Not gonna lie, I'm feeling unprecedented levels of weird about my existence and my writing right now, but I've also been itching to write reviews again, so here I am! This round of The J-Drama Drop will be a two-parter, because I went from not having enough material to write about when I started watching one J-drama in November, to finding another J-drama I liked and also watching a bunch of films from Japanese Film Festival Online (JFF+) as 2024 progressed, to just recently finishing that second J-drama in August. (And by recently I mean Monday, as in four days ago.) So part 1 of this review will cover those two J-dramas (both of which are odd couple romantic comedies!), plus an honorable mention film about teen moms. Part 2 of this review will cover the JFF+ films.
マイ・セカンド・アオハル
(My Second Aoharu/My Second Youth) - TBS, 2023
- As a high school student in her hometown of Shizuoka, Sayako (Hirose Alice from 'Koi Nante, Honki de') initially wasn't interested in college because she figured she couldn't afford it, and because she felt a responsibility as the eldest of four children to help keep the family store afloat. Sayako's teacher helped her realize that she actually wanted to become an architect, but Sayako missed the university entrance exam when she got seriously injured on the way there. Still preferring not to be stuck in Shizuoka after high school graduation, she moved to Tokyo on a whim and worked for 11 years up to the present, just barely making ends meet with various non-permanent roles. But after a string of bad luck upon turning 30 (losing her wallet, her phone, and her office job, plus getting hit by a motorcyclist and seriously injured again while visiting Shizuoka), she's forced to move back in with her parents.
- Fortunately, the 1,000,000 yen that the motorcyclist gives Sayako as a form of atonement (currently the equivalent of $6,700 USD but used to equal $10,000 USD) is just enough to cover the admission fee and first year of tuition for her university of choice. That money, in addition to an encounter with a surly yet uplifting young stranger sporting a baby face, prompts her to finally pursue her dream of going to college as a 30-year-old freshman. This is her "second youth" that the show title refers to, with aoharu being an alternative and more literal reading of the word seishun (青春) meaning youth. Upon admission, Sayako moves into a sharehouse for architecture undergrads called "Sagrada Familia", where that baby-faced stranger happens to live too. This stranger is Taku (Michieda Shunsuke from 'Haha ni Naru'), a design genius and secret lovechild who resents following in his rich and famous architect father's footsteps.
- After kissing in the sharehouse pool one night, Sayako and Taku agree to treat it like a one-off and act like it never
happened so as not to disrupt their rapport as friends, but
in the year to follow their feelings for each other only intensify. When Sayako tries to move out (because the sharehouse has a rule about kicking out housemates who date each other), Taku confronts her about it, they admit their feelings, and then they have sex. After the other housemates find out, the no-dating rule is eventually lifted. Nonetheless, Sayako and Taku reluctantly break up later when
Taku receives a job offer in Switzerland; she doesn't want to be his
excuse to miss out on this opportunity, and he doesn't want to keep her
waiting on him when she could be progressing in her own career and
starting a family with someone else. As the next two years pass, will Sayako and Taku get back together? And more importantly, despite being perceived as too old and unskilled for her dreams, will Sayako be able to establish herself as a professional architect like she's always wanted?
Meh: Full disclosure, it's literally been six months since I finished this series, so my notes and my memory may not be serving me well in this moment. But I honestly can't think of anything I genuinely dislike about this show. It's chill. It's cute but also grown. It taught me a few things about the field of architecture. No real complaints.
Better: I appreciate how 'My Second Aoharu' conveys the idea that architecture can comprise many different kinds of projects, from utilitarian and commonplace to artful and innovative, and that there's a difference between being able to design something new from scratch versus being able to renovate or revitalize something while still respecting its original use, structure, and integrity. Sayako gradually discovers that while she kinda sucks at designing from scratch, she thrives at improving upon what's already been built, which helps guide her toward what she wants to specialize in career-wise.
Speaking of Sayako, while I could imagine some viewers criticizing Hirose Alice's performance as "cringe" or too much, I was endlessly amused by her her ability to play such an awkward character and be unafraid of making ridiculous motions or facial expressions to achieve that. Plus switching so abruptly between that and acting normal, between light and serious, between inspired and devastated. Her range of expression is
wide, believable, and well-timed.
I also couldn't help but notice that, similar to 'Unicorn ni Notte', this show tries to throw in some progressive representation here and there. There's an outspoken marginally plus size housemate (played by Yumena Yanai whom I follow on Instagram!) who wears a different wig every day, perhaps even in every scene she's in, and she's fabulous! I laughed at the randomness of her wig colors and styles, but the size of her body was never made to be a joke, and that was a relief. There's another housemate who's revealed to be gay (or at least somewhere on the queer spectrum) when he explains to Sayako that he initially had to move out of his parents' house because they would antagonize him for wearing makeup and even threw his makeup collection away.
