Mareina
Germany
I understand that this might not be to everyone's taste, so if you're looking for a Rom-Com or something light I suggest you watch something else.
On the other hand, even if it is titled as tragedy it's not THAT tragic in my opinion. Okay, maybe a little tragic, too, but not everyone-dies-in-the-end-tragic.
This show surprised me from the start, taking a direction I didn't expect, really making me wonder where we were going.
After watching the last episode I can say that the whole story was very well thought-out and in the end everything made sense.
It did a very good job at surprising once more in the end, when I already thought I had it all figured out.
I also realy liked the dark mood and the tension, especially in conversations between Mako/Satsuki and the detective.
Both Takei Emi and Kiritani Kenta did an awesome job. I have seen Takei Emi several times before, but each time it feels like a completely different character. This time she managed to play two characters at the same time in such a way that the audience is always able to tell the twins apart even when the line starts to blur.
Lastly, I set the rewatch value very low, because it's the kind of drama that won't be as interesting anymore if you know what will happen. It's the surprises that are catchy, but you won't be surprised the second time round.
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Drama Special Season 3: When I Was The Prettiest
15 people found this review helpful
The guy-with-sick-girlfriend-falls-in-love-with-other-girl part is accurate, though.
That said, it was a nice and beautiful short story. It wasn't what I expected, but I liked it nonetheless.
The acting is really good, so it's easy to sympathize with the characters in spite of the short amount of time. I didn't watch this because of Lee Jong Suk, but it sure made me notice him a lot more. If you watch this because of him I'm sure you won't be disapointed.
The short time is another forte of this special - it never get's draggy.
I'm not much of a rewatcher, but I might watch this again because it's beautiful and Lee Jong Suk is so damn hot.
P.S. if you watch this, you will be rewarded with hot kisses ;P
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Each episode starts with a different person talking about their feelings and that episode will give you better insight into that persons point of view shedding a different light on what's going on.
That way the mystery is unraveled step by step, keeping it interesting until the last episode.
You might not come around to like all of the characters, but you will be able to understand all of them and cheer for them.
But what makes this drama so special is not the mystery, though it's really well done, but the character's realationships and interactions that are also unraveled bit by bit. Especially family relationships like mother-daughter/son, husband-wife or brothers-sisters really stand out in this drama, in a gripping and sometimes moving way.
There's a lot of issues, like domestic violence, bullying and social pressure, so it's a bit of a heavy drama, but it is in no way depressing. It has an uplifting note and leaves you with a warm feeling at the end.
I considered reducing one point for acting, because I found Suzuki Kyoka a little stiff, but everyone else does an amazing job so it outweighs her shortcomings. She's not bad though, just not as good as the rest imo.
I love the music, especially the ending. I think it fits perfectly.
Rewatch value is low, because part of it is a mystery, which of course looses tension when you already know everything, and I'm not much of a rewatcher anyway. But I might watch it again for those elaborate characters and their relations.
I can really recommend this show wholeheartedly to anyone looking for a not-just-fluffy drama.
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If you're looking for a mystery or family-suspense drama, this is not the one. But if you're in the mood for a feel-good, heartwarming family drama with a pinch of humor this might be for you.
The concept is not actually fresh and I'm pretty sure I've seen some of the conflicts play out before, but this drama manages to do many things right that can easily annoy you if done wrong.
The heroine is set up to be a typical meddler character. I've seen many dramas were there is a problem, then the heroine goes way overboard to get involved, says something and the problem is solved. Those kinds of girls would totally get on your nerves in real life. Kiko is different in that I never felt she pushed too hard. She speaks up when she sees abuse or wrongs but still respects the others' privacy. She's someone you'd like to have as a friend in real life. I really appreciate that she doesn't make everything alright through some magic speech but gives the others the chance to solve their problems themselves. This way all solutions feel earned and more natural.
