Shiawase na Kekkon Episodes 1+2

Once upon a time, Abe Sadao and Matsu Tatako starred in a movie together called Yume Uru Futari about a husband and wife who did marriage scams and it was brilliant. I could be wrong but I have not seen them in anything until Shiawase Na Kekkon on Netflix.

I am so glad to see a non-TBS jdorama on Netflix. TBS shows generally have some logic that does not appeal to me but appeals to the general Japansese population. I don't know how to explain it but there are usually elements of the story that disappoint me whereas WOWOW shows are usually my cup of tea.

Anyway, Abe Sadao plays a lawyer who is also a media personality/commentator who very happily enjoys the single life until one day he has a health scare and ends up in hospital where he meets Matsu Takako. Sparks fly and before you know, they are married without knowing much about each other.

Matsu Takako is an art teacher in a school and belongs to a very wealthy family who live in the same building, with each person occupying different floors. As we start to learn about this extended family of the rich father, uncler who teaches gold and young brother who does costumes, Abe Sadao learns that Matsu Takako has a dreadful secret.

Chemistry-wise. you can't go wrong with Abe Sadao and Matsu Takako.  Shiawase na Kekkon plays like a relationship thriller with a slight tinge of comedy. I enjoyed the script by Oishi Shizuka who did the well reviewed Hikaru Kimi E and Rikon Shiyou with Kudakan. Hhmm. Rikon Shiyou was also a marriage jdorama that started up very good but ended up boring at the end.

I just enjoyed the characters with Abe Sadao being his entertaining self and Matsu Takako being all mysterious. I always see commentators on early morning Japanese TV but there is no way Abe Sadao can do his job properly and be on tv that much! The first two episodes by TV Asahi are watchable unlike all the TBS shows on Netflix. I should do a big post about all the TSB Netflix shows I dropped.

More TV Asahi shows on Netflix please and I am looking forward to S3 of Alice in Borderland. I think I need to find a 1080 version of Yume Uru Futari and do a rewatch.

My only comment of the show is that it doesn't come with Japanese subs on Netflix....

Hot Spot jdorama review

 

Ever since the funny Suteki na Sen Taxi and Kamoshirenai Joyuutachi, Bakarythm has shown that he is one of the most talented jdorama writers because there is a thoughtfulness in his script that you can't find in most jdoramas.

Hot Spot is a story set in town in Yamanashi where Ichikawa Mikako who works at a hotel discovers that her colleague played by Kakuta Akihiro is an alien with super powers. Mr Alien is very secretive about his identity but the more he helps Ichikawa Mikako, the more people find out about his powers.

Hot Spot is sort of like Minna, Esper Daiyo! except this one has a clean feel good vibe. A sign of a good writer is foreshadowing and Bakarythm knows how to set up some issue in the beginning of the episode and then tie it back to the issue at the end.

Bakarythm also knows how to write character voices. What I mean is they all have their idiosyncrasies and quirks. I love how the Alien wants to keep his secret but at the same time he wants to be accepted. He is reluctant to help but will not hesitate when someone's life is on the line. I also like that he is not a perfect character and is prideful and will tell white lies.

Suffice to say, all the characters from the hotel manager to Kaho's persistant character are all endearing and really grew on me throughout the show. 

Often when watching jdoramas, I would just wish that they had slight more money to do be able to big scenes. With Hot Spot, I marvel at Bakarythm's ability to tell a fun story about multiple characters mostly using a hote, cafe, mountain roads and an onsen in a hotel. Hot Spot is an example of how writing and acting is the most important thing in telling a story and not budget. You can have the biggest budget in the world but without a good script, you have nothing.

Thanks to Robert for recommending Hot Spot! It really is a gem. Bakarthym turned a story about aliens and superpowers into a heatwarming story about friendship and finding one's place in the world. Must watch and is on Netflix. 

I have been recommended Bakathym's Brush up Life which will place in the queue.

Lumberjack the Monster / Kaibutsu no Kikori jmovie review

 

Who doesn't like serial killer movies? It is a topic that is always fascinating because what sort of human would be compelled to commit multiple crimes for no other reason than to satisfy their own ego? Alas, when I think of serial killer in Japanese movies, I think about how bad Kurosawa Kiyoshi's Creepy was or Oguri Shun's museum. I cannot, off the top of my head think of a good serial killer jmovie.

