Story:
Typical josei romance plot (you'll appreciate this if you're a manga reader). Boy meets girl, the guy fell in love with her, then he pursues the girl. Actually the plot is just ordinary, except for a unique twist that the guy is a monk. The comedic dialogues are present which are good, and I guess that what makes this charming (for me anyway). But what I really liked about the story is honestly the guy's character. His personality is really charming in an enchanting way. I don't know but I developed a deep affection to the main lead not only because of his physical appearance but his character development as well. The girl is our typical josei woman (if you read josei manga, then you know what I mean).
Acting/Casting:
Such handsome and pretty people, I must admit. XD Well, I liked how the actors and actresses (esp the main leads) portrayed their respective roles. I haven't read the manga yet so I can't really say if they had portrayed it well but I can assure you they are really good. Good enough to make my emotions sway every damn episode easily. Ugh, I just so love them all.
Music:
BACK NUMBER IS THE BEST! XD YOU SHOULD LISTEN TO IT. YOU'LL DEFINITELY LOVE IT. HAHA Even though I look like I'm promoting, the OST "back number" really suits this show well. I fell in love with this song first before I fell in love with the show, so if you're still skeptical 'bout watching this, then I advise you to at least try listening to the OST. It made me appreciate the show more, maybe it could persuade you as well.
Overall:
I rated this 10/10 in MDL (personal taste hehe) but I'll go now with 9/10. It's really a good one. I rarely get feels when watching Japanese drama but I must say this is an exception. Maybe because I watched this during Christmas eve and Christmas day. HAHA Welp, I don't really know. But I really like the roller coaster of emotions this drama awakened in me. It made me realize that falling in love is not an easy thing. Again. It brings you pain, suffering, tears, frustrations (lololol hint: lots of drama at the end so beware) but as well as happiness, smiles, laughter, and hope. But at the end of the day, you'll still choose to fall in love despite of the pain it will bring in your heart. Because as they say, love can keep the sadness at bay. It will cure a painfully broken heart as well as warming a cold frozen heart buried with time.
Have a happy holidays. :)
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I had my reservations before beginning this show, since I'm no fan of religiously oriented stories. Should you hesistate for the same reason, rest assured that, aside from the beautiful temple that plays as a setting and a few sutras read in the background, the monk hero is less religious than me - if possible.
In fact, here's one of those rare examples in rom-coms where the leads have physical desires. That a monk has to take more icy showers than your average CEO to suppress his wordly lust is an entertaining concept. Not to mention that, if you're a fan of Yamapi you may find this habit of his very pleasing.
As I said, there's a lot to laugh about while watching. Indeed, I'd say this is a rom-COM, where the comedic aspect wins over the romance. The romantic aspect, on the other hand, is seesawing, and I found myself laughing at the couple, hating the couple, loving the couple, re-hating it and re-loving it. There are in all respect more couples to enjoy here, even though I personally loved the side characters as a whole, not paired, if that makes any sense.
Don't expect some deep characterization because, in perfect from-manga-to-live-action style, the stress is on the characters' present actions, rather than how they came to this point. Hints, however, are given now and again, and I personally found those touching and well played out.
Out of the lot, I found the best acting performance to be that of Satomi Ishihara, solid, elegant and believable. A pity her character undergoes a few unwatchable tests that made me cringe on my womanly seat, but that's the plot and the actress won the challenge whether she had to be spunky or sad.
Yamashita's character requires him to be hilariously robotic, something he does very well, since he manages to convey quite a lot through his eyes. I appreciate this trait of him and loved it here. This monk can stretch your patience to its limits, but it turns out he's truly endearing and I'm very happy at his decision by the end - and I'm not referring to the very end.
Music? Nothing to talk about.
I think I'll rewatch this one day, either because I'm a rewatcher by nature or simply because it managed to draw me out of a slump with some welcomed laugh and a deserved (?) Yamapi fix.
