Well, I love revenge dramas so i couldn't miss this one but even myself didn't expect this to be so good. The plot looks like some typical revenge drama: 40 years-old lady wants revenge against her best friend, who has always stealed her everything she hold dear, the final blow: stealing her man when they were 20. So, it seems she has endured this betrayals all this years in silence... but she has a plan.
CHARACTERS: this is the best of all drama. The characters are very complex and you can relate to them, even when they are despicable you can understand their actions because they look so human: with good and bad traits.
I loved Naomi, btw.
CASTING: perfect, all the actors nailed it.
PLOT: mindblowing
CHEMISTRY BETWEEN MAIN LEADS: they have a lot of chemistry, and I mean A LOT.
NEGATIVE POINTS: Ii don't consider this a 'negative point' but I think they could have reduced the number of flashbacks, although I loved them and focus in the present a little bit more.
(If I have some grammatical mistake, sorry, I am not native)
HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
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You want to see a drama with complex characters? Gray storylines? Uncomfortable themes? This is the drama for you.
Apart from Naomi (and Mayuko's mother i guess), not a single character in this show is white or black. EVERY ONE IS GRAY. I didn't want to root for anyone. It was a mess. A chaotic mess. I loved it!
The downfall was that with this amount of grayness, complexity and the amaaing pilot episode, I was expecting something to shock me. Some twist that I didn't see coming, or some character back story that catches me off-guard. That, however, didn't happen.
But, I'd still recommend it for the characters (and it's only four episodes, so you're not wasting too many hours).
Oh, also. The music. A-MAH-ZING! The background score was absolutely beautiful, worked so well with the scenes. Since I'm not the technical person for it, I can't put it into words, but the music enhanced the experience so much!!
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Untold theory of the last scene
Beautifully wicked drama that depicted tragic things happened to tragic people.Great acting from all casts. All in all, there’s no good and bad people in this story. People did what they did out of spite and to redeem themselves.
For those who didn’t understand last ending scene between Mayuko and Naomi, this review will be mainly wrapped around that particular scene.
The Ending Scene (Episode 4):
Naomi asked Mayuko to watch him swims to the buoy. As he walked to the shore, Naomi turned around for one last look at Mayuko whilst pointing his finger into the distance before swimming into the ocean.
He was mimicking the same scene performed by Tadzio in a 1971 film “Death in Venice” directed by Luchino Visconti.
The significance of this film’s ending scene and the director himself are important to Mayuko later on.
To summarise this film, Tadzio had a pursuer called Aschenbach who secretly followed him around Venice as his obsession with Tadzio’s beauty grew stronger. Towards the film’s ending, Aschenbach was stuck in the same situation as Mayuko, because both were unwell due to health conditions.
In this same scene, Tadzio turned around looking at Aschenbach and pointing into the distance (the same way as Naomi did to Mayuko). Aschenbach who was dying, yearned for Tadzio and still mesmerised by the boy’s beauty before passing away while trying to reach out to Tadzio.
[Updated in 2024: abovementioned cinematic parallels - https://easterndelights.tumblr.com/post/759516469940879360/kna-div ]
Based on both scenes, Tadzio was a symbol of youth, innocence and adolescence beauty to Aschenbach; in the same way that Naomi symbolised as a perfect ideal man to Mayuko.
In episode 1, Mayuko’s father praised Mayuko for having a keen eye for something beautiful when he saw the necklace that Mayuko found from the beach. As Yuki took that necklace from her, Mayuko took something beautiful from Yuki 30 years later.
When Naomi was born, Mayuko held baby Naomi and saw the beauty in him. She told Yuki that she might take him away, but Yuki never took that matters seriously.
Over the course of 20 years, Mayuko moulded Naomi’s personality and groomed him into becoming her ideal man. Naomi would have knew everything about Mayuko at this point - like he knew her favourite french poets are Verlaine and Baudelaire, and her obsession with the novel of “Chijin no Ai”.
After Naomi was freed from both of his parents, his wish to always be together with Mayuko came true - albeit it came with a hefty price.
Back in episode 1, Mayuko brought up a film called “The Leopard”, into a conversation with her mother where she reminisced the beautiful castle scene. That particular film was directed by Luchino Visconti.
Naomi might have also learned about Mayuko’s love for Visconti’s films, although the viewers never get to witness this scene.
Back to the ending scene, Naomi dressed Mayuko in all-white before heading to the beach. It was coincidentally the same as how Aschenbach wore all-white to see Tadzio for the last time.
When Naomi was pointing into the distance mimicking Tadzio's scene, Naomi wanted to show Mayuko that he was never the Naomi from “Chijin no Ai” and Mayuko was not his captor.
