Flan_Chair
This review may contain spoilers
“You never really understand a person until you climb in his skin and walk around in it.” A.F
**Minor Spoilers**
'Switched' takes the oft-used concept of the body swap and gives it a cruel twist: the 'beautiful' girl gets the short end of the stick despite having done nothing wrong, while the 'ugly' girl that appears to win it all is callous and selfish. What follows is a simple but well-made parable on how envy causes more harm than good, how real beauty isn't only skin deep- and how it takes just one kind friend to pull you out of despair. But the linchpin of the series, in my opinion, is the way it shows that true ugliness is created from the internalisation of cruelty and mockery. And this true ugliness? All-consuming hatred, a self-propagating force that eats away at everything (yourself included) and pushes others even further away from you. This naturally causes you to hate yourself even more and closes the doorway of hope- until shrouded in the darkness of your mind and standing under the crimson moon, you stare in anticipation at the streets far below. Yikes. Though I included Atticus's quote because of its relevance towards empathy, it only applies to Ayumi, truth be told. Zenko, on the other hand- she may walk around in Ayumi's skin, but as her mother points out, she is still the same hateful, spite-filled girl within.
Notes:
-Six episodes was just the right length.
-One might say that the symbolisms used, e.g. birds representing freedom, each girl seeing their true self in mirrors, were too on the nose. However, I don't see this as a problem because this series is intended to be accessible and easy to understand rather than esoteric. The fact that the series even has symbolism which it uses to further its didactic purpose is rarely even seen amongst J-dramas, to be honest.
-The production value was clearly a cut above the average J-drama, in no small part to the Netflix funding. It was thoroughly refreshing, a blast of fresh air even, to watch a Japanese drama that didn't look as if it was filmed and produced by an amateur crew with a bad camera.
-Acting was very strong from rookies Kiyohara Kaya and Tomita Miu, (who gets a role that doesn't boil down to 'ha-ha fat person funny'). They succeeded greatly in not only playing duel roles but characterising each role with pinpoint accuracy- pulling off Ayumi's sweetness and Zenko's homicidal finger-biting equally well. Kamiyama Tomohiro and Shigeoka Daiki also did quite well, although I do question the typical high-school series/movie trait of having two men in their mid-twenties play students almost ten years younger. I admit that Shigeoka, as the endearing Kaga, triumphed thoroughly in channeling his grinning schoolboy.
-Soundtrack was good but a bit kitschy and sparkly.
-If I had a complaint besides all the slow-mo's and awful 'splat' noises for when the bodies hit the floor, it would be the excess of love-triangle shenanigans when the series could be delving further into its social issues. It would be a truly excellent series if not for these flaws, but I do understand the need to add sugar to make a dark series palatable for its young audience.
As it stands, it is one of the finer J-dramas and dare I say, a much better examination of bullying than the hypocritical 3-nen A gumi (where, might I add, Tomita was used solely for the purpose of comic relief based on her weight).
9/10
'Switched' takes the oft-used concept of the body swap and gives it a cruel twist: the 'beautiful' girl gets the short end of the stick despite having done nothing wrong, while the 'ugly' girl that appears to win it all is callous and selfish. What follows is a simple but well-made parable on how envy causes more harm than good, how real beauty isn't only skin deep- and how it takes just one kind friend to pull you out of despair. But the linchpin of the series, in my opinion, is the way it shows that true ugliness is created from the internalisation of cruelty and mockery. And this true ugliness? All-consuming hatred, a self-propagating force that eats away at everything (yourself included) and pushes others even further away from you. This naturally causes you to hate yourself even more and closes the doorway of hope- until shrouded in the darkness of your mind and standing under the crimson moon, you stare in anticipation at the streets far below. Yikes. Though I included Atticus's quote because of its relevance towards empathy, it only applies to Ayumi, truth be told. Zenko, on the other hand- she may walk around in Ayumi's skin, but as her mother points out, she is still the same hateful, spite-filled girl within.
Notes:
-Six episodes was just the right length.
-One might say that the symbolisms used, e.g. birds representing freedom, each girl seeing their true self in mirrors, were too on the nose. However, I don't see this as a problem because this series is intended to be accessible and easy to understand rather than esoteric. The fact that the series even has symbolism which it uses to further its didactic purpose is rarely even seen amongst J-dramas, to be honest.
-The production value was clearly a cut above the average J-drama, in no small part to the Netflix funding. It was thoroughly refreshing, a blast of fresh air even, to watch a Japanese drama that didn't look as if it was filmed and produced by an amateur crew with a bad camera.
-Acting was very strong from rookies Kiyohara Kaya and Tomita Miu, (who gets a role that doesn't boil down to 'ha-ha fat person funny'). They succeeded greatly in not only playing duel roles but characterising each role with pinpoint accuracy- pulling off Ayumi's sweetness and Zenko's homicidal finger-biting equally well. Kamiyama Tomohiro and Shigeoka Daiki also did quite well, although I do question the typical high-school series/movie trait of having two men in their mid-twenties play students almost ten years younger. I admit that Shigeoka, as the endearing Kaga, triumphed thoroughly in channeling his grinning schoolboy.
-Soundtrack was good but a bit kitschy and sparkly.
-If I had a complaint besides all the slow-mo's and awful 'splat' noises for when the bodies hit the floor, it would be the excess of love-triangle shenanigans when the series could be delving further into its social issues. It would be a truly excellent series if not for these flaws, but I do understand the need to add sugar to make a dark series palatable for its young audience.
As it stands, it is one of the finer J-dramas and dare I say, a much better examination of bullying than the hypocritical 3-nen A gumi (where, might I add, Tomita was used solely for the purpose of comic relief based on her weight).
9/10
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