oh my god... the wait is finally over

I already know there's going to be a lot of reviews for this drama, so I want to focus on something a little different for mine.

I don't think I need to convince anyone on this page to watch this drama, because assuming you've already seen season 1, you'll probably already want to continue and find out the answers to everything (which you'll get this season).

So, I want to focus on life and death. We already saw in season 1 Arisu's behaviour. He was introverted and a social outcast. And then, he's thrown into a game where you could literally lose his life, so he plays. But of course, not everything goes well, and we end up seeing Arisu's depressive behaviour, his hopelessness as he's giving up. But then, once again, he's determined to win, understand the game, and then make sure all his friends make it back with him.

Cue season 2, and we see a similar pattern where other characters start to question the meaning of life. They're sick of being in Borderland. But this time, it's Arisu who picks them to and gives them a shoulder to lean on. It's him who shows them they should try their hardest to keep living.

Seeing the backstories of the characters in season 1, and then finding out the backstories of season 2's new characters (along with Chishiya's finally), I've noticed a pattern which can link all these characters by a thread. They all question life. They wonder why the rich always succeed, whilst the weak and poor are made to suffer. This show is filled with characters who have all undergone loss in some form in their lives, and once in Borderland, it's what they choose to do with the lessons they've learnt that will ultimately help them survive. Or at least probably.

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A disappointing book-to-film adaptation

Unfortunately, I don't think I can recommend this film to anyone. For the people who have also read the book, you'll be disappointed in the execution. And for the people who haven't, you'll be confused with most of the scenes.

It's a film following Toru, a reserved university student who finds himself liking two girls - Naoko, who is dealing with mental health issues; and Midori, a fellow student who is a bit of an enigma. Whilst in the book Toru is very introspective and is able to analyse the relationship dynamics he has with the other characters, film Toru is mostly just a bit contemplative. Clearly, it is very character driven.

Despite that, it seems as if some characters have been toned down a lot. So we end up with a bunch of characters that more or less feel the same in terms of tone, mannerisms, personality, etc. This makes quite a few of the interactions slightly bland at times. Toru, Natsumi, and Midori were probably the most true to the original source material, and were best cast in my opinion.

The problem with this film is that it is very disjointed. From the perspective of someone who has read the book, it feels as of I'm in a literature class and have been given a handful of extracts of the book and I've been made to try and decipher what is happening. It lacks I'm both cohesion, and coherence.

The problem with the lack of structure means that a lot of scenes don't make sense. Since some scenes are cut out to not be too long, we're left with shortened scenes which don't add anything to the plot. For example, a scene between Toru and Midori's father is cut. Instead, we're introduced to him, only for him to stop being mentioned after 3 or so minutes. This leads to a lack of development for many characters, including Naoko's friend, Reika, making their presence seem pointless. The lack of explanation for many scenes invoking certain characters just leads to confusion. And for the scenes included from the book, the dialogue is a carbon copy from the book, not adding anything new, once again, leading to many gaps which are not explained.

And despite leaving a lot out from the book, it is a painfully long film. Since not much happens in the book, the film wasn't able to capture enough of the characters' situations and feelings well enough in order for the film to be the least bit engaging. And mentioned before, some of the characters felt the same.

Although the music fit, it easily could have put me to sleep, especially during the scenes where the characters are having a quiet and slow conversation.

Another thing to note is that it's a particularly quiet film to the point that I can hear the wind and trees more than the characters' voices. However, there are few moments where suddenly, characters are shouting, which caught me off guard since I had turned up the volume quite a bit in order to hear them.

If this was remade today, I do think that it would be a lot better. The only problem is that the author has very sexist views which bleed into his work (including this one), so it would be interesting to see how those aspects (i.e. the male gaze) are improved upon or changed without taking from the overall meaning or plot. Also, as a heads up, Toru has sex with nearly every woman within a 5 mile radius of him, or at least thinks about it. The only exception is Natsumi, who in my opinion, is someone Toru respects and sees almost as a sister in my opinion (at least in the book).

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Beautiful and Tragic; two words I use to describe this film.

What starts as a writer trying to uncover the truth about an incident turns into something much more.

I found the use of light and sound quite important. It was a tool to make us -the audience- focus on certain things characters have said in order to foreshadow what will happen in the future and what will be revealed about the past. It is similar with eye contact and characters watching interactions between other characters. Watching this, you won't realise how complex the story is until the last third. Then, you understand the construction of the story and the choices the characters make.

The acting was also incredible. For Iwata Takanori, it was a step up from his portrayal as Cobra in the HiGH&LOW series and other exile-related works. He really shined in this film. His character was also interesting. He walks with intention and a purpose; he speaks with intention and purpose, making him a more compelling character. I'm not kidding when I say he walks as if he is on a mission (which he totally is). Heck, even his stares are intentional. Saitoh Takumi also outperformed as usual and brought so much to his character as a photographer.

Even though I already loved it after my first watch, I really appreciated the construction of it this time around. It is a film I plan to watch a third, maybe fourth time. But I also wish I could experience watching it for the first time. It is one of a kind.

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An exciting and thrilling drama starring none other than Oguri Shun and Ikuta Toma!!

A story which focused on ouroboros - the symbol of infinity through a snake chasing its own tail. Representing creation and destruction; birth and death.