Instead, he is the Naomi that always yearned for Mayuko and her affection, despite all tragic things happened to Mayuko because of Yuki.
Mayuko was conflicted with her feelings at first, but did reciprocated and gave in to the decision to be with Naomi.
With Yuki completely gone from both of their lives, there will be no more malice and destruction as peace ensured.
Despite being bedridden and in a vegetative state, Mayuko regained her long forgotten youth and innocence by starting anew with Naomi.
When Naomi was tributing his Tadzio to Mayuko, it was a sign to trigger Mayuko’s memory telling her to yearn for him, as he will always be waiting for her return.
In the end, Mayuko understood what Naomi was signalling to her (hence she smiled).
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Man, It’s been a day and I still can’t stop thinking about this drama. You know how when you’re watching a show’s last episode and it’s looking like things will end the way you want…and then you see that it still has a half hour to go and you KNOW it’s gonna have one of those...DRAMATIC kind of conclusions…
Well, without giving away any spoilers Kenja No Ai ended on a similar note and while it wasn’t the ending I wanted, it was an ending that seemed …RIGHT somehow…enough that I accepted it fully and am here still thinking about it…
I’m in a VERY melancholy mood right now!
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Quick watch with interesting premise
I came into this one from Secret Love Affair, hoping to find something similar. I have watched quite a few dramas but none with this premise that Kenja no Ai had. Really interesting ideas and use of literature in the plot, also interesting psychological profile of different characters with ambiguous lives and motives. I was not disappointed with the way this was executed.I was shocked at times and there were loopholes in the story, despite so many flashbacks. Also, Ryu was flat as heck as a character, and I still do not understand where Mayu's loyalty lies. It's all just, one big sad story.
After watching it, the departing is the feeling of being unsettled by it. Mostly because I am still uncertain of Naomi. I do not think that that young man, no matter how functional he seems, is mentally well.
The drama is four episodes long, and I think it is a worthy watch because of beautiful cinematography, decent acting and interesting storyline.
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This review may contain spoilers
Love, revenge and instant karma in a lifetime (full of spoilers!!!)
I just finished the Japanese mini-series of four episodes Kenja no Ai.If I can find the book, I would read it. It's worth going through the emotion of every single character in this story, which is completely impossible to do in a series. The series was heavy and was a vivid illustration of how instant karma works within a lifetime. It's an interesting cycle of action/karma/action/karma. Everyone was both victim and victimized.It all starts when a family with a 13 year old girl, Yuri, moves into the house next door to another 13 year old girl, Miyuku. Yuri is deeply unhappy because, in her family, her parents are each minding their own business and no one is paying attention to the three children. Miyuku's family, on the other hand, is happy and everyone takes care of her. Yuri becomes jealous of Miyuku and wants to live her life. She insists on toys, jewelry, and possessions from Miyuku. He also reaches out to people. When they are 16, a promising young writer, in his early twenties, lives in Miyuku's house under the tutelage of her father (publisher and editor-in-chief of a literary magazine). Miyuku's crush is on him and he reciprocates her feelings. Yuri sees them kissing in the garden and decides that the writer (Ryoichi) will be hers. She also wants Miyuku's father. One night she sits on his lap and throws herself into hugging him. For a moment he is willing to give in, but nothing happens in the end. At that moment, however, Miyuku comes in and sees them. Her father can't get over the guilt and shame and kills himself.
First Villains: Yuri /wanting to take his girlfriend's father away/ and the father /impulse to give in to the advances of his daughter's 16-year-old girlfriend/ First Victims: Yuri, though a villain, is also a victim because he ends up assaulting her, though not fully realized; the father - loses his life and Miyuku - loses her father.
Six years later, Miyuku is 22, now a redhead to Ryoichi and with hopes of a future together. Yuri seduces Ryoichi, telling him it will only be a one-off because she is betrothed at her family's expense and says she doesn't need contraceptives because she is at the part of her period when it is safe. She is doing it with the clear goal of getting pregnant. She manages to achieve her goal, sits down to talk to Miyuku and tells her "You're my best friend, give me Ryoichi, I had sex once with him and I'm carrying his child. Miyuku gives up his love in favor of his girlfriend. Second villains: Ryoichi /compromises his feelings and has sex with Yuri/, Yuri /cheats on Ryoichi and takes him away from Miyuku/. Second victims: Ryoichi and Miyuku. As Miyuku feels betrayed by both Yuri and Ryoichi.
So far we notice that the main villain is Yuri and the main victim is Miyuku.
