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A Life japanese drama review
Completed
A Life
7 people found this review helpful
by Luly
Feb 21, 2018
10 of 10 episodes seen
Completed
Overall 8.0
Story 8.0
Acting/Cast 8.0
Music 8.0
Rewatch Value 7.5
Man, Kimura Takuya still has it.

This was one of the dramas of 2017 I wanted to see the most and it didn't disappoint. It isn't perfect, but it's very enjoyable and it has some great actors who I love seeing in general, even more if they're together.

Right from the get-go, if you're watching this to see Kimura Takuya and Takeuchi Yuko together...it's really not the focus of it. They have an interesting sort of relationship (that could have been developed better, to be honest) and they still have that chemistry on screen, but this drama is less focused on the romance and more on the individual emotions of the characters through different situations.

The plot moves like all those job-focused dramas that have a specific job in the center and where each individual case serves for a character to develop, and most times Kimutaku's character is involved in that development, because he plays pretty much one of the seemingly few honest doctors left in this hospital. So there's nothing new there. The thing is that, differently from other job-focused dramas, this one has an underlying situation that is running through the course of the series, which makes things personal for the characters, making most cases a lot more emotional than the mere "today we learned not to be terrible to patients" at the end of each episode. The strong emotional plot underneath carries it more smoothly than other dramas of the genre, making it more engaging to me.

One of the best performances to me was Kimura Fumino, which honestly, 2017 was pretty much her year. And then there was Matsuyama Kenichi, who I didn't expect to like as much in this, but he was really good.

My biggest issue is that this drama is victim of a recurring writing issue I'm seeing in jdramas as of late, which is confusing redemption and pity. I really dislike when instead of making a character go through a redemption arc with personal growth and development, it just throws karma at it so we all go "oh, poor thing, they deserve to be forgiven" and they have to do nothing to earn said forgiveness. This drama has that with a character, which made the last few episodes a bit difficult for me to enjoy, and which is why I can't go higher with the score. I know some people will probably be disappointed by the ending, maybe they make another season, it'd be a good way to fix it.

All in all, this is a good medical drama with a great cast, it has issues and it isn't perfect but I liked watching it and, honestly, Kimura Takuya still has that aura of lead that we all recognize, which I had been missing to see.
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