Lily13
France
It really makes one thing about life, illnesses, death and the impact it can have on others.
One particular part hit home: "-Will you remember me? -How can I forget you... -I mean, the good times". It is easy when you lose someone to remember the bad and difficult times, which are often the immediate past. We tend to forget all of the beautiful moments because they're further in our memories. One Day was a good reminder as I am guilty of that.
I also loved that there was no romance involved, though we can easily imagine there was. This fine line between love and care was just perfect, and I like that Kang Soo took the time to appreciate her for what she was, and not only because he was reminded of his wife.
It is a masterpiece in my book (do I have to mention how it can start a debate on euthanasia? and the way to address the visually impaired?) and great if you're looking for some heart-warming human interaction.
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This review may contain spoilers
It is really hard to write a review without being all spoilery... I'll try my best!I must admit, I started watching Summer Nude because of the cast: my goodness, what a cast! Yamapi, Karina, Erika Toda and even Nagasawa Masami (yes, my little ProDai heart started beating so fast), Katsuji Ryo, Itaya Yuka... oh my worlds collide. And I wasn't disappointed, I must say.
It has everything we want from a getsu9: great actors, good music, beach, sun, a bunch of friends and love triangles/squares/pentagons/hexagons... The overall story is not THAT great though: in my opinion it lacked a little something, you know, that thing that can hook you up for the whole series and which is originally provided by the main characters.
I ended up being more interested in secondary characters (Mami, Takashi, Secchan), and especially in Hikaru. I honestly didn't know much about Kubota Masataka (well, i've only seen him in Boku no Hatsukoi wo Kimi ni Sasagu) but I think his acting is really good. I love his character so much, and who wouldn't: a young man who is always super quiet, loves reading, not that handsome and wearing glasses (oh how I love clichés), doesn't speak much, works in a small video-rental shop and is desperately in love with Hanae (Toda Erika) who's herself involved in a one-sided love with the gorgeous Asahi (Yamapi) . Good enough for me!
What's really agreable is the background: we can follow a group of friends enjoying summer in their small town by the beach, it's hot, they have fun, they eat, they drink (A LOT), all this served with some good soundtrack.
I would not call this a must-watch, 'cause I pretty much knew how it is going to end from the first episode. (yeah, I am patiently waiting for the last episode to be subbed but still, it's obvious.) It remains a nice story for those who long for summer!
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This review may contain spoilers
Story 10/10I was really feeling the drama in the beginning, then it got boring and draggy. And bam, the last 2 episodes were mind-blowing. For the first time since I can't remember when, I could not predict that ending, that was sooo surprising imo. It's been a while since I saw that much creativity, I was expecting some **** SPOILERS?***** revenge/crazy love kinda motive. BUT NOOOOO damn I was wrong. For that, I give a perfect score! (I guess I wasn't spoiled by the previous tags that were listed on MDL?)
Acting 6/10
I'm torn on that point. The cast in general was kinda good, but not outstandingly good, ya know wadda mean? Kawaguchi Haruna got on my nerves quick, especially since her character was way too marriage-obssessed. Like literally until the last second of the drama. She was nothing beside a crazy bride and her lack of emotions did not help making Sawa likeable. Fukushi Sota... is Fukushi Sota. A really pretty face, popular enough to get lots of first roles, but he still doesn't have the talent to pull them off. He is decent, don't get me wrong, but for such a complex character like Rei, he lacked the skill. (I was nearly laughing hard at his scenes in episode 10 since his acting was so over the top!). The rest, well, good!
Music 9.5/10
Music in Japanese dramas never disappoint. I love that contrary to other asian dramas, there's hardly no lyrics, except perhaps for opening and ending songs. For AT,HWA the ending is sung by the crazy talented Ieiri Leo, and she's the queen of OSTs so I've got nothing to say. All the instrumentals were on point!
Rewatch Value 6/10
Why -4 points? A simple reason. It's not a bad drama, but its rewatch value is highly dependent on the surprising ending. Once you know the entire plot, it just seems so not worthy to rewatch? Idk, it's still fresh for me.
Overall, I like the fact they made a follow-up story, available on Hulu Japan only. I couldn't see it yet, but it sure is on my to-watch list if it is ever available elsewhere.
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This review may contain spoilers
Better than season 2 but still...
***BEWARE OF THE SPOILERS***Well well that was a ride! I watched the 6 episodes in 2 nights. In no particular order things I liked, I didn't like, good and bad WTF about this season and the questions I still have. I'm spoiling this for you, read at your own risk!
Good points:
- KANAE AND TODOROKI, do I even need to develop?
- the revival of the Hibiki/Todoroki bromance. It was such a long time coming and I had doubt ngl, but I'm glad they could mend their relationship once the Kurumi-related tension and previous disagreements faded.
- less Kurumi
- more gore-y scenes, the effects were better made than for previous seasons imo.
- the introduction of Mirai, nice of them to add new elements
- Kanae greatest character PERIOD
- the Cult. I was one to think that it was lacking in S1 and S2, as blindingly turning to pseudo-religion is one of the most prominent coping mechanism in all impossible situations. The moral questions they bring were much needed, good job on that.
Bad points:
- KANAE AND TODOROKI... a ship down way too soon
- I do not get the point of the X group... like, what do they want? Where do they EXACTLY come from? How are they recruted? What motivates them to do bad? I... don't...like them.
- Good that they tried to give more importance to Yuzuki but... she is a child that very recently lost her mom and trash of a dad... Where is the trauma? The pain? The dark impact it should have on her? AND THE ASTHMA??? LOL
- The very cliché the-wingman-of-the-cult-is-crazier-than-the-leader trope... not impressed
- Jian was close to non existent this season
All kinds of WTF:
- I really thought Hibiki was finally (rightfully) losing it, they had me during the first two episodes... I would have liked it better, he has all the right to give up with everything that happened to him.
- You throw a baby in there, okay. How come she's still alive and clean at this point? How do you feed her when you can't even feed yourself? And why is the baby unsupervised 95% of the time?! hahaha
- Soooo no info on Woo Jun ? I mean it was barely talked about, even Min Jun didn't talk about him. What about his story other than the flower thing?
- How come Hibiki so easily left Yuzuki behind ?
- Has Takeuchi Ryoma given up on Hibiki? He didn't react much to Mirai and kept being obsessed by Kurumi but he was sadder for Todoroki than for her????? Isn't that off-character?
Questions remaining:
- Unless I didn't get the info, do they have any kind of contact with the rest of the world? They do talk about another country in S3 (mmm...) but what about the rest of the Globe? Is the whole world in the same situation or is it a Japan-thing?
- Shuto part 2... S4 better not be another S1 cause that would bore me to death
- Why so many seasons? I would rather have more episodes but less seasons, I feel the plot vanishing more and more
- Kurumi.. down for good? Not too sure about that, they didn't show her well enough... And I may have mixed up info, but wasn't she tested on by Shuto cause her blood cells had special golem-resisting qualities? Did that really just delay her transformation? Will they ever talk about that?
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