Yuri and Ryoichi's child is born, who turns out to be a boy. Yuri, wanting to have complete control over Miyuku, asks her to give the boy a name. Miyuku names him Naomi after the story of a novel from which she gets her idea of revenge. The story in the novel goes like this: a man raises a little girl as the perfect woman to then become his emotional captive. Only he falls in love with her and ends up being the captive. Miyuku decides she will do the same with the boy. She basically raises him as a parallel parent and gives him the feeling of having both the perfect mother and the perfect lover. When he's eighteen a relationship begins that is extremely unhealthy for both of them. They're extremely intimate, she teaches him everything she thinks he needs, they bathe, they kiss, but outside of that she remains distant, he's not allowed to stay sleeping with her and they never have sex. Miyuku plans for the sex to be a one-off, on Naomi's birthday when he turns twenty, and then for her to keep him around on a short leash, for him to keep wanting to be with her without getting it. And so it goes. They have sex once and Naomi tells her that she is the perfect woman for him and he wants to marry her. Miyuku refuses. She even finds him a young woman to have sex with while she herself continues her obsessive relationship with him, with no sexual relationship and no future. The first time Miyuku brings the girl and announces it as a gift to Naomi, Naomi has a severe crisis, hurts himself, and inadvertently hurts Miyuku by leaving scars on her neck, which Yuri /his mother/ later believes are from Miyuku's new lover and hires a detective to follow her. The idea is, if the lover is her husband /as she suspects because she knows perfectly well that they were in love and sees that there are feelings between them even now, to do something/, and if it's another man, to take away her new lover as well. The villain here is one: Miyuku. The victims are: Naomi / spent his entire childhood and teenage years in emotional captivity/, Yuri and Ryoichi.
It turns out that Ryoichi, who still has feelings for Miyuku, is aware of his son's feelings, and also, not only is he aware of Miyuku's revenge, but as a writer, someone well versed in literature, he is aware of exactly which book the idea of revenge is borrowed from. Meanwhile, Naomi, who finds it unbearable not to see Miyuku, agrees to continue his relationship with her, without sex or commitment, and to have sex with the girl Miyuki has found for him. However, this proves difficult for both him /when he has sex, all he thinks about is Miyuku/ and for Miyuku, who realizes that she can't bear it because she is also in love with Naomi. It becomes clear that she's going to give up on the revenge idea and take the risk of having a real relationship with Naomi.
Ryoichi, Naomi's father, tells him the whole story, he also tells him about revenge, but Naomi answers that he doesn't care what the reason is that brought him and Miyuku together, as long as he's with her it doesn't matter. He agrees to everything. That Miyuku is 43 doesn't matter to him, all he wants is to live with her. He and his father have a serious fight. The detective Yuri hired shows her pictures of Miyuku and Naomi while they kiss. When she finds out that Miyuku is with her son, she decides to take him away from her by killing him with an ice pick. She makes an attempt while he sleeps but fails, only slightly injuring him. Yuri invites Miyuku over for a talk and tells her that she found out that Miyuku is getting revenge. As in the conversation she had earlier with Ryoichi, Miyuki confesses that Naomi was the revenge she's been cooking up for twenty years. She also says that she never wants to see Yuri again and there's no way they can stay friends. Yuri is horrified and tells Miyuku that she gave up her son just to remain her friend. However, Miyuku refuses to be her friend, it's all over for her now.
Since she has failed to kill her son, and is left without Miyuku, Yuri decides to cause an accident in which the two die together. However, Miyuku does not die in the crash, but becomes paralyzed, killing Yuri. This is now the final fulfillment of karma. The curtain falls. Yuri dies after first seeing her son fall victim to the desire for revenge and losing Miyuku. Miyuku becomes paralyzed in the crash and receives her karma. Naomi is repaid for what Miyuki did to him by paralyzing her, and at the same time gets what she wants - the paralyzed Miyuku lives with him, he takes perfect care of her, and she depends on him.
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My favorite jdrama out of all the ones I've watched
I find myself to be an extremely critical drama/movie watcher so most things I watch even if they're really good, I rarely would rate it higher than a 8.5. However, this is one of those exceptions. It's kind of funny but I started watching jdramas because of Kento from Alice in Borderlands, but this jdrama is by FAR my favorite one and the most memorable one.This is a dark drama for sure so I know that for many people, they wouldn't like it. But I love how dark and destructive it is. It's so sad and tragic to see these characters who cannot change and destroy everyone around them. It's a short drama but it really felt more like a movie to me.
The characters and their relationship with one another (especially the two main FL's) are exactly the kind of thing I'm into. Rather than toxic romance, I really love the idea of toxic friendships and how they interact with one another.
I genuinely cannot understand why this drama has an overall rating of 7.5.
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