I Don't Love You Yet (2019)

I've finally finished this drama today. I remember looking at the poster and thinking it was interesting and started it without knowing which drama's remake it was. LOL because the original one is my most favourite story in dramaland of all time - easily in top 3.

I love the premise of best friends to lovers. Think of it as an Asian 'When Harry Met Sally' but with more heart and more dialogue. That is probably not the most accurate description but it is a nice story nonetheless. I think it is not as good as the Taiwanese one but better than the Korean one. Ishida Ren is so lovable and the perfect guy that could be. Mitarai is selfish and flawed but here she came off as less mean than Ariel Lin's portrayal in the original one.

The story is predictable but not as cliche as one might expect. The romance between the leads is a slow burn and you would just be longing for action all the time ; but there is little of it. It's not a fast paced drama but still a lot happens in every episode to keep one entertained. I really enjoyed the premise of Shibuya and the execution of all subplots.

I must say the casting was very well done in this one. The only miscast was Mitarai's boyfriend and because the original version guy was so good. I feel like this is a very good version and adaptation and you can enjoy it even if you didn't watch the original. The main leads are fantastic and everything is nice and lovely. The emotions will get you and Ishida Ren will win you over no matter. Watch it for him. The actor is awesome and that's all I can say.

It is a nice break from mean "bad" boys of dramas who treat the girl like crap. It is nice to see the nice guy as the lead but after a while you wonder if he's the second lead after all. Just watch it in one go. It's worth a weekend binge watch.

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If you have lots of patience then you should watch it.

It was good but just good for me cause I'm not fan of slow paced dramas they quite a lot irritate me sometimes and I hate misunderstandings and miscommunication I guess that's why I didn't liked this drama that much.

But I do loved the friendship between them! I felt that it could have been executed in the better way, I liked FL's character she was independent and hard working but I didn't liked some of her decisions that's why I was annoyed by it sometimes. But I felt it was kind of realistic that we all do some mistakes in life and we should know when to backoff and correct them .... even if it's late. Aww and I really liked ML I mean he was such a gem and did many things without any expectations.

It's not normal length jdrama it's quite long... but you'll enjoy journey even sometimes it's get irritating but you'll like it's ending... sometimes ending is memorable than the journey itself.

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Since I started to watch dramas, In Time With You has been one of my favourites dramas. I remember the first time I watched the T-drama version and how I felt about this story. It's not a perfect story, there is some flaws, but at the same time it's so poetry and has so deep meaning that I still think this story is very underrated by people who watch dramas. I think this story is the best when we talk about this kind of this situation "friends to love".
The fact is, some people misunderstand the meaning of what this story want to tell us. It's not about love or dating, but it's about friendship and how firendship is more important than love. We see that in our main characters. It's not about a guy who wants to be more than a friend. It's about a guy who likes a girl, but loves her friendship. I think the drama gives us a messange that may be hard, but we need to accept. I think others dramas that talks about this kind situation failed in develop this messange and that's why I like so much this drama.
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But talking about this version. I think is more developed than the others one, but unfortunatelly the end was not so good as the T-drama. I also think there is more good songs in the first one than in this one. And I also think Bo-lin did a better job in some scenes. But besides that, I don´t have anything more to complain. They clearly transmited what the story mean and I also think they showed us more interactions between our main leads. In this version we have a Yo less selfish and more independent. I really liked the fact that they didn´t change her work. I also like the fact that in this version they showed us more her love for Ren.
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Overall, this drama is also more mature than the others one and its also more closer than the korean one. It was my first time seeing the actor who plays Ren, but he is really good and now I'm hoping I can see more dramas with him.

I think we guys need to watch this drama, but thinking about the meaning of the title. There is a reason why the T-drama is named In time With You. And there is a reason why the japaneses prefer to translate as I don´t love you yet. Try to understand the name, before talk bad about the plot.

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A letdown

I really wanted to love this one and I did really like the first couple episodes, but after that it was a letdown.
When a drama is 16 episodes long, I expect at least some exploration of the main couple in it. Instead, we got lovely friendship scenes (which were great and necessary in Jdramas in my opinion) and even more cringeworthy side-couple moments that really didn't add anything. I'm not going to comment on the many problematic issues in those relationships because I'm aware of the cultural barrier -but the fact is the script became draggy and boring. Mizusawa, a major character who played a big role in Yo's life, was poorly written and didn't make sense most of the time. Yo herself became someone else besides him and that was never even addressed.
And, as for the main couple, we saw plenty of them as best friends and as awkward almost-ex-friends, but they didn't become a couple till the very end, which was far from satisfactory.
The theme is beautiful -settle for someone who knows and understands you, rather than just based on passion. But they didn't develop it in 16 episodes. (The Japanese assumption that men and women can't be just friends is another thing).
So, to me it was a too long, too dragged story with inconsistent characters and many boring moments.
What I loved - the friendship, the styles Yo wore all the time, the acting, the takoyaki.

