Title: 1122 Ii fuufu / 1122 いいふうふ (1122: For a Happy Marriage)
Rating: 8 / 10
Recommended for:
Those who want to watch stories about married couples who try to repair their marriages but without hysteria and/or those who are fans of the leads Takahata Mitsuki & Okada Masaki
* Currently showing on Amazon Prime Video (subject to geographical restrictions)
Liked:
- While the overall flow of the story was predictable since this topic of marriages with issues is hardly new, the way this drama handled this theme was quite comfortable to watch since there was hardly any hysteria even in confrontational scenes. On the contrary, the silent and somewhat subdued handling of these scenes came across more powerfully than a full-blown outburst as words and facial expressions turned out to be more damaging and impactful. In a way, this felt more natural and believable as things which could happen in real life between married couples.
The two main couples featured in this drama had vastly different problems yet similar in a way because they all experienced issues due to a communication breakdown. It is easy to say that you should speak your mind but the closer you are to someone, the more difficult it can be to say what you think and feel. Moreover, the worry about how the other party will receive and react to your message will probably prevent people from taking the plunge to be frank. As such, even for people who aren't married, they can probably empathise and feel for the characters since we all would have encountered similar problems in our interpersonal relationships.
The dialogue between the characters is also worthy of mention as it flowed naturally without feeling like it's stuffed with quotable quotes or things that people would not say in real life. It can get preachy if lots of lofty ideals are packed into the dialogue as well-meaning but unneeded advice.
- The acting from Takahata and Okada was superb. Not only did they look good as a couple, their great chemistry as a couple who had issues with their sex lives and tried to repair their marriage was so engaging to watch. Fans of the two of them will be delighted to see how pretty and handsome they looked in the drama - kudos to the styling team. And since the lead couple Ichiko and Otoya had their lovey-dovey and comical moments along with the seriousness of the story, it was great to a fine balance struck between these varying aspects of their characters' lives. I especially liked their interaction after their characters submitted their marriage application - so sweet!
On the other hand, Nishino Nanase and Koura Kengo's pairing might be quite gloomy to watch due to the state of the marriage and family situation but I thought that their subdued acting was something that could grow on the audience with time.
There were also quite a number of surprise cameos of which I liked Narita Ryo's role the most. He had such good rapport with Takahata even though it was just 2 scenes in the entire drama.
- The theme song by Spitz was such a perfect fit for the drama - gives off a warm and fuzzy feel like the winter sunshine while the title (literally means the song of repair) and lyrics reflected a key message in the story. Marriage is not really a goal in a relationship. It is just a milestone after which you still have to keep working on, putting in effort and doing repeated repairs in order to keep it going. The moment you take things for granted and expect everything to still work while not putting in effort, everything will just fall apart whether you mean for it to happen or not. I guess this doesn't just apply to marriage but all types of relationships in general.
Disliked:
- The last two episodes of the drama felt a bit awkward and rushed because there was so many developments crammed within until it felt like I was getting giddy with the twists and turns. As such, I felt that these episodes deviated quite a bit in terms of style as compared to the earlier ones which took things slow and logically. I also wondered if it was due to the desire to fit the original manga's material within a single drama so the scriptwriter had to speed up in the concluding episodes.
- The premise of the drama may be quite eye-catching at first because of the "officially recognised affair" setting in the lead couple's marriage but developments after that may seem a bit predictable for those who are looking for an unconventional tale. I also thought that there could have been more information about Mitsuki and Shiro's relationship because knowing their dating days and how their marriage soured could give a clearer picture. As things stood in the drama, it felt like most of the blame was on Shiro though. Likewise, I also wondered how Otoya and Mitsuki got together but this was not featured in the drama. In a nutshell, the story feels somewhat incomplete due to these missing bits.
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