Sports dramas/films are always fun for me, but that first kiss in this movie caught me completely off guard. And then I remembered he's the dude from "Kakafukaka" and everything fell in place. Of course, he knows how to kiss. I'm actually pretty torn about this one. Parts of the story I really enjoyed, particularly the archery bits. That was just interesting to me. But it was hard to connect with the ML and so I could never determine what was in character or out of character for him, was he serious or not serious? They could have fleshed him out a bit more, but that's nothing against Masaki Nakao's performance. He's a decent enough actor and he fit the role pretty well. I just wish they'd given him more to work with. I feel the same way about Elaiza Ikeda as the FL. This is the first time I've seen her as a FL, she's always been in a supporting role when I encounter her. She was acceptable as the lead, and I felt quite a bit of emotion coming from her. Her character also had a serious melancholy about her that never got fully explained. So yes, we've got some steamy kissing scenes and there's a spark of connection between the leads, but I found myself asking why. And that's never good. Also, I have a problem in Asian entertainment when the guy pretty much threatens sexual abuse if the girl doesn't go along with what he's asking. Say what now? That sort of things happens here ('if you don't agree with me, I don't know what I might do to you"), so I was iffy about the ML from the get-go. But I still enjoyed the movie. It's filmed very nicely and by the end, I was supporting their relationship. I just wish we'd gotten to know them more. Once again I'm reminded that dramas are usually better than movies when adapting manga because it allows more of the story to be told. Although who knows, maybe the manga didn't give any more details either. But Viki has great subs and it was a beautiful film to stream.

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Surprisingly cute.

I already liked Taishi Nakagawa so I knew what to expect from him and he's super darling here. His character is cold at first and then warms up fast which is much more Nakagawa's speed. We get a really great sense of connection between Minami and Chiyomi which is crazy since they're not actually in scenes together unless someone was off to the side during filming.

The story is strange, but not necessarily unusual. I'm a Thumbelina fan from way back, so this fits in with that aesthetic. There is the overuse of a couple of tropes like the other girl chasing Minami (although that was pretty much played for laughs with the dramatic, sexy music and his dreams).

There are some good messages about family relationships. I like how Chiyomi helps heal a rift in her family and Minami finally lets himself start healing after his Dad's abandonment.

Overall it's just a really sweet drama. It makes me realize that more manga need to be made into dramas and not movies. The movies move too quickly for the story to be told well. Dramas usually have just about enough time.

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It's not bad, but the editing job was choppy, unfinished scenes, and a good portion of the story felt like cliches. The actress is supposed to know Japanese but obviously had no clue how to speak it according to the dubbing scene at the end. Her lip movements were completely off. Like some of the commenters, I agree that the ending kind of ruined the show a bit. I'm not sure what they thought they were doing. I was more invested in the secondary couple that went nowhere much to my sorrow. And I swear the second season of "Love in Progress" was an absolute after-thought since they never showed anything other than the promotional videos being filmed. It just felt like incredibly rushed episodes and that, unfortunately, is the result of poor writing. It really could have been so much better. "Put Your Head on My Shoulder" was far superior in the storyline, acting, and episode editing.

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Powerful

* This movie may be triggering for people who either suffer from depression or have family members with depression.

My father has suffered from depression my entire life, and some parts of this film reminds me of what he was like 20 years ago, insomnia, sleeping through the day, irrational bouts of anger, inability to hold down a job. He had to make the decision that he would get better for himself and his family and he took those steps to make that decision a reality. That included medication, something which we never see happening in this film, but probably should have happened.

The plot isn't weak. It focuses on the story of the FL's depression, not on her relationships. This is how she sees the world. She is incapable of intimacy until the very end of the story. Until the ending, the ML and FL were not intimately aware of each other's emotions because they couldn't be. It was beyond her to share that part of herself and he was incapable of pushing through to find her. We get that much from the film, nothing more is really needed.

I appreciated the ending. I feel like they'll make it.

Suda Masaki is a powerful and intense actor. He is well suited to these types of roles where that intensity can just shine. Shuri also impressed me since she convinced me she suffers from depression. With my family history, I know what it looks like, and this was it.

Will I rewatch? Probably not. It didn't trigger me, necessarily, but it's not a joyful film, despite the hope of the ending. I am glad I watched it though and I'm glad to see films like this being made because it shows depression for the debilitating illness it is.