I really enjoyed the symbol of the ouroboros in this drama, along with everything else this drama had to offer. It was thrilling, but also funny. It's a compelling drama following two friends - a police officer and yakuza - carrying out revenge for a person who was their family as a child. You couldn't help but love both the main characters. And of course, they made an amazing team when they had the chance to work together (undercover, of course), and they were quite an hilarious duo during these times.

Speaking of, both Oguri Shun and Ikuta Toma played their characters fantastically. It was definitely fun to seem them reunited on-screen after Hanazakari no Kimitachi e which was released in 2007. In that time they had obviously both matured as actors and their portrayals of their characters felt authentic and genuine in this drama which is a lot more serious than Hana Kimi. It was very obvious to see how much they cared for each other. Shun's character (Danno Tatsuya) treated Toma's character (Ryuuzaki Ikuo) like his younger brother whom he wanted to protect. And it was obvious Ikuo equally cared for him. It was really sweet but also sad during the times Tatsuya would get hurt because of how worried Ikuo would get. I also loved the contribution Ikuo's sense of smell would make. A pretty funny quirk.

I know some people were annoyed at the female lead, but she wasn't bad in my opinion. It's important to know that for the most part, she didn't know about Tatsuya and Ikuo's relationship for the most part. So, whilst I sometimes felt like she was getting in the way, she was doing what most people would do in that situation, especially as a police officer herself.

I also really liked how the other side characters contributed to the story. also, Ayana Go was also a character in the last few episodes and I was not expecting to see him, but it was nice to see him in this.

I find the plot quite hard to fault. Revenge is quite a popular troupe and this drama made it into my favourite revenge plot dramas. There were a few red herrings but I also felt the emotions Tatsuya and Ikuo would feel when they thought they were getting somewhere with a certain suspect.

I also found the ending fitting. That's all I will mention on that. I was pretty sad, but also relieved in a way.

Overall, a great drama which I definitely recommend for all the reasons mentioned above. It has easily become a new favourite of mine.

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Good drama but lacks characterisation!!

I freaking love this drama, but i have quite a few criticisms.

The actors were great and the storyline was engaging. There was a lot of tension and high intensity scenes, and even episodes.

The characterisation fell flat, however. There should have been more of a background story for the characters. It would have been interesting to know how the ML started the whole job and why exactly he did it. In a way, it sort of doesn't make sense; he explains that he wants to lead a normal life without drawing too much attention to himself but his "job" is the opposite and can get him into a lot of trouble. If he wanted money, he could just get a job that regular kids his age got like at a convenience store.

The FL was the same; she wanted to make money but had no motive. They tried to give the storyline that her parents wanted her to pursue the same thing as them and she didn't want to, but how exactly is doing what she was going to help her get out of her parents' desired plan for her? Also, why is she willing to risk getting in trouble for managing a sex work business just to not be a ceo - it's not equivalent.

Another thing about the fl was that she was annoying. She clearly hadn't set her priorities straight, as evident in the previous paragraph. But, from the first episode we see that she's a pretty shit person. She went out of her way to take the ML's phone so she could go through it. When she didn't know the passcode, she watched him enter the passcode for his other phone and used that to get into his phone. The invasion of privacy is not cool and I'm pretty sure she doesn't apologise. I don't like how the writers chose that as a catalyst for how the FL had to find out about everything. Other than that, she's purely fucking annoying. She is constantly putting everyone in danger and she feels no remorse. As soon as she is introduced, she fucks everything up. And luckily for her, she has the money to buy herself out of trouble because her parents are rich, whereas the ML has to suffer more.

Mr Lee was such a g bro. I love him. I also liked the homeroom teacher.

Did the second leads even genuinely like each other? He was pretty shitty towards her and relied on her for her money. But, he was able to get his homeboys to trash the karaoke bar for his GF. The scene was pretty iconic though.

With most of these characters, there was no clear motive for most of their decisions *cue motive by Ari and Doja* which i think is the biggest flaw in this drama.

But I did genuinely enjoy my time watching it. I'm really into high school dramas that are dark like 'Class of Lies'. Both of these dramas, along with 'How to Buy a Friend' have all been compared. Personally, my favourite would be 'Class of Lies'. Because there were only 10 episodes in extracurricular, they might have not been able to develop the characters as well.

I know some people want a second season after the last episode but i don't really think it would be as good. I'm not sure how they would add another 10 episodes without dragging out and ruining it. I think people need to start being okay with dramas where the ending is unclear.

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It lacked in quite a few aspects

I was really enjoying the first half of this drama, but what went wrong? I will try to explain without any spoilers.

It had such a strong start. I was really into the interactions that the FL and ML were having. It was smooth sailing.

But then it became disjointed. It didn't feel like a love story anymore. The FL didn't even feel like a main character. I think both her and the other FL were heavily underdeveloped, and I'm quite disappointed in that. In general, I don'
t think the characterisation was that great looking back. Eve the two MLs felt underdeveloped. We didn't get much insight into their motivations and backstory. The acting was decent though.

Now, back to the plot. What the heck was going on? I feel like they didn't give much of a build up into the second half. It felt like the same person was placing the leads in to the same predicament over and over again. And like many have mentioned in the comments, that last episode was a bit of a mess. This drama could have benefitted from an extra episodes to make it 11 like most 90s JDramas. It would have been in their favour.

Can't remember the music at all. And I have little intention to re watch this, at least not any time soon.

Clearly my review was all over the place (much like the drama), so bear with me. If you are a fan of 90s Japanese dramas and have already watched the more popular ones, maybe give this a chance. I don't think you'll regret it.

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