overrated

This drama got a lot of attention and top ranking positions from various comparing sites, so I expected a lot more form it as it actually has.

The acting is very good, the chosen pieces for the soundtrack are excellent and refreshing (almost only parts of classical music).
The team had for sure classical music counseling, because many scenes concerning the actual play in orchestra are very carefully conceived and filmed. However, the leaders of the team for sure ignored these counsels several times. For the sake of some (arguably) unnecessarily tension creation they made such terrible decisions! Several situations and scenes in the first half of the drama are such ridiculously wrong! Even a person having nothing in common with a classical orchestra can easily realize that that situations/decisions are strangely far of any conceivable reality. There were so bad moments that I was several time on the point of stopping watching the next episode. However, during the second part, these moments became sparser.

Again, only due to the great acting and good human qualities this drama is an enjoyable one.
However, there is no depth and practically no difference in value to an easy going summer drama.
So, if you do not expect much, this might be about 99% worth the time watching it.

Leggi di Più

Masterpiece

This is an excellent thriller + psychological + criminal story.
I wonder if the screenplay is based on a manga. In any case it kept me interested.

I'd suggest that you prepare at least 2 hours and watch the first two episodes together.
If you do so, then you get the whole flavor of the story and a perfect
impression on the power and maturity of the two main actors.

There is no better match for the two characters than Ayase Haruka and
Takahashi Issei. Their acting is formidable! I enjoyed every second of
their fabulous work. I had to watch several times some parts (especially of the episodes 2 and 3),
because the multitude of expressions and feelings that were conveyed were overwhelming.
The other actors were also chosen very well and each of them did a great job.

After the 4th episode I wanted to watch very slowly, because I wanted to
prolong as much as possible the pleasure of seeing the actors at their best time.
10 episodes seemed not enough. However, the action is a bit rushed towards
the end, there is a clear limit of such a drama. I liked very much the end.
It might make possible a continuation, yet I do not believe that it could be as good
as this period.

The music isn't too bad, yet not enough to be noted. There are much less good dramas
of this kind with much better music.

This drama is 150% worth its time watching!

Leggi di Più

Pleasant and Modern

I watched this movie with English subtitles at a Japanese Film Festival.

I liked very much the movie, as most of the movies by this director.
While it is for sure an rt film, it is good enough to have success to the larger scale of audience.

Very impressive in this movie are the beautiful views: nature with mountains and lake with strips of fog,
but also the small streets in the shopping center in Tokyo, the lovely details of the old public bath,
the authentic small Japanese (but also Ethiopian) restaurants, the lovely portraits of the old men and women.
We feel the delicacy and the love of the film creators towards their subjects.

The story is credible at every moment and I feel it gives a good slice of life. It has the right amount of tragic
and of poetics.

Leggi di Più

Bad writing, not worth its watching time

This is a great example how a terrible writing can ruin a production.
It is not cheap, it is really bad. Small dialogues and jokes are OK, but the main line
and the plot as a whole is the lowest possible quality.
All the beautiful acting of the main leads and of the secondary ones is lost.

This writing is at his best when it does not exist. Fortunately, about 40% of the 16 times 1.5 hours
nothing happens, and that is the best of this writing. The remaining of the story is either
100% foreseeable or disrespectful towards the spectators or simply of bad taste
or terribly boring.

The music is carefully chosen and nice, though probably not at all perceivable outside of the show.
The music would not stand out by itself as is the case with the music of other shows.

It is one of the rare cases, where I had to struggle with myself to keep watching; I did it only
in order to be able to write this review knowing it all. Do not repeat my mistake!

In short: this show is not worth the time of watching it because of the terrible writing and despite of beautiful and good actors.

Leggi di Più

Fun!

Yami Baito Kazoku is a lighthearted funny comedy in very Japanese style.

The dialogs are fun and with various links to the usual stereotypes of the criminal yakuza series and other common places, nicely blended with some moments of sensibility.
Even if the story is at some point foreseeable, the amount of jokes and the absolute stunning acting of some of the trendy
Japanese actors help the scenario to a sufficiently interesting and captivating.
I found the theme song so cool that I always listened to it wholly, which I rarely do.
There are a few too obvious mistakes that could have been easily avoided when putting the cuts together, which is a pity, yet one can not take it too seriously, it is just a fun show.

All in one, it is 100% worth its watching time!