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falls somewhere in the middle

Not terrible, but it could have been better. There's some issues with pacing and the scripting definitely needed some work. Never tell a criminal who has taken a hostage to "calm down." Do things to help them calm down without realizing it, but don't command them to "calm down." I was annoyed by the amount of times our leads just blatantly told people wielding knives or guns to "calm down." It was weird and is not how a hostage negotiation would go in real life. You also don't tell victims to calm down, either. Why would you do that? Yes, they're freaking out, but telling someone to calm down isn't going to help.

Andrew Gregson as Aran was definitely this drama's strength. I'd never seen him before, and apart from having a striking resemblance to Alex O'Loughlin, he was really excellent. He has a great emotional range that seriously impressed me, and he's the only real reason why I kept watching. I like dramas that deal with someone who has lost a loved one due to their own mistakes. So watching him go on a revenge kick and then come to terms with it was important. His character was absolutely the high point.

HOWEVER, the writers did a serious disservice to their female lead, Captain Irin. I have no idea what they thought they were doing, but nobody is going to believe she is the top in her field. It's just not going to happen, and I put that solely on the shoulders of the writers. Yes, some episodes and dialogue for her are better than others. But that character makes a lot of critical thinking errors that are not ok for that type of role. Such a shame because Pancake did a great job. She just had so little to work with. The writers, yeah, it's on their shoulders that their script for her primarily sucked.

The series was a little gruesome, more than I like now, at my current age in life. So that was unfortunate. But I didn't hate it, I just didn't love it. I did like that it had no romance. You just sit down and watch a suspense Lakorn and don't have to worry about getting side-tracked by lovey-dovey looks. So that was great. I will track down more of Andrew Gregson's roles since I really ended up liking him a lot.

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a solid serial killer story

I'm not usually a fan of open-ended stories, but the more I watch Japanese entertainment, the more I get used to it. Because apparently the non-ending is something they love or they wouldn't create so many stories that just end abruptly with the potential for more.

Suda Masaki can be hit or miss for me, but he's definitely on point here as Yamashira Keigo. He gave a really solid performance. Oguri Shun as the primary detective was equally brilliant, if not more so. I really enjoyed his character a lot. He was designed with a lot of thought and care and Oguri Shun was up to the task of playing him. I'm not a "Hana Yori Dango" fan, so it's nice to see him in something else where I actually like him. Fukase Satoshi as our serial killer is new to me. I can't say I'll be chasing down any of his other work, if he does decide to pursue acting. That tends to happen for me when someone plays a villain so convincingly, it can ruin anything else they might do because they're just too darn scary. I like stronger females. I'm just gonna say it. So the character design and performance by Takahata Mitsuki as Yamashiro's wife didn't work for me. She was a little too prim, proper, and meek. She annoyed me.

I'm a fan of the "Red Dragon" movie in the Hannibal Lecter franchise, and this had several of the same components. So it's not very original, but it still feels like a solid addition to the serial killer genre. I wish we'd learned more about our serial killer, that would have been nice, but we can't have everything. I don't regret watching it and while it's not one I would ever go to again for warm fuzzies, I can see Sunako-chan from "Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge" loving it, so that's something.

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an entertaining romp

This one was mostly fun with a few serious moments sprinkled in.

I knew I would actually finish the drama when I pretty much fell in love with the secondary characters. Because as much as I like the leads, if they had been the only thing going for this drama, I probably would have dropped it since 16 episodes is longish for me. BUT, because all of the secondary characters were equally as amazing (love that comedy relief!), I kept watching. Love the ghost-hunting pair of crazies. They're just so quirky and fun and absolutely not suited for that type of job. And the monk, oh my goodness, once I got used to him, he became one of my favorite characters.

But in the end, I really kept watching for Kwon Yool's character. Because while he terrified me, at the same time, as more and more of his story unfolded, I prayed for a hopeful resolution for him. I had to know what happened to him in particular, so I kept watching, and I am glad that I did. I felt the most empathy for him, in the entire drama, which probably sounds strange, but is also true.

Now, as for the storyline with the leads, I guessed Hyun Ji's plotline. Not all of the elements tying everyone together, but the rest of her story is not all that original so I knew by the end of episode 2 what she really was. Which is fine, but it does show that while the drama is supremely fun, with all of the side characters and their personalities elevating the story to a bit more of a comedy than horror, the main story is just sort of basic. The leads couldn't have carried this drama alone. Bong Pal, as tsundere characters go, warmed up pretty quickly, but I actually liked him and Hyun Ji more before they started liking each other, if that makes sense. They were more fun when their interactions had a bit more bite.

