'Tatta Hitotsu no Koi' Episodes 7 & 8 commentary
Episode 7
I was really lax last week and I never got around to writing up episode 7. Such is life when I have too many other things going on! So, as briefly as I can manage them, here are my thoughts:
1. I really, really, really loved whatever filter they used and/or time of day when the intro was shot. The darkish blueness of the light was gorgeous, and Hiroto looked particularly tragic and beautiful as he's out there brooding alone by the water.
2. And then we get the flashback with Hiroto's meeting with Nao's father which was how Episode 6 ended, and in the conversation Hiroto finds out that Nao can't/is unlikely to have children, which still annoys me that this is an issue at all in the drama, but from this flashback scene it's clear that Hiroto doesn't care, and that he's probably only worried about how his dream of having a family may have affected Nao and possibly hurt her. Hiroto is one of the most wonderful 20 year old guys - each episode I love him more - because here he lays himself out before her father and says something like "I may only be 20, but she's my one true love" (YEAH, I LOVE that he actually said that Nao is his "tatta hitotsu no koi" which I'm glad to say that I actually picked up on the first time through without subs. Yay, me!) - god, Hiroto is such a great guy. He has NOTHING - he can't offer her any of the things that she's used to, he can't provide for her at all the way she may even need with any recurrence of her illness (and boy howdy, her father really lays it all out there with the trying to scare Hiroto off by bringing up the fact that she's still vulnerable and could get sick again and die), but he's so humble and honest in expressing himself. *wishes desperately I could hug this guy and give him cookies and set him and Nao up for life*
3. I sort of hate Kitagawa for laying on the personal troubles for Hiroto - PLEASE CUT THIS GUY A BREAK, ERIKO!!! So Tanada, one of Hiroto's employees, cleans out the family/company bank account to pay off his gambling debts and disappears. But Hiroto is such a good guy that he refuses to call the police to help recover the money and find Tanada because Tanada had always been such a good guy and had worked for his father since the beginning. God, Hiroto, you're probably the nicest guy in all of Yokohama. In any case, this prompts Hiroto to go running around, hat in hand, begging for a mere few thousand in loans from local companies to tide them over for a while or they will lose everything - their home and the company facilities. The scene where Kou & Ayuta loan Hiroto money as well is so painful and I can see Hiroto just die a little more when he accepts their loans of such small sums of money, because he needs every little bit.
4. Obviously Nao doesn't like being shut out of Hiroto's problems when he's going through a tough time, so I'm glad that Ayuta tries to explain that Hiroto doesn't want her help and that things are hard enough so he needs to keep even a tiny shred of pride. She seems to understand that, but still...obviously, if they intend to stay together, that's something that has to change.
5. The scene on the boat is wonderful. Their hands pressed together (and Kame's adorably tiny hands), their affirmations to each other that they want to stay together and share a future...just gorgeous. It was cute and adorable and touching and beautiful.
6. LOVED Ren and Hiroto making the whale for Nao for Christmas with the expectation that Hiroto will give it to her on Christmas Eve.
7. While I understand why Nao's family is so worried and unhappy about Hiroto, I really hate the way they treat her like she's two years old. And it's just too sad to see Nao crying in the hospital and missing Hiroto. I love that her mother gives her unspoken permission for Nao to escape for a little while to be with him, when she will be unable to see him again afterwards. Hiroto and Nao's reunion scene at the end of the episode is beautiful also (especially with Nao asking Hiroto if there is a place they can go together, so they can be together all night long, YAY). I just love how much snuggly hugging we get out of this OTP. It's wonderful and romantic and perfect. Hiroto knows how to show his affection in lovely winterspel-approved ways. :)
Episode 8
1. So the episode opens very idyllically with a blue-sky morning over the boat and Nao emerging wrapped in a blanket (and dressed, of course, because I imagine it must have been bloody cold out there) while Hiroto returns with breakfast. The ensuing scene is too adorable in which Nao asks for a ring because it's a thing that girls want and then Nao says something like "we should kiss, right? That's what people do after something like this" (so the implication is that they had sex, just in case that wasn't glaringly apparent) so Hiroto comes over to sit next to her, which she comments on for some reason, which struck me as strange because what else was he going to do? But when Hiroto leans in to kiss an eyes-closed-and-waiting Nao, he keeps dissolving into laughter at the crucial moment, so they never kiss, and she finally pushes him, which sends him to the floor of the boat. Seeing just how slight Kame is (and getting skinnier every day), I REALLY wonder, as I mentioned in the picspam, whether him falling down was scripted or not. Later, when Nao is leaving, Hiroto mentions that she has said "Ja ne" for the fifth time, so obviously, she's having a hard time leaving him. Which is completely understandable of course, since after this, she won't be able to see him unless she can convince her parents to change their minds. But of course, she DOESN'T TELL HIM ANY OF THAT. Poor Hiroto. His troubles just keep piling up.
