Stress and colours but no love

Monochrome is being sold as "boys love, lgbtq+, yaoi, gay" on WayuFilms Production youtube channel. I have not seen any of it unless you count a long fixed look between the leads until one of them turns the head around. That is the only moment in the film which could make the audience think that this is a romance, though there might be a whiff of unrequited love in the air!

The story:
White is a graphic designer who, after being scolded at work, loses his confidence and the ability to see colours. His best friend Shield tries to help him adjust to the new situation but White is too frustrated to make a real effort. Until one day they meet a blind girl painting in the park and White realized that his deficiency is not the end of the world and that he can do his job in spite of it.

The story deals with the pressure: the one we put on ourselves thinking we can do anything and the one put on us by the world, the employers and the society at large. We need to learn how to deal with this kind of stress, and the film shows it to us: there are people worse off than ourselves who are doing much better just because they accept themselves as they are and have found a way to make the most of it by taking an alternative path. In this film, the bling girl teaches White to distinguish colours by smell.

The production is, as usual, on a shoe string budget. The best was actually the actress playing the blind girl: I really believed she was blind. The film also has the main character working on a poster for a film/web drama starring the same actress and from the same producers. (On n'est jamais mieux servi que par soi même!!) The actors are rookies who act better when they are not speaking: there is a long montage without dialogue, which I found the most interesting. It seems to me that WayuFilm Productions are rarely going outside these days, filming their short movies in the office. They have lost a bit of its charm: I remember when I first discovered them, the cinematography was stunning and the stories were original. The last few short films have been a slight disappointment: actors learning the trade, boring stories and bad production values.

So, there is no romance here just some wishful thinking from the audience used to better fleshed out stories (Mon & Oak period!) from this director .

Leia Mais

Pretty paintings and crime

DISCLAIMER: My opinion, that's all!

The concept of this drama reminded me very much of many US shows, police procedurals in which they usually pair up a gruff but extremely honest policeman and a quirky highly intelligent civilian (mostly mathematicians or psychology professors or some such profession) who comes up with the right remark/discovery at a crucial moment thereby solving the case gaining admiration by everyone!
It is the same here: this time an art history professor and highly skilled painter is brought in to help with investigations. At first there is animosity between him and the detective but that quickly vanished when the painter skilfully solves the case in the nick of time, impressing the detective who becomes his main fan.
I was actually a bit disappointed that the conflict was resolved so quickly: I hoped for the tension to last a bit longer. From episode three onwards, we were on the full bromance(not chines censors' one though which it could have been seeing the physical differences between two characters who looked like they just came out of a shounen ai manhua!LOL).
Once their relationship was firmly established, we were treated to a series of "case of the week" episodes featuring different stories: murders, scams, suicides (the slightly GL overtone one did not sit well with me: it sent the very wrong message!)
Over these 20 episodes we did not find much about the main characters: their past and their families are barely mentioned.
And this is where the plot holes come in: the detective comes from a well off family but was caught being a delinquent in a gang fight. Painter looks like he was a homeless kid, taken in by a kind art teacher but still living as a rebel? He was nearly drowned to death (who saved him the first time?) and forgot the face of the woman who asked him for a sketch (that too: why did she have a photo of a 3yr old to find someone easily found 30 years later?I must have missed the explanation!LOL). A psychologist told him he needed to have another near death experience to jog his memory but he had had another such event just a few days previously and nothing happened to his memory. As the plot progressed, the painter got to have many new capabilities: highly observant, highly knowledgable in anatomy, highly competent in psychology (the way he manipulated the computer baron was amazing and of course chess master and extremely talented painter.Makes you wonder how the police managed to catch anyone before he joined with his drawing skills.
Last but not least, the police is painted in such a positive light; everyone is nice, honest, competent, trustworthy and cheerfull, supporting each other for the greater good! Amazing!

The paintings and the drawings were beautiful: in the last scene we are shown sketches of characters from the cases they solved and each sketch is in a different style! There are some really pretty pictures! The painter who did these for the drama production is a very talented individual!

