The Most Important Thing: Beauty or Personality?
Switched is a thoroughly enjoyable drama that is not only full of plot twist but also on it’s life lessons. What’s more important? How beautiful your exterior or how beautiful your interior is? That’s the question Switched tries to tackle. I truly believe it does a wonderful job of handling the topic with grace but fair warning suicide, whether it’s mentioned or actually shown, is a big part of the drama so if that triggers you please be aware.To be honest Japanese dramas and me do not mix well—I’m not used to the cinematography, subtle language, and acting—but Switched made made open my heart to watching more of them. Like all dramas Switched is flawed, hence the fact that I only gave it 8 stars but I’m fine with overlooking those flaws since I liked it.
Ayumi, Umine, Kaga, and Koushirou as the main leads all have good and bad qualities that will make you root for them which I found interesting. No character is completely evil or completely good—they are just human. How far are you willing to go to achieve what society deems as ‘perfect’? That’s a hard question to answer honestly. You can be the most beautiful person on the outside but at the end of the day it’s your personality that matters. Obviously society is superficial and continues to judge off of physical attributes but to the people who truly matter they will value your personality.
The plot is full of so many twists that I don’t want to go in-depth on what happens but it takes a very cliche trope (body switching) and gives it a unique spin complete with its own backstory and lore. On top of the interesting plot you also have a phenomenally talented cast who really delivers when it comes to the emotions. I could truly feel like the Ayumi we met in the first few minutes of episode one really was stuck in Umine’s body by the little mannerisms and ticks; likewise can be said with Umine in Ayumi’s body. Hats off to the four main leads and the side characters for giving it all they got despite the fact that the limited runtime. I don’t remember anything that stands out in the OST but I would say it enhances everything rather than takes me out of the scene.
Switched is a little gem I’m so glad I stumbled upon on Netflix and I found myself glued to my screen time until the very last minute.
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Even if "there" is the body of the cute and popular girl with the perfect boyfriend - the girl that you desire to be.
Tomita Miu truly shines in this body-swapping tale of Ayumi Kohinata; a friendly, happy, pretty and popular girl who finds herself swapped with ugly, overweight and miserable fellow student, Zenko Umine.
At a short six episodes, this mini-series is tightly and expertly-written and explores not just adolescence, bullying and beauty standards but also envy and the demoralising and dehumanising impact of abuse. If you think that's an awful lot to pack into six episodes, you'd be right. If I have any criticism of this show, it's that a lot of the emotional journey was told in shorthand due to the length. The final episode, in particular, was rushed and truncated and lost several opportunities to tell a larger story. I anticipate the inevitable Korean version, extended to 16 episodes and lingering painfully over every melodramatic moment.
Aside from the performances, some of which were truly exceptional, this show's strength lies in its ability to surprise and to continually undercut audience expectations, especially around the usual cliches and tropes of Japanese dramas. The female characters feel real and three-dimensional, -there's not a sign of kawaii culture anywhere except in the unfair expectations of a beauty-obsessed culture- and there isn't a tsundere man in sight.
The writers could have told this story in stale cliches - Ayumi as a bully, Zenko as evil - but regularly refuse to do so, insisting we see the entire picture even when it's tempting not to. Both female leads are completely the product of their lives until this point and they take that into their new bodies even if they don't want to.
In fact, if it wasn't for the mini-series format and the rushed final episode, this would be a 10/10 drama.
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This review may contain spoilers
Pros and Cons
Pros:-Nice Storyline
-Great Acting
-Tear Jerker
Cons:
-Overlooks mental illnesses and Abuse
-Some areas were rushed
-Left me wanting more (i wasn't satisfied where it left off)
To expound on the cons:
This series did a terrible job at shining a light on how mental illness affects people.. especially teenagers. It made it seem like all Umine had to do is accept the fact that she was 'unconventionally attractive' so that people would treat her better.
This series also overlook Umine being physically and verbally abused by her mother which was a major factor as to why she is the way she is currently. I wish this series had focused a tad more on Umine's life as opposed to them just trying to prove that by ignoring all the bad things in life and just accepting it you would be better off.
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Anyway, this drama is about moral value. Envy power is destroying anything. We can take so much moral value from this short drama. I will recommend this drama to you who hardly wants to be someone that has anything, money, girl/boyfriend, beauty/handsomeness, etc. So, I would like to include this drama to motivational drama category. To you who are looking the actress' cuteness just what I did, I'm sorry to say, she's indeed main role but it's like she's a supporting role. In other words, her appearance is not much as you want.
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This review may contain spoilers
So I just wanted to start out by saying that I did just finish watching the show as I'm writing this review. So my review is from a watcher of the show from fresh eyes.So overall I really did like the show, it had a nice intended message it wanted to send, and it delivered it pretty nicely. The acting was really good, the music was pretty suited to the scenes, though some was a little overused, and the show was well executed in my opinion,
So with this review imma just do some pros and cons...
PROS
- Acting- Personally i really liked the acting of the show. The actors seemed to really portray their characters well and make me a watcher really intrigued. Especially when they switched, it gave all the actors a way of showing their range of acting as if they were different people, which technically they were but that aside.
