Title: Saiai / 最愛
Rating: 8.5 /10
Recommended for:
Those who like suspense dramas with humanity themes and are fans of the cast
Liked:
- The story was on the whole, very well-crafted with a nice balance between the suspense and love elements. While it was not too difficult to guess the who-did-it part, the motive behind the characters' actions and how things happened were comparatively not so straightforward so it should satisfy viewers who want a bit of difficulty in the suspense department. To bring out the theme of "dearest" and "most-loved" in the story, the love elements (not just romantic) were designed in such a way that made me ponder over the different forms in which love could take and how the love could change in terms of intensity and what it could make people do in different situations.
- The acting was high-level across the board so that was probably one key reason why the drama was so successful in terms of critical reviews and the accolades it won. It may not have been that "big" in terms of real-time ratings but it definitely did deserve all the praise it got. In particular, I would like to highlight Tanaka Minami's performance here. To be honest, her strong, outspoken and daredevil image in variety shows do get into the way when she assumes her other identity as an actress. However, how she displayed the vulnerabilities in her character along with the strong pretense the character showed to the world despite the tragedy that happened left a very deep impression on me. I must say, this drama changed my opinion of Tanaka as an actress.
Disliked:
- Perhaps due to the fact that this drama was written and produced by the same people as those who made "N no tame ni", I couldn't shake off the similarities between both dramas and kept making comparisons between them. Both were about stories of how people made sacrifices and did things out of the ordinary or illegal or morally unacceptable for the sake of the people they loved. Both were suspense stories of trying to figure out who did what and why they did it. The only difference was that "N no tame ni" was adapted from Minato Kanae's novel while "Saiai" was an original story. Frankly speaking, both pieces of work were great in their own ways. However, in terms of suspense, I thought that "Saiai" was a tad lacking because if you know the theme of the drama, you could probably guess who was the culprit and see where things were headed. In that sense, "N no tame ni" was comparatively more difficult to guess. If the complexity of "Saiai" was higher, I think I would have given it a perfect score.
- The romance between the leads was somewhat lacking. Not to mean that the actors had no chemistry but the way the story was crafted put a lot of emphasis on the regretful and sad part of how they had to go their separate ways because of what happened. However, when they got back together even after the dust settled, the romance just didn't come across as compelling or in other words, didn't convince me that they did love each that much. I guess this was a bit disappointing. On the contrary, the culprit's love for the female lead really shone through a lot more.