I must admit that as much as I enjoyed this at start, I was getting bored with it by the end. It is not half bad, a fun watch but I just have trouble getting used to c dramas. Again I had the impression they first filmed everything, edited everything in a block then chopped it up into 40min pieces: sometimes the episode would end mid-sentence. They should really learn how to make a cliffhanger cliffhangy!

Leia Mais

Still lingering...

Where Your Eyes Linger was my very first BL.

Before watching it, I did not know what BL meant (thank you, google! lol!). This was the drama which led me down the BL rabbit hole I don't seem to be able to free myself of (just like CLOY led me down the k drama rabbit hole, I fortunately managed to get out of but that is another story!).

I remember loving the initial bodyguard premise, the chemistry, the dark cinematography, the beautiful ending scene. But I also remember there were things that kept bugging me while I was watching the drama. The first time I just decided not to pay attention to them. Unfortunately, I rewatched it a few times since then and even though I still enjoy it as much as the first time, I keep finding more and more flaws with it and consequently, my ratings keep dropping.

The drama was too short which left some things out: most importantly Kang Guk's backstory. We know NOTHING about him only that he has been Taeju's bodyguard for 15 years. Since Taeju seems to be in high school probably 18 years old, how old is his bodyguard? Probably much older than Taeju, logically speaking! Even though he goes to school with him, he must be older than 18. I am surprised nobody's screaming scandal, grooming!!!! Maybe the father? Taeju's father is a big company chairman but looks and acts like a mafia don. He sends his son away but lets him come back three years later?!? He must have had a change of heart? Yeah, right, like that is going to happen....

I haven't seen either the drama or the film in a long time so I cannot tell you what differences there are: apparently the voiceover, present in the drama is back in the film and it truly helps with explaining the plot and the title. It looks like they recorded additional voiceover for some of the final scenes.

I love this director's films and dramas: they are practically the only ones I rewatch regularly (To My Star is by far my favourite BL!). But that does not mean that I am blind to their flaws which, in spite of excellent stories, sometimes sound false and cringy...

Leia Mais

Game of life....

Apparently, I completely misunderstood this drama. To my defence, I never read the webtoon so I judged it upon watching. I don't know if the plot is clearer there but I was quite confused with the ending.



First of all, I loved it: it was beautifully filmed and skilfully acted. The director loves original angles, ceilings and shadow contrast shots: excellent camera work! Actors are just as amazing: rarely have I seen such emotional, true acting in one of these web series. Music was nice and not intrusive, so we could really enjoy the plot and try to figure out what is what! LOL

Secondly, the plot was original, a device seldom used in k drama: transmigration. I said seldom, not never, and not as much as in c dramas. A 29 yr old sad and depressed man criticizes his friend's novel which is about to be turned into a game. After drinking too much, he wakes up inside the game as a 19yr old high school student, but with the life experiences of a 29yr old, and if he wants to live, he has to complete different tasks. When he leaves the game he is deleted from it but a couple of characters still vaguely remember him; How? Why? Then he kills himself (apparently he never learned anything!) and he is sent back into the game.
The biggest part of the series takes part inside the game. That's the problem I had with it: is the game real or is it an allegory for afterlife (since at one point, the ML comes out of the game and promptly kills himself! Or does he?) or is it that his friend based a character in the game on him....I don't know!
I was expecting a different ending. Something along these lines: ML learning to know himself through the game and finally realize that his novelist friend was in love with him (the vibe was of stratospheric proportion in the first episode, the chemistry hot and therefore I suffered from second lead syndrome!LOL That never turns out well in K dramas!).

Finally, in spite of the lack of straight explanation, as I see it, and after being told off, I am just going to take it literally, in the sequence and do not think about it logically! I was told that the game is the afterlife and that the ML was dead from the beginning. That's not what I saw. I'd like to say it is open to interpretation but...forget it!

Leia Mais

Unconvincing romance.

