Review of Second Virgin (drama)

Before I watched this drama, I had already read the novel by Oishi Shizuka so I knew beforehand what the story was all about and its ending. Having heard a lot about this drama and the fact that it doubled its ratings by the time it ended its run, there must have been something which was so attractive about this drama that caused this to happen and a movie sequel to be made. Of course, the fact that the leads Suzuki Kyoka and Hasegawa Hiroki became an item after working on this drama was a pull factor as well because it will be interesting to see if there were any telltale clues of their blossoming relationship along the way. However, knowing the story is also a double-edged sword because it actually takes away the novelty of finding out through the drama how the story is going to develop. Nonetheless, it helps in comparing how the adaptation performs with respect to the original material. As such, while watching this drama, I tried my best to disregard the fact that I already know the developments and focused my attention on the acting and presentation of the material.

First of all, let me introduce the two key characters in this story. Nakamura Rui (Suzuki Kyoka), is a 45-year-old director at a publishing company Shinkaisha which she co-founded with her friend Mukai Hajime (Danta Yasunori) who is also now the president of Shinkaisha. Having given birth to a son Ryo (Ayano Go) when she was just 19, she later divorced her husband and focused her energies on work in order to succeed in life and support Ryo. As a result, things between Rui and Ryo are rather frosty and he would only show up when he needs money. Much as Rui wants to bridge the gap between them, the lack of time and concern spent on Ryo over the years has made this almost impossible. At work, Rui is a perfectionist who tries to get her staff to put in their best and demands the same of herself. She is great at socialising with people from different backgrounds and able to make use of these connections to her benefit.

At the other end of the equation, we have Suzuki Ko (Hasegawa Hiroki), a high-flying official who works at the Financial Services Agency. He has lots of ideals on how to restructure and revamp the Japanese financial system in order to make it as competitive as the rest of the world but owing to bureaucracy, his aspirations cannot be realised and he is increasingly frustrated with the state of things. He is married to Marie (Fukada Kyoko) who is the daughter of Misawa Vegetarian Noodles's president but feels pressurised by her incessant demands to have sex on specific days so that she can get pregnant. Apparently, Marie is so bored that she thinks that having a baby will be the answer to her problems while Ko is not so keen on the idea. Besides, Marie would always resort to emotional blackmail to make Ko do what she wants so it is no wonder that Ko is becoming less enthusiastic about the idea of having a child by following a strict regime. As Marie has been pampered so much by her parents to the extent that she knows little about the world, Ko also feels that the inability to communicate with Marie is putting more stress on their marriage. It is at such a juncture that Ko and Rui meet at a party hosted by Ko's boss and that marks the beginning of their whirlwind and very destructive romance.

The drama can actually be viewed as a story with three main arcs. The first is about how Rui and Ko get acquainted, start to feel attracted to each other and finally get together. Given the gap in their ages (Ko is about the same age as Ryo) and the fact that Ko is a married man, the scandalous nature of their relationship makes it rather difficult for Rui in particular to forgo her misgivings and fly straight into Ko's arms. However, Ko is more frank about his feelings and thus he tries repeatedly to get Rui to accept him despite her reservations about her age and body. If you are looking for a "sizzling" romance tale, the first 3 episodes should satisfy you as the two leads grapple with their feelings and try to overcome the moral boundaries stopping them from getting together. And of course, not to forget, the intimate scenes between Rui and Ko were also a talking point when the drama aired.

In the second arc, this is when it gets a bit messy yet exciting. Marie finds out about her husband's straying heart and to her horror, the person who Ko's in love with is someone she had trusted and gone to for advice when she was troubled over how to get Ko to be more proactive and show an interest in going for fertility treatment with her. Obviously, since his heart is already with someone else, there is no way that he will be keen on having a baby with Marie. Although Marie's way of taking revenge on the two of them can be seen as rather juvenile on one hand, I think the sting from the betrayal must have hurt and humiliated Marie a lot, given how proud she is. She is well aware that she may not appear to be clever and capable like Rui but that's also to do with her upbringing because she's never had to worry about money and surviving in the corporate world out there. By sneaking around behind her back, Marie would have regarded that Rui and Ko overestimated their intelligence which in a way also belittled her and that's an insult to her pride and intelligence (no matter you think whether she has that or not). When Marie realised that trying to tie Ko to herself wasn't going to work, that's when she changed her approach and decided to make circumstances impossible for Rui and Ko to be together. Actually, I think she was quite smart in certain ways by portraying herself as the victim when it comes to fanning public opinion about her husband's affair but nobody would have guessed that she was the one responsible for those retaliatory actions. Except for the harassment tactics she used on Rui, Marie pretty much made use of other people to do the job for her unwittingly.

Last but not least, the final arc seems to be conveying the message that no matter how true or intense this relationship may be, it cannot withstand the harsh reality and unforgiving circumstances surrounding it. In Ko's haste to make sure he can get a divorce successfully with a booming career as well, he resorts to doing something illegal despite knowing very well that it shouldn't be done. It's a no brainer that he eventually gets caught for that but the humiliation is greater for him because it was a very much publicised case and that the negative publicity from his affair with Rui made Ko feel small in front of the woman he loves. Even when Ko knows that Marie was the one who reported him to the police, he still harboured a fleeting thought of going back to her because he didn't have to put up a strong front as compared to when he was with Rui.