Which brings me to Miike Takashi's Lumberjack the Monster which is on Netflix. One of Japan's most talented directors, he has made really good movies like Sun Scarred, Audition, Zebraman and Gyakuten Saiban but also horrible movies like Ai to Makoto, Yakuza Apocalypse and Mole Song?

Lumberjack the Monster starts with the police raiding a scary house a long time ago where a woman has kidnapped a lot of kids to cut open their heads. The woman is kills herself and we fast forward to the present, we meet Kame who is playing a lawyer who is actually a serial killer who has no ability to feel guilt or apathy. 

Kame is partner in crime with another serial killer, this time a doctor played by Sometani Shota. One day Kame is ambushed by a person in the lumberjack mask and survives and is injured in his head and discovers that he has a chip in his brain from when he was a child.

Lumberjack the Monster is Miike Takashi at his most restrained. I have always argued that he has great technical skills and works best when he is constrained by the script and story like Sun Scarred instead of when he gets to do whatever he wants like Ryu ga Gotoku.

The violence in Lumberjack is surprisingly restrained when you consider this is the director who did Audition and Ichi the Killer but I argue that less is more and building the tension and suspense is better when less is shown.

I enjoyed the story because it posses the question, if psychopaths exist because they have a deformity in their brain that does not allow them to have guilt and apathy and this can be artificially created, then how much responsibility to psychopaths have for their actions?

The only thing I don't like is Nanao as the profiler police officer chasing Kame. She is just wrong for the role but she is not that crucial so I didn't mind. I am just happy that Miike has done a decent movie and I rather enjoyed it. Watchable.

The Queen of Villains / Gokuaku Joou Episode 1~4

 

I probably spend too much of my time watching Japanese wrestling, also known as puroresu. Puroresu or in my case NJPW is the anti-American wrestling. Stories are told in the ring, no stupid promos that last forever and ever good quality matches because people who are good in the ring get pushed. Other promotions such as NOAH and AJPW somehow appear on my youtube for some reason. I went to my first NJPW event last year by sheer luck because they were having a show close to the person I was visiting.

There is also women's wrestling in Japan commonly known as joshi puroresu with the main company being Stardom which is owned by the same company that owns NJPW. The former owner Stardom Rossy Ogawa who built it up and sold it started his own company over a year ago called Marigold and I don't really follow joshi but matches turn up on my youtube as well.

I love wrestling and The Queen of Villains has been on my radar since it was announced last year and I finally got around to watching the first 4 episodes. The story is about this heel joshi wrestler in the 80s called Dump Matsumoto. Joshi puroresu in the 80s is very different from today. The wrestled in aerobics gear, sing songs before a match and according to The Queen of Villains, fought for real aka shoot unless told to lose by the booker. 

I love the Netflix money and the 80s setting. Karata Erika and Goriki Ayame try their best to look decent in the ring. Yuriyan Retriever who plays Dump Matsumoto does not have to do much bumping because she is basically the cheating heel but she plays Dump as this person who loves pro wrestling but was unable to find her niche until she went full heel against Karata Erika and Goriki Ayame.

I do have one problem with The Queen of Villains which made me stop watching after episode 4. This show does not break kayfabe which is wrestling speak for the story tells the audience that the fights are real. Except what I can see on the screen are people taking bumps after dropkicks etc. Nothing that remotely feels like a shootfight.

The Queen of Villains exists in a kayfabe world where they are telling the audience that the fights were shoots, but looked like of puroresu which is two wrestlers telling a story without injuring each other. If you want to do a kayfabe story, then you have to take out the bookers, the dorms and all the real life stuff and just be kayfabe all the way. 

I could not continue watching because The Queen of Villains exists in both kayfabe and real life and I cannot reconcile the two. I think I need to rewatch My Dad is a Heel Wrestler. I really wanted to like The Queen of Villains but I can't.

Somewhere in an alternate universe is an awesome no kayfabe Queen of Villains jdorama but this is not it. Meh.

Demon City movie review

In the world of Japanese action splatter B-movies, 3 movies come to mind: Kitamura Ryuhei's Versus, Machine Girl and Miike Takashi's Ichi the Killer. I have hardly seen any Japanese movies in this genre recently so I am happy that Netflix has financed Demon City.

