Unmet starts with a doctor Kawauchi Miyabi played by Sugisaki Hana waking up and seeing a note telling her to read her diary. Miyabi suffered a brain injury two years ago and is unable to remember anything that happened yesterday. She can only remember things up to her brain injury. Memory loss is a staple of the jdorama genre but short term memory loss is a staple of romantic comedies and also mystery movies like Memento. The question is what is Unmet?
We have to accept that everyday Miyabi wakes up and has to read to years worth of diary material which increase everyday and get ready for work. She has to give herself more and more time or maybe she will just say avoid certain pages that are no longer relevant.
To enjoy a story, one has to accept the premise and see where the road the premise leads you down is worth watching. A new doctor Sanpei Tomoharu who has been working in the US has been transferred to the hospital. I am relieved he is not throwing English words out every few seconds and he seems to have an interest in Miyabi.
We find out while Miyabi still has her long term memory and is still working as a doctor, she does not operate because of no short term memory. I was thinking not only is medical knowledge continuing to evolve and improve, I would imagine there would be continuous professional development certification for doctors. I think the one big issue would be professional insurance. How much is the insurance for a doctor who cannot remember what she said to her patient yesterday?
We have Kazama Shunsuke as an agent of an actress who is also his wife who has lost her power of speech and will require surgery to get better. It feels like the actress is there to point out to the audience that disabled people have the right to work. Miyabi lost her short term memory like the actress lost her speech but she can still act. I am not too sure about medicine and especially surgery.
The doctor from America keeps pushing Miyabi to do more and says that while she can't remember practicing for surgery, the body will remember. That does make sense but I was perplexed why someone would play with fire. It is all explained away with the final twist at the end of episode 1 so I don't know how to feel about it.
I have a feeling every episode might try too hard to be moving and I am not sure I can buy this super doctor who can't remember yesterday but can do surgery in a hospital. I feel like Miyabi should be like Dr Blackjack instead doing all the secret surgeries plus not having short term memory means everyone's secret is safe.
I have trouble fulling accepting the premise but let's see where the story goes with episode 2 and what seeds for the main mystery will be planted? Unmet is not really Memento in a hospital but I am hoping there is an interesting mystery to unravel instead of a story trying too hard to be touching to justify a premise.
3 comments:
This was well done and enjoyable enough but yeah I too have a hard time with the premise. I'll check out the second episode but I'm not sure I'll be convinced enough to continue.
A blank slate every day worked in “Okitegami Kyoko no Biboroku” because it’s setup only required you to suspend disbelief only once. Here it continually keeps running into ever more details of the real world…and at some point your brain just goes - NO.
For all its flaws, I appreciate “Okitegami Kyoko no Biboroku” as a very light Drama exploration of the concept. For me its parallel is the SK move “The Beauty Inside” but that only acknowledges the darkness of a blank slate every day on a personal level…Okitegami Kyoko starts to hit at the scarier potential systemic dangers.
What is disappointing is - I really like Sugisaki Hana as an actress. However, of late I can’t connect with her shows. They start with potential but take a tangent I can’t buy into.
@Anon: Okitegami Kyoko no Biboroku sounds like a more interesting concept of the short term memory loss because it is an utility of the job. Sugisaki Hana's shows are more of the shoujo variety where details don't matter as much as feelings.
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