Koi no tsuki

First of all, if you're coming to this drama after Kdramas, like I did, be prepared to be a bit shocked and surprised. The love/sex scenes would never make it to Korean dramas.

Other than that, this drama deals with a fictional, out of the ordinary love story. All the actors did an amazing job. There are many issues presented, mostly about what's supposed to be the definition of a successful/adequate adult and about living life on auto mode versus being creative/out of the norm.

I'd just like to make a note after reading some of the reviews. There are still countries around the world that marry off their kids at 12 years old or maybe even younger. This fact is real. This drama is fiction. Choose what upsets you most. Personally I saw it as an allegory of how even though we grow up, some of us find adult living and expectations overwhelming. And even in cases where we do know what we want and don't want, these might be contradictory and require a different perspective/effort in order to fit in with the rest of the world.

A thirty two year old woman who works in a movie theatre finds a high schooler asleep one day and finds herself attracted to him. She is stuck in a mundane relationship with a salary man who plays video games all night and seems uninterested in their future. She begins an affair with the young boy which raises the question that if two people love each other does it matter about the age difference. Even though the boy looks older then fifteen I still found it uncomfortable to watch, although it does show well the different outlooks on life each one has at their different ages.

One of the best dramas i seen in a very long time. The cinematography, music and the main leads makes this drama something really special and memorable. It makes you feel so many emotions and you feel for the characters. This was movie quality and the best Jdrama that has come out. I wish more jdramas looked and was written as good like this drama.

I have to admit that in the initial episodes I was very troubled about the age difference. This was almost a stumbling block. However, what the young actor brings to his character is super unique- he brings just the right mixture of innocence, youthful insecurities but also a level of deeper maturity well beyond his age. Perhaps that desire to be a mature adult made him look like he was older though he clearly wasn't mature on so many levels. All performances were good but I thought that his acting and character were brilliant. I personally esteem the fact that Japanese filmmakers would often present the intimacy of a relationship honestly and in more intense albeit thankfully not obscene ways. However here the relationship was driven almost purely by passion. Yes, it was an intense passionate relationship but I frankly did not see it as lasting romance. The age difference is definitely a big red flag because our female protagonist is meeting a young boy still in high school. Although I do believe the feelings and passion was mutual, the idea that the young man is potentially a victim was there. It is true that emotions of this scope can derail a young person and make them particularly vulnerable. Keeping his student's ID to get him to come back was manipulative too. Now although there are no absolute standards for falling in love, it's understood in most societies that a young person should be protected. So while I bought into the idea of shared interests, longing for each other and loving passion, I still did not see the protagonists as a real or healthy couple. I'm not sure I fully understood the ending. In spite of several significant issues, the writing was consistently strong, story engaging and acting superb, so I still think this is a strong production. This is the reason for a strong rating.

I guess my review will give the same feedback as many others here, cause I have the same feeling of many reviewers: why the hell is he 15? Why did the screenscript writers choose the ML to be 15? There is nothing okay about that?! With 18 there is a huge age difference as well and she would be struggling with the same doubts, so the story line would not have been different as from what the ML and FL are dealing with. And as a viewer I wouldn't feel awkward about him being 15. It's a waste cause so would have liked it more.

Anyhow, the series develops in a very realistic way, it's no romantic "we-are-on-cloud-nine"-story.