The story has all the seeds of an interesting and intriguing story - a jaded Fukuura Koharu who just went through a rough set of unfortunate events met a handsome doctor and widower, Izumisawa Daigo and saved him from imminent danger. This one act of kindness set off a chain of fairy tale-like sequences in return, luring her in to become part of Daigo's family. He's handsome, generous, and rich, with a pretty daughter who needs a mother's love. What could possibly go wrong?

Well, anything. What happens in the movie is a deliciously dark spiral down to madness, where everything comes crashing down in the end. Sometimes, you just need a story where everything goes wrong (or right, for them?) in the end, and if you're looking for one, then this is it. However, the development and pacing did not fully realize the movie's potential.

For one, Koharu's sudden decision around the 1hr. 30-min mark of the film came too suddenly that I need to pause for a while and rewind. Like what someone else on the comments and review section said, this would've worked better as a 3-episode drama because there's so much to unpack - there's a lot of symbolism and parallels that could've been more properly explored. As it is, it felt like they wanted to do too many things in the movie, and ended up rushing certain things (like the ending. that didn't make sense considering that the couple wreaked havoc on the school some few days before - no way should the authorities let them back in like that).

The OST is a gem, though, I've listened to it countless times since they released it on Spotify on February of this year, and to hear it in the movie made the dark spin on fairy tales all the more prominent. The film was also very aesthetic, it was very pleasing to the eye with a lot of scenic shots. The color grading was done tastefully - the colors either pop up or blend with shadows, depending on how the movie's progression.

Tsuchiya Tao doesn't disappoint - she truly does shine in dark roles. As much as I liked seeing her portray happiness and joy, it is in the movie's 2nd half did she truly shine. She lets herself loose, depicting Koharu's frustration, exhaustion, irritation, anger, and devastation with ease, you can clearly see the emotions on her face and with that, I must say that her work in Aishu Cinderella is one of her best, so far. Coco as Hikari did a great job of annoying me lol, but she still had a lot of room to grow for the scenes that shows Hikari's depth. Tanaka Kei as Daigo's also fun to watch, and like with Tao, I like seeing him best when he's getting unhinged (that dinner scene in the latter part of the movie's a delight to watch!).

All in all, Aishu Cinderella could've been so much more, it had a lot of potential but this wasn't fully realized due mainly to its pacing and development. However, one of the things it did right is show everyone the responsibility and role of parents as the primary teachers of their children. What you teach to your kids and how you deal with them will ultimately affect the kind of person that they will become in the future. And like what Koharu said, truly, how do you become a good mother?