"All people are bound to die one day, so it makes you wonder why we are even born"
Life has been busy and the internet got broken in the process, but I won't talk about that. The first post of the year is gonna be about the new drama I'm watching: Saikou no Jinsei no Owarikata (Ending Planner).
Why? Because I got myself into a few classes on Japanese culture during the summer time to force me get out of work early and learn something just for the fun of *learning* something, and just when I'm doing that, there's a Japanese drama coming about one of the most relevant issues in the Japanese culture: Death, or more exactly, how to live our lives considering how short it is, and what (and who) we leave behind, when our time comes.
I'll be honest, I don't like the subject of death. It's just too depressing and scary. But I like when stories use death as a method of developing or uncovering deeper issues on how we live our lives, mostly how we choose to live it, in the little amount of time we have for it.
This drama is mainly focuses on rescuing what people that are no longer with us, tried to accomplish while they were alive. It reminded me a bit of Voice, or the premise of it, in any case. It was a bunch of medical students that take a class on forensic pathology and end up resolving the death of the bodies that come to their autopsy table on every episode. The idea was good, but the structure of each episode was too formulated, every episode ended up having the same situations and it was too predictable, not to mention how fantastic and nice all those dead people were, it was eye-roll worthy after the third episode.
I've only watched two episodes so far of Ending Planner, but I'm liking it way better than Voice already. It helps that it has three of my most favorite Japanese actors in the cast, of course. But I like it mostly because it's not just one route of storytelling, we get several plot points being developed at the same time. It's has lots of family issues (daddy just died issue, taking care of the family business issue, brother is MIA issue, sister had an accident issue, siblings get involve with the wrong people issues...), it has the "mystery of the week" storyline to solve (what's the story behind the dead body), it has a developing romantic relationship (our lead character in charge of the funeral service and a detective... and every other girl he happens to meet, it seems), and it has the subject of death, how we live our lives, how we mourn, how we move on.
Of course, it's not perfect. The younger actors are to cringe for sometimes. But I've deal with that before, I can enjoy around it, when the plot it's worth it. Yamazaki Tsutomu alone is so amazing that anything else can fall behind him. The dialogue is very light and friendly, for such a sour subject. The little things are appreciated, like the beautiful family dog and the bonsai trees and how the younger sister seems to be getting liquids thrown at her every time there's a fight in the household...
A good way to start the year. Lots of work, some fun time, learning interesting stuff, reading books (I'm in the fourth one right now!) and good, entertaining and heartfelt TV.
EDIT: Also, new layout!! Nobuta~ <3
Why? Because I got myself into a few classes on Japanese culture during the summer time to force me get out of work early and learn something just for the fun of *learning* something, and just when I'm doing that, there's a Japanese drama coming about one of the most relevant issues in the Japanese culture: Death, or more exactly, how to live our lives considering how short it is, and what (and who) we leave behind, when our time comes.
I'll be honest, I don't like the subject of death. It's just too depressing and scary. But I like when stories use death as a method of developing or uncovering deeper issues on how we live our lives, mostly how we choose to live it, in the little amount of time we have for it.
This drama is mainly focuses on rescuing what people that are no longer with us, tried to accomplish while they were alive. It reminded me a bit of Voice, or the premise of it, in any case. It was a bunch of medical students that take a class on forensic pathology and end up resolving the death of the bodies that come to their autopsy table on every episode. The idea was good, but the structure of each episode was too formulated, every episode ended up having the same situations and it was too predictable, not to mention how fantastic and nice all those dead people were, it was eye-roll worthy after the third episode.
I've only watched two episodes so far of Ending Planner, but I'm liking it way better than Voice already. It helps that it has three of my most favorite Japanese actors in the cast, of course. But I like it mostly because it's not just one route of storytelling, we get several plot points being developed at the same time. It's has lots of family issues (daddy just died issue, taking care of the family business issue, brother is MIA issue, sister had an accident issue, siblings get involve with the wrong people issues...), it has the "mystery of the week" storyline to solve (what's the story behind the dead body), it has a developing romantic relationship (our lead character in charge of the funeral service and a detective... and every other girl he happens to meet, it seems), and it has the subject of death, how we live our lives, how we mourn, how we move on.
Of course, it's not perfect. The younger actors are to cringe for sometimes. But I've deal with that before, I can enjoy around it, when the plot it's worth it. Yamazaki Tsutomu alone is so amazing that anything else can fall behind him. The dialogue is very light and friendly, for such a sour subject. The little things are appreciated, like the beautiful family dog and the bonsai trees and how the younger sister seems to be getting liquids thrown at her every time there's a fight in the household...
A good way to start the year. Lots of work, some fun time, learning interesting stuff, reading books (I'm in the fourth one right now!) and good, entertaining and heartfelt TV.
EDIT: Also, new layout!! Nobuta~ <3