Utahime (2007)

I started watching this drama with the expectation that this will be some cheesy, boring war love story BUT it is not that. Although this drama is not well known among the drama community, it is something that you will not regret watching (oh the feels). This drama entered into the list of my top favorite Japanese dramas and it's going to stay there. The story which mostly takes place in the 1960s has a "oldie" feel to it. However, this feel doesn't hinder the drama.The story is filled with some cliches with a great classy touch. It is not fast paced but rather paced very evenly. Utahime will make you frustrated, laugh, cry, and smile.The story has a deeper and greater message that is AWESOME. The acting was fabulous and the cast was ebbing with charisma. The music was very good to me since I adore TOKIO songs but you might think otherwise. As for the rewatch value, it's pretty high since I am already watching it again, and I barely rewatch anything besides Galileo! Overall, this drama is beautiful, charming, and alluring. It brings about an air of sadness, nostalgia and beauty that one will rarely come across as a viewer.

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Utahime frustrated me sooo much! I couldn't stand majority of the characters, which really made this drama unenjoyable for me. How could I enjoy a drama where I'm hating on the characters left and right. All the characters were very two-dimensional and had no depth at all. The only reason why I continued to watch this drama all the way through and rated it the way I did was because of the fantastic Nagase Tomoya, and the hope that the main leads wouldn't end up together.

Don't get me wrong, I love Aibu Saki. Her and Nagase Tomoya have decent enough chemistry. But I absolutely hate her character, Suzu. I was rooting against her the whole time. Oh my goodness, I have sooo much to say in regards to this drama, and I'm afraid I'm going to end up spoiling some aspects, but I'll try my best not to.

Ok, so Nagase plays a character who was found drifting ashore, unconscious, by a kiddie Suzu. Suzu couldn't have been more than 8 at that point in time (she was actually 9 or 10 but w/e). Anyways, Nagase's character is taken in by Suzu's family, and it turns out that he lost all his memory from before the war (he was in a soldier's uniform when he was found). Btw, they named him Taro. Anyways, hop 10 years later, and Taro hasn't aged a day, but Suzu is now a grown woman (rolls eyes), and she's in love with Taro. This is suppose to be a love story of a woman who loved a man after he lost his memory from the war. I was completely mistaken on what this drama would be about. I thought the woman would have previously known the man from before the war, and still love him even after he lost his memory. No such luck. Suzu is an extremely selfish and manipulative character (even if she doesn't realize it, and I can't even roll my eyes enough), but it's played out as if she's some sweet lovable character who should get what she wants. As you can tell, she is my least favorite character, I dislike her greatly, but all the people in the town Taro wound up in are just as selfish and manipulative. The reason I say that is because these people not only don't want Taro to ever remember his past, but they hinder him from doing so as well! Every time it seems like Taro remembers something, these people get a lonesome look on their faces and make the whole ordeal about them and how they're gonna feel if Taro ends up leaving and we're suppose to feel sorry for them. Not me, buddy. I don't feel sorry for them one bit. And the way the drama makes it seem like we should be rooting for Suzu and the rest of the townsfolk just enrages me!

Another thing: the whole town wants Taro to be with Suzu (because Suzu just loves Taro oh so much). I cannot even throw up enough to show my disgust with this whole concept. It's not because Suzu is sooo much younger than Taro why I have a problem with them (I think Taro was about 20 when they found him), it's because he was a grown ass man living with this little girl for over 10 years, she practically grew up with him, and I find issue with this because she is basically his little sister. How could he possible see her as anything more?! Gross gross gross. And then the fact that Suzu's parents are okay with that just astounds me!! I lost major respect for the parents, because not only do they want Taro with Suzu, they keep trying to force his freaking feelings. Everyone in the town is! And this is how they are all manipulative scum, playing off the fact that this poor man doesn't remember who he was in the past. They never considered if he previously had a family and they don't care about his past responsibilities, all they do is care about themselves. I don't care what anyone tries to tell me, Taro never romantically loved Suzu. Maybe he ended up thinking he did, but I know in my heart of hearts he was manipulated.

So, all this stuff I just talked about was actually a movie a character named Akira was watching. His mother made him. The ending to this drama saved me from giving it a much much lower rating. My expectations were much too high entering this drama. Lower your expectations drastically, and maybe u'll be ok if ur planning on watching this. Honestly, I wouldn't recommend it. Yeah, it invoked a lot of emotion from me, but it was all negative.

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