9
10
8
SumiTheCat
France
A story about human people
Everything contributed to make this drama a must watch for me. Not an easy one, I was prepared for that, but definitely a worthy one. The rating reflects it.
Well, when I say everything, I mean the cast and the topic.
The cast :
I came here for Kohinata, and I was first disappointed to see him play a politician, once again if I may say so. But who can say he is not good in this kind of serious, introspective, sometimes bursting with anger and helpless at so many other moments, mean and somehow inhumane roles ?
I was also very curious to see more of Yakusho Koji, recently awarded in Cannes Film Festival for his role in another movie. If it’s not my first drama with him, it’s the first time I’m watching one where he has such a prominent role. As expected maybe, I was not disappointed by his performance. He carries the whole story, and I’m under the feeling he gave justice to the man he has incarnated on the screen. The calm and comforting force emanating from his character, Yoshida, somehow helped me continue watching the show, as the man might have helped all his co-workers in this unheard situation.
If I’m not the kind raving about Takenouchi Yutaka, as I’ve never fallen under his charm, I have to admit his performance is perfectly fitting the character.
Overall, the entire cast did a pretty good job portraying those characters, giving life to people who were only disembodied shadows seen from the other side of the world. Most of all, their interpretation is giving homage to the hard work those people have done in such a critical time, a work we had no idea about at the time while watching those air images of the nuclear plant at the time.
The topic :
Indeed, the topic itself interested me, I can’t say personally because I have no relation with the people in the area, yet in a very inner way. Allow me an almost off-topic digression about this event.
I remember very well this day on March 11th, in 2011. I had started watching Asian (and when I say Asian, I mean solely Japanese) dramas for several months at the time, and it has overtaken my life to the point that it was the only thing I was watching at the time. At the beginning of 2011, I was starting to dream about visiting Japan, though I felt like I would never dare to do so. But I have already said my co-workers that I was interested in Japan. That day my boss came at the office at around 9AM and said to me, almost casually because at the time we had no idea how strong the disaster was, that a big earthquake had occurred in Japan. I had the possibility to go back at home during lunch time, I watched the news and discovered the big damages due to the earthquake and the tsunami : at that time it was the tsunami that stroke me the most, mainly because it was what was mostly filmed by people in the area. I still have strong remembrance of certain images. The next days, I followed the news, and mostly the ones coming from the nuclear plant in Fukushima. It had become the primary source of worries for the whole world. I remember all the speculations about the consequences on the Japanese territory and the whole world of this nuclear disaster. I remember also, that we never really knew what was happening in the plant at the time, the comments were on par, more or less, with what is shown in the movie. I remember vividly also, my colleagues and family telling me that going to Japan was not a good idea anymore. That was it, for months…
Back to the drama. I was eager - that might sound a gloomy, unhealthy idea, but I was eager to see what happened inside the plant at the time. I was expecting difficult times, difficult events, and the story, while unfolding, fully shows them. But with a gravity, and at the same time, without any over-dramatic effect, that gives them the solemnity required for such a tragic event. The performance of the cast, as said above, plays a big part in that. But the cinematography does a good job, conveying through the lightning and some effects, the feelings and experience those people must have had at the time. The music is beautiful, yet I can’t really describe it. Because it’s here, everywhere, underlining the tragedy, yet never overshadowing the reality of the images.
I guess there were a lot of CGI for recreating the nuclear plant, but at least things felt real.
While the situation may have felt suffocating for the people working in the area, confined in their protective suits and in small areas (control room, disaster center) - and we are somehow understanding this feeling while watching the drama - we are nevertheless lead by a more comfortable feeling : the solidarity between the teams on the site (not talking about remote centers in Tokyo), which is truly beautiful to watch.
And that is the strong point of that drama : despite its theme, despite all the tragedy we are witnessing and guessing, because we know they are condemned sooner or later, this is a beautiful story. It pays homage to the courage, mental strength, commitment, and sacrifice of the people who were there, by chance, unfortunately we may say, and that stayed and gave their best. Entangled in a disaster they did not have seen coming, that was unprecedented in some of its aspects, they managed to try again and again, endlessly it seems, against all the obstacles that came ahead, one after the other. They might have wanted to leave, they might have wanted to give up, but they gave their utmost to overcome the situation. Those people were ordinary people confronted to the extraordinary. Being able to respond to it, is something that has always felt amazing to me. I bow to people who are able to do so.
It was an important drama to me. Not an easy watch, I said it, and I sometimes came reluctantly because I knew it would be overwhelming. It was, I shed some tears (which I generally don’t in realistic dramas), especially at the end of episode 7, that I found heartbreaking. I won’t describe those scenes, but they somehow describe so well, without any proper explicit word, all the feelings people might have felt in such a time. I’m also keeping with me the beautiful gravity of all the feelings that passed though that red phone line between the disaster center and the control room : the silences between Yoshida and Maejima said more than any word. It was, truly, a story about human people.
