A teacher-student love affair an adventurous theme for a Japanese drama, but in my opinion it's not done very well. First of all, Matsushima Nanako and Takizawa Hideaki are really mismatched. I suppose their physical differences could have highlighted visually how unlikely such a relationship was, but the drama was not executed well enough to carry that off. It just seemed like lousy casting to me, period.
Matsushima plays a teacher who feels trapped in life - by her domineering father, a fiance she does not love and students who do not respect her. She falls for Takizawa because they share something in common, dissatisfaction with life; and they bring comfort to each other. But, the actors don't bring enough depth into their characters for these reasons to hold. Takizawa seems like any other angst-filled youth in a world filled with angst-filled youths. He's somewhat of a rebel, but there isn't anything particularly charismatic or captivating about him either. I suppose Matsushima was going for understated acting, but she just didn't bring enough palpable strength and conviction into her role as someone who defies conventions. I'm not even convinced in the first place when she falls for him!
It seemed like the actors were merely going through the motions for the sake of creating a controversial drama. So although the message is that true love transcends boundaries, it was lost on me as I was going "How likely is that? And that, and that ..." throughout the series.
Matsushima plays a teacher who feels trapped in life - by her domineering father, a fiance she does not love and students who do not respect her. She falls for Takizawa because they share something in common, dissatisfaction with life; and they bring comfort to each other. But, the actors don't bring enough depth into their characters for these reasons to hold. Takizawa seems like any other angst-filled youth in a world filled with angst-filled youths. He's somewhat of a rebel, but there isn't anything particularly charismatic or captivating about him either. I suppose Matsushima was going for understated acting, but she just didn't bring enough palpable strength and conviction into her role as someone who defies conventions. I'm not even convinced in the first place when she falls for him!
It seemed like the actors were merely going through the motions for the sake of creating a controversial drama. So although the message is that true love transcends boundaries, it was lost on me as I was going "How likely is that? And that, and that ..." throughout the series.