Completed
Cheer
25 people found this review helpful
Jan 30, 2014
11 of 11 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 6.0
Story 5.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 3.0
This is a somewhat old Japanese drama that managed to raise the interest but failed to impress.

I watch older Jdramas (1996-2002) from time to time and I usually enjoy them but this time around, I was a little displeased. Nisennen no Koi is listed under the genre “romance” and it’s indeed a romantic drama but that wasn’t exactly the main focus here. There was a promising chemistry that could have been better handled, there are some good romantic elements but everything took forever to happen and the exaggerated focus on side plots ruined many interesting events.

This also contains the “Spy” theme but as expected, it wasn’t very well executed either. At some point, the screenwriters went on circles repeating similar events that we all know what the outcome will be. That leads us to another negative point about the plot; almost everything was very predictable including the ending. And what makes the matter worse are the irritating side plots that serve for nothing except for the running time. Now, if I have to mention some good things about the screenwriting, I will solely give credit to the concept; the story as a whole was attention-grabbing but the execution ruined a potential great watch.

The acting was good enough. Takeshi is a films’ star but he made three dramas in his career and all of them were Japanese. Although I still believe that his acting is well-suited for the big screen and that he’s better off as a films’ star; I still loved to see him in a drama role and man does he sound so great speaking Japanese! His co-star Nakayama Miho is a good older J-actress that I like to see her around, romance dramas fit her acting on a great level.
The characters were likeable but they were too obvious if I may say. The male lead was a little better though because Mashiro (the female lead) was such a boring predictable character from any angle you look at her. The rest of the characters didn’t raise any interest except for the Saeki, the smart police officer but that little attention I gave to his character disappeared with time when I noticed that he became dumb.

This was made back in 2000 so don’t expect any dreamy cinematography; I know that many people dislike watching older dramas. The soundtrack, on the other hand, fulfilled its purpose in a good way.

Watch if:
-You like older dramas.
-You’re looking for a different type of romance.
-You like the main leads.

Do not watch if:
-You’re looking for gripping romance.
-You dislike older dramas.

Nisennen no Koi had great concept but the execution and the storytelling ruined any chances to make it remarkable or even memorable drama.

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Completed
janec
4 people found this review helpful
May 23, 2020
11 of 11 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 9.5
Story 9.0
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 9.0
This is not an easy drama, especially if the viewer is not used to the Japanese mentality. Some aspects can be quite difficult to understand or accept. Despite some imperfections, this is a drama that made a huge impression on me. In my opinion, there are more sensational spy threads than romantic, which is a big plus. But the biggest plus for me is the story of the heroes. It really touches the heart. I still think about the song from this drama. She is very beautiful.
My high notes are due to the fact that this is one of the few dramas that made a really big impression on me. I throw most of them out of my mind immediately after seeing them, but this one has entered my heart. The character played by Kaneshiro Takeshi is simply beautiful to me. I watched this drama twice. I'm just wondering if to watch it for the third time.

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Completed
pash
1 people found this review helpful
Aug 13, 2022
11 of 11 episodes seen
Completed 0
Overall 10
Story 10
Acting/Cast 10
Music 10
Rewatch Value 10
I remember wanting to watch this "Nisennen no Koi / Love 2000" ever since I started watching Japanese dramas, back in 2005/2006. Unfortunately, the English subs available seemed at first glance the product of a machine translation, often unintelligible as they were, so I had ended up putting it aside.....until I've recently found it again, this time with beautifully done French subs (pardon, "sous-titres" ^___-).
And so I watched it after all those years....you can imagine that after such a looong wait, my expectations were pretty high; and I'm happy to be able to say that it didn't let me down. Quite the contrary!
Despite the somehow implausible premise (you'll have to boost your "suspension of disbelief" powers quite a bit to accept this imaginary country in the Urals where people apparently speak among themselves either in Japanese, Russian or English! >__<), the script sill managed to develop that brilliantly and pretty much realistically (newsflash: if you thought that spies had anything - even remotely - to do with James Bond's fantasy world, well, think again; the ugly and gritty truth is a lot closer to what we have here - murder, lies, betrayal).
The cast did also temendously well (with honorable mentions for the gorgeous Nakayama Miho, the great Kaneshiro Takeshi, and last but not least for the übersexy "Fayray" - wow, that singer sure is a looker!)
A beautiful OST coupled with a fine production value wrapped up the whole thing very nicely.
What's not to like? 10/10!

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Nisennen no Koi (2000) poster

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  • Score: 7.1 (scored by 99 users)
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