Last Friends 1-3
Last Friends was the one in this season's jdramas that I was most looking forward to and I'm happy to say that it really is looking good. I just marathoned through the three first episodes and before that I was reading spoilers after every episode had aired. I think I'll stop doing that now that I'm caught up, because I suspect some events are going to feel even more powerful if I don't know what is going to happen. Though it will add to the tenseness one feels with certain plot elements as well.
Everybody in the cast is doing a great job. Though the story this far has mostly concentrated on Nagasawa Masami, Nishikido Ryo, and Ueno Juri's characters, with a few glimpses into Eita's character, I hope the others will get some more development in the next few episodes.
It doesn't bode well that the drama starts with the voiceover-of-doom and with lonely, very pregnant Michiru (Nagasawa Masami) telling how much she regrets some of her past choices and how she 'betrayed' Ruka (Ueno Juri).
Her father was an alcoholic who used to beat her mother and her mother is also very fond of her drink. Michiru's mother's boyfriend isn't above groping her every now and then, and her home is a completely mess. So when Sousuke (Nishikido Ryo), her loving and wonderful seeming boyfriend suggest she move in with him, she is overjoyed to take this chance to get away and be with someone who clearly loves her.
But when she moves in with him, he reveals how truly possessive he can be. He slaps her around, kicks her and terrorises her, trying to control every element of her life. He forbids her of having male customers, which is a very hard thing to do in her position as a trainee hairdresser.
Sousuke well fits the pattern, beating her one moment and then apologizing to her in the next breath. I feel so anxious whenever he appears on the screen, because he is so totally unpredictable. Even though the character is totally hatable, I want to understand more of his character as well. At this point he has only been shown as a total psycho.
Still, working in children's services, was he perhaps himself beaten as a child? He's also so possessive, but some of the comments about him fearing that she would leave give some indication that he, too, might have some past trauma.
But then I remember the scene where Sousuke burned himself with cigarettes because he had to wait for Michiru since she was late at work. It's very much looking like he's one of those guys abusive guys who at some point will threaten to kill himself if she ever leaves or threatens to leave him, adding emotional blackmail and mental abuse to the physical one.
Brrr! I must say Ryo is doing an excellent job of appearing extremely creepy in this drama. I'm totally scared of his character!
But then there is Michiru. She feels loved with Sousuke, but due to her family background, she clearly has a rather distorted view of what love is. Her home was horrible, her coworkers bully her, so since Sousuke was the only one to be nice to her and made her feel loved, she is willing to forgive him a lot.
But there is also the feeling that she feels like she has nowhere to go. She is trapped by her circumstances, by her choices, by her life, a literal "prisoner of love" like the title song goes.
It well shows in the scene where she was telling Ruka, who had been in love with her since high school, that she "never felt like, I was ever loved by anyone until now. Not even from my dad, or my mom."
Michiru is so oblivious of Ruka's feelings. It must really hurt Ruka to hear something like that when she has always tried to be Michiru's friend and to support and protect her. Like when Sousuke was slapping Michiru in the hospital after Ruka's accident, she rushed to her defense telling him not to touch "my Michiru"!
Still, if Michiru isn't willing to change things, there is nothing her friends can do to make her change her mind. Michiru is determined to stay with Sousuke even though things are getting worse and worse and she clearly feels tense and anxious every time she sees him.
Tageru's comment during one of the friends' discussions on the situation was very interesting and revealed a little more about the character: "Even if the hitter may be doing it without much thought, for the victim, it leaves wounds that are there for a lifetime. Violence that wears the mask of love, is the worst kind there is."
At this point his character is still rather mysterious. He is clearly afraid of physical contact with women and very uncomfortable when they are watching a movie which has a love scene in it.
And who is this Shirahata Yuuko, whose telephone messages Tageru leaves unanswered and looks extremely uncomfortable when he receives a package from her. His mother? Since he is asking if she is trying to make it up to him this way. Apparently not, since he talks about her being married with a child and asks if she's happy now. Sister? Some other relative? Someone else?
