I will start this review, my first on MDL, saying that I am extremely biased towards Jun Jihyun. Whatever production she is in I feel like she outshines her fellow actors and actresses, she is funny both physically - in a light matter as either Buster Keaton or Charlie Chaplin - and in her dialogue, her downside is the lack of productions she is in.

Anyway, I'm not here to talk exclusively about her. The premise of this film is very similar to most heist films, however - unless there is a director's cut that I didn't watch - there are some flaws of continuity and characters that have a premature ending. Even though it is not a terrible flaw, the film could have been much better.

The acting is very good, funny moments and serious moments are well-dosed - even though Jihyun is mostly seen doing gags.

The music is meh, there are some moments that you can barely hear something and it doesn't mix well with the scene that you are watching and, for instance, an action scene doesn't seem that interesting.

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It is an adaptation, so don't set your expectation as high as you do for the manga/anime

Being an avid reader of the manga and a fan of the anime, I had some expectations for the film, that weren't fulfilled.

To start, both the manga and the anime have a great narrator, so the bar is already high in the first minute of the film and the one responsible for narrating the film isn't as "passionate" as the one in the manga/anime. Also there are cues in the manga/anime where the narrator participating makes the scene even funnier, which doesn't happen in the film. Shinomiya and Shirogane's voices are not what you would expect, Ishigami's lines are quite limited, but I am okay with how he sounded and Asakawa Nana impersonated Fujiwara quite close to how her voice actress, Kohara Konomi, sounds in the anime. However, personality-wise, Fujiwara was the worst written character, she is portrayed as stupid 99% of the time, when she is actually quite intelligent. Another problem is that Ishigami doesn't participate in the manga on most of the scenes the film adapted, so they had to include Ishigami in moments he wasn't supposed to be, and some of those moments just feel weird.

For the story itself, the writers did a fair job on connecting different moments, it is quite hard to adapt an episodic format for the silver screen, so at least here they did their best. However, some "free adaptations" and the original ending were lame, not only that didn't suit characters at all.

The references done were acceptable, too bad they missed a few details, like when Kaguya rides a taxi and leaves it, when she meets with her friends she takes the same taxi driver, which is part of a subplot on the manga. I mean, if they even walked an extra mile to have Koga Aoi, Kaguya's voice actress, in the film, couldn't they do the same thing for the driver?

Ah! Wanted to point out something about the music of the film, which is meh, but there is a specific song from the anime that the film didn't use, but they made a version, and it sounds like a bad copy, when the anime did it so much better.

Overall, I was disappointed, maybe I expected too much of it.

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I heard about this series when it made into the news in my country how a tv series was making Japan reconsider their own work-culture, at first I was impressed with such a blunt news so I decided to give it a try. I would like to thank IrozukuSubs for subbing this show, otherwise I would not have been able to watch this. so thank you very much.

The show is about Yui Higashiyma a director on a marketing company where their motto is "workers should not work overtime", ever since she was first admitted in this company she also made that statement "I will leave when I'm done" and that takes everyone around her by surprise considering the Japanese overwork culture. Throughout the episodes we see several issues that might happen in your average worker life: a mother afraid people won't take her seriously, a loner that stays in the office for his lack of hobbies, an overworker that feels his life would have been nothing without a job, a charismatic designer that was told since she lack skills she should help the company in unconventional matters, an eager beginner willing to show his skills but unable to know his own body limits and more.

Story wise I thought the series was quite interesting, based on a book of the same name and that also had a repercussion for the author boldness, I particularly think it didn't affect a so deep rooted sense as the Japanese work culture, but in our Contemporary times we have seen an improvement and how companies slowly but surely are improving the relation with their workers. Filled with examples Japanese people would hear at their work places, or even things they themselves would have felt at some point in their career, so the highest point of the series most definitely is this one.

The cast is good, at least those that have a minimal influence in the show. Takumi was terribly written, even when the outcome of the series where he lies and says he cheated on Higashiyama, made me feel really sorry for him, he is a nice guy, but not "nice guy", he deserved better. Higashiyama has a motherly figure caring for those around her, here I think Yoshitaka, the main actress, nailed it, however her acting was goofy, overdramatic and/or "cute-sy" in uncalled for moments. I've seen Korean dramas and I know actress do that in SK but in "serious" plays they really show their skills, I will give Yuriko Yoshitaka the benefit of the doubt and not believe that she was casted by her pretty face. Fukunaga, Yusuke Santamaria, was an exception I really enjoyed him with mysterious and, maybe, untrustworthy looks, he was able to deliver great moments; on the guest side Sakuramiya, Kurumi Shimizu, was greatly delivered, I will look for more of her works. The other characters didn't give me much of an impression: Taneda was your average drama hero; Shizugatake was well introduced, but poorly developed; Mitani was too caricatured with her "robotic" personality; the rest of the team was "meh"; Shu suited perfectly with his brother, because his personality and acting were tasteless; Ou Tan deserves praises for being the comedy relief, she is supposed to help the character break their tension; those two old men on Shanghai restaurant I have nothing to say, couple of words per episode isn't much too judge.

Interesting, light-hearted, with some serious critics about their culture, worth the watch, not magnificent, but something to take notes and remembers. Now it is my time to go, I'm going first, otsukaresama deshita!

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I will open my heart to you, this is the kind of film I needed to watch before I applied to my dream course, as I was watching it I felt really motivated following the underdog improve despite a lot of naysayers. And that's where I was then, unfortunately I didn't have an Akari or a Tsubota to believe in me and I think they were the pillars that made Sayaka's dream possible, sure her hard work is praisable, but she was stuck and those two were fundamental for her to start moving and I guess this is one of the largest issues in today's education, parents don't put enough effort to help their children, even Akari's reason to help Sayaka - even more than being her mum - was that her mother didn't help her, so she didn't want her children to feel the same. Nevertheless, Sayaka's tenacity, as the ending song, spark a flame in me towards a project I was postponing, I will put my efforts to my Masters program in Japan goal.

Now for the film, I believe that this motivational film is able to pinpoint several aspects of a student's life when they are applying to college in most places of the world, sleepless nights, stress and even the words of comfort that our protagonist hears are great, I was even impressed how well-written Akari was and how lucky Sayaka is to have a mum like that, however a lacking point which should be placed here is how to deal with the stress, sometimes we can overstudy and this start to consume us and if we don't have an outlet we might end up burning out, each person have their own way to release the steam, but I guess this specific moment deserved a scene when Sayaka reached that point.

Acting wise there are three characters that are great: Sayaka (Arimura Kasumi), Tsubota (Ito Atsushi) and Akari (Yoshida You). Sayaka and Akari couldn't be any better, Tsubota felt lacking in some parts, but not as acting, his story involved other students and I would like to know at least if they were able to achieve their dreams, for such a caring teacher, that is an out.

I hope that this film is able to spark a fire in other people's hearts and that you are able to achieve your dreams through hard work, don't be afraid to ask your parents for help to reach your dreams and work really hard to make them come true.

I just want to point out that Keio's motto means "a human is created neither above nor beneath any other", so your dream is reachable if you are willing and working hard enough!

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