And for a girl who's a pretty tough ghost, she didn't do a lot of screaming or fighting back in the last 2 episodes. Even just making yourself dead weight, especially knowing your kidnapper needs you, would have made a lot more sense. So parts of the ending particularly frustrated me because an actual persona in real life would have behaved differently if they had actually been kidnapped and knew someone was there to rescue them. And what happened to Hyun Ji's necklace? Because it was never resolved as to whether her mom gave it to her or not.

So while I did enjoy it and have rated it fairly high, there were some storytelling and timing issues that I wish hadn't happened

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a beautiful little drama

Asian dramas have proved to me that timidity never moves a relationship forward. And what we have here is one person who voices everything and one person who voices next to nothing. It's tragic. Each of them is equally responsible for the failure of their relationship. I'm not sure who I feel worse for. Probably Kaoru since it hit him like a ton of bricks from out of nowhere. I just really, really wish that they could have talked and that Kaoru could have seen the real Yurika.

As for a rewatch, that's probably a No. Unless I'm feeling really blue and want to get myself into an even deeper funk.

The actors were phenomenal. Loved both Ryota Bando and Kana Kita as the leads. Their chemistry was undeniable and they gave truly solid performances.

And since the music is such an integral part of this drama, I did love it. Yuuri has a great talent for writing clearly tragic and forlorn love songs, and I love that the drama is pretty much based on some of his songs. That's pretty cool and actually filming him in the apartment singing for the end credits of each episode was brilliant.

Dried Flower really is a beautiful little drama, very bittersweet and melancholy, watching the slow decay of a relationship that began with such potential. Even though it makes me sad, I did love watching it. Not all stories have a happy ending because that really is life. It was a terrific way to spend 90 minutes.

And why did they break up? As Kaoru said, "probably because he didn't know why." And that was their problem in a nutshell.

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Fighter + Tutor

I am going to own the fact that I watched this drama. And that every single star is for Fighter and Tutor. The rest of the series is pretty much a complete waste of space, including Zon and Saifah, sorry guys. But Zee and Saint, wow, yes and thank you. It must be my crazy desire to have someone look at me the way Fighter looks at Tutor that made me fall in love with them so completely. Zee and Saint OWNED their characters and that relationship. So much brilliance. So their roughly 3 hours of the story (if you watch on Viki with a few extended scenes) are totally worth every second.

I've been trying to figure out exactly why Fighter and Tutor are the only relationship in this series that works for me, and I finally got it. Zon and Saifah started because of Zon's sister's BL novel. That's really it, in a nutshell. If the thought that they were destined for a relationship because of this web novel hadn't been planted in Zon's head, nothing would have happened, because the sparks weren't there. But because he freaked, and because he was acting all weird and having such strange thoughts, wham, the glorious power of suggestion worked its magic.

Contrast them with Fighter and Tutor. Fighter knew, the instant he met Tutor, that something was different, that something was special, that he was feeling something outside of the ordinary for him. This was long before that novel pairing them together even got started. The seeds had already begun growing without any sort of outside influence being placed on either Fighter or Tutor. The spark was there the moment they locked eyes, and every moment after that was simply a promise and anticipation of what was to come. That kind of relationship, the kind that begins organically from the first moment two people meet, I can support. Not the kind that gets started because a fujoshi gets her claws into someone and starts planting ideas.

Zon and Saifah truly were characters in a BL novel because it's the only thing that explains their 180 of emotions. Fighter and Tutor were writing their own story long before Zon's sister opened her laptop to start her fanfiction.

So there you go. I was finally able to verbalize why Fighter and Tutor are it for me, and Zon and Saifah, just, no. I don't like BL dramas where fujoshi girls are the ones who make normally straight guys suddenly doubt their straightness. It's why I don't like Mu Ren and Li Cheng in HIStory 4, because they were forced into romance by a fujoshi manipulating their emotions and it felt fake. At least Xing Si was already definitely gay. While I get the anger from some fans with the "drunken rape" scene, at least Xing Si and Yong Jie were clearly in that LGBTQ+ camp ALREADY. They were not influenced by a fujoshi into having feelings for each other; the feelings were already there and had been for years and just needed one specific catalytic moment to get things moving.

I'll get off my minor soapbox now, but since I actually took the time to reason out why I LOVE Fighter and Tutor and that they're the only thing worth watching in this entire drama, I figured that I'd better write it out while it was still fresh.

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magnificent

Magnificent from start to finish. Be forewarned there are a lot of domestic violence triggers, so that was difficult. On some level I empathized with each of the 3 main characters, having some minor shared experiences with each of them. That's never happened for me before so that was weird.