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This isn`t the best JDRAMAS have to offer ¬ Though you`ll think that because of all the top lists
The purpose of my review basically boils down to the headline: This drama is in ALL the top lists recommending Japanese dramas to viewers- and they are utterly WRONG. And this mess shouldn`t be blamed on being an adaptation - That`s too much leeway. A Story To Read When You First Fall in Love, Love Lasts Forever and Hans Yori Dango are all dramas adapted from romance drama material. Only, these cases had caring writers who fixed what was wrong(if anything) and added to people wanting to see them. That`s why it`s called an ADAPTATION, not shot-for-shot(or panel-for-panel) remake. I`m well acquainted with the original mangaka of this drama and most of her work(because she has been working for a long time) is grounded in the popular points of the past, when readers weren`t really that concerned with how creepy even the whole premise is. Most of her male leads are exasperating, arrogant and on-the-nose willful, so I wasn`t surprised by that going into it.What I am surprised about, however, is, though I haven`t read the manga, I`m familiar with her stuff enough to know that the writers probably stuck to most of how things were in the manga. And if my hunch is right, let me ask:Why?Love Lasts Forever`s Kairi was, in the manga, very possessive, manipulative and overall overbearing. However, the drama`s version doesn`t even possess a fraction of those misgivings and that`s thanks to very talented writing team. So what happened here?A drama can retain the feelings of the manga without having to abide by every plot point and reason. In fact, if you see that the material you are supposed to ADAPT is too outdated for your audience, then fix those elements accordingly. I am really struggling with director`s vision here. Now, onto the acting, which was serviceable, but overshadowed by absolute godawful character building. I`ve seen this drama a few months ago and I just kept thinking, Why would these two end up together?Why is he such a nonce and a whole stalker?Why are we abandoning her wanting to be ambitious and forward thinking, to turn her into yet another female lead won over by constant following and borderline harassment?There is absolutely no connection or chemistry between the characters here. I finished this drama feeling both weirded out and worried for those who put this in their favorite Japanese dramas. Just...don`t.
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The other couples in the drama - of which there were many - were adorable too and the ending wrapped things up nicely; just not in the way you'd necessarily expect for everyone. Of course there will be many who will suffer 'Second Lead Syndrome' - but with this drama there may even be a few suffering a new disease called 'THIRD Lead Syndrome' as the main female character has THREE men in love with her.
I really have to recommend this drama though - it is funny in places as you have a man and his grandparents living in a mindset better suited to the TWELFTH century and a possible bride living in the REAL twenty-first century. Of course the fact that the main character has a younger brother also quite happy to reside in the real world mindset whilst living amongst family doggedly determined to remain at least EIGHT HUNDRED years BEHIND everyone else in the world also adds to the story (and let's remember, not even the Amish live in a mindset THAT far back).
The difference in cultural attitudes causes many lighter moments; but it's also responsible for darker ones towards the end - not least from the evil grandmother, and occasionally from the 'bad boy' younger brother. You will find yourself crying, laughing and repeatedly face palming at regular intervals. I was even reduced to table and wall palming - which only really happens when face palming just isn't enough any more.
BE WARNED - you WILL find yourself INVENTING swear words for the grandmother by the end of the last episode.
SIDE NOTE - for those who remember Furukawa Yuki most for his role as 'Irie-kun' in 'Love in Tokyo 1 and 2' it's likely to be as strange for them as it was for me to see him not only actually speaking in a human way, but is also animated and emotional in his role here as Mishima Satoshi. He even SMILES - like properly SMILES. He's clearly a good actor; because as Irie-kun he was almost a cyborg compared to his 'normal' character here. Please give 'From 5 to 9' a watch - you honestly won't regret it.
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How is it possible to get bored with only 10 episodes!?!?
The first few episodes rushed the whole story along and then they had to backtrack and add problems to fill in the rest of the episodes. I couldn't wait to finish this one. For me, this fell in the camp of "that's time I'll never get back."Here are some of the problems that I had: 1) why did he like her? From just seeing her? 2) the ML was very one-dimensional, showed absolutely no emotion whatsoever throughout the show; 3) the FL starts out somewhat strong and has career goals for herself, and ended up just giving everything up for him; 4) Look up stalker in the dictionary - ML's picture will be there; 5) the show was unbalanced, it tried to go from ROMCOM to farce and then started to take itself seriously; 6) Almost every man in this show liked the FL. Why? 7) Large cast with inadequate development of characters. Grandmother was the cliche "bad guy" and the brother seemed to be thrown in to try to further the story and that whole storyline was not addressed in a way that made any sense; 8) No chemistry between the leads; 9) she spends a lot of time, in essence telling him to go away and not be a stalker, but then she's in love with him. Again, why?
This is a show that was actually irritating me as I watched it. For one reason, I think I've only ever dropped one drama and I felt compelled to complete this one, and that made me mad. As I was watching it, I just felt that, the leads especially, were just going through the motions. I couldn't relate to them and I didn't care about them.
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Felt more like 2005 than 2015.