Everything about this drama screams fake and forced romance, starting with the title!

One of the tropes I hate the most in BLs is "gay for you only!" and here it starts with the title: If It Is With You...

The plot follows the story of Amane and Ryoji, a couple of high school kids who meet accidentally and become friends. The whole romance is based on their characters and they are just not in synch! Amane is gay, has been sleeping around with older men and hiding his insecurities behind forced joviality. He is willing to tone it down but only if it is with Ryoji! Ryoji, on the other hand is serious and mature beyond his age due to the death of his father and the obligations towards his family restaurant business. He is also excessively kind which breaks Amane's protective walls who falls hook line and sinker for the sweet and non-judgemental Ryoji. When Amane confesses to him, Ryoji is surprised and ends up accepting even though he never considered the possibility of Amane being ever anything more than a friend but if it is with him...

The whole romance felt forced, they tried to make a sweet simple friendship into a love story and that is when the whole drama crashed in my eyes. The sets are pretty, the actors are cute but they have zero romantic chemistry. They are good friends who understand each other but the transition to lovers did not feel natural: Ryuji somehow seemed to be obligated by his own excessive kindness to accept Amane's confession. That felt very wrong. The friendship was great, the romance was awful!

Leia Mais

Boring crime & fantasy mash up

Huh?!?!? What the hell was that ending? Did they suddenly run out of money and took a shortcut? It feels like about half an hour is missing there.....

The series was not as good as the first episodes promised it to be. The story of Tharn and Phaya, the latest reincarnation of legendary divine star crossed lovers, suggested a lot of drama and the added police subplot let us hope for some interesting action. But, after the first four episodes, the writers apparently did not know what to do with the excellent idea and everything went belly flop.
While the fantasy part of the drama, was gripping, the police part was ridiculous. As I was watching, I started writing down all the silly things they did as so-called special police force but after I filled out two pages, I decided to stop! I just wanted to ask the cast and the crew why they did not at least watch a few episodes of CSI in order to understand the police work. the level of stupidity is mind-boggling. And unfortunately, it even rubbed on the good i.e. fantasy part of the drama with main characters (Tharn) behaving more and more idiotic as the story progressed.

Good parts:
- training camp and lots of naked hot bodies (i am shallow, sue me!)
- action scenes choreography
- special effects were excellent
- Naga festival and the whole Naga & Garuda legend
- side gl story
- grandmothers (why are there so many cool grans in thai bls?)
- moping Phayu styling
- subs describing music were very creative: exciting sound, lovely sound, romantic sound, thrilling sound etc. etc.
- friends group
- skinship (the guys are obviously very much at ease with each other)

Awful parts:
- policework
- Tharn losing braincells as the plot progressed with his reactions getting dumb and dumber
- the ending (Tharn spent a couple of months talking to the bad guy who had been holding grudge for an eternity and everything is forgiven?!?!? You must be kidding me?) and the writing in general

What an utter disappointment! This should have stayed on my dropped list but I did not have anything else to watch so....
The actors were all excellent though the actor playing Phayu has a forgettable face, so much so it took me three episodes before I managed to recognize him in a scene with others. The writing was terrible. Cinematography and special effects were stunning. The episodes vary in length from 45 to 90min. Most of the later episodes I spent playing games and barely watching especially crime investigation scenes.

This drama had a promising premise but the execution is lacking and the mixture of fantasy and crime drama does not really work.

Leia Mais

Two worlds, one love

You cannot imagine how happy I am to be able to speak French, now! I wish I could speak japanese most of all but since I cannot, this is definitely the second best today. Why? Because I could watch this amazing short drama and the only subs available are in french! So first of all, thank you Rosé Fansub Traduction for subbing this little gem!

The story is about a girl and a boy secretly dating. She is getting more and more frustrated with secrecy that she starts posting on line photos of their moments of happiness(dessert, park bench etc.). Until one day someone recognizes his shadow and he gets angry. So much so that she makes a wish to live in the happy world. And her wish is granted. But in this world, he is unknown. Soon enough, she realizes she has entered the social media world where the pecking order is determined by the number of subscribers in the real world. She is surprised to discover that some very shy and unassuming people in her class have a huge number of followers.