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♡ 僕はまだ君を愛さないことができる ♡

This drama is about Mitarai Yo is a career woman who works for a shoemaker. She finds her work rewarding and has successfully advanced in her career. But she keeps having her heart broken and her romantic life has not gone well lateIy Ishida Ren works for a developer. He is her best friend since high school, but he actually has feelings for her, she sees him as a friend and she gets back to her old boyfriend who one day had disappeared out of the blue, but Ren was always there for her, anything she needed he was always by her side.
Ren goes to Shanghai for his Job and Yo misses him,she goes to Shanghai to meet him and finally realises that she always had feelings for him,but never had admitted it.

This drama was long but It became one of my top favourites, I really like Ren and yo together♡♡♡

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If you kinda want to watch it, go! No regrets.

Whoever directed this, needs a raise! I'm not sure why but something's different about the tone of this drama compared to all jdramas I've watched. It's somehow beautifully shot but I can't really point out how because I'm not an expert regarding cinematography. They do use a variety camera cuts and positioning that sets this a level higher than your usual romantic jdrama.
The main lead actors were so convincing too! Their characters were carefully made and nothing the characters did felt too far from who they are. The supporting actors were not too far in terms of performance. My least favorite being the young coffee guy but even he brought charm to his character. The supporting actors playing the immediate family members of the leads were pretty good too.
For the story, I think it comes with a person's personal taste but I mean no story is in danger when the characters are well-aligned.
This jdrama is at a high place in my list of jdramas I would recommend first timers and just anyone else.
Edit: just found out that the screenplay writer for this is the same as the one for Mischievous Kiss: Love in Tokyo aka Itazura no Kiss which is really well-paced too for an adaptation of a messy-paced manga

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Everytime I finish the story I would think "one of the best things that can happen to you is probably to have your best friend as partner". There might not be many surprises but s/he is the one who knows you the best and who you can be yourself with. S/he is the first one you think of no matter if it is during good or bad times.

This is the third version of "In Time With You" that I have watched. I like it just as much as the original one. There's a message that they want to convey in each episode. The characters are flawed but that's also what makes the story feel more real. It helps a lot too that Rika and Jin (the actress and actor who play Yo and Ren) have such good chemistry. Their interactions feel natural and you can't help but smile everytime they are together. They portrayed their roles well individually too. The way Jin looks at Rika is so gentle and full of love. Rika is good as well, especially in emotional scenes. Although you most likely will get frustrated at her character, you can't help but feel sorry for her when she cries.
So among the three versions (Taiwanese, Korean and Japanese) I like this couple the best. Thus I gave the acting/casting 10/10, despite that I think they could have found another actor to play Ryusei (the 2nd male lead).

For those of you who like this type of genre (best friends liking each other) I think "In Time With You/I Don't Love You Yet" is a must-watch! If you have already watched the original one I think you will like this one as well. It follows the original story closely but with some Japanese elements added to it and also a bit alternations to the events that makes everything more reasonable.

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This took me some time to finish. I was liking the first few episodes but got a bit tired halfway.. I have seen the original Taiwanese version #InTimeWithYou and I knew how things will turn out but I always give chances to remakes. Remaking a classic, outstanding drama could be nerve-wracking both to the artists and to the audience who loved the original version. I myself was particularly nervous at the same time excited with this Japanese version since knowing Japan, they less likely disappoint you than Korean in terms of remakes. And indeed, their version stood their ground.

It was a solid remake/drama over-all. They have followed closely the original version, unlike the Korean remake who made their own take to the story and ended up a disaster. The actors played their part really well. Though I must say that their interactions here show us that they're more than lovers than friends which I find a bit awkward to watch. In the Taiwanese, their relationship was really like those of a close friend with a clear boundary. Here, I feel like there's none. Maybe it is in the execution? And that's why I can't root for Ren the way I did for Li Da Ren.

The show for me lacked some emotional aspect compared to the original one. The highschool background story was kinda shallow and it didn't much show that Ren has a life/friends outside other than being with his family and Yo. The original version has showed family side stories which the Japanese lacked. The show is a 16-episode drama (kinda rare for a Jdrama) but the ending didn't show much sweet moments and relationship progress of the main leads. If you have ever watched the Taiwanese version, you will know why many were saying that it had one of the most satisfying endings ever. They almost dedicated 1 whole episode for the otp - from their friends to lovers to being a married couple to fighting over their principles to their daily lives as husband and wife. Maybe it has to do more of their culture? Taiwanese have a more bold approach than this Japanese remake.

