Love and Fortune (2018)

Unless you are into adult content don't watch or else a life lesson

To start with I must say, the female lead was serious when she said she is no different than the high school girl. She didn't want to do so many things and yet ended up doing them and each of them prove her to be a selfish, gross woman. But here's a catch - She was also craving for a man who would understand what she wants and would accompany her thoughts. This is the reason she could never say she didn't like the teenager boy. Bcz he had given her the feeling of being heard and understood.
Although the plot made us look down on her character and made it look legally and morally offensive towards her but as per what we could arrive from the show, she never had a proper friend whom she could rely upon. So she had always wanted her boyfriend to be that friend for her and mess herself up by being indecisive.
The sex#al potrayal was not totally unnecessary as it made the viewers realise the true feelings of the characters but it was too much erotic must say atleast for a teenager boy. Obviously it was shown in purpose to bring realistic picture but still it was too much and f lead made it look cringe sometimes. Still I believe the rumor punishment was enough for her as she had to leave the only job she had found after so much of hustle. Also it made her realise some facts that she had to leave that boy to let him think properly about his future and it is better that it is upto us how we imagine if they will be together later on.
Coming to Fu kun, he was a pretty nice guy according to today's standards. Although getting a chance, he did not step forward towards cheating with her gf. And I personally felt the female lead did not like him from the beginning as she also mentioned sometimes in between that she chose him because he chose her.
That's why I believe we should not go into a relationship if we are not sure if we are actually interested in that person. If something goes wrong, a long relationship might wreck up into pieces silently and the one with actual feelings would sink in desperation. Although it seems pretty easy to move on in shows, but irl it is worse.

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Well made as a disturbing story

I find the idea of having a relationship with a high-schooler disguising. This is a boy we're dealing with, almost a child, he's troubled and immature and it was painful to see him fall apart because of this relationship. Not all big age gaps are harmful, but it this case, I can't find one scenario in which this is ok. The way it's shown how he devolves from a normal kid into to a manic, quite violent kid possessed by jealousy makes think the show is condemning and not romanticizing this kind of relationship. It shows he is completely unprepared to deal with this kind of relationship.

I empathized with her dissatisfaction with her relationship, I found her boyfriend quite repulsive, and I also understand not wanting to work for one of those horrible soulless companies but you don't fix that by grooming a boy for pete's sake. So she because equally deranged for not realizing how messed up it is to be with that boy. Her coworker's situation is not the same. The age age seems significant but at lest her boyfriend is an employed adult and his parents are aware of their relationship.

The series was well made and filmed and it portrayed quite well the struggles an an aging woman in Japan. The societal norms are so strict and it leaves so little room for a woman's fulfillment that it's easy to understand how suffocating that can be.

It though this was all going somewhere but then it lost me at the ending. Where it hinted they reunited and it put a spotlight on one of the better moments of their relationship where they were both candid about their dreams and it was a tender moment where his age isn't so apparent because we can all have dreams well into old age.

I also find it very unlikely that he would end up directing a movie that gets displayed in her cinema. In reality, he would have been so consumed by their relationships that it would have long lasting effects. He would have dropped out of school, become depressed and erratic. It's impossible for a healthy outcome to come out of this.

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Hmm

I watched this a year ago so bear with me.

I saw some says that they were frustrated because of the poor choices of the woman, as well as the general themes of this drama — infidelity / adultery (well, not really because Wako and her fb weren't married but still something similar) and pedophilia. That's exactly the point of this drama. It's realistic and it openly talks about those two issues. It shows what happens and how it happens if an adult, in general, begins a sexual relationship with a child.

PS: YOU CAN ALWAYS SKIP THE MATURE SCENES!

Also, don't talk about “what if the roles were reversed?” bullshit because I don't see anyone praising the woman for grooming and having a relationship with a teenager. Though her punishment of earning rumors about sleeping with a child wasn't enough honestly — she should've been punished legally! The age gap between her and Yumeaki was soooo questionable.