In addition to the sweet romance, this drama mostly talks about social media vs. real life, about being yourself anonymously vs. hiding your real self afraid of rejection. This drama is optimistic, very positive about acceptance: you just need the courage to assume your choices and the others will admire you for the courage. There are a few other examples in this drama: a trans boy and a hidden singer who, to their own surprise, end up being accepted as they are! It would be nice if it were true in reality but hope springs eternal so...Baby steps internet, baby steps fixing hole in the net!

The production is exemplary for a webdrama: the plot is tightly woven, perfectly well written, the acting is top notch and the cinematography is stunning (the light is subtly different in two worlds).

I highly recommend this if you speak japanese or french: it is easily found on youtube! Half a point off because it was too short, I wanted more. Don't worry, the story wraps up nicely but I still wanted more!

Leia Mais

Pretty empty...

Well, here goes another typical korean bl under the belt! Nice production value, warm and rather beautiful cinematography, zero chemistry and a lot of lipstick. A lot!

Jazz For Two was one of the first webtoons I ever read a couple of years ago and I remember liking it a lot. The art was pretty, the story gripping and I even found a playlist on Spotify featuring every song mentioned in the webtoon. What I do not remember is the plot just that it was about two boys in high school bonding over jazz!

The drama is another superficial bl romance koreans are known to produce. It touches upon serious issues but it never tackles them in depth. And issues here were many: homophobia, suicide, bullying, assault. The way to deal with these issues? Love, of course! Love, which magically cures mental problems, behavioural problems etc. etc.

Teens are still children, exploring the world and figuring themselves out, so their reactions towards anything outside the instilled norms may turn violent. Care and kindness are not necessarily the standard. They are scared of being different, to stand out and therefore, when faced with the unknown, they tend to reject it violently! This was shown relly clearly in this drama.

The main characters are four boys in an arts high school who eventually form two enemies-to-lovers couples. The actors were correct, the best being Song Han Gyom(3rd lead) who played DoYoon. The worst by far, Kim Jin Kwon(ML). I had trouble recognizing him even though I remember him from To My Star. The costume and make up designers created an unlikable image: oversized clothes and too much make up (nobody has such red shiny lips naturally: he looked really artificial). Moreover, he had no chemistry with his partner.

I would like to end just with one question: is there such a thing as korean drama taking place in high school but with absolutely no bullying?

Leia Mais

Butterflies inducing hope

Practically perfect in every way!

A butterflies inducing, tears of rage provoking story of two lost men who find happiness and solution in each other's company, with love being the cherry on the top! One, Hiro, is a programmer convinced by his boss(workplace bullying/harassment) that he is incompetent and therefore putting more and more effort into ungrateful work. So much so that he is completely exhausted and drawing onto his last drops of strength. The other one, Kai, is a taciturn man used to being alone and always abandoned, expecting nothing from the world. When these two meet, their worlds slowly but surely start to change and merge, almost unwittingly!

The drama is full of romance tropes: opposites attract, childhood connection but it works perfectly well here. The actors have good chemistry and the evolution of their relationship is slow but steady, with their respective insecurities taking turns in blocking it. Misunderstandings appear but are solved immediately! There was only one problem I found in the first episode: in order to help him sleep, Kai "helps" him release the stress through a handjob which can be seen as SA since Hiro keeps saying No. He does sleep well afterwards but this scene just repeats the aggressive gay man stereotype! I thought we were beyond this!

Kudos to casting director who found young actors who resemble the main actors. I find this often in j dramas: more often than in other countries' ones! They really make it an issue of finding a believable looking young counterparts.

And of course there is food: what would a japanese drama be without it? Love goes through the stomach, everyone knows that!

The opening credits are actually the "happily ever after" sort of compilation of scenes we never really see since the drama stops when they get together.