Leggi di Più

Too much, but art

A first episode absolutely great. The disclaimers at start and end of the episode make it even more funny and inciting to think!
Also the following few episodes are great. Though I think they overdo it and at some point the writer was clueless aht to do next.
Well, this confusion is typical for very good art, so I do not complain about it. Every little detail is well sought. The acting is also great. Yet thereis os much input that it becomes overwhelming, After the half of the episodes I found myself struggling to follow it. In my opinion there were too many allusions to TV shows and alike from the older time.

In a word, it is worth starting, but after seeing 50% of the episodes you can simply stop watching it, if you don't want to waste your time.

Leggi di Più

Surprisingly good

The writing is excellent, there is a lot of self-irony that is absolutely unexpcted in japanese drama.
The synopsis is a bit misleading. The driving theme is jealousy, but there are several levels of the stories
(yes there are several stories!). I found the acting excellent and the actors were very carefully and well chosen.
The whole is accompanied by the appropriate music. The short time of each episode contributes to an alert
rhythm; all unnecessary fillings were deleted. I was almost deceived by the final - a typical japanese one
- but the very last minutes are great: it is not 100% the expected japanese final!

Even if it is not the big revolution, this drama is much better than its actual renomee.
It is 100% worth its watching time!

Leggi di Più

100% lumped clichees

This drama benefices of several very cute and potentially promising actors.

However, this capital is ruined by several greedy production mistakes.
My initial enthusiasm vanished at about episode 5, but I watched it till the end.

The writing is dilettante: the story is based on a very rich and long manga.
Instead of making either a longer series (such that the actors can develop and
we may enjoy them for longer) or making a clever selection, the writer lumps
too much together, so much that the actors do not have the occasion to show
what they eventually could. The story rashes from one "kyun" moment to another.
There is zero opportunity for depth, very often there is no logic and
the acting is forced to be reduced to a minimum,
As a result, we get 10 episodes of 45 minutes each with 100% lumped clichees.

There is almost no camera work, sadly.

The director seemed to be focused only in product placement which is pushed
to hilarious limits (e.g. the clothes they were supposed to wear inside the sauna).
The whole gives the impression of a rushed, low cost, high profit production.

Unless you like these actors very much and you are fond of 100% clichees,
watching this drama is a loss if time.

This drama is worth about 25% of its watching time.

Leggi di Più

Perfection

This drama is brilliant. Each detail is thoroughly thought.
Even each tone and move of each actor during the opening song is perfectly matched
to the situation and way of being of the persons in the drama. This is why they put the actors
to "play" the song.

The drama is a great piece of art: starting from the excellent acting, going through
sophisticated camera work, a careful choice of wording and the amazing construction of the story.
Each every (short!) episode is build from a few very precise even shorter sequences
that some times are continued in other episodes such that a web of
different stories hangs together, giving a myriad of different images, different feelings,
different impressions on each of the persons. This construction and the way it is told to us
both together confer a veritable taste of real life.

The theme and the language are very unusual for a Japanese drama.
I watched many Japanese dramas mainly for listening to the language;
this one gave a new dimension to my Japanese knowledge. Sometimes
I wish to see the Japanese subtitles of it...

Leggi di Più

Art

I watched this movie in Japanese with English subtitles at a Japanese film Festivsal.

As I understand a bit of Japanese and due to my experience in watching dramas and movies that are subbed
by various persons with various skills, I was horrified by the provided official translations.
Fortunately, what was said had less importance than how it was said -- this is an art film.

The show consists of four unrelated stories; one actress is playing the main role in all of them,
hence it felt like four theater pieces. The acting is very good! A various range of feelings
are conveyed. It is not an easy movie -- I was a bit depressed and full of consideration
for what the Japanese people must have felt during the very hard time of covid.

Leggi di Più

Art

I watched this movie with English subtitles at a Japanese Film Festival.

It is an art film, a fact that you recognize from the first seconds till somewhere to the middle of the movie.
The work with the camera is very searched, at the begin it is really hard to follow its movements and
unexpected view angles, yet after a while you get used with it. The voice of the main lead tells the story
as she is writing her journal -- almost the whole movie.

The camera, the story, the acting -- all work together in order to convey very good the feelings that the creators
wanted to convey. Many of the spectators around me were crying or laughing or happily smiling or even singing
according to what happened on the screen.

I liked very much to see the power of friendship at action and the strength of the main lead.

Leggi di Più