Ikuta Toma is the super hitman Sakata who does one last job killing lots of people before leaving his life of crime to enjoy it with his family. Of course, Sakata's family home is invaded by a bunch of scary people in masks talking about a demon of Shinjo city and Sakata's wife and daughter are killed before his eyes before Sakata is shot.

Remarkably, Sakata survives as a vegetable for 12 years before he wakes up and goes and goes on a bloody revenge spree.

WHAT I LIKED

+ Good amount of splashing blood

+ Love the scary masks of the bad guys.

+ Love the world building of Shinjo city being controlled by this cabal of people in masks.

+ Sakata's trademark machete with rope is cool

+ There is a one shot stairs fight sequence that is very good

+ Surprised to see Takashima Masanobu in an action movie!

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE

- Stupid fake CG blood. I would rather have no blood than fake CG blood.

- Not any memorable action scenes besides the one shot stairs sequence. 

- I liked Higashide Masahiro as the creepy bad guy but the fight was meh. The thing is, most of the guys in the masks turned up to be not so scary at all.

SUMMARY

I really want to like this movie but there is nothing that sticks in my memory. The building blocks are there but the action scenes are mostly meh. They are trying hard but something is missing. Meh.

Caster Episodes 1~3

Finally restarted my Netflix account. First show I tried watching was Caster just because it was an Abe Hiroshi show. The problem is I completely ignored the fact that it was a TBS show. Ok, Vivant did not suck which was a freaking miracle, Trillion Game was surprisingly fun and I really liked Warau Matroyshka. (Sidenote, why isn't Warau Matroyshka on Netflix?) 

Fact is, after years and years of watching jdoramas. There are certain qualities to TBS shows. 

1. They are really lit super with the power of a hundred suns so the actresses can show how smooth their faces are and sell whatever products they are promoting.

2. There will always be a scene in episode 1 where there is a huge venue and TBS likes to show off how they can get 100 extras to the venue.

3. The stories will start to stretch the limits of probability the longer you watch it. TBS shows will never be accused of being realistic. There is always a certain unrealism to them.

4. The story is written by committee for the lowest common denominator and tries way too freaking hard to be touching.

So did Caster get everything in the TBS Bingo card?

Caster is basically about news anchor Abe Hiroshi who is trying to figure out the truth behind certain events. Nagano Mei is the inexperience staff from variety who has been tasked with keeping Abe Hiroshi in check but Nagano Mei discovers that the first rule of journalism is to assume that everyone is lying.

The first episode about a big shot politician going to hospital was ok. The second episode was when alarm bells really started ringing for me. The story was about this betting site that had a 80% accurate prediction of the Japan men's volleyball team.

The first two episodes has Abe Hiroshi telling Nagano Mei to always get supporting evidence (uradori) and next thing you know, he has Nagono Mei randomly questioning a volleyball player about this random betting site. If a random betting site got 80% correct for dog racing over a few months, you going to accuse random dog for colluding? Get your supporting evidence first FFS!

Episode 3 was about the fakest lab growing some sort of revolutionary cell. The story was about data falsifying and for some reason the story came down to a random post it note which could have been forged anyway instead of experts looking through the records and checking the laboratory that looked more like a school science lab.

The ending of episode 3 was like some stupid kid's fairy tale trying to be touching but I just kept thinking how dumbed down they made this discovery that could change everything forever and they turned it into a footenote.

Caster is full of the bad things that TBS does and for some reason Abe Hiroshi keeps doing doramas with them and they are all shit, except for Dragon Zakura. The writing feels bad and there are way, too many leaps in logic. I have too many things to watch and do to waste my time on this and I suggest you do the same. Do not watch.

On an unrelated note, it is funny how Abe Hiroshi has a movie Showtime 7 which came out earlier this year with him playing another news anchor. That one is bomb threat terror show and hopefully it is better than Caster.

House of Ninjas

 House of Ninjas is Netflix jdorama directed by Dave Boyle who is American. I think it is interesting to see foreigners directing Japanese shows. One of my favourite movies from last year was the Yakusho Koji movie Perfect Days directed by German director Wim Wenders and it did not feel like a non-Japanese movie.

House of Ninjas is a family drama about a family the Tawaras that is descended from the Hanzo clan of Ninjas. They try to live a normal life and boring life. Dad played by Eguchi Yosuke runs a sake brewery which used to be his cover but he is desperate to save it. Mom played by Kimura Tae shoplifts because she is bored. Second oldest son played by Kaku Kento refills vending machines and uses his throwing skills when his partnet is not watching. There is grandma and a daughter and a youngest son who does not realise his family is ninja.

