Please come back later. This is just a reminder for me to finish a review of this dorama (Japanese drama) this today by tomorrow sometime this weekend soon.
Takane and Hana
Episodes: 8 short episodes (episodes run less than 30 minutes?? The Chinese drama writers really could learn brevity from their Japanese counterparts)
Subs completed on Viki: Yes!
Theme: arranged marriage between a 16 year old girl and a 26 year old man
Based on Japanese manga
Why am I watching this when I said I avoided manga-based dramas?
a. I want to see if cultural perspectives on the tsundere male have changed since the manga “Itazura na Kiss” first began its run in 1990. “Itazura na Kiss” has been adapted into several shows. According to wiki, no less than nine movie/tv adaptations were made from the manga. Many romantic tropes were spawned from the Japanese manga, and were integrated into teen-focused kdramas.
b. I’m interested to see how this writer will navigate the issue of the heroine’s age, and steer clear of pedophilic undertones. It surprised me that the age of consent in Japan is 13, although some localities have statutes prohibiting sexual activity for minors.
c. I need a break from kdramas. (Don’t we all?)
source: viki
So come back later when I’m done with my review. (Fingers crossed.)
@packmule3, thank you. This looks funny and refreshing. Why are I reminded of Mr Bean?
Same here my choice is C, a nice break from kdramas. 8 short episodes sounds appealing rather than watch an hour long drama.
I faced a choice last night, finish the last three episodes of SKY Castle or start Takane & Hana. I went with the latter, because I wasn’t in the mood to re-enter the intense world of SKY Castle quite yet.
If I were to use one word to describe Takane & Hana, it would be brevity, and as Shakespeare wrote, brevity is the soul of wit. Takane & Hana tells its story in eight segments of 20+ minutes each. Because it is so short, plot points are revealed and resolved quickly.
I am amused by the style of T&H because it is done like a live-action manga, not converted into a real-life story. As in manga, characters point at other characters–arm fully stretched–during emotionally charged dialogue. At a time of duress, a character responds with an open mouth howl. At moments of embarrassment, a character turns into a little felt doll, and the other actors in the scene carry on as if the doll were a human actor. Characters clearly declare what they’re thinking and why they’re thinking that way; I can almost see the manga dialogue bubbles as they do so.
That there’s a ten-year age difference between the female and male lead characters, and the FL is in her first year of high school, isn’t romanticized. That it is problematic is brought to light many times, and concerns are honestly voiced (or imagined). But I would say that on an emotional level, the FL is more mature than the ML, while embracing her current stage in life as a high school student. She’s pragmatic and honest, and doesn’t want to present herself as something she’s not. She’s also open-minded enough to see and appreciate the ML for the person he is inside, not the persona he’s trying to present to the world. She also values him as himself, not as a means to get rich.
Although the ML is referred to as handsome, in my eyes he looks derpy. It’s a good bit of casting, because he does convey the manga-esque style of his role, switching from a proud chaebol heir to a shivering puppy in a flash.
@Welmaris, that doll was a hoot. The ML has one of those faces that, from certain angles is handsome, and from others is yeah, derpy. Like Rowan Atkinson. I read a comment that the direction was deliberately manga-like and if you want a realistically depicted story it’s not for you. I liked the 1st few eps.
Dear All, where are you watching this dorama? I watched a few episodes on Dramacool and now it is nowhere to be found, either under Takane and Hana or Takane to Hana.
I watched all eight episodes on Viki. I have the Pass Plus membership, which provides the most content availability.
@Welmaris, thank you.
Same here, Fern. I watched it on Viki. I’ve a Plus membership, too, but I think this drama is accessible to regular subscribers.
You beat me to it, Welmaris. Your review is better than mine. 🙂
Thanks.
@Packmule3 I sincerely doubt my powers of analysis exceed yours.
If you want to watch something else that is fun and very short, look in YouTube for the full merged episodes version of the 2016 web series 7 First Kisses. The series was created as a promotion for Lotte Duty Free Shops, and each segment is only 10 minutes long. Put together, the whole thing is about an hour-and-a-half watch. Shallow Islanders will greatly appreciate the cast of male leads. I was amused by how each segment is a different genre, and how many tropes were packed into them.
Sounds interesting. Wow! Consent at 13? 😱🙅🏻♀️
The picture above looks good. I’ll see if I can spot the derpy. 😃 I see it on Viki.
Lol at the first meeting! 😂 I was going to say what’s with Takane’s hair and so Hana flips her wig at him! Cool! 😂
It’s light and easy.
Yes. Consent at 13.
Philippines’ age of consent is 12.
So those two countries will probably change their penal codes.
Geez! That’s even worse than 13! I had no idea. 😭
I was laughing at their first meeting. This should be a breeze. Thanks!
That’s why Takane is “derpy.”
Good word from Welmaris. 😂
I liked how she planted her foot on the table like a gangster and told him off.
He’s bright though. He knew instantly that she wasn’t the real girl in the picture that was shown to him.