- The characters- I know this might sound weird, but I loved all the characters throughout the whole show. They gave each character a backstory, personality, and didn't make them one sided paper sheets. Even Zenko I liked, yes she was kinda the evil antagonist of the show along with Koshiro, but I understood where she was coming from, and why she did it. And in the end she made the right choice in a difficult situation, character development. She might not have had the biggest development compared to the other characters of the show, development none the least. The show also shows other sides of people, like Ayumi, someone born with what the show says is pretty looks. It can blind people, even really nice people like her, who doesn't see the exclusion people face like Zenko did. So it gave her a new view, a new perspective and I think she grew from it. Also shows the sides of the male leads. One being the cliche side love interest, Kaga. Even though being slightly cliche, I loved his character, he was my favorite out of everyone. He was the relatable guy who everyone cheered for even if it didn't happen in the end, which I'm not going to lie kinda left a sour taste in my mouth. And he knew enough to have known it was Ayumi. Then there's Koshiro. I had mixed feelings for him in the beginning, and obviously near the end he was a good guy. But I loved his story progression from villain to ally, even though it was kinda predictable.
-Message- The show had a message behind it, and it sent it pretty well in my opinion. It showed the downside of how our society, or even community of teenagers can push out a single person because they didn't meet their appearance standards. Which is very true in high school. It also showed the very true life of some people like Zenko and how sad and desperate they can be when push comes to shove, wishing for a better life. It gives her relatability.
CONS
- Short- Before u call me out for saying its too short, hear me out first. Yes I know, most people complain that shows are too short because they want more. But for me, I wanted it a little longer for more development. Like they never exactly explain why they switch bodies with the conditions they met. Why was it only during a red moon? Why did they need go die? Why does it happen anyways with the conditions? I also wish they gave more development to Zenko's mother. yes we do get some in the last episode or two. But I would have loved seeing her open herself up to Ayumi while she was still in Zenko's body then come in near the end to realize that Zenko is in Ayumi's body. And reconcile with her. It would have made it more touching seeing her be more of a mother before, during, and then after. Kinda seeing her progression throughout instead of a quick realization of her situation.
- Ending- Like many of you who maybe already finished the show. You already know Ayumi's choice. And though I see why she chose who she did. I don't entirely agree with her decision. Yes i know I don't have a say in who she would choose, but I mean. Considering what happened, I in her case would have chosen to not pick anyone if not Kaga. I mean from the beginning Kaga was there and helped her through everything, despite the situation and still liked her even if in Zenko's body. But even if not Kaga, I would have preferred Ayumi pick herself above everything. the whole message was that of showing situations like Zenko's, but still trying to love and accept yourself through it all. So her picking herself would have made sense. But that might be a personal opinion.
Ok so I think, thats all I have to say about the show for now. Me personally am not a person to watch a show again unless I'm having nostalgia about it, but if I ever have a friend over or have a friend looking for a show I would definitely recommend this show to them.
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This review may contain spoilers
[WARNING: the rating and review I give have the possibility to be subjective due to my preference for the genres, scenes or casts]As a person, I will say, "Oh c'mon! Just that and you think to kill yourself or switched yourself with someone else?!" But, as a psychologist (yes, I am. Do you guess it? :D), I will say, "The resilience ability of one person to another is different, which make the solution taken is different too. You can't judge their despair." For me, the moral of this movie is to think before you speak or throw a joke, because you won't know the effect to their life.
This film is like a roller coaster and the roles did a great job (*^▽^)b In the end, I still hope Ayumi ended up with Kaga, not Koshiro (^_^)
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Its okay.
To make it short.Story/Acting:
The drama is about a girl whos "ugly" and have no friends and switched body with the popular "pretty" girl, against her will.
It has good performances and although its a body-swap drama, it feels quite new. Because the pretty girl who was swapped with is not you typical mean bully-pretty girl, but nice and heartwarming.
The characters were not that deep, but interesting enough to tie you (for the short amount of episodes) to the screen.
Romance:
The love triangle was build up nice, but the ending was not satisfying for me.
Music: Nothing special.
Rewatch: I dont know. The last 2 episodes had so much drama and repetition, that was getting pretty annoying, but thats my personal opinion.
Nothing special so overall 5.5/10
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I thought it would be something like 'Freaky Friday' but in fact it kind of made me think of Deathnote!
Can I also say that I hope to see the lead girls in more dramas? They were brilliant, so were the boys, but the girls really blew me away.
Everything about this drama was satisfying and kept me on my toes wanting to watch the next episode - heck, even the theme song got me excited! I can tell the story and characters were well thought out and i don't really want to go into detail since I DON'T want to give spoilers.
If you want an interesting drama I recommend this! Also love how the show confronts beauty standards and makes it clear that beauty is on the inside and not the out, definitely something i want to see more of in dramas.
Can't recommend this enough, would love a season 2 but I'm guessing there wouldn't be much story left to tell!
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Envious and jealousy can sometimes put you on edge of life
●I was going through a fall off from drama world so for a quick break I watched jdrama, which are my saviour from usual kdrama and cdrama. As soon as I started it the first scene takes place am jarred to see that. It gave me goosebumps, and as the story developed the story was fast paced and visuals were very pretty. I binged it in one sitting.●Story- body switch I usually don’t like but this one got me hooked with the way it developed. A struggling,fat girl who hears everyone calling her ugly, definitely would develop such feelings. This drama shows what happens after her wish is granted her wish to look pretty and popular. The story was touching and scripting was amazing
●Plot views-TBH once in a lifetime we all had wished I want to be like him, not in like body swapping but we all had said this. and how come everyone becomes friends with ayumi when she is fat and just because of personality change was a bit off wasn’t they bullying her. Well we can understand that the drama time was short so it dealt in a faster way.
●Acting- since there was so much of swapping and shuffle I would say everyone did an amazing job, playing different parts and different characters. My fav character was KAGA, he easily gave a second lead syndrome. His personality and way he acted it out was brilliant.
●Music- am in love with the music, every music piece, instrumental, songs was beautiful. I didnt even skip the opening and closing tracks. I added this to my playlist. I loved the piano notes,it was so soothing
●Rewatch- yes definitely but after some time.It had a good story and good acting to please everytime.
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