While House of Ninjas is a family drama, there is a bit of violence with plenty of blood and ninjas dying. While it is not a kid's show, House of Ninja tells you not to take it seriously with the Bureau of Ninja Management and you have the main character of the story, the son played by Kaku Kento who refuses to kill in a world of kill of be killed. I really got bothered by this bit because it is annoying. Mom and dad kill because the ninja are at war and this guy puts everyone in danger with his no kill bullshit.

It is a so-so family drama because the chemistry is nothing special and there is not much humour. The jokes are mostly from granny doing ninja things without the grandson noticing. I love the cast and Eguchi Yosuke and Kimura Tae is a dream pairing for me. Not to mention Yamada Takayuki as the villain. The fighting is decent but did not get to that level I wanted. It felt like House of Ninjas wanted to be everything but did not doing anything well.

That being said, I love the budget and I can see that everyone involved in the show tried really hard. The house set is amazing and they did some action scenes on the roof of the house. No jdorama has the money to build such a nice house in a studio for shooting. 0.5 no Otoko did it but they did not shoot the roof. 

I never felt the need to fast forward but nothing in House of Ninjas really gelled for me. Maybe it needed more humour or maybe it was all the English songs. I would not mind watching season 2 but I would not mind if it never happened. 

I cannot rate House of Ninjas a meh because I don't dislike it and the effort is there. Also happy that Pierre Taki is in it though his role is minor. There should be a Netflix rule that any jdorama must have Pierre Taki in it since he has been cancelled everywhere else. I just don't get the tone of the series. Somewhere between meh and watchable for me.

Hard Days / Saigo Made Iku jmovie review

I am loving Netflix having more jmovies but Hard Days is not the right movie. Okada Junichi is a dirty detective drunk driving when he hits a person and kills him. He puts the in his trunk to hide the incident but keeps running into incidents treathening to expose him.

Ayano Go is the internal affairs police officer who wants to question Okada Junichi about a bribery issue. Most of the tension of the show comes from Okda Junichi trying desperately to keep his secret. There is a twist in the middle and the show is about what desperate people will do to get what they want.

The problem with Hard Days is it is pretty boring. I did not care about the characters and the directing was not good enough to convey the tension. Hard Days is based on a Korean movie which I have not watched and my feeling is this is another The Departed, a remake that completely misses what made the original great.

Hard Days looks and feels like a tv movie rather than something made for cinema. I was watching the movie thinking where is the budget for this movie with 2 big name actors going because I don't see anything visually movielike? I have seen WOWOW doramas that looks much better like Samayoi Yaiba.

Its by the director who did The Journalist which I bloody love and Avalance that was ok. I did not care about anything in this movie except for Hirosue Ryoko. The action scenes betwen Okada Junichi and Ayano lacked that visceral energy. We are left with an inconclusive ending and the final reveal made me say, so what? Boring and waste of time. Avoid.

The Days jdorama review

 

The Days is another Netflix show on my list. It is a series based on the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Plant starring some of the best actors in Japan with Yakusho Koji, Takeuchi Yutaka, Kobayashi Kaoru and Kita Yoshio.

I have watched Chernobyl and Fukushima 50 which is a movie about the same subject and the first two episodes could not catch my attention. It left like I had seen everything before and I could not get invested. 

I powered through 2 episodes contemplating dropping The Days and episode 3 woke me up a bit when the men realised that they were all going to die from radiation anyway. Yakusho Koji did his best to alleviate the material as the station chief who worked with no sleep and had to deal with management who were too afraid to back his decisions

I enjoyed Kita Yoshio as the Prime Minister whose advisers cannot even give him advice at a time of national crisis but in the end the script was too dry and the directing was too by the numbers. You sort of have to watch The Days as a sort of blow by blow of what happened but I was bored most of the time and wished that they had done a documentary instead.

I don't know how the writer could have made it better since it was based on the book but definitely better pacing, and visually it needed to look different, especially the camera work. I would have made it more intimate and showed the audience more of what Yukusho Koji was thinking.

