1This review may contain spoilers
This show could have been more interesting. The best part was the cinematography. While not anything spectacular, it felt calm and cool, like a nice movie. Someone said so in the comments, but this would have better served as a movie than a show. It didn't need 10 episodes, however short they might be.Story spoilers ahead, read on at your own risk...
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So the major plot point is that the two of them can't do something which is a major part of most married couples lives: have sex. And with that, have children.
This is a real issue that affects many men and women, and in this case, it appears that Kumiko has vaginism. However, this was never stated outright within the drama. In fact, she and he never went to the doctor to do the obvious: find out what the issue was and see how they could overcome it.
Instead, we're given a very strange story arc that involves their continuous cheating on each other. First, Kenichi with a number of prostitutes every Saturday for years on end. Second, Kumiko with an online site that is a hookup spot. Kenichi is constantly asserting that sex is not love and that he doesn't need sex, yet it's never clearly spoken about that he constantly goes to a brothel. Kumiko mentions it briefly once, though she takes most of the blame for never revealing the fact that she was not in fact a virgin.
The show ends in a very lackluster note. Nothing is solved. The entire plot seems to be saying, "it's okay the way we are", but then why make this show? Why show this particular couple? What is the point? I love an open ended plot, but this show just seemed to be meandering this way and that, with no particular direction. It was stretched out to 10 episodes to say, "it's okay to be the way you are and love each other this way," but we don't need 5 hours of screen time to do that. Even if this was a movie, the current plot is too lackluster to remember. Very forgettable and no lasting impact.
This show wants to convince the viewer that Kenichi and Kumiko have overcome a problem together, but all I see is two people fumbling without properly addressing a problem or trying to solve it, then saying "let's move on." The resolution is not convincing.
This show could have been much more, but too much time was wasted on repeating the same actions, intermingled with Kumiko's obtuse thinking and communication issues, and Kenichi's lack of commitment to the issue. I'm not even sure who Kenichi is, by episode 10, as he was fairly flat the entire time. He was enigmatic from the beginning, and I wasn't convinced Kumiko actually liked him when they began their relationship. In fact, he was quite weird, just sort of embedding himself into her life without much explanation. And she just sort of quietly accepts it all without any questioning. She seemed like she was just going along with the flow as things happened to her. She wasn't really a part of anything, she just let things happen. Kenichi only did actions, and Kumiko only received them. That was their relationship for 10 episodes.
Even Kumiko's interactions with her students, particularly Miyuki, seemed to have been out of place. She quits suddenly, and that portion of the plot is simply wiped clean off the board. Then, oddly, she visits the home of her former student, but I'm not convinced she even knows why, or even the writer. Nothing was completed or fulfilled by her visit. Simply the satisfaction of entering the house and learning a little more about her. I feel this was underdeveloped and rendered useless..
Wouldn't rewatch. Can't really recommend. This was just a lackluster show. The filming was pretty, though. The acting, was somewhat mediocre. Maybe slightly above for Kumiko's part.
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First of all, I found out about this show from the book and the forums where people were trying hard to somehow live ideas or advice for the authors. Why you may ask? It's because this story is real, it's based on a book that is an autobiographical book. The author is the main character and even to this day, she does not show her face at book signings or fan meetings (she always wears a mask- you can see her on youtube).
This series actually shows the horrible experience a couple had to go through because of society (there are a lot of silent "whys?", that the viewers can think about). As this happens in Japan a place where mental health/ trauma is not considered real/a problem and where women talking about sex are not accepted. It portrays a true filling of being helpless when needing help.
The pressure and frustration, are easily imaginable because the problems don't get fixed in big part because of the location, this is as real as it gets.
This is not a simple TV show this is a very intimate journal.
The story is unique as I never heard of any other case quite like this one. The pain is real.
The cast is good and the chemistry works, the story is accurate, they kept the series faithful to the book.
My advice is don't look at this project as a simple TV show looks at is as a confession of a friend in need, because the story already happened and it can't be changed. The viewer this time becomes a witness for this couple's hard/painful times.
I even want to read the book so I am searching for the official Eng translation for some time now (years).
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This review may contain spoilers
Navigating the Pitfalls of Love and Sex
One of the age-old questions is put front and center: Is love sex? Or is sex love? People might be surprised at the answer. Sex is not love, as Kenichi puts it. However, sex is/can be an expression of love. This is where Kenichi and his wife Kumiko run into trouble.It is clear that Kenichi and Kumiko both love each other. However, they have a difficult time adjusting to the fact that they cannot have conventional sex. Now, it can be dangerous to view this series with the eyes of a westerner. You have to understand something about Japanese culture. I'm not saying you will agree with it, but you will understand why Kumiko and Kenichi do not handle the problem in the same way that others might.
Japanese people are among the sweetest people I have ever known, but they also tend to have one glaring issue (one that even they admit to!): they are never very direct in their communication. There are even some wonderful, and even funny, youtube videos posted by Japanese people who address this.
Kumiko is an extremely shy young woman, who never really speaks up about anything. She keeps her problems and dislikes bottled up within her. It doesn't help that she has a domineering mother who is clearly ashamed of her. Remember that "shame" is not something that Japanese people take lightly. Western viewers are likely to show frustration and say, "Why doesn't she go and see a doctor? Why doesn't she talk about it with her husband?" Again, it's the culture, for better or worse. And, I daresay, there are those around the world who take issue with some of our cultural ideas too! I should know as I was a Peace Corps volunteer for four years and have also lived and worked in five different countries as well!