Now, the next development is what really made me think that the story should have ended at the part where Ko was punished for his crime. Apparently, Ko made use of funds from the underworld to fulfill his dream but now that he's caught, that money has effectively gone down the drain. There is no way he can repay the gang for the losses and he gets threatened to work for them in order to keep Rui safe. Now, this type of self-sacrificing plot in J-dramas is extremely common and overused. Besides, it's rather difficult to believe the credibility because it felt as if the writer simply threw in this to make sure Rui and Ko's relationship will come to a tragic end. Couldn't there have been another way of making sure the couple will not end up together. It was "hillarious" to say the least when I saw that gun shot scene in Singapore. I don't know if the producer or author of the novel did their homework but considering how strict our gun laws are, their idea of gangsters walking around with guns "openly" here is simply unthinkable. Oh well, I have to keep reminding myself that this is a drama but surely, we can do with a bit more of reality in it somehow.

I have to admit, I actually enjoyed the novel more than the drama especially in the first arc. I think the words used to describe the internal struggle of Rui when she was faced with an intense passion for Ko were very engaging and offered a lot of room for imagination. The drama did its best to convey the emotions felt by Rui and Ko but somehow, it was a tad stronger in the lust department rather than in the emotional side. As for the other two arcs, they were exact replicas of what the original material. I was hoping that the final arc might be more interesting on screen with some slight tweaks and improvement in the pacing since it was really boring towards the end in the novel but it was quite disappointing and I could really do without that self-sacrifice development.

No doubt I didn't really enjoy the story and found it hard to root for the lead characters (simply put, I didn't care whether they ended up together), there are two characters who spiced up the screen with their acting. First of all, it would be YOU who played Aiko, the much older girlfriend of Ryo and became a close friend of Rui later. I think the exchanges between her and Rui were extremely interesting since they were around the same age and could understand what each other had in mind. Aiko was also invaluable in the sense that she offered an avenue for Rui to be true to herself and speak her mind rather than having to keep up appearances all the time. It's difficult to find someone to pour out your troubles to so having Aiko around was a big blessing for Rui.

The other character who caught my eye would definitely be Fukada Kyoko. Marie may be an eyesore at first with her endless pestering but you've got to hand it to Fukada to show that irritating side of Marie and still make her likeable at times. She's really a perfect fit for the role and what really impressed was from the point Marie found out about the affair and later dumped Ko to become a career woman. Marie had to show the pitiful abandoned wife side in front of everyone else and yet was full of venom and spared no effort in destroying Ko. That said, she didn't harm his life or anything but rather took away what mattered most to him i.e. his pride, career and future in the financial industry. That would have been more than enough to deal a big blow to Ko for what he did to her. Till the end, Marie was still keeping up appearances by trying to take back Ko's remains in order to hold a grand funeral for all to see but she had no intentions of continuing to offer prayers for Ko in future. On one hand, you think that she's quite vengeful but on the other, there is still a cute side to her so Marie isn't a character who can be hated entirely for what she did.

With regard to Suzuki Kyoka and Hasegawa Hiroki, I applaud them for showing a good performance in conveying the emotions felt by Rui and Ko in this destructive romance tale. Hasegawa in particular was very eye-catching, considering that this was his first leading role in a mainstream drama. Being a stage actor for years, his way of articulating his lines felt rather different from a lot of actors who tend to mumble through their lines. Even without subtitles especially when talking about the difficult financial terms, it was still easy to catch what he was saying. Having said that, it was a refreshing experience to see someone like him in years. As for Suzuki, I'm glad that she was picked instead of some other actress where the signs of aging cannot be seen so clearly. It was good that there were some scenes which deliberately showed Rui/Suzuki as a woman in her mid-40s so as to emphasize the age gap between Rui and Ko. Although I think Suzuki was deliberately made to look old in some scenes, that actually made Rui's concerns seem more realistic. Imagine if you have an actress who still looks stunning without make-up and talks about aging faster than the younger lover, I doubt viewers wouldn't buy that.

Honestly speaking, now that Ko has died and the other characters seem to have moved on with their lives, I fail to understand why there was a need for the movie version and what it could have talked about. Anyway, that's something for the future, assuming I do watch it one day.

And my ratings for this drama...

Story: 5 out of 10 (The first 3 episodes on its own is quite interesting but the 2nd and 3rd arcs had some plot loopholes which I had issues with)

Acting: 7 out of 10 (Mainly for YOU, Fukada Kyoko and Hasegawa Hiroki)

Theme song: 3 out of 10 (It didn't leave too much of an impression on me on the whole)

Visual effects/Scenery: 4 out of 10 (Nothing spectacular or especially memorable)

Teamwork/Chemistry: 6 out of 10 (For the lead couple/ YOU and Suzuki Kyoka)

Total: 25 out of 50