Which to watch? I read the JP version is deeper and more serious and of course it's much shorter. I didn't need much inducement. K-dramas are draggy by default.
So I did like it in the beginning, it was engaging, but indeed, like some have said, the second half is less good. And surprisingly for an allegedly compressed version, the last two episodes were very draggy and quite unhinged if I'm honest. If there's one thing i hate in Asian dramas is the unhinged, psychotic characters. I mean they show signs but they really spiral down the line and it's so unimaginative. There's also quite a lot of strangling, which makes no sense, where do they get all that strength?
Anyway, all that aside, the concept was interesting, the acting was ok-ish. I liked the lead actress but absolutely loathed her bangs. I loved it when she gets her makeover but then the bangs appear again. Whenever she had them parted she looked so fine. Mature, sexy, feminine, as opposed to childish. Any woman past thirty still wearing bangs needs a special face or something, and it's not the case here. Takeru Satoh's character was less engaging, he's the typical cold, restrained director, he has very limited emotional range here, I know it's by design but he's really wasted on this drama. It's not the polarizing pairing that we usually see but it's not much better. They say the K version had much more chemistry, maybe I'll check out some excerpts on YT. There's barely any comedy here or comedic relief, which they've been saying as well. But I'll take it to save 6 hours. I have plenty of K-dramas that I left somewhere cause they're boring me to death in later episodes.
Overall I'd say it's mid. For my standards this is not as good as advertised. Character-wise and plot-wise there's definitely room for improvement.
