Title: Modern Love Tokyo / モダンラブ・東京
Rating: 6 / 10
Recommended for:
Those who are interested in modern love stories in various forms and are fans of the cast
Liked:
- This anthology of various love stories set in Tokyo offers a variety of themes including parental love, LGBT, sexless marriages, long-distance international relationships, seniors having a second chance at love, teenage first-love rekindled in adulthood etc. so this should satisfy viewers with the variety. While this may not be an all-rounder pleaser, some episodes would have resonated more with viewers than the others. Personally, I liked Ep 6 featuring Emma Scott and Ikematsu Sousuke the most while Episode 1 (Mizukawa Asami & Maeda Atsuko) and Episode 7 (Kuroki Haru & Kubota Masataka as voice actors) came a close second for the heartwarming and fuzzy vibes at the end.
- The drama had a star-studded cast with some unexpected cameos as well e.g. Miura Touko, Koura Kengo and Matsumoto Wakana but I would have to say that Ikematsu Sousuke and Naomi Scott stood out for their natural acting and great chemistry. It was actually the first time I saw Ikematsu in a romantic role so it was a pretty refreshing change and I have to say, his English was really good. The matchings also had a fair bit of novelty e.g. Mizukawa and Maeda who played a married couple which was somewhat never seen before in other works. Seeing Emoto Tasuku and Eikura Nana together somehow made me keep thinking of their respective spouses though for some strange reason.
Disliked:
- As the anthology was written and directed by different people, the storytelling styles and directing naturally varied so I can't say that I liked every single episode. In particular, I found Episode 5 starring Nagasaku Hiromi and Yusuke Santa Maria a tad bewildering as I failed to understand what the story was driving at. The way the story was told also seemed to have a tinge of a horror love story. Looking at online reviews, it seems that sentiments about this episode are quite divided too. As I mentioned above, while some episodes may touch and resonate with you a bit more, there might be some which will not impress.
Another thing which made me quite unconvinced or uncomfortable were some story settings which seemed far-fetched or unlikely to happen in real life. For example, in Ep 3 when the revelation about why the lead couple's date was supposedly "the worst" came out, it made me wonder how that could have happened unless the male lead's change had undergone a massive transformation over the years as he aged. Another thing which got me thinking was in Ep 1 when Mizukawa Asami played a nursing mother who was expressing her breast milk in the airplane's toilet. Those scenes seemed to project her in a slightly negative light because she seemed to be hogging the restroom without a care for other passengers and even looked delighted that she won't be disturbed by the long queue during a turbulence since the passengers had to go back to their seats. I do think that might have given rise to misunderstandings and misconceptions about nursing mothers and further perpetuate prejudice against them even though that may not have been the initial intention.
- While the drama was supposedly set in Tokyo, some of the stories didn't really have a Tokyo angle or touch so the link between the location and the story wasn't as strong as it should have been. As such, the Tokyo-ness of the stories could have been reinforced or else they could have jolly well fit in to other major metropolitan cities elsewhere in Japan.
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