Zíza

You’ll mostly want to see this for the peculiar main character, who is obviously on the spectrum, with a great characterization and an entirely human performance. Plus, this wonderfully childishly playful and endearing main character is portrayed by the excellent Takahashi Issei, so you don't have to worry about whether the quality will drop. It doesn't. A kind of an unusual man is entrenched in the college environment where he began teaching. The other setting where he begins to spend more time is a dental clinic run by the heroine, played by Eikura Nana. And she's not a bad heroine at all. She has her relationships, her problems, her airlocks. A variety of characters weave around them, forming a patchwork of relationships and characters, sometimes rather flat, sometimes deep as wells, but the viewer is still most interested in the mischievous madman in the lead role. It's a classic relationship series that turns up wisdom, avoids clichés relatively well in order to compose them a different way, but above all delivers warmth. It's the kind of show where you become friends with the characters, good friends, you have fun together, cry together, you experience various joys and hardships. And then it's over, and you feel sorry for them, and you think you have to go back to them because you had a good time with them. It was just the very ending that I didn't enjoy much. In fact, it left me cold, maybe slightly disillusioned. But that was just the last few minutes, everything was great up until then.

A nice, short, romantic affair. Sad, but also happy and funny. I especially liked how their relationship was portrayed. Admittedly it wasn't interfered with by anyone else, so it seemed maybe a little too idyllic (except for her medical condition, that is), although it’s true that the beginnings of relationships tend to be that way. Mostly it wasn't just a gratuitous "we're together", but it was clear that the two of them understood each other. It was nice. A strong 3 stars.

Pleasantly touching, with nice music, interesting episodic stories with main characters who have had something happen to them and it constantly manifests in their lives (I'm talking about the male characters, the one main female character was rather flat, uninteresting, and pretty much color by number). It tries to call attention to the problems in Korean society, but I still feel like it's pretty much stuck in that patriarchal frame of mind – men play the lead, men say the important stuff, men get the last word. Which then seems a bit at odds with the fact that the show is trying to highlight the injustices rooted in Korea. Some may counter that there were female characters like the prosecutor or the lady who brokered the illegal fights, but were those characters really significant enough to use as an argument? Well, whatever. As for the TV series itself as a form for entertaining/amusing the viewer, that's fine of course, no one is addressing that, not even the depiction of a person with Asperger's Syndrome, the main thing is that the story was coherent and the two main actors played it to the best of their abilities. A weaker 4 stars.

I like these stories, so I thought I would like this series. I just didn't realize I would like it this much! A beautiful story unhindered by unnecessary backstabbing and love polygons, graced with quality cinematography and soundtrack. It always got me when Grandpa tried, when he did ballet, when his family discouraged him from it even though he was happy. Although old age is sad in its own way, because you can't do as much anymore and life is over, it does have its beautiful moments and this series "captured" them and dosed them out to the viewer without pushing the envelope too much. What’s more, the old age was presented here as the antithesis of youth, which is violent, passionate, stupid, but strong. The old man and the young man had such great chemistry, they complemented each other perfectly, and each pursued his own goal, but both wanted the same thing in the end – to shine. For me, this series shined. Thank God for 12-episode TV shows. If it had more episodes, it wouldn't have been as good. We got just enough of everything: dreams, family (both the old man and the young man), and ballet. I liked it.

I found it more of a critique of society than a horror film. Sure, it's got its antagonist, it's got its deaths, it's got its suspense and fear, it's got amazing imagery, it's got great cinematography, but underneath it all it just seems to be beating the drum of social criticism along the lines of actually raising a child vs. look how well we're raising our family/ how great our family is doing. It struck me that the author is basically saying, and literally showing, that all posers and internally corrupt or empty people need to be gotten rid of. Though of course through the characters he is saying that the poser may not mean it, that they can't "find fulfillment". It's simply a film that has several layers and is also divided into three parts. It has so much it wants to say that it doesn't have proper space to do so, despite its relatively long running time. It's a Nakashima that has accumulated a lot of ideas from Confessions that he wanted to vent. But he vented them quite impressively. As I've written before, the cinematography is great and takes an ordinary horror film somewhere further, the final exorcism in particular is very impressive and I like how there's a mix of Shinto and Buddhist rituals along with Korean shamanism. There are just a number of perspectives to explore in this film and it's definitely interesting. It works as a horror movie, as social critique, and as a visually evocative film. But it's clear to me that getting it all together is not for everyone.

