Sunday, November 27, 2011

Watashi ga renai dekinai riyuu eps 3-6


EPISODE 4

The fourth episode is written as if a child suddenly discovered what a metaphor was and decided to litter a whole episode with it thinking what a genius the writer was. Not only did episode 4 have 101 words of dialogue mentioning wounds and how to heal them, the writer decided it would be a good idea to attack a flashing neon light pointing to the inspired genius of having the peeled paint as a metaphor for the girls' wounds and have them paint over it in the end as a symbolic ceremony of overstatement.


In other words, episode 4 is like beating a dead horse with another dead horse. Someone forgot to tell the writer that metaphors are supposed to be subtle, its existence never declared but felt by the viewer. By non-stop hammering a nail that had already gone in through a whole episode, the metaphor had ceased to be one and every ounce of dialogue became unnatural with the purpose of cramming a single point down the viewer's throat.


KARINA'S STORY

I remember reading at Tokyohive that this is a true to life dorama about women.  Yet, here we are with a story featuring a poor light technician having difficulty marrying the wealthy daughter of doctor because.... *drum roll* the father wants a son-in-law doctor to take over the clinic and says the daughter can never be happy marrying a non-elite. Hhhhmm, something doesn't smell true to life to me. Did I somehow miss the fact that this dorama is set in the 1980s or perhaps I am ignorant as to the fact that such real life issues plague the poor women of Japan today.


SAKI'S STORY

Best character and best storyline of the series. The whole thing makes too much sense and doesn't play out like a soap opera. *cough* Karina *cough* Takumi has been married to this successful woman, Izumi and is dependent on her for his business to survive. They have a living arrangement where for her, job is no.1. Basically they are not in a relationship of need or rather he needs her for to get more work.


Suddenly Izumi turns around and decides by herself that she suddenly wants to take on a huge mortgage and the financial millstone which are kids. So Takumi, who has been living his life perfectly fine is like 'wtf do you want from me??!!!.  I've lived my life according to your whims and suddenly you change them at the drop of a hat.'


So Takumi meets Saki (Yoshitaka Yuriko), a lovely angel who tempts the stoutest of hearts but more importantly there is a relationship of need. He is able to counsel and encourage Saki and that makes Takumi feel more alive than his drab life with Izumi. They somehow connect on their similar desires to escape their current life.


Now that Takumi has found out that he's shooting blanks, he cleverly uses it as a sob story on Saki and he has got the perfect reason to break up with Izumi. For the love of all that is holy, please do not let this end in the everyone goes their separate ways and proclaim that they have become stronger ending.


OSHIMA YUKO'S STORY

She feels less like a character and more like random plot stories that the writer wants to use. Sister sleeps with colleague that Yuko likes and then she gets involved with this possessive guy that she tries too hard to please. Yuko complains that she doesn't feel anything but pain during sex and the only counsel Karina and Saki have is 'have you told him?'. I was waiting for 'maybe you should try using lubricants' or 'you sure he's going in the right hole?'.

11 comments:

Antspace said...

Nice summary. I was also very annoyed with the lame metaphore. As they started painting over the old paint, I was thinking that painting it over like this will make the new paint come off again in no time... I'm afraid that isn't part of the metaphore though : P

Jung said...

You guys are very generous. This show is so contrived, and obviously written by a 'no talent ass clown', to borrow the words of Mike Bolton from Office Space.

Karina couldn't wait another 2 minutes before the Kendo match is over? How realistic is that?

How realistic is the behavior of Oshima Yuko's entire office colleagues, let alone that of the bf?

Izumi drops a bowl when her blank shooting hubby has a change of heart? Oh no she didn't!

F*(@! I HATE THIS SHOW!!! I feel like Takumi stuck in a bad relationship.

Hélio Shiino said...

Instead of "Watashi wa renai dekinai riyuu," the correct title is "Watashi ga renai dekinai riyuu" (私が恋愛できない理由) (-_^)

Anonymous said...

When I saw them painting over the old paint, my first thought was "why are they doing that? Shouldn't they remove all the old paint, sand it down, and then do it? Otherwise it's going to look strange and lumpy."

I've been wondering what the roles of the kendo guy's sister and Oshima Yuko's sister are. Why are they there?

However, the behavior of Oshima Yuko's entire office I've seen IRL before. It's not entirely unrealistic to me but it sucks that she has to quit her job. I wouldn't leave! Hahahaha.

Anonymous said...

I actually wouldn't be surprised if the father making the daughter marry a doctor happened in Japan still. Considering they actually do have marriage interviews and people seem to marry the first person that comes along once they hit 28 or so. The 50's are alive and well in Japan.

The thing that actually impressed me about this show was that it shows women drinking beer at home, without men, talking about sex. Strangely enough, this is a moderately progressive view of women on tv.

But yes, the writing shite and it's pretty campy, but can't stop watching...o_0

Akiramike said...

Jung, fast forward is your friend but I agree that it is so contrived and badly written. If Yoshitaka Yuriko and Kurashina Kana weren't in it, I would have dropped it.

Helio, thanks for the correction. That shows how bad my Japanese is when I don't even know the difference between wa and ga.

Anon1: Oshima Yuko's sister is Gouriki Ayame who is getting pushed very hard in Japan.

Anon2: I'm sure ppl living in Japan would dispute the marry first person who comes along claim.

Sirenicconsort said...

Hello, anon 2 here.

I actually do live in Japan and a lot of my girl friends around that age have either married people very quickly, or are continuing to date guys that they know are cheating because they don't want to be alone at 30. One of my 25 year old guy friends just got married to a girl he'd been dating for only 6 months because, in his words, 'Our parents were pushing us to marry and I had the money'.
Not saying everyone does it but it doesn't seem to be uncommon. Things seem to be changing, but very very slowly.

Anonymous said...

i used my eyes and not my brains when i watched this.

Akiramike said...

Sirenicconsort: Wow, shows how much I know about Japan. Looks like that fear of the make-inu tag from old jdoramas still exists.

Hélio Shiino said...

Hi Akiramike!
Don't worry! The question you have when to use は (wa) or が (ga) is question of the most non-nikkei brazilians too.
I let you know this video. I hope it helps you.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqSCJane6gw

Akiramike said...

Shiino, thanks for the video! Very easy to understand.