I had been meaning to watch Fumo Chitai for a long time. I like business dramas...and the author of the original novel and other dramas based on her novels...and the majority of the excellent cast...so this should've been a winner for me. But I just couldn't get into it at *all.* I felt sure I'd like it based on all those reasons and the rave reviews here, but it just felt like both the script and characters were missing something crucial. I was bored, I was annoyed, I kept waiting for it to get better...all things I didn't expect at all. So disappointing!! For one, I couldn't feel invested in the characters, who should have been compelling based on the story elements (all of which were fictional, so it's not like they were just trying to keep things true to life). I mean, look at this cast! So many stellar, veteran actors, many of who have incredible chemistry in other dramas and films they've worked together in. But there's just no spark, anywhere. There were no fascinating characters, just a lot of stock characters. The conflict was predictable, both within the family and business plots. And while yes, it might have been realistic that someone who had lived as a POW for 11 years would be expressionless and stilted, it just didn't work for a drama. Karasawa Toshiaki is an awesome actor, and he did what he could with his catatonic-faced character, but it got really old watching him march around like a wooden soldier expressing little emotion. His colleagues, many played by some of my favorite character actors, were beyond boring. No interesting schemers--just caricatures (and I both get and like Japanese stock characters, I should add)...and don't get me started on how some of these great actors were wasted. Some did the best they could, and some had shockingly bad performances. I don't blame them, though, as the dialog was terrible for the most part, and all in the context of very shallow relationships that never do much but skim the very surface. Just ugh. The storytelling structure was similar to other Japanese TV historical-setting dramas, but it just didn't feel right for this story. The narration, time jumps back and forth, huge time skips...it just felt flat, and made Iki feel like an even more flat character. As for the plot, I was expecting brilliant strategy, chessboard intrigue, intellectual creativity the best serious business dramas have, but I just wasn't impressed by how they played out Iki's supposedly amazing strategies. There were no real twists or surprises, and I was only slightly emotionally invested at some points. I did enjoy the idea of showing the progressive growth of the postwar economy through specific industries or trades, although I feel like this has been done better. The perspective on the war and post-war decades was super PC (as usual), but to me seemed to be going a little overboard with the melodramatic nationalism for a fictional story (whereas I can understand it for a biopic or something). I guess it can't be avoided for an anniversary-related drama as no major network is going to take any risks. As the other reviewer said, the romance was a waste of time and annoying. It would've been far better without that arc even if it was part of the novel as it didn't really serve any purpose except to create some generic conflict. It served some purposes to push the plot, but that actually seemed more like contrived conflict. If it was taken out, it would've been more interesting to see how he worked out his family relationships and guilt. Overall motivations were very muddy and not fully convincing. Even the personal inner conflict Iki is dealing with feels flat and underexplored. Or maybe this was supposed to reflect the whole theme of "The Wasteland?" Not sure any medium but a novel could do this in a meaningful way. OST was okay; some of the orchestration was typical melodramatic historical nationalistic music (ehhh); other themes were better; there was an interesting use of Western music (didn't get the closing Waltzing Matilda, but it did fit the mood). Mostly it fit the story and didn't distract, so that was a plus.