Best: Thank GOODNESS that this older woman/younger man age gap relationship isn't as unsettling as the one portrayed in 'Shijuu kara'! I can appreciate a J-drama being a little different, taking some swings, and in hindsight I'm pretty sure that that show was trying to make viewers uncomfortable on purpose. I can appreciate weirdness that's intentional! But despite being a legal adult, the baby-faced young man in 'Shijuu kara' looked too much like an actual child for me to not be a little scarred for life from watching that show (no shade to Itagaki Rihito's performance, I'm sure he was doing his best). Conversely, Michieda Shunsuke as Taku reads much less like "child" and more like "moody but mature twenty-something who happens to have boyish charm", which makes a world of difference.
Eye Love You - TBS/Netflix, 2024
- Twelve years ago, when Yuri went sea otter watching with her dad and almost drowned trying to save the otters from an oil leak, she came away from the accident with the ability to hear people's thoughts (心の声, kokoro no koe, "the voice of their hearts") when she makes eye contact with them. Hence the show's title, 'Eye Love You'. This becomes the only way she can communicate with her father (who had a stroke after saving her from drowning), because the injuries he sustained have left him alert but immobile in a hospital bed, with a permanent tracheotomy and an inability to speak.
- Today, Yuri is the CEO of an eco-friendly company called Dolce & Chocolat which sells chocolate and coffee produced from recycled cacao husks. Her gift of telepathy is advantageous for anticipating customers' needs (making her business successful so she can afford her father's long-term care), but she is still notoriously reluctant to open up to people and has been unlucky in love. She founded this company with her no-nonsense best friend from college, Hanaoka, who is secretly in love with her, but in this series Yuri's love interest is actually a Korean wildlife conservation grad student named Tae-o (Chae Jong-hyeop). Tae-o is also a part-time food delivery person, and Yuri repeatedly encounters him when he delivers Korean food to her apartment. Like Yuri, he's also a foodie and a sea otter obsessive, and his expertise in environmental issues leads him to work at Dolce & Chocolat post-graduation. (Tae-o is initially recruited by Hanaoka without Yuri's knowledge, because Hanaoka handles hiring.) Yuri tries to keep things professional but Tae-o has already declared his feelings for her and is determined to woo her, so they eventually find a way to date discretely.
- Yuri can hear Tae-o's thoughts but not understand them because she only speaks Japanese, meanwhile Tae-o speaks Korean, Japanese, and English. But rather than linguistic or cultural differences, what really threatens to tear them apart is the controversy surrounding Yuri's gift. Yuri is still scarred by the shame and rejection she faced in high school when she told her first and only boyfriend about her gift, and she'd rather find a way to relinquish her gift (and painfully risk never communicating with her father again) than jeopardize her relationship with Tae-o by telling him her truth. As for Tae-o, he receives repeated warnings about Yuri from two former neighbors from his childhood in Seoul: his grad school mentor and father figure (a professor who moved Tae-o to Japan with him when Tae-o's mother died), and a Korean Dolce & Chocolat investor who has the same gift as Yuri. This investor lady, named Ha Na, previously published a picture book about how people with their gift are cursed to be alone forever, because whoever they fall in love with will die. Believing this folklore to be true, the professor and Ha Na pressure Tae-o to break up with Yuri. Can these cross-cultural lovers find a way to stay together without Tae-o risking death or Yuri losing what makes her special?
Better: Such a strong first episode! If nothing else, Tae-o may be silly but he's also DIRECT, so by the end of
episode 1 he's already decided he likes Yuri romantically and is asking her
if she likes him too. And then for the show to turn around and reveal him to be the
new intern at Yuri's company at the very last minute of that episode? Setting the stakes early and clearly. Bravo!
And how adorable are the handwritten notes that Yuri (as a customer) and Tae-o (as a delivery
person) leave for each other outside Yuri's door? Tae-o even draws little cartoonish sea otters on the ones he leaves for her! The notes start with him
recommending Korean restaurants and dishes that are better than what
she's initially ordering, then progress to more. This mode of communication was
especially endearing to me because I started watching 'Eye Love You' in
the midst of finishing a romance novel called The Neighbor Favor, where a couple literally falls in love via email, before
falling in love again in person as neighbors.