Very disappointing and its a shame such a great cast could not produce something better. Please watch Fukushima 50 instead. So much better. Very meh. Yakusho Koji's acting prevents me from giving it a do not watch but unofficially do not watch The Days.

Burn the House Down / Mitarai ke, Enjou suru

WHAT IS IT ABOUT? 

Burn the house is a revenge jdorama. Nagano Mei used to belong to the rich Mitarai family but is now after revenge because 13 years ago her mother allegedly burned their house down but Nagano Mei believes that someone else was responsible. Nagano Mei's mother played by Kichise Michiko got divorced, lost her memory and her mother's best friend Suzuki Kyoka married her father.

In other words mother and two daughter were cast out and Suzuki Kyoka and two sons became the new Mitarai family. Suzuki Kyoka was friends with Kichise Michiko and is now starting to get famous as a celebrity. Nagano Mei uses Kitano Kii's name and becomes a housekeeper to infiltrate the Mitarai family and uncover the secret of who set the fire and the secrets of the Mitarai family.

WHAT IS GOOD

+ In the beginning I was having doubts about Burn the House Down because Nagano Mei's character while daring was not very smart. Luckily it leads to some good story developments.

+ Good stories are ones where while they are about A, it is really about B. While Burn the House Down is about revenge, it is about celebrity. Presenting oneself as this idealised person for public consumption. My main enjoyment is watching this as an interesting take on celebrity culture.

+ Love the Japanese name which means 'flame the Mitarai family', Enjou (flame) is mostly used to describe online criticism and also a building going up in flames so the double meaning is clever. A direct translation probably does

+ Suzuki Kyoka is awesome as the fame obsessed mother who will do anything for fame and money. She is so good at being bad. 

+ This is basically good daughter vs evil stepmother as Nagano Mei tries to hide her true identity and find out information while doing her work as housekeeper. It is very easy to cheer on Nagano Mei against the evil Suzuki Kyoka.

+ The various turns that the story makes are quiet interesting.

WHAT IS NOT GOOD

- The turn around to Mitarai getting flame is too sudden that it was not a satisfying payoff. I wanted an escalating series of events not just a bunch of Instagram pictures.

- The father has no balls and should be run over by a truck.

MEH

= I think I enjoyed Burn the House Down partly because I had no expectations and the beginning was not so interesting that I actually considered dropping it.

= Kitano Kii was once the main actress for Life and now she is playing supporting roles. :(

SUMMARY

Good job by Netflix. The story takes its time to get better but I think Suzuki Kyoka is worth watching Burn the House Down for. Very watchable.

Sanctuary: Seiki jdorama review

 

There are not too many sports jdoramas out there. The ones that come to mind are the pretty good No Side Game, Kimutaku's ice hockey dorama Pride and Pro Golfer Hana which I never finished watching. The problem with sports jdoramas is that if the actor does not know how to play the sport, it turns into Buzzer Beater which is a cautionary tale about casting for name instead of ability. 

Sanctuary is what happens when good Japanese directors get Netflix time and money to do what they want and not have to cast Johnnys. The director for Sanctuary is Eguchi Kan who did The Fable movies for Netflix where were fun action movies showing the world that Japan has a very good stunt team and just needed good action actors.

The main character for Sanctuary is Oze/Enno played expertly by Ichinose Wataru. Oze's name changes to Enno when he is given his wrestling name. Oze's family lost their sushi shop to debt, his father does night work directing traffic and his mother gets them into more debt and sleeps around. Oze has no future and the only way out is to train to be a sumo wrestler.

For someone who joined a sumo stable to help out his poor old man, Oze doesn't respect the sumo business. He doesn't take his training seriously and the first few episodes are dealing with his grumpiness and to be fair he is bullied as well.

I love seeing Pierre Taki as the stable master and Koyuki as the wife. I have no idea if Pierre Taki is cancelled in mainstream Japan jdoramas but if you want to cast someone with the Suzuki Minoru aura of don't mess with me, it is Pierre Taki. As for Koyuki, I remember when she was the new IT girl and was cast in Kimutaku's Engine. Now she's playing motherly roles. 

Kutsuna Shioli is a journalist who was kicked out of the political department and assigned to cover sumo.  She is the annoying lived abroad character who complains about everything including how women are not allowed onto the sumo ring. Of course she gets drawn to Oze and slowly comes to appreciate the sport of sumo.

