This drama made me think. Usually when I look at a work, I just let myself be carried away by my emotions, my feelings. I evolve emotionally with the characters in the drama and I easily pick up the messages in the drama or at least I can get interpretations out of them. For Junichi it was different.
My opinion will join Ange's one.
This drama, either can be taken in a very simple way: it is what it is. No more and no less. The characters are who they are and do what they do for no apparent reason or motive. Sometimes there aren't necessarily reasons or messages behind people's actions. It is what it is.
Or, we have the more analyzed version of the drama and this is the one that got me thinking.
Junichi for me is a story of women. Enhanced by a man. Sublimated by a man: Shison Jun. He is the one who brings to light these stories of women, these slices of life.
There is the “before” and the “after” Junichi. I wondered sometimes if he was not a reflection of some unconscious desire of these women, a creation of their mind in the reality, something that would have taken shape from their unconscious.
Because what's amazing is that he is always there, at the right time, in the right place. I mean he adapts to each woman and their very meeting is tailored to each one.
For me this drama is a puzzle whose meaning you only fully understand when you look at the big picture with the last episode, it is this one which connects everything.
So yes, he has sex in almost every episode. Presented in a raw way often. And what is curious is that if stay in a "moral way of thinking", if you look at it from a judgmental point of view, the moments of sex are not especially "positive". I mean infidelities, sexuality to be like other girls, sexuality in a self-destructive pattern, here, no romance or fairy tale, just human stories, with their dark side too.
And that's where he comes in. When these women meet him, they are not happy. They are mostly empty of meaning, of emotions (at least positive emotions), they are lost. Completely.
And after sleeping or having a connection with him, it's like their life is changing.
As if they had found themselves again.
Junichi is exactly what they needed at this precise moment to reconnect deeply with themselves and reconnect with life.
And once he's done his mission, he leaves and disappears.
It reminds me of those lucky charm that we find and once they use their positive charm on us and accomplish their mission, they disappear.
I really saw him like that. A lucky charm, a way for them to reconnect with themselves.
My biggest question would be about him. Is he happy? Is he really happy and satisfied with this life? Does he feel he has a mission? Is he aware that he is bringing an emotional transformation to these women? Does he let himself live and drift, where his boat takes him. Does he have meaning in his life? Is he happy? Does he feel alive ?
Sex is often frowned upon in our society. Yet in my opinion, it is one of the most beautiful, moving, deep and most effective way of communication. (Of course, I'm not talking about all kind of sex. Not all of them are beautiful and can even be negative or even damaging) but with the right person and the right intention, this is the most powerful form of communication. We connect to the person on all levels. Emotional, mental, physical, psychic, energetic, our souls connect. It is as if he is using this medium of communication to heal and heal the souls of these women. He traces a path to their deep being.
But who is treating him? Who acres about him ?
The last frame when he smiles because he's going back to yet another story with a woman, I just felt sadness.
In France there is a song (the theme really has nothing to do with this drama ) with those lyrics:
"You would like to feel her already in the crook of your arm. The wife of those who don't have one ”.
And that reminded me of him. In symbolism.
And then this Koji Nakamura end-of-drama music is just so powerful, melancholic, nostalgic. It shows how fragile, ephemeral this life is and at the same time, there is this little ray of sun behind this heaviness and this fog.
There is always hope in the darkness.
I don't know if he's happy, if he loves his life, if he's satisfied, and that is what bothers me the most.