Pending Train: 8:23, Ashita Kimi to (2023)

The Next Stop is Forever Hopeful

I placed spoilers at the end of this review.

This was a great series with an interesting storyline. I think the pacing for this series was perfect and was hooked from the beginning. However, you may want to skip this if you are looking for a fast pace, high action drama because this series is not it. The script was very well thought out. I love how they interweaved the passengers and their loved one’s stories throughout the series. It had some farfetched elements but there only minor. I thought the three main characters (Kayashima, Shirahama, and Hatano) were well written and helped counter balance each other. The script also had a nice balance of personal storylines with the other supporting characters. There were some romance elements between multiple characters, but it was not overpowering. Some individuals may have a problem with the ending. See the spoiler alert at the end of this review if you want more information. The cast was excellent and did a great job with their characters. The cinematography and special effects were amazing.

Random Note:
This has an underline theme about society and how we should never judge a book by its cover.

This is listed as Pending Train on Netflix.

********Spoiler Alert********

There is a somewhat love triangle between the three main leads. However, it’s not that bad and does not become the main focus of the series which I consider a good thing (I hate this type of storyline).

You will not be satisfied if you need a clearcut happy or sad ending. This ending is open to your interpretation. For me, it’s an ending that has hope for the future.

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Wasted casts

Pending Train starts off with a good premise but was totally disappointing.

Not gonna lie, Yuki and Eiji already attracted the audiences when this dorama was announced (at least for me). The 3 main leads go pretty well. The heroic one, the naive one, and the realistic one. Their dynamics complete each other. The triangle love is pretty unnecessary. Yuki and Eiji bromance and just giving one of them a love line will be enough. I also got fed up with Yuto past scene. His past complex and his one-sided love were just too much (I mean I get it you love that girl but the scene is too repetitive). Could be better that some scenes went to Sae. This gurl is lack her back story. Her presence at first is just as the love interest of Yuto.

Other cast perfectly portrayed their own character. Some went wild, some went rational. However, perhaps due to limited episodes, there were so many unanswered questions. The missing person (who is still alive in this case) was completely forgotten except for Tanaka. And the open ending does not always mean good. In the end, you might find yourself cursing after watching the ending.

Perfect cast, as well as its ost. BUT a bad-executed storyline.

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"If we can't live together, we'll die alone!"

Pending Train was an entertaining story about strangers on a train mysteriously landing in a dystopian future. The strength of the drama was the characters and how they learned to work together through their fears and problems in order to survive.

Mild spoilers:
From the first, "Guys, where are we?" it began to feel like the writers had recently watched Lost (2004) and wanted to update the story for Japan. Shirahama Yuto (Jack) was a fire fighter with a painful past experience at work that has left him with deep seated guilt and a need to save everyone. Kayashima Naoya (Sawyer) was a hair stylist who due to his painful past trusted no one. Hatano Sae (too bland to be any character from Lost) was a school gym teacher who thought no one liked or respected her at work who was part of a weak sauce love triangle. The rest of the main cast contained a businessman who took a walk on the wild side (Locke), an effervescent game designer (Hurley), a graduate biology student who had a physics professor for some reason, a shady self-centered manicurist, and a middle-aged CEO who worried that she didn't spend enough time with her daughter.

As with Lost it turned out there were Others on the island who would compete for resources and survival. The battles were not nearly as deadly or mysterious. I have to say there were several characters who had me wishing a Smoke Monster would come and drag them away. At one point I honestly thought earnest Shirahama was going to quote Jack and say, "If we can't live together, we'll die alone," and he did more or less. Hatano was so uninspiring that her flashback story centered on her looking at a rainbow. She was everyone's cheerleader with either a smile on her face or a look that said, "where did I leave my purse?" None of the women had particularly interesting backstories or compelling stories in the future.

Despite the Lost coincidences and poor writing for the female characters, I did enjoy this drama. Kayashima showed the kind of character growth that makes dramas worthwhile. Shirahama worked through his guilt with the help of his new friends. The struggle to figure out where/when they were, and how to obtain food and water was interesting. The bromance that developed between Shirahama and Kayashima was the most engaging relationship.

The scenery varied with one side of the tunnel displaying Tokyo's ruins covered in an almost rainforest. And on the other side of the tunnel (always a tunnel in these pesky time-traveling dramas!) was a barren landscape. The latter setting appeared to be the one Kurosawa Akira used in his film Dreams for a post-apocalyptic future. The OST had a tendency to err on the overwrought side, not always meshing with a scene's mood.

