Last Friends: Why I HATE and LOVE it

by ReikabLeu, May 11, 2019

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So, I recently saw the 2008 dorama called Last Friends.

I honestly had a hard time finishing this as it feels too heavy. Oh, don't get me wrong, it is a good watch, just that it's emotion-filled and has really bothersome characters! I'm currently halfway through it (while writing this) and probably will have finished it by the time YOU read this. :)

SPOILERT!! (Spoiler + Alert! LOL)

If you have not seen it yet, please be reminded that this article will contain SPOILERS!

Last Friends tried its best to tackle issues like abuse (emotional, mental and physical), gender preferences, and extramarital affairs among other controversial topics.

Let me tell you the reasons why I HATE it first:

1) The female lead, Michiru, was just too weak. Imagine this, the first day she moves in with her boyfriend she got slapped and tossed. She went to work and STILL came back and accepted his apologies like nothing happened? I was like, "Seriously?" If I were her, I would never even be within 100 meters of that guy let alone go back to his place. Why would you even go back to the person who causes you pain? I could ~~actually~~ probably write a whole article as to how much I hate Michiru's character. LOL

2) Why was Sousuke NEVER reported for his abuse of Michiru? ~~He even tried to rape her, or was he successful?~~ He raped her. I know (until now -- I can be wrong so please correct me) in Japan, that people who were raped or were almost raped have this feeling of being ashamed. They depicted this in the drama so well that it made me hate it so much! He really has loose screws in his head! I also hated that Sousuke took the most cowardly way out of all this drama he started!

3) It was too real. I know it shouldn't be a reason, but thinking that this kind of thing CAN actually happen in real life makes me hate it.

Why I LOVE it:

1) The theme song. Utada Hikaru's Prisoner of Love was just so on-point. Each one of the characters is a prisoner of love at one point.

2) The dorama was not afraid to talk about the "taboos". Remember this was 2008, Japan was (is still) NOT open to the concept of LGBTQ+. Even though they considered being "gay" a sickness at that time, called "Gender Identity Disorder", I'm still somehow glad that they were able to talk about it. It was nice that they were able to show how somebody who cannot "come out" struggles. They even passed through the topic of extramarital affairs and sex outside of marriage.

3) The friendship. It was not perfect by any means but I appreciate how they try their best to protect each other. Even though Ruka really doesn't want to just be friends with Michiru, the friendship the four lead characters formed was definitely #friendshipgoals for me.

4) Great acting! My, my, all actors and actresses did a very good job! Hands down to all of them. No complaints! I LOVED Ueno Juri's performance! And darn, Ryo was really scary, I wanna punch his face. Haha!! But he also kinda made me feel sad, especially on Episode 10. Among all them, my fave was Takeru, played by Eita. His performance was just superb!