1
TimiZero
Bolehland
The director of this drama used a lot of actors expressions and camera works for telling the story and did not rely so much on the dialogs (except for information-loaded scenes). I love how the main character's psychological complex was portrayed well by Tamaki.
This is hard to explain without giving a spoiler, but I noticed that the camera panning was also used cleverly to tease the viewer, especially for the side-plot mysteries apart from the main one. Sometimes during the series, there was a long shot that made you think there must be something, but in the end it was ended abruptly like nothing important for that part. Then on the next episode, it was indeed important. Once you caught this trick, you will keep your eyes open on each episode even for trivial scenes.
I also like the settings of this drama from the crowded streets, back alleys, dirty old apartment, restaurant eating scene, until the underground HQ of the Chinese mafia, everything was done realistically amazing. Somehow it gives me the Hong Kong movies vibe in it (something with the "messy-feeling" of the atmosphere). The last jdrama I watched with this vibe was Kurokouchi.
Overall I only rated this as 8.5, because I found the last episode a bit lacking compared to the first 4. Otherwise this could be rated as 9 or even 9.5. Anyways, this is still an interesting watch. I personally recommend this for mystery drama lover and for those who want to see something different for a change.
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This review may contain spoilers
This is my first Taiga Drama from the late Edo period, and as a bonus this is also span through the early Meiji era. Maybe because of its closeness with modern time, Segodon is easily relatable to the current world. I would say, this is simply a must watch!In summary, Segodon is a heartwarming drama with strong values of friendship, families, ideals, and dreams. At the beginning of the drama, there was a narration something like; "Saigo Takamori, a person who was popular with men and women". And at the end of final episode, that is exactly what viewers will feel. Credit to the production team for managing to convey this message despite the drama being aired for a year long.
That said, one strong point of Segodon that I think is worth to mention is its casting. I must say they have a good casting team. Even Suzuki was willing to gain weight for his role. What an amazing actor he is! The overall acting from the rest of the actors was excellent too with many scenes managed to caught my emotion (not necessarily the soapy one).
Being an historical drama made the dialogs more interesting, with deep meaning in their conversations. They did a good job too on the Satsuma accent as well as the islander dialects, but I'm not Japanese so can't really tell if they made blunders in between.
Another thing that I found interesting in Segodon is how they use hints when it involves (immoral) man-woman relationship. This might be a spoiler, but for the sake of giving example there was a scene with Ooyama saying, "from now on Otama (escort lady in Edo) and me are one". There's also other scene when Okubo receive medicine from Oyuu and said thanks in Kyoto dialect "o-kini" while Saigo and the other guy keep looking at each other. Both scenes ended abruptly without much explanation but surely hinting on something (at least true for Okubo's case).
It's also suspicious when Saigo named his son Torataro and at the same time there's woman called Tora who worked in Satsuma's Inn in Kyoto who portrayed as taking interest on Saigo more than usual (however more like a one-sided love). But, viewers know the reason behind Ito's divorced before she married Saigo.....so this is the big mystery among all.
Despite all the good things, there are also few week points of this drama especially on the story towards the end. I personally think the screenwriter should have elaborated more on some of the important political events such as the Boshin War and conflict between Kido and Okubo (which was missing from the storyline).
Another thing I noticed is the interpretation of Okubo's character during the several last episodes. This is just me but it feels like the production team was too cautious about it by leaving viewers to interpret themselves. A lot of scenes related to Okubo's action were done so vaguely. It would be great if they just be bold on that matter, just like how people made interpretation of Tokugawa Ieyasu for example.
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That said, the only amazing thing about this drama is cinematography and the beautiful settings. Even the thrown photos on the floor looked so beautifully scattered. LOL. In short, the main theme of this drama is beautiful-ness (instead of dark-ness). Not sure about the story in manga but the drawing looks very pretty too.