As you you know from the description there's lots of characters with problems. All of those problems are interesting and feel real enough to relate. I really like how this show is structured in that it doesn't go episodic and restricts one episode to one character and problem. Instead we see parts of all problems in all episodes. It does feature one character a little more each ep, but as I mentioned before problems are not solved magically. So you're able to see how all of the characters gradually work through their problems.
This show wants to teach a few life lessons about marriage, parentage and education, but it mostly doesn't come off as preachy.
The kids are super cute. I was especially impressed with Yamamoto Ayumo, who plays Kiko's son Haruto. In all of his scenes he felt so real and never like he was just acting.
All of the mother's were lovely acted as well and Seto Koji is really cute as the reluctantly kind teacher.
I already don't remember any of the music.
This is not the best show out there, but it's satisfying and it does put you in a pretty good mood, so I'd recommend it =)
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And yet I was pleasantly surprised.
Sure enough, the most prominent genre is comedy and it doesn't get too deep, but it stays clear of becoming shallow. The show doesn't take itself too seriously at any point, but still manages to have some heartfelt moments.
They do a good job of pointing out some differences in behavior of society towards people who don't match their beauty standard and also how this affects the self-confidence and self-conception of people not regarded pretty.
Of course these characters are extreme examples, but I found a lot of the situations relatable. Feeling lacking and uncomfortable with ones looks or envying how stuff seems so much easier to other people are universal feelings after all, even if society doesn't consider you ugly.
My favorite thing about the show is the narrator. He has character and an attitude and many of his comments are hilarious.
That said, I still found that for a comedy, this show wasn't funny enough. Amusing, yes, but not outright funny. But because they avoided the many stereotyping pitfalls this setup poses it's easy enought to forgive that.
This is a very quick watch, with barely 20 minutes per ep and only 8 eps, so they didn't have time to properly flesh out some things, but on the upside that also means it never drags or gets boring.
I liked the music, especially the song "Jikan wo tomeru Love Song" by Sambomaster.
I'd recommend this to people looking for a rom-com that's a bit different (even if it still follows an old formula) or who like shows that are a tad weird.
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The only reason I finished is because the episodes are really short and I was curious to see just how ridiculous it gets. This drama just one ups itself with the crazy all the time and then makes you feel like everything was moot in the end.
I'm not really sure if they wanted to convey a message, but they keep sending these half-messages that I really hope no one takes to heart because mostly they are morally not very good or at least they don't make any sense.
Birth secrets, forbidden love (siblings, teacher-student), lots and lots of adultery in various forms - this show makes sure to not leave one thing out.
There was not a single character in this show that makes any sense, least of them the 'heroine'. The characters changed to fit the story and I failed to follow the reasoning behind almost all actions. Apparently it's your fault if someone else does something wrong because they were angry at you. But that's only one of many examples.
Apart from not making any sense, most characters also do some very very questionable or immoral stuff, which the drama rarely acknowledges or just brushes over. Itsuki is supposed to have that super pure love that even moves the heavens, only the guy is married to someone else. Again, one of many examples.
The story always announces its plot 'twists' for some eps before the actual twist happens. So basically you watch to get a sense of what will happen and then you see 5 eps where it unfolds exactly like that. The story gets insanely crazy and ridiculous, but there never is an actual surprise because you know everything way in advance.
Also, there's way too many deaths in this drama. I get that that's an intentional theme, but it's just too much. I thought that once we got through the childhood part we would be done with the deaths, but the show managed to just put in more deaths all the time that I couldn't care less about because all we saw of them was the funeral. They just put in more gloom and death for the sake of it. Characters we were supposed to care about also die in the most ridiculous ways possible.
The acting is a bit over the top, but I think it's what a show like this requires of the actors, so they did a decent job.
The music is probably the only thing I actively liked about this drama. I love the insert song "I want to go to heaven" and also the opening is pretty good. Too bad I will always associate the songs with this drama.
I will never ever watch any episode of this drama again.
Do yourself a favor and don't watch this drama. You have been warned!
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This review may contain spoilers
I kept this review spoiler free.This show had a lot of potential but it didn't use any of it.
