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This review may contain spoilers
Learning to Love Again
There are spoilers in this review. Read at your own risk.
So close! I really really really love this drama and I really wish it had been more. It was a bit messy and chaotic, especially towards the end. And I don't mean just the storyline. There were a lot of random cuts towards the end that were kind of weird. As if they didn't know how to smoothly transition from scene to scene, even though some scenes were literally 2 seconds apart from each other. Not like the next day or week.
The premise of this show is great. 2 different people from 2 different backgrounds who deeply struggle through life, in their own ways.
The thing each of them have in common is not wanting to fall in love.
She is 35 atm and a new teacher at an all girls school. A couple years prior, she was working with books; that was her dream job. She had already thought she fell in love with someone and was set to marry them, but she got obsessed about him and stalked him. He ends up breaking up with her, understandably, and she wanted to die.
She tries to kill herself. She is scared of falling in love again because of how it made her feel. Her controlling and overbearing dad sets her up on a blind date with someone in his company. She tells him on their blind date about her obsession past, hoping it turns him off of wanting to date her, but he becomes weirdly fixated on her for being so upfront. He is not a good guy at first. He already has a sex buddy, who is married, but he eventually starts to really like the main girl and ends that sex relationship to be serious about the main girl. He becomes a bit obsessed, manipulative, and starts stalking the main girl. Not in a super creepy way of wanting to kill her, which is good. It's still messed up because he often tries to manipulate the situation with him and her and the main girls best friend, who is a reporter. They all try to look after her, but they end up babying her for the most part.
The main guy is 23 and works as a host. A job looked down on in society. His job is to convince women he's their's if the price is right. He wants to be the number 1 host of the club he works for. He seems to want to do whatever it takes, no matter how shameful or degrading.
One of the main storylines is another number 1 host got killed and they didn't catch the murderer yet.
The main guy has a mother who leeches off of him financially and neglects him emotionally. She jumps from man to man. She had another son, who is a lot younger than the main guy. The younger brother gets sick a lot and the mom always asks for money for him, which the main guy gives it to her. She then starts asking for money for her boyfriends failing business, which he gives, but its never enough. They always want more.
So, with how his mother is and how his job is, he sees relationships with women as transactional and never genuine.
The main girl and guy meet at the host club because 1 of her students ended up liking the main guy and she thought he really liked her back but it's his job to make women hooked on him to spend as much money as possible, so that he can become number 1.
The main leads have a 13 year age gap, which is one reason, but not the main reason they are told they shouldn't be together. The main reason is he is a "lowly host" and she is an "upstanding teacher" who needs to be a good role model for her students. Teachers aren't allowed personal lives Japan I guess. I can understand how the main guy falls for the main girl, but I struggled to see how the main girl falls for him. They make it seems more like pity, but keep telling us its not pity through the main girl. That didn't convey very well.
The main guy falls for the teacher because she doesn't try and use him for money or anything. She wants to help him when she finds out he can't read or write well. She takes a lot from others who can dupe her easily. His character is frustrating at a lot of parts. I get that he tries not to let anything get to serious. He struggled a lot to fit in and has a learning disability that made school impossible without proper help.
He does know that he can affect her standing in society, and tries to distance himself from her because he doesn't want her to be "dragged down" by him because others think he is lowly and deemed no good.
It kind of gives off Yakuza vibes a bit. As if he is in a gang or something. I like those parts. I enjoy most of the forbidden love tropes, especially if they can say "screw everyone and everything else" to be together.
The main guy really tries to turn himself around and with the first person who actually believes in him, he tries to become something more to be able to stand by her properly, in society. However, she is prepared to lose everything to be with him. Again, they didn't make it clear as to why she falls for him. There are moments where he shows he's caring, but slips easily and often into his other mask of being a clown for everyone else.
Idk. I have mixed feelings about it, but there were a lot of heart fluttering moments that I enjoyed enough to give it a decently high score.
As with most dramas, I wish they would have had a proper ending in the happier times together, as a couple. I don't understand why they make romance series without proper skinship and intimacy (physical intimacy and non physical). It drives me crazy and is why I rarely watch heterosexual couples anymore. It's fine if a drama doesn't want to add those things, but I cannot really consider it a "romance", especially a drama where they would give up everything to be eith each other and they barely hold hands? That's odd to me. They do kiss in the drama, but its rare. They do have some intimate feelings of longing for each other, those are nice.
In the end, in a rare twist, everyone around them, coworkers, friends, both sets of parents, the main girls ex want them to be together. The only thing standing in their way is the main guy feeling like he isn't good enough to be with her.
