Zypker124
I am unashamedly fascinated by the topic of "taboo romances", including student-teacher romances, and given the unfortunate lack of tackling such subject matter in dramas/movies Chugakusei Nikki immediately caught my eye. Despite the initial backlash it unfortunately got for simply tackling the subject matter, it opened up to strong initial reviews and word of mouth, and with the lack of great (or even good) dramas/movies about these kinds of taboo romances I headed into this drama really wanting to like it.
Now, if you've scanned my numerical ratings, you'll know where my review is heading. When I was watching it, I had a really hard time getting through the series and dropped the series in the middle before re-picking it up in the end to see if it got better (in my opinion, it didn't). I'll just jump straight into my problems with it:
1) Pacing is really, really slow. Some people may appreciate this (probably most, if the high reviews here are any indication), but this drama could have easily been condensed into a 90-minute movie and was instead stretched over 11 episodes. I'm guessing they wanted the slow burn to show the teacher slowly develop feelings for the student and show how genuine it was, but that leads to my next problem:
2) Chemistry is lacking. In most dramas I've heard of, even if the actual drama itself is lacking, the main couple is usually praised as having good chemistry, so this was the first drama I've felt like in which the two really didn't have chemistry (and keep in mind I don't care about the taboo stigma surrounding it). The way they paced the attraction made little sense to me: the male lead figures out his feelings almost immediately out of nowhere while the female lead spends so much time with the male lead and gives no visual indication she has feelings for the male lead, and it's only after the male lead advances on her that she's "convinced" she has feelings for the male lead. Which leads into my third point:
3) The male lead character is unlikeable and a stalker, and more importantly didn't fit the story they were going for. It feels uncharacteristic with how quickly and confidently he chases after the female lead, because he is shown with a reserved persona yet has no qualms trying to fiercely pursue this would-be-taboo relationship. My main problem with why this doesn't work is because he acts like a tsundere, and usually in a taboo drama you'd want to see the taboo couple as the underdogs, as they are going against society's rules, but his tsunderish personality makes him hard to be viewed as such as an underdog. And even excluding the taboo part of the relationship, what he does in the drama to get the female lead is stalker-y and basically assault, and people only don't count it as assault because she miraculously turned out to like him after all.
4) The female lead exerts little agency in the story, again diminishing the characterizations of the relationship. She only makes decisions when it is forced upon her and otherwise is completely subject to the wills of other people surrounding her. Her lack of agency combined with lack of chemistry made me feel like she was borderline seduced by the male lead into the relationship, and that on her own she wouldn't have wanted it. The actress is also very painful to watch and doesn't seem like she knows how to act, which is rare for me to feel like since usually I can't spot "bad acting", but man the actress really sealed the deal for me in terms of not liking this drama.
5) Every other character in the drama (including the secondary couple) is flat and uninteresting, only serving as plot devices to provide conflict for the main characters. The secondary couple is just a boring "Will they won't they" storyline, except nothing of importance happens at all during their storyline and I have no idea why it was included in the show.
I'm sure there's more stuff I didn't like about the drama, but I wanted to focus on the essentials that took away the intrigue of the drama for me. I appreciate the show's cinematography and its foray into controversial subject matter, but the execution left a lot to be desired for me.
Now, if you've scanned my numerical ratings, you'll know where my review is heading. When I was watching it, I had a really hard time getting through the series and dropped the series in the middle before re-picking it up in the end to see if it got better (in my opinion, it didn't). I'll just jump straight into my problems with it:
1) Pacing is really, really slow. Some people may appreciate this (probably most, if the high reviews here are any indication), but this drama could have easily been condensed into a 90-minute movie and was instead stretched over 11 episodes. I'm guessing they wanted the slow burn to show the teacher slowly develop feelings for the student and show how genuine it was, but that leads to my next problem:
2) Chemistry is lacking. In most dramas I've heard of, even if the actual drama itself is lacking, the main couple is usually praised as having good chemistry, so this was the first drama I've felt like in which the two really didn't have chemistry (and keep in mind I don't care about the taboo stigma surrounding it). The way they paced the attraction made little sense to me: the male lead figures out his feelings almost immediately out of nowhere while the female lead spends so much time with the male lead and gives no visual indication she has feelings for the male lead, and it's only after the male lead advances on her that she's "convinced" she has feelings for the male lead. Which leads into my third point:
3) The male lead character is unlikeable and a stalker, and more importantly didn't fit the story they were going for. It feels uncharacteristic with how quickly and confidently he chases after the female lead, because he is shown with a reserved persona yet has no qualms trying to fiercely pursue this would-be-taboo relationship. My main problem with why this doesn't work is because he acts like a tsundere, and usually in a taboo drama you'd want to see the taboo couple as the underdogs, as they are going against society's rules, but his tsunderish personality makes him hard to be viewed as such as an underdog. And even excluding the taboo part of the relationship, what he does in the drama to get the female lead is stalker-y and basically assault, and people only don't count it as assault because she miraculously turned out to like him after all.
4) The female lead exerts little agency in the story, again diminishing the characterizations of the relationship. She only makes decisions when it is forced upon her and otherwise is completely subject to the wills of other people surrounding her. Her lack of agency combined with lack of chemistry made me feel like she was borderline seduced by the male lead into the relationship, and that on her own she wouldn't have wanted it. The actress is also very painful to watch and doesn't seem like she knows how to act, which is rare for me to feel like since usually I can't spot "bad acting", but man the actress really sealed the deal for me in terms of not liking this drama.
5) Every other character in the drama (including the secondary couple) is flat and uninteresting, only serving as plot devices to provide conflict for the main characters. The secondary couple is just a boring "Will they won't they" storyline, except nothing of importance happens at all during their storyline and I have no idea why it was included in the show.
I'm sure there's more stuff I didn't like about the drama, but I wanted to focus on the essentials that took away the intrigue of the drama for me. I appreciate the show's cinematography and its foray into controversial subject matter, but the execution left a lot to be desired for me.
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