Our House (2016)

You won't be disappointed to watch this if you like a heart-warming family drama that will make you cry (at least it did for me). Although there is very little romance, the story itself is very nice and also the ending as well. At first I was hesitant to watch this because of the character Ban Sakura. I thought her character is sort of like a brat who would chase off Alice in anyway she can and since some of the comments of her wasn't good as well, I thought this drama might piss me off in some way. However, after seeing her character for a while, I realized she was a good kid. Although there are times she overdoes thing, she is like a strong ally once you make her on your side. Overall, I think this drama was really touching and I like every character in the story, except for the villain (you'll know what I mean when you reach almost the end).

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Ashida Mana and Charlotte Kate Fox go head to head in this charming tale of a family in recovery. Ashida plays Sakura whose mother died six months ago, and Fox plays Alice who has just had a whirlwind romance with Sakura's father, Sato, who has married her in Las Vegas and brought her to Japan without disclosing minor details like he has four children and his previous wife had just died. Nevertheless, Alice works to win over the family, and Sakura mounts the barricades against her. After an amazing and well-deserved climax in episode 7, the series takes a sharp left at episode 8 before ending pretty much where you'd expect. The director lets Ashida overact, but in key scenes she delivers like the true artist she's always been. Fox' performance is much better tempered as one would expect, but she does keep up with Ashida. All in all, Our House is a sweet exploration of how a family can reshape itself after a tragedy, and another step in Ashida's progress towards world domination.

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I watched the series, "Our House (2016)" mainly for Mana Ashida; to see how the 12-year-old Mana-chan plays.

And I got shocked by how cold and un-Japanese the series is. After all, it's about a Japanese family, a unit supposedly with strong bonds.

Basically, the family replace each other more easily than one might change clothes. Only six months after the death of the mother, the father re-marries; in the meantime, the kids' big worry is to decide who can be their new mother. And then when they make a wrong choice, they are quick to go back to the alternative option. And despite all this, the series insists on convincing us that they love each other, WTF!

IMO, Mana does an excellent job to save the series, but the story is too ridiculous to be saved even by the greatest acting. Instead it's Mana's reputation that is damaged.

I hope in the future, Mana will play somewhere she deserves, so can show her amazing skills once more.

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