Prism (2022)

Ok, this was a long ride. Before you read my review, I will need to tell you a few things that might explain this whole review better:

• I watched only a few Japanese dramas. 10% of them are the ones I did not like, not at all, and 90% are absolute pure love. No middle ground.

• I dropped Prism after the 1st episode, but I was persuaded to go back, and that was my 5th attempt to drop something. I failed, again. I am glad I returned. I am glad I waited months for subs, literally a month or slightly more between the episodes.

But what makes Prism so significant to me, and why I had to review it!? I will try to be as precise as possible:

FL is gentle, delicate, imperfectly perfect, and absolute sunshine. Which made her so strong and slightly unreal, but I loved how sometimes I wanted to b***ch about her, but she said and did everything right. Her character broke me.

Dialogues are very nice, very civilized, and very down to earth. Everything about this drama is down to earth. I love the explosion of emotions, but Prism gave me the needed balance.

I was scared, the whole time that the story would walk into some silly cliche, but it did not. Thank heavens, I would be so pissed otherwise.

I loved the aesthetic, a lingering feeling of undefined relationships, a mixture of love, friendship, reality, and sacrifice. The whole story about the perseverance of memory, past, and families really had a decent depth. And I do not believe everyone would see the beauty and the ugliness of a CHANGE.

This might not be the masterpiece, but this drama did something for me, hurt me a little, shook me a little, and made me feel something, which is just enough for me.

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How does my garden bloom?

Thank you eveychooey for the subs!
https://www.d-addicts.com/forums/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=432456&sid=04f4429358a5cb9296c0e388e215fd27

I have been going deeper and deeper into this rabbit hole called dorama and so far I have dropped just a few of japanese dramas. This one came highly recommended from the first time it aired and I started watching it untill I realized it had not been fully subbed so I dropped it! Started it again and dropped again and again and again.... And then all of a sudden I binged the seven remaining episodes in a day!

"There are things you don't understand until you are part of them."

Prism is a serious, sensible and sensitive, thought provoking drama dealing with acceptance and search for self fulfillment.
Satsuki is a young women torn between her divorced parents and not knowing what to do with her life. The only real passion she has is creating terrariums. One of her creations attract attention of Riku who gives her job in his company and promptly starts dating her. But everything gets very complicated when he meets again his college crush he hadn't seen in seven years. A difficult triangle is formed.

Prism deals with feelings, family pressure, influence and acceptance. It is very theatrical in its realisation, there are a lot of conversations, very calm conversation (the restraint is the main feature of all characters!) culminating in a heart to heart discussion of the three main characters in a forest: they seemed to be all alone in the world!

I do not know much about japanese society today but from what I read: the young people do not want to get married or have kids and that is a huge problem for the country, the families do exercise pressure but it is working less and less. The women particularly are expected to stop working and stay at home when they are married and with kids. A side couple shows that it is possible to work and be married at the same time when both are willing to compromise and the companies are open minded.

Another side story talks about same sex couples and how the partner is not recognized as a family in case of medical emergency. Things seem to evolve in that area as well, slowly but every change needs time!

The main story is Riku and his unresolved feelings from the past. In college he had a crush on his professor who unexplainably and suddenly left. When they meet seven years later, he is unsure of his feelings which ruins his relationship with Satsuki.
"I don't know if I'm gay. I do not want to see men naked!"
This makes it perfectly clear that though the professor had feelings for him, Riku's feelings were those of admiration not love which becomes clear as their relationship progresses in present.

In the end the three of them remain friends tied together with the common love of gardening and nothing more!

The series was filmed beautifully, the lush gardens, the hazy air, warm colours, soft and quiet. What I did not like was the music: very often heavy sounding cello solos in rather simple situation while the serious scenes were accompanied by cheerful very ill fitting music. The actors were perfect. The characters were extremely well written and the actors managed to convey their thoughts and feelings with tiniest of microexpressions!

This is a drama for a confirmed watcher as the themes it deals with are rather serious, there is no fluff and the feelings are so restrained.

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