The bottom line that is addressed in this series is a failure to communicate. This is a universal problem in marriage and relationships, not just an Asian one. And we see the damage that is done by not talking things out. Both Kenichi and Kumiko attempt to avoid the issue by finding solace in other people. As we know, avoidance and denial never make a problem go away. If anything, it exacerbates it, which is one of the things this series addresses.
The series is very well done, with exceptional performances from Aoi Nakamura (Kenichi) and Natsumi Ishibashi (Kumiko). They give us a couple that clearly love each other but are unable to figure out how to address the issue of not having sex.
What is sad is that intimacy is a necessary ingredient for a happy marriage. And intimacy doesn't necessarily mean sex. There are many ways for a couple to BE with each other. There are ways to make it work, and my only issue with the series is that there really isn't much mentioned about how a couple can be intimate without sex.
Marriages don't fail because of a lack of sex. They fail due to a lack of love, communication, and intimacy. This series does a pretty credible job of addressing this, especially in the "communication" department!
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This review may contain spoilers
Smart and Beautiful Take on a Depressing Issue
What drew me in was the pacing of the story in the beginning. The writers really made you feel for the FL and her issues very early on.The cinematography was gorgeous. This isn't something to binge watch just to watch. You really need to watch each episode and pay attention to the world around the characters and how the director used these elements to tell the story. For me, it was like watching European art films when I took a film class many years ago. There was a lot of care and effort made in the artistic direction of this series and as a viewer I appreciated it.
As the story goes it it becomes much darker and depressing. In the very beginning you don't know how they will go with this issue whether it will be re-told in a quirky fashion or whether they will be serious. By episode 6 it was very serious. And tbh episodes 7-9 it was extremely serious, sad and depressing. I really felt the FL's isolation. I had to take a couple of days break in between watching each episode.
The FL was a very good actress. Many of the side characters gave amazing performances. However, I was not a big fan of the acting of the man who played the FL's husband.
Episode 6 (I think) for me was the hardest to watch. It was the episode where she has sex with random men. Probably the hardest scene was not even the rape scene but the scene with the dude force feeding her. By this time she was so depressed, it didn't even seem like she was in her body, she was letting random men do anything to her just to feel something.
TBH as the show was nearing the end I was all prepared to write a horrible review. But episode 10 redeemed all of my negative thoughts. The FL lead truly loved her husband and he loved her. Their laugh at the end when they shocked their parents was everything! I wanted to cry because it seemed like they had truly found happiness despite the sex situation.
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This review may contain spoilers
The fox could redefine its diet
I really liked this. My biggest issues were the pacing, that was too slow for the issue and that was frustrating - but, perhaps, that was the point, and the main take away, the moral of the story, let's say.They had the opportunity to do something fantastic and help redefine sex. They almost did that, because they redefined the relationship and gave us a fulfilling relationship that is what it is in their own terms. But they could have gone farther to the actual point and the point is that sex isn't penetration alone. They did have a sex life and a fulfilling one where both of them got to orgasm. How many relationship do you have where (mostly) women don't orgasm at all? It was a fair and purposeful relationship. Nothing was missing, except communication.
Sex isn't love and love isn't sex, but sex also isn't penetration. Sex is any sexual activity with the purpose of, hopefully, reaching an orgasm. There's no such thing as foreplay. It's all play! It's all sex! Penetration shouldn't be the "holy grail" of sex because, in heterosexual sex, 75% of women don't reach an orgasm through penetration alone. Any man who only relies on their chinpo is absolutely useless to most heterosexual and bisexual women.
Relationships don't have to follow a formula and neither does sex. We're all individuals with our own issues. One of the most important parts of life is finding our people. Finding someone who likes us and respects us and sees us as the person we are with all our quirks and shortcomings. They made their journey, they grew together, they filled the gaps that were driving them apart and I believe that's beautiful.
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Kiedy seks dzieli.
Z pozoru zbereźna i zboczona historyjka z komicznym problemem okazuje się głębszym monologiem dwójki ludzi w temacie problemów seksualnych i tego jak w otaczającym ich środowisku jest to przyjmowane.Podobał mi się dialog narratorski i mimo że po połowie problem już mnie nużył, to trzeba tej dramie przyznać że postawiła na coś głębszego niż kolejna pusta produkcja o rzekomej miłości. Seria stawia odbiorcę przed ważnym pytaniem,jaką rolę w związku jak i życiu człowieka stanowi seksualność. Może nie ma tu achów i ochów w obrębie samego aktorstwa, ale co jak co uświadomiłam sobie jak granie w scenach seksualnych itp. świadczy o doświadczeniu i wartości aktora. Naprawdę, daję duże brawa odtwórczyni Kumiko i Kenichiego. Ponadto zdałam sobie sprawę, jak bardzo stawia się ten temat w tabu w na przykład koreańskich produkcjach i jakie to irytujące się staje. (Mam na myśli aktorstwo) Serial krótki i klimatyczny. Bez żadnego OSTa. Dla kogoś kogo już męczą nudne historie, ta będzie ciekawą odskocznią.
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