It is a great watch. Japanese have done it again! Except for the weird title...

Leia Mais

Twists and turns: unexpected!

I usually start a review with a short synopsis but anything I may say can be a spoiler and for the first time ever, I want to keep a review spoiler free. You just need to watch it and enjoy the ride with a satisfactory conclusion!

I have yet to watch a c drama which has a sense of a cliffhanger. Usually they do not practice this art form! Therefore, it came as a huge surprise when practically every episode ended with a twisty sort of cliffhanger. What is even more surprising is that they managed to do it with short, 10 min episodes! Extraordinary!

The story deals with time travel, reincarnation, entertainment industry and mental health. The writing is top notch! I would like to know who wrote this and if they wrote anything else. Because this is by far the most original, interesting and gripping short c drama I have ever watched! Music is the usual c drama songs, heavy on the flute and the cinematography is adequately windy and flowery.

There is romance, there is comedy, there is mystery here! It is easily bingeable! If I have any complaints about this drama is that most of the cast is bland, charisma free except for the actor playing the FL's father: he was somehow different from others, rather remarkable! The drama and the story are definitely worth your while!

Leia Mais

Art or life? Choose! Why?

NB: Thank you for the brilliant subs evasive subs!

I discovered rakugo. I never knew it existed and one episode was enough for me to spend an hour on the internet trying to find out as much as I can about this art. And I discovered many interesting things and not only on wikipedia!

First : the lesson! (LOL!)

Rakugo (落語, literally 'story with a fall')[1] is a form of Japanese verbal entertainment, traditionally performed in yose theatres.[2] The lone storyteller (落語家, rakugoka) sits on a raised platform, a kōza (高座). Using only a paper fan (扇子, sensu) and a small cloth (手拭, tenugui) as props, and without standing up from the seiza sitting position, the rakugo artist depicts a long and complicated comical (or sometimes sentimental) story. The story always involves the dialogue of two or more characters. The difference between the characters is depicted only through change in pitch, tone, and a slight turn of the head. The monologue always ends with a narrative stunt (punch line). Rakugo has been described as "a sitcom with one person playing all the parts". Around 1670 in the Edo period (1603–1867), three storytellers appeared who were regarded as the first rakugoka. (wikipedia)

Second: the plot!

This drama was gripping from the first to the last minute! It tells the story of Bou, a young boy whose dancing career had been ruined and who is sent over to a master rakugoka to learn the craft of storytelling. He meets Sukeroku the first day there and they become fast friends in spite of completely opposite characters. The drama tells the story of their lives over a period of 60 years which covers Showa era (from approximately 1933 to 1997 with the epilogue 16yrs later!). The boys change names as they grow and get promoted within the rakugo association.

I used to watch a lot of western dramas with this kind of basic plot: story of one character's life practically from cradle to grave, spanning a long period of history when major changes happened. Since I usually avoid asian historical dramas as if they were plague, I have never seen an asian version of these life stories. I loved this one, it was gripping, but it tugged at my heartstrings too much in the last episode so I shall probably never watch anything like this again. Too painful in spite of them trying to be upbeat about main character dying of old age!

The plot describes the fight, very restrained and civilized, between the holders of the tradition (masters) and those who try to bring a bit to modernity into strictly coded art (Sukeroku). Yakoumo(Bou) is torn between the safety of known rules and codes and the admiration for the freedom and originality of Sakuroku's performance. And even though for a short moment Yakoumo felt jealous of his friend, he quickly accepted that his art is different, classical not as exciting as Sakuroku's but still admirable. The bond between those two people was unbreakable, they loved and cherished each other immensely and no matter what the world thought , they were there for each other. This was a real bromance!

The problems start when Yakoumo falls for a geisha. When his master asks him to choose between her and rakugo, he breaks up with her. She consoles herself with Sukeroku who was banished from rakugo for insubordination and everything leads to a tragedy with consequences felt for a long time afterwards. This was never really a love triangle and they showed it clearly. The rules and hidden envies ruined lives of three people who starting from that moment just survived and not lived.

