Incredibly boring dialogues

I almost dropped the show around episode 5 because of the incredibly boring dialogues:
at every opportunity, characters become philosophers and start babbling life lessons, typical sappy music rising in the background. So cliché...

Other irritating things:
- the games are kind of the meat of the show, yet, most of them are boring, dumb, flawed,
- acting is terrible (maybe actors could not believe the stupid lines they had to say),
- the action/fight scenes reminded me of "Hot Shots! Part Deux", but without the humour.

Fortunately, the last episode was quite entertaining. I don't know if I liked the ending, but at least it was not dull. And, yes, there's an ending (I was afraid of another cliffhanger, as I really did not want to watch a season III).

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Simple but engaging story

The movie is part of the JFF+ INDEPENDENT CINEMA 2023 line up.

If you're interested in Japan or Japanese society / culture it's well worth a watch.
The movie follows the day-to-day lives of 4 siblings while they decide what to do with the shop they've just inherited from their parents.

The atmosphere of the movie feels very real and acting is very natural. What I enjoyed most, is that feeling that you're actually in Japan.

The production is also very good, and you don't get that "student film" vibe you generally get when watching independent movies. And at 1h22, you won't have time to get bored.

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Don't waste your time

Just writing this review so that others don't waste 2 hours watching this mess of a movie.

The synopsis sounded interesting. The movie is terrible.

The first half an hour is incredibly boring but I guess it sets the stage. Then the "irreparable accident" occurs and when you think things will get interesting, it just gets bizarre. And not in a good way.

Finally, I guess they just ran out of budget or time and the movie ends. With no proper ending.
Or rather, that kind of pretentious artsy movie ending that leaves the audience hanging.

Bottom line, watch something else.

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So much fun to watch

The rating of 9 is a bit relative. I would not compare it other shows with similar ratings ("Flower of Evil", "Beyond Evil", etc).
I based my rating on:
- was it fun to watch: definitely yes!
- was it hard to not press the "Next" button at the end of each episode: also yes!

The show's atmosphere swings between serious thriller and comedy in a pretty unusual manner, but it's well done.
The story is interesting and well acted, and because of the humorous tone, you forget about the things that you would pick on in a classic mystery.

Give it a go!

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So boring...

Everybody seems to love this show so I'm writing this review to offer a different perspective.
If you're tired of looking at your aquarium or your screensaver, this show will offer a bit more excitement.

I watched it based on the ratings and recommendations.
I wish I didn't. I don't know how I managed to get through the 20 episodes of 1h15.
The whole thing could have been summed up in 1 episode.

Watching the people in this office is almost as boring as watching the people in my office.

There so little to say about this show that I have to write this sentence to reach the 500 characters limit.

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Slow

At some point, one of the characters says something along the line of "it's difficult to convey emotions using sign language".
I think this drama suffers from the same problem. The scenes that are designed to break our hearts and make my little sister cry just fall flat.

The very - very - slow pace doesn't help. Many times I felt like pushing the fast-forward button.

Some support characters become very quickly unlikable (especially Togawa - I felt pushing the super-fast-forward button every time he appeared on screen).

Bottom line: it's well made but something just doesn't work.

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Cringe

First title ever to go on my "dropped" list.

I watch J Drama as a fun way to study Japanese.
I thought the level would be ok, but the actors are speaking super fast, and mostly shouting, mumbling or whining so I could barely understand a thing.

However the real reason I'm dropping this show is that it makes me cringe every time the school girls are shrieking at the sight of the popular boys.

The feminist in my middle-aged man body can just not take it. I guess the show is aimed at pre-teen girls, but if I knew any, I would forbid them to watch it. It might be supposed to be funny and light-hearted, but I think it's an insult to the intelligence and dignity of school girls around the world. Or maybe not...

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