Koi no tsuki

Imagine the storyline where the sexes are flipped. In other words, the lead character is a 30-something male, bored with life with a steady girlfriend, who decides to have a fling with a female high schooler. I'm not sure which culture would find this premise acceptable.

But for some reason, as long as the lead character is female, then it's OK and we go into a fantasy storyline.

As depicted in the story, the female lead is just bored of the mundane life she's leading and so goes looking for a hot, underaged pickup. Again, imagine if this was a male lead--any sympathies then?

Then we get into the psychologies of the various characters. I cannot fathom how the 30-something female lead acts like a 30 year old. She's more like a stunted 20 year old. Unhappy with life, she is not able to talk with her boyfriend about their relationship issues and instead decides to have a fling. Doesn't this sound more like what a high schooler or college couple would do?

As with many J-dramas these days, the original story came from a manga series that's geared towards young female audiences. Hence the main female lead feels like a 20 year old.

J-dramas in my experience always mean some sort of cliché-adhering, trope-involving affairs, mixing romantic themes and coming-of-age themes, etc., that moset of the time barely make it above the cut.

This show however really struck me as departing from all of that and honestly presenting a premise of: what if a 30y+ old girl got "stuck" in her relationship that seemed to not go nowhere and met someone who's 15y old and made all her life feelings in question? It's naive and dramatic on so many levels, starting with the age gap, but sadly if you're like me you can relate to the dimension of being older and seemingly all the sparks of life are diluted into nothingness and though you're not even 40 you feel like you're dead... SO... this one premise really moves you.

Together with all this, the cinematography on this show is WAY above average. In many of the multiple 25 min episodes I felt like I was watching a masterpiece movie from a respected cinematographer - this never happens on an american TV show. It's a TV series that feels like a succession of very good quality indie movies with great taste.

It may start as just another japanese romantic show but it's incredibly WAY more deeper than that. So many things nowadays purport to be "feminist", whatever that means. Besides all that I've written above, this show has got to be one of few times I felt something true about that. Highly recommended.

A woman in her 30s going through life and relationship troubles finds answers in the form of an underaged(15-16) boy. The portrayal of the story is simple. No big twists. It's like they filmed a small section of somebody's lives.

The series is top-notch in terms of acting, cinematography, background music, direction and overall social messages perspective.

Wako is shown depressed, selfish, loving, logical, torn, determined, passionate. The journey of her emotional growth is amazing! She navigates through her unhappy relationship, to falling for a 15-year old, then giving up for moral reasons. She comes back strong with a clear mind and direction to achieving everything she wants.

Iko's character is also well written. Its wonderful how they have captured little nuances of the age, the nature of their relationship.

Futa is the underrated character. His basic personality also hides details of reality. How if you do not believe you are part of the problem, you will never improve and go back to same patterns.

The underaged part is morally problematic, but that is the whole point of the series! Most people questioning the plot would be horrified if they find out how casually the same thing in happening around them, and the globe! And there are so many other takeaways from the series too.

Problems of women (especially in Japan/Asian countries) entering their 30s without a partner.

Impact of breaking trust- how all 3 of them were differently affected.

The dirty and the helpless side of Love.

What adolescence feels like: not an adult, not a kid.

How its never too late to make things right, and it only takes the courage to do it.

If anything, what I like most is how human the story is. At no point do I find this story non-fictional. Congrats to the team on the final product.

Japanese storytelling is characteristic to be downtempo. There are no big plot twists on it. Instead, they focus on concrete feelings or fears and they develop them. This series is not the exception. But the way in which it is told and how the story grows with the main character, Wako, is really engaging. Wako is a woman on her thirties that is concerned about marriage, having a child and having a job. She's in a solid ground but that doesn't make her happy. She wants to turn around her life but she fears to lose all and never get to that situation again. That's because she's getting older and, in the context of the Japanese society, it's every time more difficult to fulfil those goals from scratch. When she feels surpassed, founds a way to escape from that difficult reality, which to society's standard point of view can result disgusting. In fact, these ignominious situations are really well portraited on the series, being sometimes difficult to keep watching since you are observing the moral decadence of a woman, but in the other hand, it's overwhelming to see her neverending pursuit of happiness.

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.