Title: Ashura no gotoku / 阿修羅のごとく
Rating: 7 / 10
Recommended for:
Those who want to watch a family-themed drama featuring slice-of-life episodes, sibling rivalry and romantic relationships and/or are fans of the cast members
* Currently showing on Netflix (availability subject to geographical location)
* Disclaimer: I have not watched any of the prior versions i.e. the 1979/1980 drama and 2003 movie.
Liked:
- First of all, the cast is definitely something to watch out for as every sister was played by a leading lady-class actress and their love interests also equally boasting of great acting skills. While they performed well in their own ways, my personal favourites would have to be the pairing of Ono Machiko-Motoki Masahiro and Kunimura Jun-Matsuzaka Keiko. Not only were their characters a complex mix of different facades representing the roles they played in life (husband, wife, father, mother) which made it interesting to delve into and ponder over their mindsets and actions, the chemistry between each pairing was also very natural and smooth to watch. While both pairs did not have any skinship or intimate scenes (that was taken care of by the other sisters' pairings), there was a lot going on between the couples beyond physical intimacy. In particular, the banter/dialogue which Ono and Motoki did was especially engaging to watch like a never-ending tennis game rally. On the other hand, Kunimura and Matsuzaka did not have a lot of long dialogue to begin with but there was a lot which could be inferred indirectly through their actions and subsequent fill-in-the-blanks information provided through the sisters' discussion of their parents' marriage.
On the other hand, Aoi Yu and Matsuda Ryuuhei's pairing started off as pretty bland, took a sharp turn in the middle and provided much mellow comfort towards the end. As for Hirose Suzu and Fujiwara Kisetsu's pairing, this couple was volatile right till the end and provided much drama for the story. I was quite surprised by Hirose's evolution this time because she always had this child-like vibe in her previous roles (Rurou no tsuki probably the exception). This time, she not only showed the complex emotions that Sakiko felt over the years and even managed to change her appearance and vibe to one that was mature and sexy at times.
- There were moments of brilliance in the story such as how the sisters may do a lot of infighting on the surface and underneath but when there were problems, they were always there for one another to render support in their own ways. In addition, there were lots of food for thought which posed questions to the viewers as to how they would react or feel when put into similar situations such as do you confront your partner when you suspect his infidelity, is a cheating husband better than being a widow and not having a husband or not being married at all.
- As the story was set in the Showa era and mostly during the colder months, there was a retro vibe complemented by the somewhat fuzzy picture quality and darker colour scheme. It might invoke some nostalgia among viewers who had gone through those years especially when you see items from the past.
Disliked:
- The sum of good things does not necessarily translate into a wonderful overall landscape. If I look at the drama as a whole, I would struggle to classify this as something which was satisfying. The biggest reason was that the pacing of the developments was quite uneven to begin with so I almost wanted to give up on this after watching two episodes. Luckily, Ep 3 saved the day but things sort of meandered aimlessly for a while before the last 2 episodes picked up pace again. I had the feeling that there was a lot going on but there wasn't any element or subplot in particular which was compelling enough to keep me going. Perhaps this arrangement was meant to mirror real life since we don't know what's going to come ahead and our everyday life can be pretty mundane, repetitive and share lots of similarities with other people than what we may think.
- I felt that Miyazawa Rie and Uchino Seiyo's pairing was a tad underwhelming than expected. A lot of times, the two of them were simply engaged in steamy intimate scenes but I struggled to see how they were connected on an emotional level. It seemed to be a waste of their acting skills because I'm sure they could be more capable of delivering the emotions of their characters than what was displayed in this drama.
- The title felt like an afterthought and the ending scene seemed to be a last-minute hard-sell to remind viewers of the theme of the story. I don't know how the previous versions tried to convey the theme of the sisters' relationships filled with love and hate and the mess they were involved in but there could have been a more subtle way to "sell" the message than to spell it out point blank.