The biggest problem I had with the drama was their "science" which would have been convoluted for an old Godzilla film and only coming in second to the Professor making phones out of coconuts on Gilligan’s Island ( yes my pop culture references are old ^^). And it was hard to get on board with people starting a fire with a green stick on a green leaf. The last two episodes dragged and didn't make a lot of sense with what had gone on in previous eps. To make matters more complicated the drama seemed to give an alternate ending unless they threw their own pseudo-science out the window.

Some people wanted to go home, desperate to see their loved ones while others had nothing to return to and were happy in their made kingdom. Many of the characters decided after learning how to survive in a hostile environment, the problems at home would be easier to deal with and they also would show appreciation for each day and those they cared about. "We have the power to recover from all kinds of obstacles and failures." Yet life is funny and people can be cruel and ignorant in the face of the unknown. I'm sure there were more than a few characters who would like to have said, "We have to get back to the island!" or at least "When's the next train to the future leaving?"

Pending Train came across more as a healing drama for damaged people than "it's the end of the world as we know it." If you enjoy a more character driven drama, don't mind a lack of dire consequences in your dystopian stories, and can overlook the terrible science, this drama can be a fun watch.

8/12/23

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Interesting concept, kinda disappointing

Let's be real, I watched this for Yamada Yuki (and was more excited when I saw Akaso Eiji was in it too). The first few episodes intrigued me and the quality of the drama seemed better than what I expected, unfortunately that wore off the longer the drama went on (with one exception).

I'm not sure if this is based on anything, but it either needed a tighter story line - which they could've had if the obligatory romance/love triangle part of it was written off (alas) - or more episodes to focus on some of the "returned from the future" life or reactions - as it was it felt glossed over and overly simplistic. Granted, that's true of most of the drama. What are the odds the cable they need for power was buried so close to the surface and how is that backup generator still in working order following a massive destruction event? Ahem. Let's not mention that the other passengers are completely written off after the clash, they had a few come over, the 'ruffians' steal the bag, and aside the two assholes at the end... the rest are??? Like not even the guy who helped you find the meteorites came back with you?? Okayyyy. (The cops mention 50ish of the 133 missing returned, which seems like a huge chunk missing but sure. Whatever.) Also why wouldn't Kayashima go to the hospital about his hand? They didn't anything different about him when he got back?? Sure, I guess.

I did appreciate the *cause* of the event, because space debris is a real problem, but they didn't really... do anything with that. Most of the "we'll clear some/shoot the meteor" narrative was off screen and summarized, and I'd have loved for them to be more vocal?? I don't know, it kind of fell flat - let's just go back to normal, hah. I think the focus was on interior changes in people but I'm also not... very convinced of them? That narrative sounded hollow, rather than resonate, maybe because the message is the same it always is: have heart to hearts with people and speak your mind and your life will be amazing.

tl; dr: a pretty cool concept, but the execution and focus of the story was not what I expected/wanted.

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Mixed Japanese Take on the Lost TV Series

Going in a potential viewer needs to be prepared for a heavy dose of Japanese cultural behaviors. On the positive side the subtitles were excellent maintaining a high quality translation throughout.

The basic story is a Japanese twist on the old TV series 'Lost' with two commuting train cars getting catapulted into the future leaving the occupants to learn to sort out their communities and how to manage to survive. The focus is on one of the cars' occupants (car#5) with the other car (#6) becoming those other people eventually getting discovered by our main characters.

My biggest problem was the writer focused on the relationships to the detriment of the story consistency. A few flaws here and there are acceptable but here even big story line points are trampled on which pulls the viewer away from the story itself and the characters' development.

Fewer background characters would have made for a better plot development. There are just too many people sitting around not contributing to the plot line growth.

Anyone who watched Lost may remember the character Hurley who weighed in at around 350 or 400 lbs for the entire six seasons! (Also the Captain on Gilligan's Island which was a comedy so maybe more forgivable.) The meager food resources the people were finding would have meant some weight loss even for the few months they were stuck in the future. And the hair and clothes would be deteriorating rapidly. It is very distracting to see clean faces and hair styles along with clothes that appear fresh from the laundry episode after episode.

There are other problems not adequately explained. These people are occupying a gone wild landscape with only a few distant buildings intact. Yet they find an intact power generating station nearby. That still works! All the buildings, roads, etc are gone with no trace, and there's still a fueled working power station???!!! The writer would have been better off contriving something with those glowing rocks and a periodically appearing wormhole than to go the route that he did.

Once the occupants of car #5, our main focus and characters, discover the wormhole they don't tell the nearby group from car #6. And then when they set things up to try and return they still say nothing to them apparently intending to just leave them behind, which they do. Not a word of guilt or conscience either before or after they leave them stuck in the future dystopian landscape!!???

It was worth the one time but not rewatching.