BTW, I liked Adachi Rika's portrayal here. Her smile and her acting is just so sweet. Guess they were really aiming for a tamer version here since, with the Taiwanese version, Cheng You Ching was more of the aggressive and arrogant type - very typical of a LEO.

If you haven't watched the other versions of the drama, most probably, you will like this one. Though honestly, if you are a girl, you will really want to have a guy best friend if you watch the Taiwanese version than this.

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It's taken me a while to finally sit down and write a review for this drama, which I guess makes sense, because it took me awhile to finish watching the drama. I think this is a fairly popular drama, and I personally liked a lot of things about it. But there is one reason (well, two problems that compile together to make one big reason) you might not want to watch this drama. I'm not trying to discourage anyone from watching it, because I think I Don't Love You Yet has a lot to make it worth watching. But this one reason creates a lot of frustration when watching, and it's a common complaint about the drama even by those who love it, so I'm just going to lay it out for you and let you make up your mind from there.

If you hate the Love Octopus (my term for love triangles/squares/hexagons/trapeziums/parallelograms/the part of the drama that so often sends you into spiraling despair) ...you will not like this drama. There is a love square, and one side is particularly infuriating. The first half of the drama is fine. The second female lead provides moments of irritation in her role as part of the love square, but she's more like a fly that's gotten inside your house and likes to buzz around your head every so often then a wasp/bee that's actively trying to sting you to death. But the second half of the drama spends an obnoxiously long time in the Love Octopi territory with the worst example of an 'ex comes back' trope I think I have ever seen. Yes, the female leads ex-boyfriend comes back, and he is the Literal. WORST. He is so incredibly controlling of the female leads life when he's around, trying to manipulate and maneuver her to suit his own desires with no regard to her wants or needs. He's basically the stereotypical male lead jerk but who never grows or changes except until the Very End, and by that point, it's completely unbelievable seeing him as a nice guy and it would have been better if the writers had left him a jerk.

That's enough of a problem for the story on its own, but it unfortunately leads to a separate problem that makes the Love Square even more difficult to bear. Once the ex-boyfriend returns, the female lead becomes (almost) unendurably frustrating. I guess I can't say it's she's truly unendurable, because I obviously did endure it in order to finish the drama, but the female lead puts up with a lot of nonsense from a guy who once utterly wrecked her and whom she may not even be in love with anymore. He was incredibly selfish when they were first together, then he broke her heart out of nowhere disappearing into the night to go focus on thinking only about himself some more, and since then, the female lead has created a life for herself including a career she loves and a dawning recognition of her feelings for her best friend. And yet, Mr. Attack Wasp comes back, and we're supposed to believe that what they once had together is so valuable she would be willing to overlook his egregious behavior.

Maybe this could have worked if I had been able to relate to the female lead and her complicated feelings for this man. Old relationships like theirs can be very hard to get over, and even years later, you can still experience the pangs of hurt and disappointment and pining. But the female lead is already a bit of a frustrating character without the added torture of her terrible ex. The truth is, she is very self-involved. She's not mean or demanding or spiteful or anything like that. But she's very clearly been ignoring the poor male leads feelings for her for a long time, and truthfully, she's kind of taken advantage of those feelings. That and it's just patently obvious that she shouldn't get back together with her ex and there's no strong feeling on her part to suggest she would even want to to begin with.

So if you hate the Love Octopus, if you hate when the ex-boyfriend/girlfriend comes back, if you hate when one of the leads is a little too self-involved, you will definitely hate those things here. The reason, however, I still say this drama may be worth watching, is because I like literally everything else about it. There's no denying the actors are basically perfect for their roles, and even in the face of the female leads selfishness, I like both of the leads and I like them Together. I also think the finale is basically perfect, and watching it Almost erased my previous frustration with the story. Almost.

But the Love Octopus puts in a very valiant effort at strangling the life out of the story, and it had no right to do that.

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Having not seen the original, I had nothing to compare it to

I have to say that my review is totally based upon my enjoyment of this show. It was beautifully filmed, and I like the pace of Japanese shows, they tend to give you enough back story without re-playing things over and over again. Adachi Rika as Yo was good (I understand that she's more likeable here than in the original) and Shirasu Jin was excellent as Ren. He was the "perfect" man. My problem was this. Yo's ex-boyfriend was a scumbag (which is why she broke up with him in the first place) and he comes back into the picture and we aren't given any reason to think that he's changed. He came off as sleazy and I could not see what Yo would see in him, especially if you put the two men next to one another. When she got involved with him again, I felt that it was just because she needed a boyfriend, not that she still loved him. I didn't buy that relationship at all. Then when she finally wakes up and gets a clue we get a rushed ending. I have to say the ending with the family and the shoes was very touching and I shed some tears, but I would have liked to have seen them together as a romantic couple a little more. The scenes with them as friends were very enjoyable.

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