The overarching conspiracy plot is not new at all and you will be able to figure it out waaaaaay before our characters do. But they keep being all mysterious and when the moment of the big reveal comes it doesn't have any impact at all because you knew all along.
When reading the synopsis (it was a different one than on MDL, hinting at attraction between the reporter and her object of surveillance) in addition to the revenge plot it was the romance/attraction aspect that intrigued me, but they didn't convince me at all. I felt like there was a switch: One moment no attraction, just focusing on work, and the next moment they remembered they where supposed to be attracted to each other and switched it on. I use attraction instead of romance on purpose here, because calling it romance wouldn't fit.
Also, Miyabe is faced with some moral questions but the topic is just brushed aside and she just irgnores what should have been on her conscience. This leads to her doing some VERY questionable stuff and makes it really hard to like her or sympathize with her.
It's similar for Shindo, who doesn't seem to care about his living son at all, which also made him unlikable to me. I felt really bad for the kid.
It would have been great if this show had elaborated the moral dilemmas faced by the two and maybe also explored their relationship a bit more instead of focusing on a conspiracy/revenge that everyone has seen in some other movie or drama a few times before.
In addition, this show is really slow. It took forever to get the story started and there where lots of boring scenes in every episode. Even if it's only 6 episodes, it felt like a long watch.
The actors didn't really stand out in either a bad or a good way, but I think they where limited a lot by the writing anyway. The kid did very well though.
If you read this far I guess you already know I can't recommend this drama. Better skip this and watch something else!
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This review may contain spoilers
This drama is really difficult to rate, because it's so uneven.In the beginning, the directing is totally distracting from the story, but don't let that stop you. It dials down a great deal to a normal level. But it stays extremly beautiful all the time. You get a lot of shots and views that are different from other dramas and it's plain fun to look at.
There are a few really strong episodes, but then the story turns weird. Well maybe not weird, but it's lacking a lot in the logic department. I think the writing is this dramas biggest flaw. Sometimes it just seems lazy because they skip steps and don't bother to explain how characters got somewhere. I don't want to elaborate on the story flaws though, or else it might turn spoilerish.
It was still fairly addictive even without plot logic, mostly because the actors did such an awesome job. They had great chemistry and any scene with the two leads just sucked me in.
I liked the OST a lot, but I deducted points because sometimes the music was used inappropriately. I don't like when they use music to hit you over the head with what you're supposed to feel in a scene instead of the music just complimenting the story.
I think the ending is not surprising, but largly fitting. It's just that there was sloppy writing all over, too, which deflates the emotional impact it could have had if handled better.
I'm not much of a rewatcher, but one might want to rewatch this show for the beautiful images and the couple - but only with skipping a lot of the other stuff.
I recommend this to anyone who is bored of all Historicals looking similar. If you want to see something different, this is it.
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The premise is the same, but there are quite a few changes, mainly different characters. They made Arata plenty likable (opposed to spineless Yukki) and didn't repeat the flaws from the Anime.
So the first few episodes were enjoyable and interesting (though slightly repetitive).
Then they strayed so much from the original plot that I started to get confused. It took me some time to accept the huge differences. The last few episodes have nothing to do with the premise anymore, except that it's the same characters.
Nevertheless, they made the "new story" work and if you forget about the original solution, this version also makes sense. It's just that I like the original version better (Like usually, haha).
I think I would rate this 7 even if I hadn't seen the Anime. Even though there are minor plot holes the story is fine, but it didn't quite pull me in. Sometimes it's really predictable, other times I couldn't predict it at all.
The acting is sufficient, but not really that good. Plus, the love story is... it's not that it's unbelievable, but it lacks substance.
All in all it was a decent, short watch.
If you are a fan of the Anime and not so much fond of huge alterations, you should not watch this.
On the other hand, if you watched the Anime and think this will be boring, because you know the ending: be assured it's not like that.
If you don't know the Anime/Manga and are looking for some Psychological Mystery, you might as well give this a try.
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