I had this "Koibumi" sitting, so as to say, on my "virtual nightstand" for almost two decades. Why? Well, on the one hand, one of my all-time faves, Wakui Emi, is in the cast; but on the other hand, I expected this to be a deep and tough emotional journey like "1 lt. no Namida" - that dorama had been absolutely *great* but at the same time really painful to watch (one of those cases where the title says it all!).
But this "Koibumi" was nothing of sorts: I could find no deep, universal messages in it, no cathartic tears nor any heartwarming feeling at the end...only a quite disturbing story of unreasonable people doing unreasonable things and therefore hurting each other in the process.
I guess Okada (the writer) is one of those who either make masterpieces (the likes of "Churasan", "Saigo kara Nibanme no Koi", "Beach Boys", "Space Travelers" and others), or else really awfully bad works (like "Iguana no Musume" or "Ai no Uta" or "Kanojotachi no Jidai"...or this one...).
The acting was OK but nothing worth calling home about (even my beloved Wakui-san was sub-par, due to the lousy material she had to work with).
The production value is pretty decent and the setting (hard to beat Kamakura, seriously) simply great - incidentally, the only reason I raised the grade a little bit in the end! Man, I want a house like the leads'!!!
One last note about the OST: if you belong to the billions of people who just adore the Beatles, you're gonna love it; but if you belong instead, like me, to the select minority who just can't freaking stand them and wish you had a time machine to go back in time and make sure, one way or another, that they never happen (I'm exaggerating a bit there, but I seriously believe that they were, together with their "rivals" the Rolling Stoned - pun intended! - the beginning of what has ruined popular music entirely over the last seven decades and counting; what can I say, I'm team Doors - and CCR, and ABB, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Eagles, etc. - real music with meaningful lyrics, in a nutshell), back to what I was I saying, if you, like me, don't like those Cockroaches, err, those Beatles, this OST is gonna be like a freaking *torture*, really. Those five damned notes repeated *over and over again* until you'll just have to run and "clean" your poor ears with some good music before they start to freaking bleed...>____<