But then again, no one's clapping because of her actions! Her actions were a result of her problems, and some people understand that, but it doesn't mean anyone condone them!

The relationship between her and Yumeaki also showed how the latter's actions become more wreckless at the time went by. He became posessive and almost lost his sense out of his supposed love for Wako.

Not a single issue was romanticized in my viewpoint, they were realistically presented, in a way that would make the viewers have their own question and opinion about it.

f you're not open-minded, I don't think you should watch this. Although, I did expect mixed reactions because this series was meant to be a controversial one.

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Deeper than the synopsis suggests, but that doesn't make it easier.

What I took away from this drama is that you really can craft a story where all the main characters are intensely dislikable and have it be an interesting story.

The first boyfriend who the FL is in a long term relationship with is a classic disinterested and childish partner that a lot of women wind up settling for. He looks down on the FL, treats her like an employee, is selfish emotionally, psychologically, and sexually, but isn't outright abusive or callous. Remarkably, he is the most likeable in the love triangle.

I find the FL to be incredibly contemptuous in practically every metric. She pulls a 15 year old into her (early?) life crisis and victimizes him to satisfy her need to cleanse her own trauma or something? I'd have a lot more to say about WHY she chooses to do what she does, but the drama is very light on back-story for her that isn't related to her 4 year relationship with her adult boyfriend.

She even develops the nerve to defend herself to others once the relationship becomes known publicly, acting as if those around her should just accept that the relationship is valid. Her common defense is that 'She is having fun', but tells the ML that she loves him and wants to stay with him forever. She selectively presents two different stories to people and would rather lie and justify her actions that admit what she is doing is wrong.

The ML is of course the victim in this relationship. He is objectively immature, and is being emotionally manipulated by the FL. His chances at having a normal relationship is going to be effected for the rest of his life. But the drama does a damn good job at making us hate him, too. His immaturity, manipulative behaviour, stalking, and sexual abuse is actually very realistic BECAUSE THATS WHAT AN OBJECIVELY IMMATURE PERSON DOES. Regardless of how expected his behaviour is, you still hate him for what he does(because you should) and his willingness to throw his life away to be with this abusive woman is pitiful rather than sympathetic.

Like others have said, the drama is beautifully produced, and the actors did a fantastic job convincing me that they are these characters. I think the story falls apart after the FL starts her relationship with the ML in earnest, after breaking up with the long-term boyfriend. The story was much more captivating when she was umming and ahhing about the morality of what she was doing, rather than jumping full force into this ridiculous relationship. The first 6-7 episodes are a solid 9/10, but the back half of the drama brings it down to a 7/10 at best. The ending is intensely unsatisfying, too.

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Explicit with Wrong Message Delivery

Review is based off the show only, never read the manga.

LIKES:
Location filming and cinematography.
Okay music.

Perfect actor/actress selection for the characters portrayed.
A lot of emotions shown throughout the show, and the characters are established enough to complete the story as it was written, which says a lot considering episodes were only 24 minutes long and there were only 12.
The age gap of FL and ML in reality is 11 years, so I think that’s why the delivery is so good, because they technically can relate to the characters (although Wako Taira and Yumeaki Iko had a 16 year age gap). The differences in maturity (and not necessarily age, were very believable).
Kamio Fuju’s acting in this was really good, he delivered the feelings of a 15 yr old, as if he still was one. [In 2018 he was 19 years old.]
Considering the character she had to play, Tokunaga Eri also did a good job. [In 2018 when this was created, she was 30]
The only good thing about Wako is she encourages Yumeaki to chase his dreams of becoming a film creator.
The drama did a decent job of showing the harder and uglier side of becoming an adult and living life.
Production was good, letting the acting carry the drama instead of camera FX. Realism was spot on. Editing was smooth.
Right from the beginning the writer told us they were doomed from the start, when Iko found out an important detail about her life. No relationship can last without trust and open communication.
Considering it was a manga adaption, the ending was satisfactory.

