The female mid-life crisis doramas don't really appeal to me not because there are all the same but because the characters are always skin deep and they never get past their designated stereotype roles as the happily married rich woman, the single live for work woman and the normally married one. The characters will get together to contemplate 'what is happiness to me', proclaim they have gotten stronger at the end and go their separate ways.
Sayonara Watashi starts off like any mid life crisis female dorama and then there is a hint that Nagasaku Hiromi's best friend Ishida Yuriko is sleeping with her husband, Fujiki Naohito who looks like he hasn't eaten in months. I like that it drops the subtle hint telling me to keep watching through the usual character set ups.
At the end of the show, we find out the hook of Sayonara Watashi; wife and mistress switch bodies. Ok, they've got my attention and episode 1 ends with wife having sex with husband in mistress's body. Now that's something you don't usually see in body switching stories because they usually try to be family friendly.
It also made sense why the characters were so stereotypical, it was so that the audience could easily recognise when Nagasaku Hiromi and Ishida Yuriko were playing each other in each other's bodies.
Sayonara Watashi reminds me of Double Tone, an entertaining older women dorama with a sci-fi element. Let's see how far Sayonara Watashi takes advantage of its premise. For now, I think its a watchable show. At the very least, its probably going to be a smarter show compared to Hirugao.
Don't you think in episode one it is implied that there is a hidden romantic relationship between two female protagonists? One of them is manly, independent, strong and the other one is domestic, meek and very feminine woman. When they meet at the reunion, i feel there is a speacial chemistry betweeen them. But i know it isn't an issue when i have watched episode 2. So sad to see them fighting over a man :/ It would be interesting if we could watch love between ladies. She should divorce that hideous husband! He annoys me so much.
ReplyDeleteLol. That could possibly be the ending, I guess.
ReplyDeleteHaving just seen ep 3, I have to admit that Sayonara Watashi is much nicer than I first thought it would be. I thought the body swap was such a tired device, and if I hadn't read your comments on eps 1 and 2, I would have dropped this after ep 1.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I didn't. Ep 3 was quite exciting and rightfully called secrets. It ended emotionally and was slowly moving towards a cliche situation though.
Still I'm really happy with the acting. Especially that of Nagasaku Hiromi! She's a real powerhouse, and her change from the meek housewife to the headstrong Kaoru suits her very well! I like Ishida Yuriko as well in this. She doesn't really stand out, but does exactly what's needed to make the role believable.
this show is a lot better than Hirugao indeed, but I can see it spiralling away from the adventurous and towards the conservative Japanese morals (which I somehow love AND hate). it might still turn out to be a neat family friendly show in the end...
You know what would make it interesting? If they don't do the usual swap back at the end. Family friendly shows don't usually have the guts to do an emotionally complicated ending.
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