Clearly she did something to him in the past, because he is telling her he won't forgive her. Even though she might have forgotten about it, he hasn't.
He is feeling attracted to Ruka and quite possible falling for her, but maybe it's because as a very boyish woman, she doesn't feel too threatening to him. Hmm.
I think almost everybody else can see that Ruka has feelings for Michiru. I quite liked the scene where Michiru made a brief escape in the middle of the night and Ruka and Takeru took her to the water front.
"Takeru really wanted to bring you here." Yeah, right, it's got Ruka all over it... Made even more obvious by the way Takeru quickly leaves the two of them alone and goes back to the car.
It appears that by the end of the third episode finally got too much for Michiru: "Sousuke, I'm not your slave." She was willing to sacrifice a lot for his love, but not her best friend. Though in this case I'm not surprised Sousuke feels jealous and threatened by their friendship. He, too, can see how Ruka feels about Michiru: "she looks at you like a man", even though Michiru herself can't see it.
"When it comes to my Ruka, stop saying such horrible things!" Even though Michiru uses the possessive form ("my Ruka") in this sentence, it also shows that she is clearly horrified by Sousuke's accusations, since she accuses him of "saying" "horrible things".
It very much looks like in her case it is close friendship that she feels, and that she is horrified at Sousuke's suggestion that there might be something going on between her and Ruka. And it is to her friend she goes when Sousuke has beaten her up really badly in the end of the episode.
But who knows, maybe her feelings will change. Though the beginning credits with a very pregnant Michiru and the way she is is talking of having betrayed Ruka would indicate not. I suspect she is talking of having betrayed their friendship by not understanding Ruka's feelings.
The voiceover-of-doom also had a mention of some tragic incident and of someone dying. The end of episode 3 where Ruka sees the battered Michiru and the way Takeru's voiceover is talking of how Ruka at that moment decided she would do anything to protect Michiru would indicate that she will kill Sousuke. Because that kind of a possessive guy won't give up on Michiru easily, if at all.
I can't wait to see what will happen next, though the previews for next episode look very scary!
Everybody in the cast is doing a great job. Though the story this far has mostly concentrated on Nagasawa Masami, Nishikido Ryo, and Ueno Juri's characters, with a few glimpses into Eita's character, I hope the others will get some more development in the next few episodes.
It doesn't bode well that the drama starts with the voiceover-of-doom and with lonely, very pregnant Michiru (Nagasawa Masami) telling how much she regrets some of her past choices and how she 'betrayed' Ruka (Ueno Juri).
Her father was an alcoholic who used to beat her mother and her mother is also very fond of her drink. Michiru's mother's boyfriend isn't above groping her every now and then, and her home is a completely mess. So when Sousuke (Nishikido Ryo), her loving and wonderful seeming boyfriend suggest she move in with him, she is overjoyed to take this chance to get away and be with someone who clearly loves her.
But when she moves in with him, he reveals how truly possessive he can be. He slaps her around, kicks her and terrorises her, trying to control every element of her life. He forbids her of having male customers, which is a very hard thing to do in her position as a trainee hairdresser.
Sousuke well fits the pattern, beating her one moment and then apologizing to her in the next breath. I feel so anxious whenever he appears on the screen, because he is so totally unpredictable. Even though the character is totally hatable, I want to understand more of his character as well. At this point he has only been shown as a total psycho.
Still, working in children's services, was he perhaps himself beaten as a child? He's also so possessive, but some of the comments about him fearing that she would leave give some indication that he, too, might have some past trauma.
But then I remember the scene where Sousuke burned himself with cigarettes because he had to wait for Michiru since she was late at work. It's very much looking like he's one of those guys abusive guys who at some point will threaten to kill himself if she ever leaves or threatens to leave him, adding emotional blackmail and mental abuse to the physical one.