Anyway, it was good enough and one of the few Japanese dramas I like.
So close! I really really really love this drama and I really wish it had been more. It was a bit messy and chaotic, especially towards the end. And I don't mean just the storyline. There were a lot of random cuts towards the end that were kind of weird. As if they didn't know how to smoothly transition from scene to scene, even though some scenes were literally 2 seconds apart from each other. Not like the next day or week.
The premise of this show is great. 2 different people from 2 different backgrounds who deeply struggle through life, in their own ways.
The thing each of them have in common is not wanting to fall in love.
She is 35 atm and a new teacher at an all girls school. A couple years prior, she was working with books; that was her dream job. She had already thought she fell in love with someone and was set to marry them, but she got obsessed about him and stalked him. He ends up breaking up with her, understandably, and she wanted to die.
She tries to kill herself. She is scared of falling in love again because of how it made her feel. Her controlling and overbearing dad sets her up on a blind date with someone in his company. She tells him on their blind date about her obsession past, hoping it turns him off of wanting to date her, but he becomes weirdly fixated on her for being so upfront. He is not a good guy at first. He already has a sex buddy, who is married, but he eventually starts to really like the main girl and ends that sex relationship to be serious about the main girl. He becomes a bit obsessed, manipulative, and starts stalking the main girl. Not in a super creepy way of wanting to kill her, which is good. It's still messed up because he often tries to manipulate the situation with him and her and the main girls best friend, who is a reporter. They all try to look after her, but they end up babying her for the most part.
The main guy is 23 and works as a host. A job looked down on in society. His job is to convince women he's their's if the price is right. He wants to be the number 1 host of the club he works for. He seems to want to do whatever it takes, no matter how shameful or degrading.
One of the main storylines is another number 1 host got killed and they didn't catch the murderer yet.
The main guy has a mother who leeches off of him financially and neglects him emotionally. She jumps from man to man. She had another son, who is a lot younger than the main guy. The younger brother gets sick a lot and the mom always asks for money for him, which the main guy gives it to her. She then starts asking for money for her boyfriends failing business, which he gives, but its never enough. They always want more.
So, with how his mother is and how his job is, he sees relationships with women as transactional and never genuine.
The main girl and guy meet at the host club because 1 of her students ended up liking the main guy and she thought he really liked her back but it's his job to make women hooked on him to spend as much money as possible, so that he can become number 1.
The main leads have a 13 year age gap, which is one reason, but not the main reason they are told they shouldn't be together. The main reason is he is a "lowly host" and she is an "upstanding teacher" who needs to be a good role model for her students. Teachers aren't allowed personal lives Japan I guess. I can understand how the main guy falls for the main girl, but I struggled to see how the main girl falls for him. They make it seems more like pity, but keep telling us its not pity through the main girl. That didn't convey very well.
The main guy falls for the teacher because she doesn't try and use him for money or anything. She wants to help him when she finds out he can't read or write well. She takes a lot from others who can dupe her easily. His character is frustrating at a lot of parts. I get that he tries not to let anything get to serious. He struggled a lot to fit in and has a learning disability that made school impossible without proper help.
He does know that he can affect her standing in society, and tries to distance himself from her because he doesn't want her to be "dragged down" by him because others think he is lowly and deemed no good.
It kind of gives off Yakuza vibes a bit. As if he is in a gang or something. I like those parts. I enjoy most of the forbidden love tropes, especially if they can say "screw everyone and everything else" to be together.
The main guy really tries to turn himself around and with the first person who actually believes in him, he tries to become something more to be able to stand by her properly, in society. However, she is prepared to lose everything to be with him. Again, they didn't make it clear as to why she falls for him. There are moments where he shows he's caring, but slips easily and often into his other mask of being a clown for everyone else.
Idk. I have mixed feelings about it, but there were a lot of heart fluttering moments that I enjoyed enough to give it a decently high score.
As with most dramas, I wish they would have had a proper ending in the happier times together, as a couple. I don't understand why they make romance series without proper skinship and intimacy (physical intimacy and non physical). It drives me crazy and is why I rarely watch heterosexual couples anymore. It's fine if a drama doesn't want to add those things, but I cannot really consider it a "romance", especially a drama where they would give up everything to be eith each other and they barely hold hands? That's odd to me. They do kiss in the drama, but its rare. They do have some intimate feelings of longing for each other, those are nice.
In the end, in a rare twist, everyone around them, coworkers, friends, both sets of parents, the main girls ex want them to be together. The only thing standing in their way is the main guy feeling like he isn't good enough to be with her.
Anyway, it was good enough and one of the few Japanese dramas I like.
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