The plot is tightly woven and there are no plot holes. The characters are clearly presented and they are fully fleshed out: we follow their growth over a long time period.

Third: the production.

Since this drama is a life story, there are a lot of time jumps so the extraordinary actor, Okada Masaki, first and foremost, had to play the character between the ages of 17 and 70 which is a no mean treat. The way he changed voice and posture and attitude with age is impressive. The actors also had to learn all the rakugo tales and codes of performance as well. Amazing. The only problem i had was the ageing make up (which was expertly done, no details were missed- like hands or neck.): the character who is supposed to be 70 looks more like he's 95, he looks too old for his age. Maybe it has to do with the personality of the character: dry, succinct, cold, unhappy, bitter, restrained so he looks older than he should?
The music is just perfect, with enough pathos to tug at your heart. The time period was rather faithfully recreated.

Conclusion

Drama is about rakugo, an art form thought to be on the decline but still alive and kicking and the people preforming it. it is about people in doing rakugo. As I said, I'd never heard of rakugo before this drama, but it is still easy to follow since it is a human story. Beautifully told story of people trying to overcome obstacles put before them by society, rules and prejudice. Sorry, this review is a bit messy...

Leia Mais

Japan strikes again!

Trust the Japanese to come up with a novel twist to the usual BL story. They do know how to surprise us with their choice of topic: here it is a May to December romance between an older man who is a cooking writer and his editor, half his age.

Ishida is a lost 27 yr old man, bored doing a job he does not like. On the cusp of resigning, he is suddenly sent to see a cook who writes a monthly column for a women's magazine. The cook feeds Ishida who is immediately smitten by the quirky character and his cooking. But there are a lot of obstacles on their way, the main being the age gap.

And the total lack of chemistry!

I just could not feel the attraction, the emotions. So I tried to figure out why he would fall for a father figure but we find next to nothing about him (raised in a loving family with 3 other siblings! Apparently!). I did not find the romance convincing. While the cook was dignified and calm like a sage man, Ishida was all over the place: jumping around, his thoughts showing on his face for the world to see. But, as they say, opposites attract!W

But, when the Japanese talk about the food, everything else, the storyline included, is left behind!

What this drama has going fot it is its length (very short!), nice music and cinematography (well, they are filming food preparation!), some beautiful photographs at an exhibition, the dog (what a great actor!) and.....that's it.

An easy watch which will be remembered for its topic: an age gap romance....

Leia Mais

Wish it were longer

I am trying to figure out why this has such low ratings. It is definitely not a groundbreaking BL but it is cute and simple, a nice Sunday night watch when you do not want to see anything heavy.

2Wish is a short follow-up to ReminderS in which Two and Wish met and started dating in university. Here, they have graduated and moved in together. And while Two's career is taking off, Wish is stuck at home, unable to land a job and therefore running in circles and overthinking things. His insecurities show and then when a girl makes a move on Two, Wish completely loses all confidence and leaves.

This 50min short film in two parts, deals with their first steps as adults in a real world. The more Two tries to reassure Wish, the more Wish feels useless and a burden. He feels incompetent: unable to find a job and unable to look after the house and cook. Due to its length, the problems and misunderstandings were solved mercifully quickly and it is a big positive in favour of this drama.

As I managed to figure out, there are mainly two reasons people do not like this:
1. this is not LBC and the characters are not Tin and Can: are these actors allowed to play other characters? Mean is so cute and really an excellent actor here, showing the character's depth and maturity. Plan played a depressed boyfriend hiding behind his bangs well.
2. nothing happens, no depth, no connection with reality: the story is too short to have depth but they managed to convey the young people's struggles when starting out, the doubts that a change in a power balance brings to a relationship, they even touched upon how fame changes influencers. But most of all, this is a BL i.e. a romance, a fantasy which does not bear any likeness to reality!

