Vivant

The best Japanese series on Netflix. Magnificent landscapes in the desert and in Mongolia, a scenario full of twists and turns that are sometimes far-fetched but we get caught up in following the story. Very good actors. A production with nods to Kurosawa, Hiroshi Abe who plays Nozaki seems the reincarnation of Toshiro Mifune, Beki seems to be a character from Ran and the Japanese ambassador is filmed in a close-up at the end like a Kurosawa heroine. The other characters are just as interesting and even the love story between Yusuke and Kaoru seems a necessary part of Asian series. Despite the criticism, I find that the script holds up, the direction and the photography are excellent. When is season 2?

The shooting technique and camera movements are too rough. Unable to showcase the strengths of the storyline and engage the audience; the standard should not be like this. The filming technique for action suspense seems quite unskilled. The dubbing and music fail to immerse the audience and do not convey the atmosphere of the scene.

It wastes the skills of professional actors, giving the overall production a sense of wastefulness due to various unprofessional aspects.

The actors are top-notch, but the filming techniques lack immersion. Filters, camera movements, background music, and overall flow noticeably lack quality and feel awkward. It seems the director's style doesn't suit the storyline, impacting the integrity of the work. Handing it over to another director might result in a better outcome. It's a shame considering the excellent acting and storyline.

The series is set over three countries, Japan, Mongolia and the imaginary Balka which is home to a major but mysterious terrorist organisation. An ordinary businessman Yusuke Nogi played by Masato Sakai is suspected of transferring billions of yen incorrectly to a foreign company and he is tasked with recovering it. The story then involves so many twist and turns as he falls deeper into a dark world that it's difficult to keep track of who is good and who is bad. The actors all do a sterling job particularly the lead who seems meek and mild but you soon realise that he is certainly not that. The real star of the show is the scriptwriters who lead you down many different paths and make this an entertaining watch.

I just have finished only the first episode and wanted to write this appraisal for the Actors here. First of all, great job to the Mongolian actors, especially Chingis and Jamin. But the dialogue and language skills of the main actor and actress is remarkable. Of course they had accents, more noticeably in English, but who cares about that, it is a Foreign language after all. But their Mongolian was almost perfectly done. Especially the intonations, emotions and feelings. A bit more meaning and feeling missed but that is just nitpicking. As well, great job on the localization, changing the labels, uniforms, license plates and few other things and managed to turn locations in Mongolia feel somewhat culturally same but identically different. Kudos 😉💪.

Edit: Ohhhhhh my god, ohhhhhhh my god, the bloody Wooden Toilet scene! I grew up having a phobia on falling accidentally into a Wooden Toilet (Modon Jorlon in Mongolian) 🤢🤢🤢. Brilliantly done. "Yellow teethed homeless guy" should have his own series 😂.

Not your typical JP drama - the characters, the settings and plot twists kept me on my toes every episode! Went in at episode 1 expecting some mediocre story line but man by end of the episode I was intrigued. Not to mention the all-star castings - the acting is guaranteed good and apparently the show was filed in Mongolia which really has an exotic feel compared to the typical JP/KR drama on Netflix. If you like spy movies with lots of twists and turns then this is a must watch. An interesting take and a real effort from JP producers. Highly recommended. I wish there are more episodes but the length is spot on (10 epi only).