The other two main sumo wrestlers besides Oze are Shizuuchi, a monster wrestler who will become Oze's rival and has a dark past and Ryuki the son of a former yokozuna who is having problems living up to his father's expectations.

I want to say it is so good to see a sports show where you can see the actors really put in the effort to get into sumo shape. You can see it in the training sessions and of course they have real sumo wrestlers as well, at least I think some of them are. Eguchi Kan is great at directing action. There is a great ending to Oze or should I say Enno's match in episode 4 that was beautifully shot. 

Throughout the 8 episodes I kept thinking how well made Sanctuary was. The only problem was there seemed to be a lot of unresolved plotlines and the show just ended abruptly. I was in WTF mode and made sure that there were no more episodes left. End of the day, everything feels like a set up for season 2. All the Koyuki stuff that was alluded to and I am guessing Ryuki will be Enno's rival but bloody hell it was one disappointing ending. I am looking forward to Kutsuna Shioli vs Kyabakura girl battle and will Enno's wallet appear in season 2?

I can't fault everything that came before the ending. If I have one other gripe is that the casting for the bad guy stablemaster Inushima is wrong. He is too scrawny and does not look like someone who was once a sumo wrestler and surely they could have easily found someone. Just cast Makabe Tougi or some wrestler.

I have watched sumo on NHK and it did not interest me but Sanctuary, like all good sports stories made me fall in love with our bunch of underdog wrestlers. I am loving the combination of jdorama talent with Netflix money. World class level of production. Too bad the story is most setting up for season 2 with an unsatisfying ending. Very watchable but not satisfying. Sigh.

I am going to watch as money jdoramas on Netflix as I can in a month and then cancel because it is not cheap.

Rikon Shiyou yo! Let's get divorced jdorama review

Kudo Kankuro is one of the best jdorama writers ever with Manhattan Love Story, Tiger & Dragon, and Ore no Ie no Hanashi and of course Zebraman. I reactivated my Netflix because the new Kengan Ashura is coming of course to watch all the new jdoramas and the first one is Rikon Shiyou yo!

Taishi Shoji (Matsuzaka Tori) is the idiot son of a politician family who inherited his father's seat in Ehima and is married to Kurosawa Yui (Naka Riisa) an actress who is famous for playing this jdorama character Mikochan. Politician husband and actress portray a loving couple but their relationship is in shambles because Shoji cheated on Yuri with a female announcer Mimata 3 years ago. However both their careers are dependent on them staying married for their success. Shoji relies on Yuri or rather Mikochan's popularity to get support and Yui relies on being seen as a model wife for her acting roles.

I have the first 4 episodes of Rikon Shiyou yo! are some of the best episodes I have ever seen. Chemistry and pacing were very good and it was so freaking funny. I loved the whole fighting all the time and then pretending to be happy for live streaming and kashikomi kashikomi.

The best was when Furuta Arata appeared as Kurosawa Yui's divorce lawyer Henry. It reminded me that the last time Furuta Arata had a comedy role where he had to say English words was the very funny Gal Circle. I was thinking Naka Riisa's acting was so awesome and everything Taishi Shoji did was funny. I was sure if the rest of the show were this funny Rikon Shiyou yo! would be one of the greatest jdoramas ever.

Unfortunately, the middle got really slow especially with the appearance of Nishikido Ryo as the pachinko artist and the show stopped being funny. Rikon Shiyou yo! became a slow serious show with extremely slow pacing. I perked up everytime Furuta Arata and Itaya Yuka showed up but that was far and few between and I was thinking what happened to the comedy for this show to become some sort of stupid melodrama?

I wished I had written about the first 4 episodes first because it would have been such a happy post but now I mostly remember how freaking slow the middle and end bits were and I just wanted to fast forward through everything. That said there are so many things comedic things that I liked like Yui's drama scenes, Taishi's ability to do the wrong thing all the time and Naka Riisa's angry Mimata voice!

Rikon Shiyou yo! started as an excellent romantic comedy and halfway became a dark comedy that was neither dark nor comedic. I appreciate that Kudo Kankuro went for it and Naka Riisa's acting is amazing but I think he should have went for crowd pleasing all the way. I appreciate the effort but meh from me overall. If you want to watch a good divorce jdorama, watch Saiko no Rikon and stay away from Rikokatsu. Now to see what other jdoramas are on Netflix.