DISLIKES:
WRITING:
Wako Taira is definitely a pedophile. [1- she preys on Yumeaki Iko’s loneliness and inexperience, 2- instead of waiting until he is old enough to make his own choices, she manipulates him. 3- she acts like a child herself to lure him in.]. How she handles the situation with the teenager isn’t love it’s control. She doesn’t teach him about love, she teaches him about control, infatuation, possessiveness and everything negative. [If she actually loved him she would’ve been happy to just hold his hand, hugs and maybe a kiss, until he was old enough to make the choice of being more physical.]
This is how a midlife crisis can become very wrong.
They only mentioned consequences via the TV news, instead of tackling that with Wako. I feel that sends the wrong message.
We should’ve seen the reaction of Yumeaki Iko’s parents to the news of his older woman relationship.

OVERALL:
When I first watched this in 2019, I stopped half way through and then finished it much later. I had to rewatch it all in one siting to give a complete review. So technically I rewatched it. I had started watching because I really like Kamio Fuju’s acting, especially when he tackles complex characters. I would recommend people watch this all the way through, to see his superb acting. Also it suggests that the viewer learn to not let desires override sense and morality.

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Technically, I should not write a review since I only managed a quarter of the series, but I feel like mentioning why I dropped it should be reason enough.
I was hooked for the first 2 episodes because the filming quality, story line, main character, and her character introduction moved at a comfortably fast pace. The camera shots portrayed the drowsy, stagnating summer heat of the city, giving the drama an overall tone of melancholy yet with some passionate life to it as well. For example, the scenes that caught the blinding glare of the sun as the MC squatted on the ground, playing with a machine until it was empty, her watering the plants in cooling sprays as she she first sees her love interest, etc. The main character came across as worn out, 'limp like soba' (another reference to the summer as it's eaten in that season particularly), and aimless as to what she wanted. And that's what turned me off. I understood her need to get a job or get married. Those were legitimate concerns but she goes about it by basically being lustful for a child. Yes, the kid was super handsome, he was sexually willing & curious, but by the 3rd episode I was like wtf she's taking advantage of him?
She kept saying to herself that she never felt such a connection with a person, but I felt like that trope came off across as weak because it was simply their mutual love for similar films. Her "connection" was more like she hadn't been turned on this hard by a guy before. The scene where I stopped was where she was thinking of how to get them to a love motel without getting caught by her bf while the kid is innocently telling her he's excited to see her movie collection. Like no. Perhaps it got better later in the eps, but for the 2nd half of the 3rd episode, their "connection" development was sickening and poorly written.

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sad & random

i kept reading reviews saying that this one has got great cinematography, but honestly i've seen many effortlessly better dramas! it's somehow - just somehow - easy on the eyes, but nothing more... the FL is so plain ! i totally got the idea it's a drama abt mediocre people, but still there are so many charming women out there in their 30s or 40s or whatever! what this drama lacks - and lacks for real - it's some vision... there's no vision to it, just some random people fighting middle age crisis and getting depressed over all kind of shit life keeps throwing at them/ at us.
even the new love - the innocent love a 15 yrs old teen can offer - gets trashed in the depressing mixture. the breath of fresh air that should be there - it's hardly there!
the writer behind it might have wanted to approach some deep topics, like imperfect love, emotionally hurt people and people that hurt themselves by making wrong choices etc... still something is missing.
i'd say, any way this drama will go from now on - i'm at ep 8 - it will be totally random, so i'll drop it.

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GREAT CINEMATOGRAPHY AND NEW STUFF TO WATCH!!

ALERT:- You'll love this movie else you'll find it disturbing. for me i find this movie quite amazing. This movie is just so realistic. A hidden gem. i wanted to watch more of them. i really loved FL and ML !! im quite obsessed in watching them more. NEGATIVE:- I gave this drama 8.5/10 because there were some scenes which were quite annoying like FL lied twice and then things happened that was quite annoying and still there are things happened in flow. The other point is i find this movie so realistic because of age gap. They both are Gem and did a great job here. Hope y'all will enjoy this quite annoying but thrilling ride.

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