Lifeline: more than friends but less than affaire is a story of two couples and their lack of communication on all levels. It is a slow burn drama showing how people deal with infidelity. But mostly it paints the portrait of two people completely incapable of showing their emotions to their respective spouses which brings them to the limit, to the point where they feel weighed down by life and in need of lifeline. The young woman and her husband's boss who lives next-door help each other get out of the place where they feel stuck. They become each other's lifeline saving them frow drowning.

I don't know if I am right, but japanese education is a very strict one. You are supposed to follow the rules, obey your elders and never ever show your feelings, never complain. You have to grin and bear it. Maiko, the FL is like this. Restrained and closed off. Only when she meets her neighbour, she sees herself in him and realizes that things cannot last like they have been going. Their respective spouses are having affairs but Maiko and Futaba, the neighbour, do not do anything about it. They sit quietly on the side waiting for it to pass. As the things ^progress, Maiko finds a compassionate ear in Futaba, so much so that she falls for him. She starts gently stalking him, waiting for him to come out and eventually she asks for more which he refuses point blank. His wife is having an affair and he is conscious of the reasons for it: they cannot have children and he thinks by letting her have the freedom to do whatever she wants, she'd be happy. Maiko's husband is having an affair because he is under impression that she does not love him or care for him, she always acquiesces to whatever he says, never tells him anything that may be disagreeable but all that is actually the very things he finds unbearable!

The main topic of this drama is the lack of communication born from the long marriage, strict upbringing and obeisance of rules. But all of that makes for four very unhappy people. When finally, they do start talking it is somehow too little too late. By the end of the drama, Maiko splits from her husband aware that she needs to stand up for herself. Fukada is transferred to another city. He leaves with his wife who, in spite of being childless and having devoted her life to work, sees a younger woman promoted in her place because of the politics: the woman is married with kids and the politicians, because of the low birth rates, demand of companies to show that the women can be mothers and successful at work.

The drama pictures the pressure the main characters are under really vividly: in her imagination, we see her tied to and pulling a tire and drowning in the sea. After they meet, she sees him throwing her a lifeline to save her. But eventually, when they realize that they had come to depend upon each other too much, he tells her to learn to swim so she does not need a lifeline, ever again.

The drama is slow moving, maudlin. Maiko is not a very likeable character: very pushy with the neighbour and subdued as wife. I felt actually sorry for her husband: he went looking for warmth and laughter elsewhere since all he got at home was a cold and polite housekeeper who never said a word wrong and kept a tall, unbreakable wall of politeness and efficiency between them.

This is a short drama with good production values, excellent acting and some really good music. An interesting watch though a bit depressing...