Brrr! I must say Ryo is doing an excellent job of appearing extremely creepy in this drama. I'm totally scared of his character!
But then there is Michiru. She feels loved with Sousuke, but due to her family background, she clearly has a rather distorted view of what love is. Her home was horrible, her coworkers bully her, so since Sousuke was the only one to be nice to her and made her feel loved, she is willing to forgive him a lot.
But there is also the feeling that she feels like she has nowhere to go. She is trapped by her circumstances, by her choices, by her life, a literal "prisoner of love" like the title song goes.
It well shows in the scene where she was telling Ruka, who had been in love with her since high school, that she "never felt like, I was ever loved by anyone until now. Not even from my dad, or my mom."
Michiru is so oblivious of Ruka's feelings. It must really hurt Ruka to hear something like that when she has always tried to be Michiru's friend and to support and protect her. Like when Sousuke was slapping Michiru in the hospital after Ruka's accident, she rushed to her defense telling him not to touch "my Michiru"!
Still, if Michiru isn't willing to change things, there is nothing her friends can do to make her change her mind. Michiru is determined to stay with Sousuke even though things are getting worse and worse and she clearly feels tense and anxious every time she sees him.
Tageru's comment during one of the friends' discussions on the situation was very interesting and revealed a little more about the character: "Even if the hitter may be doing it without much thought, for the victim, it leaves wounds that are there for a lifetime. Violence that wears the mask of love, is the worst kind there is."
At this point his character is still rather mysterious. He is clearly afraid of physical contact with women and very uncomfortable when they are watching a movie which has a love scene in it.
And who is this Shirahata Yuuko, whose telephone messages Tageru leaves unanswered and looks extremely uncomfortable when he receives a package from her. His mother? Since he is asking if she is trying to make it up to him this way. Apparently not, since he talks about her being married with a child and asks if she's happy now. Sister? Some other relative? Someone else?
Clearly she did something to him in the past, because he is telling her he won't forgive her. Even though she might have forgotten about it, he hasn't.
He is feeling attracted to Ruka and quite possible falling for her, but maybe it's because as a very boyish woman, she doesn't feel too threatening to him. Hmm.
I think almost everybody else can see that Ruka has feelings for Michiru. I quite liked the scene where Michiru made a brief escape in the middle of the night and Ruka and Takeru took her to the water front.
"Takeru really wanted to bring you here." Yeah, right, it's got Ruka all over it... Made even more obvious by the way Takeru quickly leaves the two of them alone and goes back to the car.
It appears that by the end of the third episode finally got too much for Michiru: "Sousuke, I'm not your slave." She was willing to sacrifice a lot for his love, but not her best friend. Though in this case I'm not surprised Sousuke feels jealous and threatened by their friendship. He, too, can see how Ruka feels about Michiru: "she looks at you like a man", even though Michiru herself can't see it.
"When it comes to my Ruka, stop saying such horrible things!" Even though Michiru uses the possessive form ("my Ruka") in this sentence, it also shows that she is clearly horrified by Sousuke's accusations, since she accuses him of "saying" "horrible things".
It very much looks like in her case it is close friendship that she feels, and that she is horrified at Sousuke's suggestion that there might be something going on between her and Ruka. And it is to her friend she goes when Sousuke has beaten her up really badly in the end of the episode.
But who knows, maybe her feelings will change. Though the beginning credits with a very pregnant Michiru and the way she is is talking of having betrayed Ruka would indicate not. I suspect she is talking of having betrayed their friendship by not understanding Ruka's feelings.
The voiceover-of-doom also had a mention of some tragic incident and of someone dying. The end of episode 3 where Ruka sees the battered Michiru and the way Takeru's voiceover is talking of how Ruka at that moment decided she would do anything to protect Michiru would indicate that she will kill Sousuke. Because that kind of a possessive guy won't give up on Michiru easily, if at all.
I can't wait to see what will happen next, though the previews for next episode look very scary!