The only problem I had with this one, beside its length, is the sound recording and editing which was bad. More often than not, we could barely hear them speak either because of ambient noise (crickets were very loud!) or the boring stock piano background music which was too loud.

I wish I could see more of Mean: he is a talented actor that we do not see in main roles enough.

Leia Mais

Mission to find love...in a Mall!

Marry's Mission is a mini drama promoting a shopping mall through a story about a girl looking for love.

Marry is a young woman running a café/flower shop and hoping to expand her business with the financial help of her grandfather. He agrees under the condition that she gets married by the age of 30. The catch is, her 30th birthday is only 30 days away. So with her friends' help, she starts dating. Unfortunately, each new man she meets is worse than the one before.

This was cute and fluffy. No big life questions, no bad guys, just a simple romcom, sweet and a nice quick watch when you want to empty your head of accumulated stress and get to be familiar with a shopping center in Thailand. The characters are all clichés especially the potential boyfriends: a shopaholic, a health freak, a self-centred actor, a sweet but taken chef, a gay youtuber and a salesman. After meeting all of them she gives up completely unaware that there has been someone in the background helping her and observing her with kindness. Her friends were fun to watch. And while I really cannot stand those shrieking trans characters, the bl couple working for her were so cute. I want a series just with them, please!

In conclusion, this ad drama needs more love because it is better than the majority of such productions, it is funny, sweet and short.

Leia Mais

Kinou Nani Tabeta? GL

Finally finished it!The only thing I liked about it were the subs so thank you very much Furritsubs: if anyone else had made the subs, I would have dropped this snoozefest immediately.

I started work after a long holiday, so I was looking for something short and easy to watch. This came highly recommended. Still, I was reluctant to watch it since I did not like the first season at all. The relationship between the two women was so hetero cliché ridden that it was uncomfortable to watch. This is true of many BLs as well. This drama is the GL version of those norms: a smaller, finer woman taking on the "wife" part i.e. cooking while the stockier and bigger woman ("butch" type) is the husband here, working hard and eating a lot under the adoring wife's gaze who has the appetite of a bird. Their behaviour and attitudes align perfectly with the heteronorms.

This drama is smooth sailing: nothing happens! They do touch upon, fleetingly, on the rigidities and the too demanding japanese society: the pressure the traditions and families exert on women by the all powerful males. But there are no male characters in this drama: a father we hear on the phone, a coworker who has a couple of lines and a real estate agent. This is a fully female centered drama. We were introduced to a few new characters, representative of japanese society's struggles: a girl bullied in school by teachers, a women rejected because of being ACE and a wife getting a divorce because fed up with her husband's parents demands. I found each case interesting but I was at the same time disappointed by the lack of real drama: "these problems exist in the society and it is on each person to find the solution" seems to be the message.

What do we have here then?
A couple of women becoming friends and more through cooking and eating.
Fluff, fluff, fluff and more fluff.
Slow formal speech and extreme politeness by everyone: people seem to be perfect in an almost ideal society. Everything is monotone, no one raises the voice, there is no passion, no drama, no contrary feelings. They don't seem human but as I understand it, that is the way the japanese society works mostly?
The misunderstandings are resolved immediately, thank heavens!
Zero chemistry between the women. The reminded me of the couple from Kinou Nani Tabeta?: two men brought together by their mutual love of good food.
Do couples in Japan sleep in separate rooms? The two women, once they started dating, went house hunting for an flat with two bedrooms!
The cook was not very modest about her own cooking skills: she'd barely taste a spoonful of her dish before starting raving about it (oishii!!!)... Everything she ate was oishii and yukata: must have heard it a million times throughout this short drama. So, if I never hear it again ,it will be too soon!!!
Nishino Emi definitely stole the show! She was amazing as a woman whose growth was stunted by toxic masculinity. So much so that she almost became one herself: tough, strong and hard.

For a westerner like me, this representation of japanese society is rather scary. I do not know if it is true or not but according to this drama, it seems to be chock-full of traumatized and repressed individuals. Wrapped in fluff. Go figure....

Leia Mais