A Life (2017)

If you're here for the romance, well you might be a little disappointed because you won't get much of that.
But if you're watching this for the story, the development of the characters, and for the medical story itself, you would be fine watching this.
Some may find this drama boring, maybe I am just used to watching Japanese drama that I am certainly not really expecting too many romantic moments, plus this is a supposedly slice-of-life / medical drama, so I can say I enjoy it as much...
I like Kimura's character here as Dr. Okita. He went from an ordinary doctor of Danjo Hospital, and went abroad to further his skills and went back for a mission to operate the director of Danjo. I like how he always look so relax for a doctor.
One of my favorites characters is Dr. Igawa, he is so bubbly and adorable. The way sometimes he deals with situations like he is totally clueless or can't read the atmosphere, but when a situation needs to be more serious or requires a sensitive moment especially when calling out for Okita's behavior, he gives him a scolding.
I used to work in a hospital, but not on the Medical Department, but somehow watching this drama makes me want to be one. I can't guarantee accuracy of the terms and medical procedures here, but it feels great and amazes me watching it.
Also I love how the friendship of Okita & Masao showed in the end. They may have some rivalry in the romance side, but their friendship and the way they cared for Mifuyu prevailed in the end.
The only thing I wished for this drama is that I hope there more episodes, or at least a side-story for the other characters.
For rewatch value, I might pick it up again sometime.

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Man, Kimura Takuya still has it.

This was one of the dramas of 2017 I wanted to see the most and it didn't disappoint. It isn't perfect, but it's very enjoyable and it has some great actors who I love seeing in general, even more if they're together.

Right from the get-go, if you're watching this to see Kimura Takuya and Takeuchi Yuko together...it's really not the focus of it. They have an interesting sort of relationship (that could have been developed better, to be honest) and they still have that chemistry on screen, but this drama is less focused on the romance and more on the individual emotions of the characters through different situations.

The plot moves like all those job-focused dramas that have a specific job in the center and where each individual case serves for a character to develop, and most times Kimutaku's character is involved in that development, because he plays pretty much one of the seemingly few honest doctors left in this hospital. So there's nothing new there. The thing is that, differently from other job-focused dramas, this one has an underlying situation that is running through the course of the series, which makes things personal for the characters, making most cases a lot more emotional than the mere "today we learned not to be terrible to patients" at the end of each episode. The strong emotional plot underneath carries it more smoothly than other dramas of the genre, making it more engaging to me.

One of the best performances to me was Kimura Fumino, which honestly, 2017 was pretty much her year. And then there was Matsuyama Kenichi, who I didn't expect to like as much in this, but he was really good.

My biggest issue is that this drama is victim of a recurring writing issue I'm seeing in jdramas as of late, which is confusing redemption and pity. I really dislike when instead of making a character go through a redemption arc with personal growth and development, it just throws karma at it so we all go "oh, poor thing, they deserve to be forgiven" and they have to do nothing to earn said forgiveness. This drama has that with a character, which made the last few episodes a bit difficult for me to enjoy, and which is why I can't go higher with the score. I know some people will probably be disappointed by the ending, maybe they make another season, it'd be a good way to fix it.

All in all, this is a good medical drama with a great cast, it has issues and it isn't perfect but I liked watching it and, honestly, Kimura Takuya still has that aura of lead that we all recognize, which I had been missing to see.

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Such a heartwarming drama. The leads did a great job. And it's very rare for me to applaud a japanese actor because I find their acting exaggerated most of the time. But this time, Takuya Kimura as Okita is awesome. His moves are so fluid. I can sense how much he studied real surgeons. Very realistic. Also, when he was stressed out because he couldn't figure out the right procedure, I didn't see him as an actor. I see how a real man look when he's stressed out. Lol.

Mifuyu is also good. When she cries, it's so real. You can sense the fear and the desperation to live despite trying to hide those feelings and pretending to be strong. Oh how she and Masao broke my heart in their last scene together. It was so moving!

