While watching the last episode, it had all of a sudden dawned to me: every single makjang that has ever been made originates in The Count of Monte Cristo. Just like Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice is the blueprint for every enemies to lovers romcom ever made (and Darcy is the original tsundere heartthrob!), Dumas' Monte Cristo is the same for the revenge dramas!

The book is a classic I read many times. I have also seen many adaptations for cinema and tv. So I wondered if the japanese would manage to give it that particular japanese flavour. Unfortunately, they failed in this.

They faithfully follow the major plot points and that's what is wrong with this adaptation: it is not japanese enough. The first thing I found grating was the name: Monte Cristo. Why did they keep it? That name passes all right in Europe but it sounds
weird in Asia.

The next was the fake country and a terrorist organization. And even though I enjoyed immensely the first episode, the terrorists and then finally the name managed to make me completely lose interest.

Another huge problem were the subs which, from the episode 5 to the end, were badly timed and showed up before the characters spoke or even appeared.

The pacing of the drama was also off: too fast but at the same time too slow, too much time spent on certain characters (like crazy wives) and not enough on others (Dan and Airi). On the other hand they successfully managed to transpose the 19th century story to modern world. The actors were exceptional, Dean Fujioka was the best by far and his transformation from the happy go lucky fishermen to a cynical billionaire was amazing. And he sings!

You know when you watch a piece of fiction, the question is not whether the story is true but whether they managed to make it so believable it sounds true. Here they failed completely and only because of a few details they did not but should have changed.