One Night Morning (2022)

A Lovely Metaphoric Work of Healing and Growth

I'm absolutely in love with this series. It has an unrefined aspect to it that I truly expected to grate on me, but fast became a source of charm. The visual metaphors of the colors and mental cries for help were so well done and captivating. And the fact that only a few of these stories had romance to them, let alone intimacy, was a welcome surprise. The entire premise of this drama, put in its most simplest of terms, is that there is a certain level of power (either good or bad) in every small/brief interaction.

We see characters grapple with their sense of self-worth, their dreams, their relationships. We see something so raw and human throughout each of these episodes, but in a muted and appropriately-short way that it relates to audiences without the draining aspect that is so well-known amongst other healing dramas.

I can see myself rewatching this drama time and time again - for the characters, for the artistry, and for the interconnected tidbits throughout.

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Beautifully crafted gem

This is a tasty little series; unpretentious, straightforward and beautifully put together. It is 8 stand-alone episodes, each with a specific theme and a different male/female couple. The twenty-five minute stories involve spending a night together (not necessarily for sex) and eating breakfast afterwards. The series explores the hinterland of closeness, both physical and emotional. The borderline of intimacy and emotional vulnerability.

A great deal of thought has been put into how to frame each story. Every episode has a definitive colour and food menu and they are used symbolically to represent the different flavours of interaction and relationship. Emotions and emotional space is also symbolically represented by cutting images into the narrative. A character may be seen alone in an open field, or sinking through water. At first this struck me as a bit self conscious, but as the series progressed, I got into the imagery more and appreciated the careful crafting that had gone into the production values.

It’s the type of series that packs a lot in and you could definitely watch it again and get more out of it. The dynamics of the couples were so varied and covered a whole range of reasons why we seek closeness with others - consolation, kindness, loneliness, sanctuary, hope and failure - all of these were featured and more.

The standard of acting did vary, but was very good in the main. Only episode six stuck out as being below par.

Recommended.

What my rating means: 8+ A great drama with interesting content and good writing, direction, acting, OST, cinematography. But didn’t quite have the requisite sparkle to bump it into my all-time fave list. Worth watching.

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Another unique Jdorama - The Morning After - Food for Thought.

Completed - 9/4/2022

This is a very interesting drama and quite hard for me to put a rating on it. When I first read the synopsis and saw that it’s rated R, I expect to see a very sexual, episodic drama with a lot of Japanese flair/uniqueness. Well, I was half correct.

“One Night Morning” could be interpreted as the morning after spending the night together. It’s probably fair to say that I thought all couples in this drama had sex the night before, and then had some type of awkward or passionate breakfast the morning after. However, not all the episodes are sexual. But there’s definitely a lot of food shown in this drama.

One thing common with these 8 stories is that we have very lonely people in this drama. The drama tells us stories of these lonely people and how they find comfort in each other either physically or emotionally. One way or another, they spend the night together and then have breakfast together the next day, all very unique to the story told. Sometimes it’s sexual, sometimes it’s pure and cute, and sometimes it’s supporting and encouraging someone to be the best person they can be.

Most of these episodes can be watched out of order, except for Ep 8. That should be saved for last. Even though the episodes are very short, for some reason, a couple of these stories feel long and slow to me. This is quite an uncommon feeling for a Jdorama for me, as they are usually short and fast-paced.

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