On a separate but related note, I respect how mature Hanaoka is about accepting that he's not the one for Yuri. He clocks that Yuri and Tae-o have something going on by episode 4, and after getting over whatever initial jealousy he feels, he's surprisingly supportive. Yuri doesn't even learn of his feelings for her until she reads his mind while he's in the middle of encouraging her to date Tae-o. (They're alone in her office, and Hanaoka points out that Dolce & Chocolat doesn't have a non-fraternization policy, subtly
acknowledging that nearly everyone in the office knows that Yuri and Tae-o fancy each other
and that it's fine if she wants to date Tae-o. At the same time, she hears him mentally
trying to convince himself that he's okay with letting her go despite
having always loved her.) Then in episode 6, at the end of a Hokkaido business trip when Hanaoka and Yuri are about to leave for Tokyo ahead of Tae-o (because Tae-o has distanced himself from Yuri, who's not ready to admit that she wants him as much as he wants her), Hanaoka is the one urging Yuri to stay and mend things with Tae-o before returning to Tokyo. As a manager it's his job to properly assess situations, and even when it comes to his unrequited love, Hanaoka is secure enough to accept the reality that Yuri will not love him back, and gracefully step aside so she can be happy with someone else. It takes so much self-awareness to quietly bow out like that, and even though he might remain in love with Yuri for a long time, he knows that's his own
problem to deal with.
Best: Chae Jong-hyeop. Without a doubt. He not only has to act in two languages (mostly Japanese) in addition to his native Korean, but he has to make his charisma shine through in every single scene, no matter what language he's speaking. And he nails it! I started watching 'Eye Love You' for its premise alone, but I stuck around for Chae Jong-hyeop. My introduction to him (and my only other frame of reference for his acting) was the 2023 K-drama 'Castaway Diva', where he played a guarded but caring TV producer living under a false name after escaping from his abusive father. His performance in that was wonderful, but for his sake I was relieved to see him play a more carefree love interest this time.
I can only speak for myself, but this show must be a DREAM for linguists and other multilingual people like me! There's so much meat to intellectually chew on here! So much bilingual Japanese-Korean conversation happening, so many translation tools and methods being used! The fact that Yuri can't understand Tae-o's thoughts because he supposedly only thinks in Korean is such an interesting choice to make narratively because...
does Tae-o not think out what he's going to say in Japanese before or as he speaks to her? I know it's not just me who does that when I'm speaking my other languages. Perhaps allowing Tae-o to think in multiple languages would complicate the show's premise too
much and I'm overthinking this aspect of it, but it's still fascinating to consider what assertion or assumption the show might be making about people's (in)ability to think in more than one language. That assertion/assumption feels false to me, but it's still fun to think about. Speaking of Tae-o, even the subtitles provided for his character are intentional! I watched this show on Netflix, and for both the English and Japanese versions with subtitles (I checked), the show
is selective with what Korean dialogue or voiceover is translated and what
isn't. Most of Tae-o's thoughts go transcribed and untranslated, so just like Yuri viewers are left to
guess the meaning based on the context of the scenes, or based on whatever Korean
comprehension they may have (of which I only have a smattering from 15
years of watching K-dramas).
And I'm sure 'Eye Love You' is a treat for folklorists too, because the show lays out some intriguing (even if slightly underdeveloped) threads about how myths are made/created/passed on, while linking ancient Ainu legends in Hokkaido with Ha Na's book in Seoul and Yuri's own experience in Tokyo.
Lastly, I was so touched by the show's use of coffee and chocolate as metaphors for our ability to respond to life by making situations bitter or
sweet, depending on the choices we make and the perspectives we take. This is something that Yuri's dad (who used to be a chef) taught her as a child when he would serve her coffee and chocolate together at his restaurant, and in adulthood it remains a guiding principle that Yuri references in her personal life and her business. (Coffee and chocolate come from
different plants, but cacao can still be used to make both, which Yuri's
company does.)
Honorable Mention: 朝が来る (Asa ga Kuru/Morning Comes/True Mothers) - 2020
I needed to include 'True Mothers' in this review because I am still enthralled by how director Naomi Kawase plays with perspective! You think the film is going to be about this couple handling the unfair nuisance and intrusion of this young woman. But then most of the film turns out to be a flashback of Hikari's life: how she was impregnated by her very first boyfriend at 14, how her reputation-obsessed family quietly shuffled her away to a temporary home for expecting and ill-equipped teen moms in Hiroshima, how she struggled to survive on her own in Tokyo after having Asato and dropping out of school and escaping her family for good, and what led her to reach out to the Kuriharas now. This switcheroo reminds me so much of Kiana Davenport's novel Song of the Exile, which uses an international wartime romance as a cover for a more excruciating and confrontational story about "comfort women" being victimized by imperial Japanese forces during World War II, and the ongoing colonization of Hawaii as U.S. statehood loomed. I also felt similarly okey-doked (in the best way) by Bernice McFadden's novel Nowhere Is a Place, where an estranged mother-daughter road trip story transitions into a detailed history of the impact slavery and assault have had on generations of women in their family. But I digress. My point is that, of course the Kuriharas don't recognize Hikari as the quiet, polite, innocent-looking girl they met when they first adopted Asato, because life has been beating Hikari's behind ever since then! Her approaching them might be impulsive and self-centered, but she's still in desperate need of their compassion.
I've still got a bunch of other films to talk about! Check out part 2 of this review here!
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