Well, when I say everything, I mean the cast and the topic.
The cast :
I came here for Kohinata, and I was first disappointed to see him play a politician, once again if I may say so. But who can say he is not good in this kind of serious, introspective, sometimes bursting with anger and helpless at so many other moments, mean and somehow inhumane roles ?
I was also very curious to see more of Yakusho Koji, recently awarded in Cannes Film Festival for his role in another movie. If it’s not my first drama with him, it’s the first time I’m watching one where he has such a prominent role. As expected maybe, I was not disappointed by his performance. He carries the whole story, and I’m under the feeling he gave justice to the man he has incarnated on the screen. The calm and comforting force emanating from his character, Yoshida, somehow helped me continue watching the show, as the man might have helped all his co-workers in this unheard situation.
If I’m not the kind raving about Takenouchi Yutaka, as I’ve never fallen under his charm, I have to admit his performance is perfectly fitting the character.
Overall, the entire cast did a pretty good job portraying those characters, giving life to people who were only disembodied shadows seen from the other side of the world. Most of all, their interpretation is giving homage to the hard work those people have done in such a critical time, a work we had no idea about at the time while watching those air images of the nuclear plant at the time.
The topic :
Indeed, the topic itself interested me, I can’t say personally because I have no relation with the people in the area, yet in a very inner way. Allow me an almost off-topic digression about this event.
I remember very well this day on March 11th, in 2011. I had started watching Asian (and when I say Asian, I mean solely Japanese) dramas for several months at the time, and it has overtaken my life to the point that it was the only thing I was watching at the time. At the beginning of 2011, I was starting to dream about visiting Japan, though I felt like I would never dare to do so. But I have already said my co-workers that I was interested in Japan. That day my boss came at the office at around 9AM and said to me, almost casually because at the time we had no idea how strong the disaster was, that a big earthquake had occurred in Japan. I had the possibility to go back at home during lunch time, I watched the news and discovered the big damages due to the earthquake and the tsunami : at that time it was the tsunami that stroke me the most, mainly because it was what was mostly filmed by people in the area. I still have strong remembrance of certain images. The next days, I followed the news, and mostly the ones coming from the nuclear plant in Fukushima. It had become the primary source of worries for the whole world. I remember all the speculations about the consequences on the Japanese territory and the whole world of this nuclear disaster. I remember also, that we never really knew what was happening in the plant at the time, the comments were on par, more or less, with what is shown in the movie. I remember vividly also, my colleagues and family telling me that going to Japan was not a good idea anymore. That was it, for months…
Back to the drama. I was eager - that might sound a gloomy, unhealthy idea, but I was eager to see what happened inside the plant at the time. I was expecting difficult times, difficult events, and the story, while unfolding, fully shows them. But with a gravity, and at the same time, without any over-dramatic effect, that gives them the solemnity required for such a tragic event. The performance of the cast, as said above, plays a big part in that. But the cinematography does a good job, conveying through the lightning and some effects, the feelings and experience those people must have had at the time. The music is beautiful, yet I can’t really describe it. Because it’s here, everywhere, underlining the tragedy, yet never overshadowing the reality of the images.
I guess there were a lot of CGI for recreating the nuclear plant, but at least things felt real.
While the situation may have felt suffocating for the people working in the area, confined in their protective suits and in small areas (control room, disaster center) - and we are somehow understanding this feeling while watching the drama - we are nevertheless lead by a more comfortable feeling : the solidarity between the teams on the site (not talking about remote centers in Tokyo), which is truly beautiful to watch.
And that is the strong point of that drama : despite its theme, despite all the tragedy we are witnessing and guessing, because we know they are condemned sooner or later, this is a beautiful story. It pays homage to the courage, mental strength, commitment, and sacrifice of the people who were there, by chance, unfortunately we may say, and that stayed and gave their best. Entangled in a disaster they did not have seen coming, that was unprecedented in some of its aspects, they managed to try again and again, endlessly it seems, against all the obstacles that came ahead, one after the other. They might have wanted to leave, they might have wanted to give up, but they gave their utmost to overcome the situation. Those people were ordinary people confronted to the extraordinary. Being able to respond to it, is something that has always felt amazing to me. I bow to people who are able to do so.
It was an important drama to me. Not an easy watch, I said it, and I sometimes came reluctantly because I knew it would be overwhelming. It was, I shed some tears (which I generally don’t in realistic dramas), especially at the end of episode 7, that I found heartbreaking. I won’t describe those scenes, but they somehow describe so well, without any proper explicit word, all the feelings people might have felt in such a time. I’m also keeping with me the beautiful gravity of all the feelings that passed though that red phone line between the disaster center and the control room : the silences between Yoshida and Maejima said more than any word. It was, truly, a story about human people.
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