Um Milhão de Vezes Amor (2023)

A good murder, mystery, romance, friendship drama with a whole lot of pain

This is a drama that raises the oh so important question:

Is it worth finding out who murdered your soulmate , if it means you may have to let go of his presence as a ghost?

It is also a drama that beautifully portrays love and loss, and is defiantly one of those dramas that you start watching while knowing you are in for a whole lot of pain...
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Going in to this you are also probably fully aware of the pretty faces and good acting that will a company that pain, at least if you look at the cast list before you start watching it. Making it just that much more painful, because, if the acting would have been meeh you would probably not feel as much pain, but then again meeh acting and pain are just not really worth it anyway.

This on the other hand is so worth it, as you not only get a painful romance, you also get a bromance, a murder mystery and a ghost seeing male lead without to much second hand embarrassment. Though the ghost seeing male lead had some over acting moments I actually really liked him the rest of the time. As he did bring a whole lot of heart in to this character and was probably a perfect fit.

As for our female lead she was just so human, perfectly imperfect, sweet, and a great at showing whole range of emotions. She embodied the not wanting to let go just so perfectly. She was lovable, relatable and bad ass all at once.

Our ghost male lead was also really well casted, a cold guy with a few hot spots the few shows of emotions became that much more powerful.

So what can I say the pacing is decent, the predictability pretty high yet it still managed to keep me interested. I love the way the story unfolds, with spots of excruciating pain but also a lot of fluff, love, bromance, romance between the painful moments.

As for the OST we do get both the piano, the guitar and some shout out pain rock, the type that I think only J-dramas can offer. And I loved it.

So if you can handle some pain, this is a great place to find it, if not then move a long there is nothing to see here...

Also I did not like the last episode, it did not go well with the rest of the drama, but I am personally act like it never happand... So I did not let it affect the score.

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Ditto

Somewhere a screenwriter was watching the movie Ghost for the fifth time and decided it would make a great drama. Just trade out a police officer who can see ghosts for the clairvoyant Whoopi Goldberg and Satoh Takeru for Patrick Swayze. The title I Should Have Told You a Million Times was even reflected in the 1990 movie. If you've seen the movie, nothing in this drama will come as a surprise. Having said that, the characters were all likeable enough to keep my interest throughout the drama.

The story opens with a Sixth Sense beginning, but if you've read the synopsis, the suspense fell flat. Thankfully, they didn't drag it out. Yui and Naoki were childhood friends who reconnected and began dating. On her birthday, he disappears. Along comes Detective Uozumi whose latent spiritual sight evolves just in time to see Naoki. Uozumi works to figure out what happened to Naoki while he's embroiled in another murder investigation. The three become friends as they dig through the past to see how old relationships and old crimes are playing havoc with the present. There were also some Ghost Whisperer moments where they helped a couple of wandering ghosts with their regrets.

Despite some repetitious scenes and obvious borrowing from other sources, I enjoyed the story as it unfolded. The bromance that developed between Naoki and Uozumi helped cover over some of the weaker writing. The suave Satoh Takeru and nerdy Matsuyama Kenichi had a nice chemistry. Inoue Mao showed how hard it is to let go as Yui held on tight to a man she couldn't see. With all the extra time they were given and a translator as well, it was frustrating that Yui and Naoki didn't work through their emotions and regrets. In some ways, their relationship came across as fairly shallow instead of an intimate love---words matter.

The supernatural murder mystery came to its natural ending in episode 9, but then they decided to tack on a wish fulfillment ending for the last episode that almost completely ruined this drama for me. With one little tweak they had the opportunity to showcase the perfect ending for a tearjerker drama but by dragging it out, took all of the emotional punch from the previous episode. In time, I will block out the last episode, grind through the five stages of grief and remember the other episodes and engaging characters fondly.

7/5/23

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