2. Seeing Hiroto happy and whistling hurt my heart because I knew that all that joy would be wiped away so soon. In Hiroto it's not just the normal "I got laid" glee that any normal guy might have, but there was a happy contentedness in him that only comes when you are secure in the knowledge that the one you love loves you back the same way and that you've shared something precious. Watching him make the ring was just soooo bittersweet, especially since we know what happens to it (from the preview). It's somehow more poignant that he makes that ring for her with the materials that are a product of his life and livelihood, and with the skills he has learned and with his own hands - that ring is the expression of everything that he is and as such it is so much more precious than anything he could have bought from a store, even a fine store like Star Jewelry. I thought about the discussion Nao's father had with the designer & his subordinate at the end of episode 6 and contrasted their discussion of the new ring design with the design and making of Hiroto's ring for Nao and guuuuuuh what a world of difference between the two! Sorry to be so hung up on it, but there's no comparison between his ring and any other. Nothing else could be infused with the essence of a person and his love the same way.
3. The heartbreak for Hiroto begins the moment he sees the friendly trio walking up to him - how awful is it that Hiroto knows right away that it can't be good news if they thought they all needed to be there to tell him. It was even sadder when he rejected Nao's new cellphone number because he would want to call her and he knew that would make it harder and worse, so he preferred to wait until she could tell him herself that everything had been cleared up with her family. Imagine his despair at knowing that no matter what he had done by going to Nao's father, it hadn't made a tiny bit of difference.
4. The heartbreak just gets worse when Hiroto gets a flare of hope as he sees Nao and her flashing light toy from his window, and he even knocks over a chair in his haste to find the flashlight and signal back to her. Of course this wakes Ren up, and Ren is so smart he immediately knows what's going on and tells Hiroto something like "the lights are their version of whalesounds and that whales can communicate even though they are separated by so much distance" - he puts the flashlight in Hiroto's hand and makes him signal with it, which of course, makes Nao happy for a brief moment, until she sinks into her own gloom at the situation. *hugs OTP* Poor kids.
5. Hiroto keeps working on the ring - it's clear he is not letting himself give up, and the ring looks beautiful, a burnished, gleaming silver with the letters "HN" hand-carved into it. Except then he gets a call from Nao's father who is pissed off that he's still being harassed by Hiroto's mom. The scene between Hiroto and Nao's father is so tense and horrible. Hiroto, of course, had no idea of his mother's nefarious scheme and is horrified and shocked when he finds out, and refuses the cash and (as we see later in a flashback) apologizes for his mother's behavior. Seeing Nao's father bow to Hiroto, begging him to leave his family alone is awful. Even worse is seeing Hiroto walking home, completely despondent, and the requiste dorama scene of the protagonists passing each other on the street, unbeknownst to one another. Again, I really liked the filter of that scene, with its intense blueness.
6. Gawd, poor Hiroto! He drinks alone on the floor in the dark until his mother comes home and confronts her about trying to extort money from Nao's father. He gets up (surprisingly quite steadily) and just says something like "it's the end. It's the end." I want to smack his mother so hard that her head spins off. She has ZERO EMPATHY OR COMPASSION for her elder child and I hate her so much for using him and destroying any hope that he might have had with Nao's family. So Hiroto goes out to the boat and in another heartwrenching moment, tips that beautiful, beautiful ring out of his palm into the water. The ring falling through the water is exquisitely photographed: a gleaming, sparkling blue thing falling through darkness.
7. BUT WAIT, THERE IS MORE PAIN AND ANGST!! Nao's father sets her up on a blind date with his rising star guy from work (who we discover is a bit of a glutton and doesn't have the greatest table manners) with the idea that perhaps Nao can marry him. Nao, of course, completely loses it and has a fight over this with her father, and she lets it slip that she was trying so hard to be good and obey her family's wishes so that eventually they might permit her to be with Hiroto - only to find out that her father has NO intention of ever letting her be with Hiroto, and instead it seems like he wants to get her married off to a more appropriate fellow as soon as possible to keep her out of danger and away from any temptation. Ultimately, she tells her father that she will leave, he tells her to go if she wants to, and even though both her mother and brother try to persuade her to stay, she packs a bag and runs off to find Hiroto.