Other than that, the pacing is super slow. It feels more like watching a movie to me, but in movie everything will be wrapped in 2 hours. While this is only 24 minutes per episode, it feels like a 1.5 hours watch for each....haha because the progress of the story is so painfully slow like snail! And to make things worst, our director is a fan of slow-motion scenes. There were countless of slow-mo throughout the drama.
While the production team were focusing on how to make things beauty, they forgot the most important thing, emotion! Seriously I did not feel anything from both of the protagonists. Some part of story-line also did not make any sense to me. Again I don't read the manga so not sure who to blame here..
As I already mentioned, the strong point of this drama is cinematography. There are couple of interesting techniques used in this drama that are worth to check for. I won't write it here to avoid spoiler. And just because of that I rated this 8. Otherwise this should have been around 7 or 7.5 only!
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First of all, just want to be clear that I like this drama, but not to the point calling it masterpiece. Very far from being the funniest drama I have ever seen too.
To me the attraction of this drama lies in the retrospective time-frame the event took place. That's to be expected from a 90's manga's remake! Just love the fashions, hairstyle, makeup and even some terms that no longer being used in drama like "Tsuppari". Credit to production team for making such a retro drama. It would have been a lot easier to make historical than a retro in my opinion, because it's easy to messed up with the technological fact i.e phone, computer, etc.
As far as the comedy drama concern, I have a mixed feeling. First, the "anime-like-episodic" approach is cool IMO. The slapstick comedy was overdone in some, but still acceptable and entertaining. What I'm not a fan of was that kind of moment when you already get the joke, but they keep over-explaining it (not necessarily lingual) until it feels not funny anymore. I noticed this same style was also in Mr. Nietzsche, which I lose interest after episode 1. However, the adlib and mumbling from Sato Jiro was excellent to be fair.
For acting, don't watch this drama if you're not a fan of Kaku Kento's MJ-like moves. Hahaha... Thanks to that, I feel Taiga was less overacting, if you know what I mean.
The other good thing about this drama is it's full of fighting scene and action. This alone made up for the so-so comedy and the hyperactive Kaku Kento.
All in all, good drama but definitely not that funny (at least to me). This is however highly recommended if you're:
1. Looking for inspiration of 80's fashion
2. Love high school drama
3. Want to see fight scene in every episode
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This was never on my PTW list. It's just that seeing it got through to the final listing of MDL best Jdrama 2018 award, made me a bit curious about it and so here I am writing a review for the first time ever. I'm sorry if by any means my writing hurts anyone who loves this drama feeling.
The overall story is cliche. I mean we have seen this back in time to correct mistakes plot over and over aren't we? The only saviour for this type of plot is when you have a heartwarming story alongside it. Normally family/relationship related stuff is used by the screenwriter. Think JIN, Ryuusei Wagon, Suteki na Sen Taxi, ProDai.
Similar for Todome no Kiss, but the "alongside" story was kind of half-ass IMO. At the beginning, it appeared as a revenge plot in disguised by "desire to become rich" of the ML. While everyone who's watching the drama knows how the characters are related to each other, and could roughly predict on it's direction, the screenwriter made a plot twist (not making sense one) by making the ML clueless about it until half way of the series. Even so, he did not seem like taking revenge after knowing the truth and chose to become rich instead.
There was also plot hole in the writing, for example a major time-travel inconsistency on episode 3. Apart from that the characterization of the ML doesn't written properly too. At times he was portrayed as someone who's smart and sly (and because of that the screenwriter need to remind the viewer by making each female character to say KUZU in each episode), and at some other time he looks much stupid than elementary school student.
The cinematography was nothing spectacular as well. It's as good as you could see in other standard Japanese dramas out there.
However, there are also few good things to mention. Especially Suda Masaki's acting throughout the drama. He has small role and few screen time, but leaves a greater impact with his warm presence. Other than that, the last episode was good IMO even without having to watch episode 10 of "Parallel" (which I also watched BTW).
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