes scènes peuvent rebuter rapidement le spectateur, il insuffle à chaque épisode une originalité tout restant dans la continuité de la série. Et même à la fin du 7e qui aurait pu servir de conclusion à celle-ci, il nous surprend à nouveau et nous redonne en-vie de repartir encore une fois avec lui, priant pour que notre héroïne meure une nouvelle fois dans des circonstances atroces.

La musique est pertinente, mais dans cette BO, le bonheur viendra de toutes ces Madelaine de Proust que l'on entendra régulièrement. Avec des titres Pops Japonais qui ont marqué les 40 dernières années. Étant un grand fan de J-pop et de nostalgie, je ne pouvais qu'être aux anges. Mis si vous aimez qu'un temps soit peu la J-pop, vous aussi adorerez certainement revivre incessamment ses 40 années passées. La musique accompagne la série comme elle a accompagné notre vie et assurément celle de Bakarhythm. Tout comme l'arrivée des Mall Center, les Purikura ou des karaokés qui rappellent tant de bons souvenirs. Toute cette nostalgie dégouline de ce drama sans jamais être larmoyant ou donneur de leçons avec du "C'était mieux avant". Sans être japonais et avoir vécu ses 46 premières années dans ce formidable pays, par ce drama, je peux imaginer la vie des gents ordinaires et avoir l'impression de l'avoir vécu avec eux. Et si par malheur, je rencontre un putain de camion en traversant la route, je sais déjà quel nouveau choix de vie et en l'occurrence de langue, je ferai pour mes études. Ère Heisei, me voilà !

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The little things brushed up onscreen, and a little more

“Your next life form will be an anteater.
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Alternatively, if you would like to rebirth into your desired life form, you can restart your life again to collect enough good karma.”

~~~~~

The choice is obvious here - of course many would pick to restart and try again. Unless you are okay eating ants. But since Kondo Asami doesn’t want to, she pick to restart her life again.

Rebirth stories aren’t anything new. In fact, it has likely developed into a popular genre on its own these recent years.

What’s unique about Brush Up Life is the simple plot on collecting enough good deeds to qualify being human in your next life and the focus on the relatable, little things in life. As we follow through Asami-chan’s 2nd, 3rd and so forth chances at life, we see her going through the relatable daily grinds most of us has been through. Such as puberty, friendship, studying, dating, fitting in, and of course,
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helping out a little more so Asami-chan can cultivate good enough karma to be human again.

It’s not the adrenaline pumping stuff like stopping a terrorist or saving the life of her lover.

Rather, there is something heartwarming about Brush Up Life’s relatable conversations and internal monologues on the day to day stuffs we experience in life - rebirth or no rebirth. Situations like giving a lot of caveats before complaining about unwanted freebies. Or texting emojis with blank expressions. I especially enjoyed Asami-chan’s chats with the Rebirth Officer at the station. Her reactions and the subtle personality shifts are apt.

Things that likely make you go “Yes, that’s right, I do that too”…maybe. The little things in life.

Another thing that is done interestingly and equally relatable is the account of Asami-chan’s day to day struggles in her various professions. Each life, her chosen profession is different. Each time, while there’s something a little different that she stumbled on, they remain situations and moments that we will relate to.
In her 1st life, she was a government worker who struggled with layers of cumbersome approval process and choosing the right greetings to customers.
In her 2nd life, she was a pharmacist who went through thorough checks to ensure right medicine were prescribed and constantly reminding her loved ones to drink medicine with water because it affects the absorption rate.
In her 3rd life, she was a TV producer who worked hard to arrange the right order for artists on closing credits and dealing with childhood friend’s request to be casted on dramas for friendship appearance.
In her 4th life, she was a researcher who patiently researched on scientific breakthrough and diligently resetting the focus of shared microscope in the lab.
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until the little more Brush Up stuff happened. The adrenaline pumping stuff to spice things up.

In her 4th life, Asami-chan found out that she’s not the only person who went through multiple rounds of rebirths. Mari-chan, her childhood friend who always got top grade back in school also went through rebirth. What’s more, it’s her 5th cycle.

Turns out Mari-chan was the one that got the typical main character rebirth script. Since her 2nd life, she has been trying to save a plane crash that took 2 of Asami-chan best friends. 2 whom were also her childhood friends.

There’s no brainer what Asami-chan would choose when she was given a 5th chance. Even if this time she finally accumulated enough karma to be born human (not as Kondo Asami). Even if this is her final chance at rebirth (meaning there’s no more trying again).

To round it up, Brush Up Life successfully drums in the message that it’s the little things in life that matters. No matter which profession we are, there’ll be many little struggles we deal with. No matter how long we live, the thing that make us feel a little less lonely is the connections we made and maintained in life. Because they are the ones who made the little things not so little and worth living.

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Better than expected

My friend suggested Brush up Life and I will forever thank her.
It was such a nice break from pointless and predictable romance dramas out there.
The story is so unique that got me hooked from the 1st episode.
Be warned, there is 0 romance , and it mainly focuses on the bond of these school friends.
As a woman in my mid 30's it was extremely relatable and thought provoking.
Even though I did get frustrated by the main protagonists choices sometime, I understood that this is a realistic portrayal of a person that is flawed, she obviously made many mistakes. Also, coming from a different culture some of her choices to become better person were definitely ... interesting. I saw some other comments here criticising the drama for being too "western" and falling victim of western ideologies; I think this person was watching a completely different drama.

This is a beautiful depiction of Japanese society and beliefs but at the same time it contains universal truths about relationships and the meaning of life.

All the characters, even side characters were well built and were very realistic; just humans trying their best to navigate life to the best of their abilities.

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