Acting was brilliant, which kept me watching when I really shouldn't have. The level of sadness in this is extreme and in many cases seems an unnecessary level of emotional and physical pain inflicted on the characters. I spent most of my time being furious at the mistreatment of the characters by other characters.
If you have any level of depression, that will respond well to a very sad story, DO NOT WATCH THIS. I and other friends who watched this were traumatised by it (I've been told the Japanese story that this is from is even darker&sadder)
It is months since I've watched this, and just the small mention of it and the distress this drama caused floods back in. Another fellow watcher described it as requiring DECOMPRESSION afterwards.
Excellent performances by actors but this script is just way too unpleasant.