pash
Italy
This review may contain spoilers
I must confess that I started watching this with some caution, expecting it to be the Nth "NTR" ("netorare", affair/cheating) drama with tons of glamorizing and very little substance, but it wasn't anything like that, luckily!
Instead, at least for 3/4 of it (more on that in a jiff!), I had the very pleasant feeling of watching some brilliant, refined comedy from the 60s! (like, for example, the lovely "Adulterio all'italiana" - "Adultery Italian Style" - starring Nino Manfredi and Catherine Spaak).
The cast performed marvelously, with the sole exceptions of Konishi and Toyoda (but then again, I must say I really hated their characters, so there's that too), and with a standing ovation for Yamashita Mizuki (adorable AND talented, chapeau!).
The "packaging" (directing, editing, photography, etc.) is absolutely top-notch, and so is the beautiful music commentary.
So why am I not grading this a "perfect 10"?
(spoilers ahead, so if you don't wanna get any of those, stop reading NOW ^___-)
Well, as briefly mentioned above, 3/4 of this series would indeed deserve the highest grade; but unfortunately, after that little masterpiece that's the 8th episode, they decided to do a terrible U-turn and switch from light, brilliant, überfunny comedy to a more realistic and horribly gloomy approach, royally shooting themselves in the foot, as far as I'm concerned.
Imho, this kind of stuff could only work as a comedy. Cheating ain't something funny at all, IRL, so the way to go (and they had done that exactly, and very well until episodes 9/10!) is to MAKE it funny by exaggerating the details and by AVOIDING realism! Instead the abrupt change of pace was disgraceful and almost ruined the whole thing. The ending didn't help either (again, IMHO!), as I had rooted for Yamashita of course, her character being so much better in any aspect (whereas the wife had been depicted as a sort of monodimensional caricature who spoke the whole time with an ultra-annoying anime-voice - BTW, I referenced that old Italian movie at the beginning of the review: well, if you want the audience to root for the wife, you have to write her character as the better one, as it was the case there!).
A possible explanation of the script's problems is that there were three different writers, and often that is detrimental to the script's consistency. Another reason, as it could be hinted by the very last line (that surprised "Ittekimasu? Tadaima...?!" muttered by the ML seems indeed to hint that the FL hasn't surrendered after all!) is that perhaps they wanted to leave the door open for a potential second season (and that almost invariably produces terrible endings!).
All in all, a pretty nice drama that could have been a masterpiece but missed the opportunity.
Anyway, I don't want to be too harsh so I'm still giving it a decent 8 (but if I ever rewatched this, I'd make sure to stop right after ep. 8 and go on imagining a different ending altogether!).
Instead, at least for 3/4 of it (more on that in a jiff!), I had the very pleasant feeling of watching some brilliant, refined comedy from the 60s! (like, for example, the lovely "Adulterio all'italiana" - "Adultery Italian Style" - starring Nino Manfredi and Catherine Spaak).
The cast performed marvelously, with the sole exceptions of Konishi and Toyoda (but then again, I must say I really hated their characters, so there's that too), and with a standing ovation for Yamashita Mizuki (adorable AND talented, chapeau!).
The "packaging" (directing, editing, photography, etc.) is absolutely top-notch, and so is the beautiful music commentary.
So why am I not grading this a "perfect 10"?
(spoilers ahead, so if you don't wanna get any of those, stop reading NOW ^___-)
Well, as briefly mentioned above, 3/4 of this series would indeed deserve the highest grade; but unfortunately, after that little masterpiece that's the 8th episode, they decided to do a terrible U-turn and switch from light, brilliant, überfunny comedy to a more realistic and horribly gloomy approach, royally shooting themselves in the foot, as far as I'm concerned.
Imho, this kind of stuff could only work as a comedy. Cheating ain't something funny at all, IRL, so the way to go (and they had done that exactly, and very well until episodes 9/10!) is to MAKE it funny by exaggerating the details and by AVOIDING realism! Instead the abrupt change of pace was disgraceful and almost ruined the whole thing. The ending didn't help either (again, IMHO!), as I had rooted for Yamashita of course, her character being so much better in any aspect (whereas the wife had been depicted as a sort of monodimensional caricature who spoke the whole time with an ultra-annoying anime-voice - BTW, I referenced that old Italian movie at the beginning of the review: well, if you want the audience to root for the wife, you have to write her character as the better one, as it was the case there!).
A possible explanation of the script's problems is that there were three different writers, and often that is detrimental to the script's consistency. Another reason, as it could be hinted by the very last line (that surprised "Ittekimasu? Tadaima...?!" muttered by the ML seems indeed to hint that the FL hasn't surrendered after all!) is that perhaps they wanted to leave the door open for a potential second season (and that almost invariably produces terrible endings!).
All in all, a pretty nice drama that could have been a masterpiece but missed the opportunity.
Anyway, I don't want to be too harsh so I'm still giving it a decent 8 (but if I ever rewatched this, I'd make sure to stop right after ep. 8 and go on imagining a different ending altogether!).
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