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Kingyo Tsuma japanese drama review
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Kingyo Tsuma
1 persone hanno trovato utile questa recensione
by thegreengrym
feb 28, 2022
8 di 8 episodi visti
Completo
Generale 5.0
Storia 6.0
Attori/Cast 8.0
Musica 5.0
Valutazione del Rewatch 4.0
Questa recensione può contenere spoiler

Repetitive main story and underdeveloped side stories

No Spoilers Until Warning

Overall I thought that most of the stories were interesting and did a good job of showcasing common problems in marriages. However, the stories left something to be desired in terms of the endings. Most of the stories aren't resolved until literally the last ten minutes of the show and even then it's just brief conversations that hint at what happened. For some of the stories it's just a bit annoying and feels like it wasn't fleshed out, but a couple stories don't really get resolved. I get that it's a short drama, but it would have been nice if they cut back on drawing out the main story and instead left a few minutes for resolution of some of the more ambiguous endings.

MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Now I'll go ahead and break down the summaries and my thoughts by story.

The Fishbowl Wife:
This is the main story of the show, starting in episode one and continuing throughout the show. The husband is basically pure garbage; he cheats repeatedly, he hits her, he's extremely controlling, and she is living in fear. The explanation of his actions at the end took very little responsibility saying he did everything because he truly loved her and was afraid she'd leave him, so he kept testing her to be certain that no matter what he did, she would never leave. It also really annoyed me that the mistress said that the salon closing was because of the wife leaving and that the wife ends up helping to rebuild that salon instead of only building her own.
Her relationship with the goldfish store owner was also a bit repetitive. They just kept deciding to be together and then something would come up and they would be tested and separate and then eventually come together. First it was her husband and them feeling like she couldn't just leave that life forever so there's tension and then she decides to stay. Then his father says that she could ruin the company reputation and she leaves "for his sake" (even though the only person she was really helping was the father). She feels like she will only bring him trouble and he feels he has no right to date her because she kinda lost her career because of him so she runs away until he eventually comes for her exactly at the moment when her husband is trying to rape her. And then she comes back with him and stays while she's trying to get a divorce only to leave right after her divorce goes through so she can help her ex rebuild the salon. Then it's implied that they meet each other again at the fireworks two years later. I didn't get why they had to have the "break up for years and finally meet again" cliche but I guess they wanted her to figure herself out before they were together instead of growing together.

The Outsourcing Wife:
This was one of my least favorite because of the lack of conclusion. Basically, her husband doesn't want to have a kid yet (and maybe doesn't want to have sex with her at all, but unclear), but she does and feels like him not having sex with her to make a baby means he's no longer turned on by her. Again, it is not clear if she is right about this because he only rejects her advances twice. The first time she says she wants a baby and he says that they aren't ready financially and the second time he is already trying to sleep in bed and she gets on top of him and he says he's not in the mood and that they should just go to sleep. She gets bored and meets up with her ex who then forces her against a pillar and kisses her and then she pushes him away. He says that if she was irritated by him forcing himself onto her, then that means she is still turned on by him (like what?). After her husband rejects her for the second time and then a feng shui consultant touches her crotch and tells her that once soulmates touch their bodies don't want to be apart, she decides to sleep with her ex. She says it's a one time thing and she just wanted to make sure that someone was still turned on by her, but then he tells her he wanted to buy her a goldfish and that he loves her and they walk off together holding hands. And that's the end of their story until two years later she tells her friend she is pregnant but doesn't know who the father is (implying that her husband still wanted to and did sleep with her but that she's also still sleeping with her ex). So not really any resolution there. She was cheating with her ex and she still is.

The Lunchbox Wife:
This couple wanted to have a baby, but the husband isn't turned on by his wife anymore. But he does get aroused when she is with another man, so he gets a guy from the office to hold her hand and try to kiss her even though she is clearly uncomfortable with the situation. The office guy seems to really be into her and asks if she's okay with everything and then he says her name lovingly and then the husband cuts in and drags her off to the bedroom and tells office guy to leave. The feng shui lady says that the wife is a people pleaser who is restrained by her husband and that she should try to be more free. The next time, the wife seems to be aroused by how much office guy likes her cooking and they both get into it a bit until they're about to kiss and the husband drags her off again and the office guy hears them having sex. The next day office guy calls in sick, so the wife takes a bento to his apartment. He tells her that he won't come over anymore because he and the husband had hurt her feelings and she says it's for the best because she gets turned on by him enjoying her food. They look at each other for a second and then she runs over and they have sex. And again no resolution in this episode. In the two years later clip in the last few minutes of the drama, they show office guy eating a nice bento and the husband eating convenience store jelly bread implying that she left him for the office guy.