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Surprisingly, a really good series ✨

I'll be honest, before I decided to watch "Pending Train '' I was reluctant as it seems as "low budget" series but since I was bored and Yuki Yamada who played Naoya Kayashima caught my interest with his unusual hairstyle I started watching it. I was ready to give up after episode 1 but surprisingly I watched it till the end. It was just such a great plot story. They didn't crash with their plane or ship but instead it was about a supernova explosion. It was a first for me and I'm very satisfied with this difference. 

The main actors played their roles very well. Yuki Yamada and Eiji Akaso were a perfect contradiction to each other - Naoya (who was played by Yuki) was rational but explosive, mysterious but obviously kind while Yuto (who was played by Eiji) was calm and heroic but also naive and idealistic. Those two created a  dynamic that completes each other. 
* Not gonna lie they even gave a nice and satisfying bromance vibe sometimes ?

The three things that were (for me) disappointing were:
1️⃣ Not enough episodes - causing most of the actors (meaning about 20+ actors) to turn into background characters. Only a few got somewhat enough screen time to be considered side characters.

2️⃣ Too many background characters or actually too many unnecessary characters to begin with - most of them were like moving manekenes. Some had potential for more screen time and better plot, but the way the past was shown was just pitiful. Sure, Naoya and Yuto got a rather decent explanation of their past but others? Not so really... There were many elders and there was a second train carriage with another 20+ characters and from all 40+ characters I remember 8-9 characters got their past explained. Big difference, isn't it?

3️⃣ Annoying Female lead - she was like an empty vessel that put close to nothing into the story, neither she came with any ideas nor was she useful in any way to ease the situation they all were put in. From my point of view she was all around the two male leads just to talk with them and get these characters past explained to the audience. Other than that she was naive and blindly followed her "hero" as well as was always ready to go into potential danger like a moth flying to the light (straight into the moth trap). I get it she wanted to play hero and help/save her hero but she had nothing to keep herself safe in any way or form. Even her past was lacking - it was said she was saved but that's about it, there is nothing more said about her.

Additionally, something that I realized is that this series doesn't have a Love Triangle! ??
I was surprised with how the three main characters (better known as two male leads and one female lead) gave at the beginning the vibe of the typical vibe of 2 ML and 1 FM. But apparently it wasn't the case here. Shirahama didn't love Hatano and Hitano didn't love Shirahama. Their relationship was barely friends. Shirahama saved Hatano  and Hatano looked up to him but that's about it. Main reason why Shirahama wasn't anywhere near falling in love with MF was because he already loved someone else (the restaurant girl) and Hatano? Like I said before, she was an empty vessel and only started to develop real feelings towards Kayashima  when she "saw" him (she realized he is real, has feelings, is doing good, is trying, is existing). Kayashima was developing his feelings towards FM from the start but was far from admitting it because he felt like FM was in love with Shirahama - because she was always following him like a lost child. 

I guess the ending was something that also slightly disappointed me though not as much as the earlier mentioned three points. It was an open ending. Depending on what the Professor's reaction could mean it defined the ending with was either the world ended or it was saved. Of course my first assumption was "it worked and the world got saved" but the Professor's reaction could mean he was mocking his life and gave up... so yeah, it was unknown. 

I believe if the series had more young characters (15-35) but less characters overall as well as had more episodes it would be much better ??

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I read other reviews and have mixed feelings about this series, but....

..anyway, I binge-watched this series on Netflix in two days. Not as bad as some reviews say, but I also wouldn't say this was this us a great dorama. I know it's science fiction, so I wouldn't expect everything to be perfectly logical. But there's one thing that bothers me, although I take it lightly, these people were stranded in the middle of nowhere, starving for a few days, not taking showers for how long I don't know, and yet they still looked good in clean clothes with hair still in good shape? Okay, a hairstylist gave a free haircut to everyone, that was fine with me, but wearing the same clothes for days and still feel comfortable wearing them?

The personality clashes between passngers were fine with me, and in fact this was what made the series more realistic. You could find the usual human character type her: the Hero, The Non-Conformist, The Trouble Maker, The Attention Seeker, The Rebellious Adolescent, The Worrywart, The Neurotic, The Self-Centered, The Clown, The Genius, and of course the Followers. Also the "war" between Train #5 and #6 just shows our human nature: being selfish, greedy, possessive, and entrusting our lives to leaders whom we don't really know about. This is just like daily politics between groups and between nations. Who do we really trust and believe in?

Another thing which did not make sense was when the three main leads found out there was another community living nearby, which happened to be another disappearing train, how did the community leader (which apparently were passngers of Train #6) knew exactly that they were from train #5? It was also strange that after building peace with Train #6, we never heard about them anymore. When Train #5 passing discovered the worm hole, no one remembered the other community. In fact nothing was mentioned about them afterwards.

