Friday, June 14, 2024

Quick Review #45: Watashitachi wa douka shiteiru - Summer 2020


Title: Watashitachi wa douka shiteiru / 私たちはどうかしている

Rating: 6 /10 

Recommended for
For those who like a visually-pleasing drama or a story about star-crossed lovers

Liked:
- The biggest highlight of this drama for me would definitely be the visuals. This was partly due to the fact that the story was set in a family which owns a longtime Japanese wagashi business so there was no lack of beautiful and delicious-looking wagashi featured. In addition, the set as well as the traditional clothes worn by the cast tend to be have an array of often bright colours so it definitely spiced up the visual appeal on screen. Not to mention that the leading couple was a sight to behold and definitely looked quite good together.

- Although I am not too keen on stories about star-crossed lovers, I thought that the evolution of the relationship between the leads played by Hamabe Minami and Yokohama Ryuusei was quite engaging to watch. This was partly due to the fact that they did put up compelling and immersive performances to convince me as if they were indeed the characters themselves.

- The acting from veteran supporting actors like Mizuki Arisa and Sano Shiro is definitely worth keeping a lookout for.

Disliked: 
- The title of the drama which literally means "something is wrong with us", is a good reflection of how much madness there was in the story. Everyone was crazy about something or someone thus it felt like a showdown to see who was more extreme in their obsession. I haven't read the original manga so I can't compare if the drama reflected accurately what was depicted in the source material or was heavily altered to project this level of madness. What I can say is though, some viewers may roll eyes at some of the developments which felt somewhat ridiculous to me at least so it might not be easy to sit through the entire drama even though the visual fest was a huge factor which made me finish this drama. If the drama was a bit more grounded in reality and shifted more of the focus to the lovers rather than the mess from the older generation, it might go down a lot more easier for most viewers.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

for me I saw the over the top portrayals as intentional actually. I found it enjoyable if you treated it as a particularly beautiful soap, and thought it worked mainly cos the cast was committed 100% to their roles. agreed re. visuals and the beautiful wagashi. I actually went out and bought wagashi after the show lol

Chiaki said...

Agreed about the cast's commitment to their roles. In particular, I thought Mizuki Arisa was a big surprise considering the craziness of her character which deviated a lot from her past roles.

And wagashi is indeed hard to resist especially after watching this drama!