Considering this s the first Korean drama I've ever watched, I'm amazed at how much I loved it. But I loved it because of the themes, and because of Joon's story particularly. These types of themes that deal in mental health, when done well, are just brilliant regardless of the country creating the content. So I'm glad this was my first Korean drama. It probably won't be my last, but even if it is the only Kdrama I ever watch, I will always remember and love it.

Hard to believe I've rated 2 dramas 10 stars already this year. That's a miracle.

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quirky and fun romcom

The best thing about this drama are the unusual romantic supporting male characters. I love that we had Yamashita, a guy actually compared a bit to a bulldog, and then we had Shirai, the muscle-bound romantic. It was just refreshing to have guys who look a little outside the norm finding true love with the women of their choice. It was just overall lovely.

The message I liked the most in the drama is that so long as we're not harming anyone, loving something passionately and to obsession isn't such a bad thing. I mean, we're pretty much all on MDL for that reason, right? Our loves and hobbies and interests give us joy and that's what they should do. So that was a really nice message.

Makochi learned a valuable lesson, I think, about how you're not always going to be happy. That he and Yurika should be allowed to be sad and angry and happy and express those feelings to each other. They have to create a safe space where they don't have to fake what they're feeling.

Love Hiromi and her husband Katsuya in the last episode. I mean, they really were the healthiest relationship in the entire show (even though we only met him at the end), simply because they showed each other their bad sides, but were confident in their love for each other. They were pretty spectacular. I also have a thing for guys with bleached hair, so yeah, Katsuya was adorable. And the bartender, whoever the heck plays him since I'm not sure we were ever given a name, but he's the cutest and again, bleached hair!

I will say that the drama does drag a little bit and I nearly dropped it after the first 2 episodes. But I'm glad I persevered because it got progressively better. It's not rewatchable for me but I don't regret watching it.

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deserved a series and not a special

It was a useless way to spend 45 minutes when I could have watched an episode of an actual series instead. That's what I thought when I finished and a few days later, it's what I still think. I have no genuine fault with the actors or with the story. I just hate that it's 45 minutes long only so everything felt rushed. I would have liked to see a relationship develop slowly over the length of a series. It did introduce me to Kiriyama Renn, though, so I guess that's something. The only reason I didn't hate him in "Back Hug" is because I stopped watching "Love is Phantom" after only 5 minutes, not long enough to work up to a good hate that I could feel developing pretty quickly. He's lucky I decided to try him in anything else. I guess what I'm saying is that "Back Hug" was average, but might have been something better if it had been a full-length drama. And I liked the actors, as much as I was allowed to in 45 minutes.

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"Around 40" is such a soothing drama.

It avoids most of the popular tropes and doesn't rely on physical contact to imply intimacy between the leads. Instead, smiles and facial expressions express how much they care about each other so when they do actually touch near the end of the series, it feels like a huge, super important thing has just happened.

The ending is what I was hoping for but not really expecting. While still being a drama with all of the dramatic elements, the story felt more real somehow. The whole age-gap thing aside, Satoko and Keitaro felt like real people making genuinely real choices that had nothing to do with the fantasy world. Their choices were logical in a very real-world way, and I related to that realism.

It was a fun aspect of Keitaro's character having him be dedicated to ecology and preservation. Carrying around his own set of chopsticks, unplugging things from the wall, making sure the lights are out when not in use, and religiously recycling all made him someone I would like to know in real life. There's something awesome about people who have it a part of their daily lives to care about recycling and repurposing and ecology.

I know that I'll be rewatching this series. It expected nothing from me, gave me no angst, and just let me enjoy being a part of the characters' lives. As I said, it was so soothing and calming. I came out of it feeling like I'd watched something truly special.

In other words, I loved it. I also loved the OST and opening credits. It was super creatively done.

On a whole other side note, Fujiki Naohito was gorgeous in 2008. What a stunning smile!

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Unfortunately, this movie didn't work for me. I didn't hate it, but the cuteness from the first film didn't carry over. I think I just don't like the college part of the Mischievous Kiss story. Naoki's behavior is offputting at this point, just like it was in the drama series. I'm hoping that at some point Japan will move past these almost cruel tsundere types of characters. I felt like I was watching "LDK" but without the charm of Kento Yamazaki. I feel that the actors in "Campus" weren't as well connected in the sequel as they were in the "High School" movie. Oh well, you can't win them all. I'll watch "The Proposal" but I'm not expecting much.

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