I was incredibly pleasantly surprised by Yo Han's personality. Not a genius doctor who despises other doctors because they aren't as good as he is, though it may seem that way at first. Our doctor obviously doesn't like those who slack off and endanger the lives of others. Yo Han is exactly the kind of doctor you want, excellent at what he does, empathetic, kind, he gets along well with his colleagues, he's non-confrontational (which is what I want as a viewer of Korean shows – I had really been yearning for a main character like that). The other thing that pleasantly surprised me was that there was no fight to the death over the positions in the hospital, there was no backstabbing. Sure, not everyone agreed with everything, but that's normal. It never went to the extreme. The main character was strong, even if it didn't seem like it at the beginning, she turned out to be a strong and smart heroine in the end. I liked her as a doctor. Not so much the obsessive girlfriend: she seemed to lavish too much care on the object of her love, in fact I found it almost suffocating, but I understand that some people are comfortable with that. Anyway, if I had to rate her, she'd be a strong and fine heroine. The problem was with the actress. I agonized for a long time over what didn't sit well with me about the heroine and it ended up not being the heroine, but the actress. I didn't like her acting. Especially towards the end, I almost felt like she started slacking off: “I can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, I can slack off." That's what it felt like. Another bonus was that we didn't get unnecessary and dramatic love triangles; who says you can't do without them! As a result, in addition to the slightly milquetoast main couple, we have a rather dynamic supporting couple where Hwang Hee shines in particular. Last but not least, we have the character of the prosecutor, who probably has the best supporting character development I've ever seen in a series. A great supporting character played by the great Lee Kyu-hyung. The euthanasia legalization storyline was interesting, one could ponder and get different opinions; I even really like how it was wrapped up (for some people insufficiently, perhaps openly so, as a parallel to the euthanasia discussion itself). As for the "medical stuff", there was some absolute nonsense in, even the unstudied like me could tell. But it wasn't completely in your face, so there's that. I thought the cinematography was beautiful at times, and at times I thought the angle was terribly poorly chosen. I can say the same about the OST – first time great, second time meh, average, not great. I liked the slower pace, both story-wise and in the development of the relationships. Except that the end, the last three episodes or so, dragged on like dead weight and I was looking forward to finally finishing it. It's a nice series, it has its highs and lows, but those aren't so bad that I have to condemn the series. It's an enjoyable show from the medical setting. A weaker 4 stars.

The pacing and the way the story is told reminds me a bit of 64. Slow, kind of uninteresting, obviously put on at the wrong time. I think this is better as a novel, it says more, the reader better understands the motivations of the characters, and finds it more suspenseful and comprehensive overall. The movie probably had a bad writer or a bad concept, but it just came across as incredibly boring. The interesting question of euthanasia accompanied the whole story, but in the end nothing was resolved, or maybe it was. I liked the investigation, but that's about it. Unfortunately the acting by Ayano Gō was not very convincing, I didn't like it. So I saw an uninteresting film that resisted all answers, you can't even argue with it, with not very interesting acting performances. The book must be good, its conversion to 3D didn't turn out well. Too bad.

It must have been totally awesome at the time, because they weren't writing stories like this that much yet. Fate in grand scale. Constant missed opportunities. Lying to your love to win her over, but eventually realizing you can’t do it and releasing her from your clutches so she can follow her red thread of fate to find whoever’s meant for her. It's a cliché. But the screenwriter has divinely tugged at the viewer's heartstrings, constantly and deliberately pulling them tighter and tighter just to provoke, and doing so with great intensity. I liked this playfulness, even if it got on my nerves; not many scripts play with the viewer so brutally these days. Takenouchi is perfect as always, I just love the guy; Tanaka Misato is plain and mild, but I guess that's how she was supposed to be. I didn't particularly root for her character, but I didn't have much reason to hate her either. She's the kind of quiet little girl who secretly plays on the strings of many a heart with her soft voice and good heart. Just a boring character. I wish there were better videos available... A nice cliché from 1998 a lot of other romantic series are based on (Japanese, Korean...).

It's a bit of a shame to watch this without knowing the series it was based on, but even without that you can get the hang of it. If I were rude I'd write that it was a total dud, but since I'm not, I'd say it was a total blast! From start to finish. It's like a super great episode. We're even greeted with the old familiar opening at the beginning and then we get a brand new ending at the end. Again, it's crazy, it's over-the-top, it's ridiculous. Anyone who doesn't like this kind of humor won't enjoy it. Those who don't mind the film won't be bored, but those who love this brand of humor will sit on their asses and only go to the bathroom during the film if they’re at risk of bursting a bladder. It was a rollercoaster ride. Kaku Kento once again showed his talent as a comedian-actor. The others were really only second to him. Another big plus was the details – just look at all the extras, the shrubbery, the mess in the rooms. It was all period, real and as interesting or funny as the film itself. And to top it off, we get the final battle as the sweet icing on the cake. Well shot, dynamic, and even though it might focus on the two main characters fighting, the battles around them still make sense, those guys aren't just slapping each other around. I guess it's clear that the film made me terribly happy and fit my mood completely. I'm glad I waited for that moment. A divine bit of nonsense.

It's not a wrap up of the series, it doesn't add anything to the development of the characters or the story, it basically ends up in the same situation the series ended in again, although it's true that the characters have been shuffled around a bit. If you liked the series, this is just an extended episode. It retains the same quality, no worse or better than the series, nor did the actors show anything new, let alone the creators or director. Just an extended arm of the show.