I enjoy Japanese rom-coms for how cringe they often are, but this show just took a few too many steps too far. While the beginning was so ridiculous, it was actually entertaining, at some point I just got tired watching.All the men in this drama were a mess and should stay single looking for a therapist rather than a girlfriend. God bless Kimura Arthur for being the only good guy. Kiyomiya Makoto also had his moments and great potential to be the lead.
On paper I should like it, but there was something… cheap about this writing. Random stereotypical feminine gay men, child stripping professing their love towards female lead, random almost sexual assault to give a chance for ML to save FL, awful future mother-in-law, both best friend and boss being in love with female lead, but then this leading nowhere and barely being addressed, questionable romance with teenager. And most of this just felt meaningless and useless.
The leading couple? Insufferable. I honestly wanted the drama to end with a tragic ending, and the idea of them together just annoyed me. The male lead was a weak selfish ass, and the female lead was a true doormat cross-dressing as a competent lady.
What’s more? I wanted to make it a murder mystery “Who killed the grandma” and end it with an open ending - the culprit getting away with it, never being found. That’s a happy ending I would be satisfied with.
While the ending was great, the characters were just not it. Hard to enjoy the performances, when you don’t even want to see the characters on screen…
Overall, had a fun and ridiculous start, but somehow ended up more boring than entertaining. Did not like the ending at all, the closure for many plotlines felt too easy to achieve taking into consideration all that happened throughout the show.
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stalking, kidnapping and crushing a girls dreams
what were the writers thinking when they made this?? stockholm syndrome at its finest. dropped after episode three when he bribed a judge to make her fail her english exam so she couldn’t go to america which was her life long dream under the delusion that he should be with her. it’s absolutely insane to think that there would be a love story after this.the female lead is beautiful but that’s just about it. The male lead is robotic and there’s no chemistry at all. I would give this 0 out of 10 if I could because the ratings are far too high.
DONT RECCOMEND AT ALL
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I had been craving some Yamapi and I haven't seen him in anything romantic since Buzzer Beat. All the glowing comments and the main couple were enough to convince me to watch this drama. While I have not read the manga, I still liked the story. It was cute and refreshing. I went in to watching it without realizing that Yamapi plays a monk here (yes, really!) and it turned out to be hilarious. Although he would have been hotter in Western clothes, traditional suited him nonetheless. Plus, he had enough of shirtless scenes to keep me satisfied.
I loved the cast. They were all good-looking and easily likable. The best part of the drama were its multiple love stories instead of focusing too much on who the main girl would end up with. There wasn't a single couple I disliked and I liked all permutations and combinations of all characters with each other. Lol. However, the highlight of this drama for me was the love story between Arthur and Momoe. I just could not get enough of them and Arthur was pure pleasure to watch. The actor impressed me immensely and I might check out more of his works. Plus, he spoke really good English!
I expected the drama to not drag at all, but it did and became repetitive towards the end. The will-they-wont-they drew out too much even though the answer was obvious by midway. But, the characters in the family and at ELA never became dull. The temple characters (especially granny, you stupid woman) weren't my favorite except the little kid who killed me with cuteness. <3
The music was okay and nothing fantastic. The strength of the drama lies in the cast who did a wonderful job and an interesting part was the amount of English spoken in the drama. The cast did seemed to have worked hard on their English speaking and I guess it must have been hard for them to memorize so many lines. So kudos to that.
The ending was cheesy and the main love line annoyed me a bit towards the end. However, it was good entertainment throughout and I enjoyed watching the drama. However, it is not really worth a rewatch apart from Arthur-Momoe scenes (BL!!!!).
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This review may contain spoilers
Can we. Please. Stop Romanticizing. Abuse?!
He's a stalker. There, I saved you 10h of your life.I can't believe this show is this highly rated, the ML has more red flags than the entire communist party of China.
Let's just do a quick recap all of his sins, shall we?
- he arranges a marriage with the FL - without her consent
- naturally, she refuses, so naturally - he stalks her
- she still refuses, so naturally he kidnaps her (but is forced to let her go once his grandma finds out)
- he then blackmails her to stay with him for a week
- then he tries to kiss her while she's asleep (but is stopped by another monk)
- then he refuses to let her take exam for promotion, but she does it anyway so he decides to pull strings and make her fail said interview
And that's just in the first three episodes!!
But it's all good y'all, cause he buys her presents, and he reads scriptures and takes cold showers to "repent". He bought her Jimmy Choos, who cares if he ignores all her boundaries and bullies her until she gives in?
And in the end, I guess she develops a full blown Stockholm syndrome, and ends up marrying him anyway.
Skip this.
Don't be like Sakuraba Junko. Just skip this.
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