8. AND THE HITS JUST KEEP ON COMING!! Hiroto somehow has to break it to Ren that Nao probably won't be able to come and see the unbelievably gorgeous lit-up whale that they made for her on Christmas Eve, and that moment when he goes back to cooking and pauses over the skillet just squished my heart up even more. That is, until poor Hiroto gets a call (which they fake us out to think is Nao calling him) from Tanada who apologizes for everything and is crying and in complete despair and sounds like he's going to kill himself. Hiroto, in a panic, goes to find his mother to discern where Tanada might be, and then goes to find him as he's about to take pills to commit suicide. The moment where poor twenty-year-old Hiroto comforts the sobbing Tanada is yet another heartbreaker - how much must Hiroto bear? And how awesome is he, that even though this guy totally cleaned them out and stole all their money, that he's just interested in saving his life and bringing him home. (which reminds me of a small moment I really like earlier when Hiroto apologizes to his other employee for all the extra work due to Tanada's absence and offers to do some of it himself, not as though he doesn't have enough to do already). Hiroto is one of the most awesome characters I've met, and I think I love him now nearly as much as I love Ishida Yuya because he's such a GOOD GUY. It's amazing when I think back to how we were introduced to him, as this cold, chip-on-his-shoulder guy, that he has been revealed through each consequent episode to be instead one of the warmest, most loving, heartfelt and genuine guys I can imagine.
9. And then finally, we come back to Nao, who first goes to Hiroto's house to find Ren, but no Hiroto, and then she goes to Yuuko...and I can't help hating Yuuko for asking Nao whether it's not better to give up because it's so hard for Nao and Hiroto to be together. I suppose some people might ask a question like that, but call me a romantic (as well as a pragmatist) but I never would. [personal note: I have a relative who ran away from her family who disowned her when she married and they were estranged from her family for a long time until her family came to their senses 2 decades later. They were happy as clams together and are still together to this day, after more than 30 years of marriage. They married when she was 19.] I really felt Nao's sense of whiplash shock at Yuuko's words, and I can totally understand why she left when she felt that her plight was not being understood in the slightest. As another sidenote, I love how Kou said to Yuuko earlier that he felt so bad about Hiroto and Nao being torn apart that he felt like he and Yuuko couldn't be completely happy since their friends were miserable. Obviously, Yuuko isn't quite on the same page. Also I love how Kou wants to know how he can help them, but both Ayuta and Yuuko don't even think about doing anything to help them. Kou might be a teeny bit simple but he has the biggest, truest heart of Hiroto's friends.
Which of course brings me to Ayuta, Nao's final stop on her sad night journey. She has no where else to go, so she goes to him, and I have no words to describe how frustrated I was at the final scene between Ayuta and Nao, since Ayuta TOTALLY looks like he's about to take advantage of Nao's vulnerability by making a move on her. I just imagine him saying something like "things are so hard with Hiroto right now, and they will always be hard, because that is what Hiroto's life is like, but I'm here, and I'll take care of you and I'll always be there for you, because Hiroto can NEVER be there for you the same way since...his life is ALWAYS going to be so complicated and hard, and obviously, he's not here for you right now when you need him, BUT I AM."
Okay, shut up, voice-in-my-head, and please, please, Kitagawa, DO NOT LET AYUTA SAY ANYTHING LIKE THAT, PLEASE PLEASE, MUST I GROVEL AND BEG???!
The end of the episode faded between Ayuta hugging a surprised and crying Nao and Hiroto looking relieved and happy that he did a good deed and saved Tanada's life. I just can't bear to see what kind of world of pain Hiroto ends up in during the next episode.
I like Nao, but I LOVE HIROTO. There aren't enough superlatives to fully describe how magnificent and endearing he is. I think he's just about caught up to my Ishida Yuya love. I can't bear to see Hiroto get hurt anymore, I really can't. That being said, Kamenashi continues to do a spectacular job with the role. However, in this episode, he looked exhausted and worn-out throughout. Some of that might be in-character with all the angst and pain, but even in the beginning from the boat scene through the ring-making, I thought Kame looked so gaunt and tired and not like his normal beautiful self. *hugs Kame and wills him to eat and sleep more, my weekly mantra*
Enough rambling. This is longer than I'd ever imagined babbling for! If you stuck with the review this long, you're a hero. I'm sure I left out lots of things, as I've had about four hours of sleep, so I am a bit braindead today....