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I'm afraid watching Takuya Kimura - who might be 45, yet the state of his hair (or his belly) is amazing in compare with guys 10+ years younger - was actually a better treat than watching the drama itself, but never mind. At least I could relate to the leading lady character: I would still want him back after all these years;-) When I checked the name of the beautiful main actress, I found she is already dead. She did only 3 dramas after this. Plus, there's Nanao... The cast is definitely an eye candy. Else, hospital dramas are always kind of tedious for me... I didn't really mind it's 10 episodes only. But, I appreciated - as the series was centrally focused on one central medical case - the "procedurality" of it, showing not only the surgeries, but the very long preparation, the endless hours of practicing, the view we were given upon how the surgeons actually train to do it. Then, in the surgery scenes, it was always a combination of applying the skill versus the state of mind. What I also liked they showed the characters being emotional just right. Well, it's known that unlike koreans, japanese are unbeatable in finding the right measure;)

Note: I have given the best rating in the end, because I appreaciated the ending and the overall closure. I don't agree with someone saying the romance was scarse. It WAS romantic. Sometimes, one look is worth more than ten passionate kiss scenes. (Especially, if we have the cast we have here.) I actually appreciated we didn't get to watch the main heroine, who was no longer a young girl, doing something like fleeing away and leaving husband with whom she spent majority of her adult life and with whom she shared a CHILD. I appreciated how things got portrayed. This was a mature, kind and human drama and I appreciated it.

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Some may find the story boring and common, but as the writer I know once said “Stories are mostly the same, same story line and same plot, what makes it good and/or stand out is how it was executed.” And I believe “A Life” was executed well.

Each episodes shows how Okita Sensei is able to help somebody grow individually as a human being or as a doctor or Nurse, may it be intentionally or not. I love how they humanize the characters in a way that people watching can relate to each one of them in a personal level.

I would also like to point out that even though Masao’s and Kazu’ friendship may be imperfect, but it is relate-able, as it really happens in real life. Some really has those kinds of “friends” who say they mean well but has hidden agenda.

If there’s one this I DO NOT LIKE in this series it’s the bodies they are operate, it obviously looks like a dummy, those use for testing theories and such. They could’ve a made it look more real.

Full review here: https://elijahmaliksmom.wordpress.com/2017/04/22/a-life-a-love/

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A Life marks the return of Pride couple Kimura Takuya and Takeuchi Yuko. Perhaps I held too high expectations for this because I did not enjoy this as much as I anticipated and was pretty disappointed with the last couple of episodes. It's an issue when you find the last episode boring, oops I just said that.

Story: Medical dramas can be hard to do well and when you have a star studded cast, you best take advantage...and I did not think A Life did that. Character development was really lacking and I found myself frustrated many times. I'm sorry, but Takeuchi Yuko deserved a better character than what they did with Danjo Mifuyu. I also really wanted more for Hamura--he felt like a useless character to me. And boy did I think Masao was poorly done (though acting by Asano was superb). Okita was really the best balance as we got some backstory with him but even still, we could've seen more with him--I did not like the whole super surgeon vibe we got, but I understand that it was necessary. Despite all of this, the series was entertaining. Okita and Shibata together were great and I enjoyed Igawa as well. The drama focused too heavily on the politics and then dragged out the ending. To me, the story could have been executed way better.

Acting/Cast: I give the acting high marks though I found the supporting surgeons annoying af even though I knew they were just there to provide exaggerated comedy relief. I actually think Asano was the best actor out of everybody here at times, but his character made me hate him still. We don't even need to talk about Kimutaku. He killed it as usual with the wordless expressive acting--I just wished they gave the other characters the same depth. Don't know if it was just me, but I felt like Mifuyu and Rina's scenes weren't as heartwarming and gushing as they could have been, but I do not want to be too critical about the child actress. I get why Nanao had to be the way she was as Sakakibara, but man she seemed forced. So there were some positives and negatives with the cast.

Music: I did not notice it too much, so it gets a passing grade from me.

Rewatch Value: I'm not sure about this, but I don't think I would instantly pick this up again to rewatch, so it's meh for me. There may be some episodes worth rewatching, but I wouldn't say the entire series.

Overall, I thought this series had a lot of potential that was not lived up to, but it was still an enjoyable drama and honestly better than some of the others I've seen where I could not even get through the entire series.

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