Cheap Love (1999)

Cheap Love is a story about two people from very different walks of life meeting each other and falling in love.

Junichi is to all intents and purposes a loser and lowlife. He is a nightclub scout which means he talks girls and women he meets on the street into working for the nightclub and/or adult video industry. Nanami on the other hand is a straight laced music teacher at a girls school. She leads a very staid and mundane life. She is looking for excitement and something different. She has a chance meeting with Junichi which then leads her to have a conflict with the decisions she has made in her life.

Around the same time her father arranges a marriage meeting for her with a colleague from his office. This man is really keen on getting married to her and so she sees a normal ordinary life stretching out and on the other hand a life of danger and unpredictability with Junichi. The story then follows her inner struggle in doing what her parents and society expect her to do and what she really wants.

Junichi for all his street smart conman ways is quite naive and vulnerable. People use him and take advantage of him. He assumes responsibility for his friend who looks up to him as a role model. It is apparent from the odd comment that Junichi would have liked to better himself but unfortunately society has labelled him as a lowlife loser and he has found it difficult to break free from the only life he knows.

The acting by Sorimachi Takashi, who incidentally I had never seen before, was excellent. He played the character with a lot of swagger and cocky confidence which is masking an inner hurt and vulnerability. Nanami is played by Tsuruta Mayu and she played her role well too.

Do not be put off by the fact that this is an old drama 1999. It does not feel as dated as more recent K dramas I have seen. The story is very good and the romance between the main couple is compelling.

The music - we have some classical pieces as obviously she is a piano teacher. And also some nice instrumentals. The main theme song is a song by Shania Twain which sort of fits the mood of the drama I suppose although it's a genre of music which doesn't really appeal to me.

All in all I would highly recommend this drama...... that is if you can find it!

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It lacked in quite a few aspects

I was really enjoying the first half of this drama, but what went wrong? I will try to explain without any spoilers.

It had such a strong start. I was really into the interactions that the FL and ML were having. It was smooth sailing.

But then it became disjointed. It didn't feel like a love story anymore. The FL didn't even feel like a main character. I think both her and the other FL were heavily underdeveloped, and I'm quite disappointed in that. In general, I don'
t think the characterisation was that great looking back. Eve the two MLs felt underdeveloped. We didn't get much insight into their motivations and backstory. The acting was decent though.

Now, back to the plot. What the heck was going on? I feel like they didn't give much of a build up into the second half. It felt like the same person was placing the leads in to the same predicament over and over again. And like many have mentioned in the comments, that last episode was a bit of a mess. This drama could have benefitted from an extra episodes to make it 11 like most 90s JDramas. It would have been in their favour.

Can't remember the music at all. And I have little intention to re watch this, at least not any time soon.

Clearly my review was all over the place (much like the drama), so bear with me. If you are a fan of 90s Japanese dramas and have already watched the more popular ones, maybe give this a chance. I don't think you'll regret it.

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