I would not be surprised that as they return back to 2026 (instead of 2023), not many people would believe that they were lost in 2060. But in a film, to make this more dramatic, shouldn;t there be at least someone who believed them and approached them? Also why was there no comments from the scientific community? Yes, one survivor managed to meet his professor, and another survivor managed to inform a minister, but if this was in real life, i am sure there would be controversies.

Anyway, this was light entertainment for me. The only thing I did not like was the music. They could have made a better musical score for some dramatic scenes, and oh, I couldn't help sensing some bromance between the two male leads. In fact, it could have been made into a fantasy BL series :-)

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Pending Train to character development

The drama is about a group of people who board a train that ends up in the middle of the wilderness due to mysterious turbulences. With no civilization in sight, they must try to survive in extreme conditions and figure out how to get out of this place. Don't expect an overly action-packed survival adventure. Most of the drama is rather quiet, with slice of life elements, friendships and a little bit of romance. Sometimes people make stupid decisions until they realize that it can't work that way. I also really enjoyed the nature setting. It's beautiful.

I must admit, I watched this survival drama for Yamada Yuki and it was worth it! He plays one of the main characters, Kayashima Naoya, a charming hairdresser who has trust issues and problems to speak about his real feelings. He was by far my favorite character.

The other two main characters are Shirahama Yuto, a selfless firefighter, and Hatano Sae, a kind-hearted teacher. The three developed a wholesome friendship. However, I wish Hatano would be a bit more interesting. She was often too bland for me. The character traits of the two male leads stole the show for me.

I really liked that the supporting characters received enough attention. Over time, you learn more and more about their personal history, problems and strengths.

In addition to the friendship and detailed information about the supporting cast, another strong point of this drama is the character development. For example, let's look a bit closer at Kayashima. At first he wasn't into "buddy-buddy energy", wasn't open about his emotions, prefered to only rely on himself, but that changed drastically. Kayashima and Shirahama, who were hostile to each other at the beginning, supported each other very much after some time. Same goes for Hatano. She became Kayashima's safe zone! The other characters have also necessarily undergone a development.

Actually, I would be very happy about a second season of Pending Train. Let's see what the future holds.

[finished watching on 17 January 2024]

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"May have bingewatched it"

- major spoilers about the end in the second part (after the - - - -) of my review fr don't read that part if you haven't seen it -

Enjoyed this drama. To be honest not at first but I got intrigued that I may have bingewatched it in 2 days oop- . I'm not gonna lie that I watched this mainly for Akaso Eiji, but was I happy it had an interesting scifi plot.

But that aside, I immediately loved how they let us dive in the story. Those camera angles and everyone's thoughts in the train. Beautifully shown in my opinion. The characters had a good build-up. And ... there are quite many to discover. It's not only about the main characters. We slowly get to know each one (not ALL but quite a lot more than I expected at first) and their story, which is interesting to see how it all evolves especially in these scary circumstances. Because you know, different characters can clash although others feel more connected. Anyway, it was great to witness. Actors did well. Truly felt their emotions.

The tiny triangle love aspect was a nice extra, although it's a pity the main ship didn't get much lovey-dovey moments. But hey, the show gets extra points for that brotherhood vibe. Beautiful setting too, god all that nature. The ost is beautiful. Definitely worth the listen (at least once)! But then hmm, I wished there was a bit more action or a bit more darkness in it. It was okay, but there were more possibilities? The ending could have been better too. I was a bit disappointed but i was also okay about it? (MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, I explain why)
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They didn't do that much to convince everyone and in the end it was just waiting on the upper hand? And above that I'm a bit confused about the whole Tanaka receiving the letter part. It's nice he got intel and he isn't forgotten.. But what did it mean? In the series there was a theory were they said that if they save that planet in 2026, the people that stayed behind in 2060 lived in a parallel world next to 'the world of 2026'? So how could he have received the letter? So does that mean the world from 2026 still got destroyed? But we clearly saw the scientist receiving a positive message...?

Some mention there could be a season 2? Hope that's true :")

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my opinion

except for the ending, which was completely open, literally for us to imagine whether it worked or not. the drama is very good, the character development. That's not my opinion at all.

I loved the protagonists, also the secondary roles. I thought the acting was good, of course I can't say it was the best acting I've ever seen. But I shouldn't complain about that.

The ending was completely open, but let's not deduce a whole drama just from the ending.

There are so many dramas with open or sad endings, but that doesn't change the fact that the drama is good. There doesn't need to be a happy ending for the drama to be good.

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I loved the story, the acting and the series <3
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