The Chaperone Wife:
The husband in this couple is shown a few times in other episodes trying desperately to secure a business deal with the garbage husband from the main story so he can make more money. His wife always stays inside and doesn't have any friends and drinks alone. Through flashbacks they show that she got him into running when they first got together. Then he got them the expensive condo for the nice view even though she didn't seem to care much about it. Then he tells her to quit her job and be a stay-at-home wife and he keeps cutting her off and the leaves for a meeting when she tries to say she doesn't want to. Then one day they're running and she's not feeling well and he tells her to go back home and he'll just finish the run without her which shows that she feels he is literally and figuratively leaving her behind. After that he is always working late and trying to make enough money to afford the nice condo when all she wanted was to spend time with him. She is miserable all alone and doesn't make friends with the other tower wives because they're mostly all elitist and live very lavish lives that she can't relate to. The husband tells her that she should come on a run with him because it would be good for her to get out. She wants to go but says no because he's telling her to come like it was something they would be doing for her sake and not something they would enjoy together. She storms out and is comforted by garbage husband who says that it's hard when you can't connect to your partner. Feng shui lady listens to her say that everything has gone wrong since they came to the condo and tells her that to change her feng shui she needs to run, no matter where. So she runs to garbage husband at which point I was ready to slam my fist into my table. As he's kissing her body, she has a slightly uncomfortable look and then her phone rings. Her husband got advice from another married runner that he should run with her at her pace and support her to see what he was missing. So he tells her that he's sorry and he's literally running back to Tokyo for her and then his phone dies. So then she runs towards him and then when she sees him, she apologizes to him for everything and not communicating (which annoyed me a bit because after all that he just says I'm sorry too and they hug). Two years later it shows them running together and when she stops to tie her shoe, he waits and then they keep running together.

The Headache Wife:
This story went on for two episodes because the writers thought they were being clever and that they'd have a huge plot twist in the second part that completely changes everything, but I guessed in the first five minutes of seeing them together that they were married and she couldn't remember him because she blocked him out after he cheated and she kicked him out. Every episode she was in before this she would be in a conversation and infidelity would come up and she would get a headache. Half of her personality was just yelling that infidelity was wrong and holding her fingers to her temple. I was just waiting for an episode and a half for them to reveal their real relationship. But I guess for anyone who couldn't figure that out it would just be an okay two episodes watching her be tortured by her views on infidelity but feeling extremely drawn to this random man she happened to meet at the river. So she starts sleeping with him at his new apartment and her son realizes this and tries to force her to remember by saying he knows her secret. Instead, she has a massive headache and is too weak to move for a night, so she decides to end it with him. But then she sees a picture of the three of them together with goldfish which leads her to the goldfish shop where her husband also happens to be. He apologizes for cheating and lying when they met again but he really wanted to be with her. They seem to reconnect and two years later they are living together again at his new apartment and not in the condo tower.

The Renovation Wife:
This one is another without closure. In this episode we see the reappearance of one of garbage husband's mistresses. Turns out she was married to a guy who never listens to her and always favors his MIL (mother-in-law). She copes with his inattentiveness by cheating. They're building a house together for them, their two kids, and the MIL and whatever the MIL says goes. The wife connects with a construction worker after MIL says that the bruise on his forehead is off-putting because the wife actually has a similar bruise that she's been covering for years with makeup. Then the husband walks in on her removing the makeup before bed and ask if she could start keeping it on whenever MIL is around when they all live together. She is upset but says okay as long as they can add another bathroom for her to remove and apply makeup and the husband says that it makes sense and agrees. She is happy that she'll have that one room where she can be herself, but when the MIL sees it on the plans she asks if she has any problem sharing a bathroom with her and she says she doesn't. The mama's boy obviously says nothing in her defense, so the MIL removes the bathroom from the plans so they don't waste money. She leaves saying she needs to get groceries and the worker follows her out. They have sex and then she comes back and tells her husband she's fine without the bathroom. That's all for the episode and then two years later she's still married to him and also still cheating.

Final Thoughts:
In my opinion, cheating is one of the worst things you can do in a relationship. I think that if your relationship is broken enough that you cheat, then you should just end the relationship. However, I understand that it isn't that simple for a lot of married women, especially in Asia. I'm not saying that I support the actions of all of these women, but I think that this drama did well in showing that there can be some gray areas where cheating seems like the only escape from marital problems. Again, I don't support infidelity, but in a few of these cases I can see why it came to that. Overall though, the drama didn't flesh out all of the stories and the main story seemed to be written by figuring out how many ways they could be split them apart and then bring them back together. It may have only been a few times, but in an eight episode drama with only forty minute episodes, it seemed like that's all they were doing.
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