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KAVO

So Cal USA

KAVO

So Cal USA
The Novelist japanese drama review
Completed
The Novelist
1 people found this review helpful
by KAVO
Oct 21, 2020
6 of 6 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 6.0
Story 1.5
Acting/Cast 10.0
Music 6.0
Rewatch Value 2.0
This review may contain spoilers

Unloveable main character undermines this drama

Kuzumi (Izuka Kenta) is a university student who accidentally runs down Kijima (Takezai Terunosuke) with his bicycle, causing an injury to his writing arm. Kijima is a novelist who appears to be in his mid-30s, but he lives in the analogue world of someone twice his age. He listens to vinyl records, has no computer and writes his books out on paper. Kuzumi has no liability insurance and is a poor college student so Kijima allows him to work off the debt of medical bills by writing for him and doing light housework. At first Kuzumi is shocked to learn the books Kijima writes are graphic adult fiction, but quickly adapts. The two are attracted to each other but inexplicably act as if they have something to hide when there is really no one else in their lives. Only when Kimjima gets drunk one night does he have the nerve to ask Kuzumi to sleep in his bed. Nothing more happens than a kiss, though. Kijima is bitter about having to write low-brow porn novels for a living and he's had writer's block for the past year. So to make an excuse to have Kuzumi around, he recites passages from his old novels for the boy to transcribe. So far, this all makes sense. But then Kijima pushes Kuzumi away. Perhaps he sees too much difference in their age or feels he's all washed up while Kuzumi has his whole life ahead of him? Well, I guess that's a selfless gesture, but Kuzumi has really fallen in love with him. They have one climatic gay sex fling and Kuzumi asks him to write a story for him. Sometime later the story arrives and I think we're to believe it helped him overcome his writer's block. Meanwhile, Kuzumi has graduated from university and has a job at a big company, but we get no closure on his romantic life. The plot has all of the excitement and interest of a jet roaring down the runway, waiting to take off but it never really leaves the ground. It seems to just slow down and park at the terminal again. Izuka Kenta, who is 34 in real life, is completely convincing as 22-year-old Kuzumi. He really grounds the film in reality. Takezai Terunosuke's gives an uneven performance as Kijima. His character seems so unloveable that we begin to wonder what the heck Kuzumi sees in him. He's a compulsive liar and bit of a sadist. In the end, they seem to just be two lonely guys who find some temporary solace in their odd companionship, but it would be a stretch to say they are friends. I give this 3 stars overall because Izuka is so delightful to watch, but Takezai's Kimja must have been written by a committee who couldn't agree on his motivation.
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