And he confirmed his suspicions when the dad blurted out her real name as she ran off. He called her “Hana.”
I’m writing a review for “River Where the Moon Rises” Ep 10. Then I’ll get on with Takane and Hana.
Oh he’s a gentleman too, opening the car door, buying her a dress and dinner! All to say sorry. I’m in! They’re cute already! 🥰
😂 I knew it!
You don’t have to cry here.
Okie doks! I’m watching first episode. 😊
Yes, well you know me. 😜 Let’s not forget the roses! ☺️
Yes again because I’ve cried with the two dramas already except for RWTMR 😂
RWTMR will probably be sad next week. The preview showed Dal’s nanny getting shot by an arrow. But this week was all about Dal and Pyeonggang so it was light.
Lol. Wait till you read my post on RWTMR…😂
Are you going to massacre RWTMR? 🤣
I was just laughing because I got shocked when Takane put his arm like that on the brick close to Hana then she goes ‘What’s after this?’ And he goes off! 😂😂😂
He doesn’t have any experience does he? 😁
Hahaha. That “wall slam” reminded me of “True Beauty” when Cha Seung Woo had todo it. It was the unnie who knew how the wall slam trope worked.
I’m going to “massacre” something in my review. But it’s not who/what you think. 🥸
I didn’t watch True Beauty. Hopefully Netflix will pick it up and I’ll definitely watch it then. I saw that Pride and Prejudice is at Netflix! Keira Knightly one. ☺️
Ok re RWTMR 😊
Wow! The sister just broke up just like that with her boyfriend. 🤦🏻♀️ There’s attraction already between T and H. ☺️ She’s too late. Poor bf!
True Beauty is on Netflix though.
I just checked and it’s not there?
I noticed there’s a Ying Yang Master movie coming tomorrow. Is that part 2?
I saw that South Korea raised the age of consent from 13 to 16 only in 2020. France is only introducing the concept now – there had previously been no set age limit according to what I read. It’s 16 here in the UK, but there are ‘Romeo and Juliette’ clauses to do with same-aged younger people not being charged.
This would be a worrisome dorama, but Takane is clearly even less experienced than Hana, so the feeling that he is somehow grooming her doesn’t exist.
There is a gap in my cultural understanding – what is the difference between dating and having a potential marriage partner relationship? They agree that if one falls in love with the other, the relationship is off. It seems backwards?
Whoops. I meant Viki. True Beauty is on Viki.
Ah ok. Noted! Thanks. I’ll watch it later after these drama finishes. ☺️
Yes! I thought this dorama would have undertones of Nabokov’s “Lolita,” so I was wary about watching this. But the writer seems to avoid the “lolicon” issue which is taboo in Japan.
lolicon = Lolita complex
Yes. Takane is boastful and arrogant, but he seems to be on the straight and narrow.
@Fern, I went back to that scene and Takane said she doesn’t have the right to call off the marriage arrangement but if she falls in love with him, he doesn’t mind calling it off.
Is that the scene?
Yes, @agdr03. That is what I meant. It comes up in later episodes and I never quite figured it out.
Thanks for looking this up, agdr03.
Fern, he’s willing to have a marriage arrangement bec that will be like a formal engagement, with emphasis on “formal.” There’s no demand on them to have physical or intimate contact. They’ll present a united front as a couple during social functions. But they don’t have to get married anytime soon.
It’s an engagement-of-convenience.
It works for him bec for one, his grandfather will stop setting up these matches for him and pestering him. For another, he thinks he can control her because she’s young and still insecure about her place in the world. (That lecture he gave about being imperfect.)
But should she fall in love with him, he’s out. First, he doesn’t want emotional entanglement. And second, he wins. He gets to disprove her assertion that he was an unattractive person.
He doesn’t see this arrangement backfiring on him.
He doesn’t want to date her. He just wants a formal arrangement. An engagement-of-convenience.
I explained it. But our posts crossed. 😂
Thank you, @packmule3. That makes more sense. I had wondered if that sort of marriage arrangement had a universal meaning, but I can see that it is specific to him and her, and to his wants. I quite like his take on it – it would have been nice to have that sort of undemanding experience myself as a young person. If only to get to know how the opposite sex thinks and acts without expectations. It’s sort of a reversal, action wise, of the film Friends with Benefits.
Takane is so funny in the first episode. He reminds me of one of those IQ gifted adolescents who is socially very inept.
I thought the advice from friends, co-workers and rivals in later episodes was interesting, too. It was a mix of protection, teaching, validation and encouragement from different points of view. It served as a device to move the drama along swiftly as well.
There’s this scene in a later episode when he gave her a key.
It brought home to me that he didn’t think of her in a “sexual” way and the Hana KNEW it, too.
For him, the key was for HER convenience. He didn’t want her to wait outside in the cool. Also, he thought that the key would please HER because it meant that she also “owned” the place. She was no longer just a guest. That place was hers, too.
And if you notice the shelves in the room, she had a bookcase just for her own paraphernalia. Stuffed toy, books, etc. He was letting her use his space as her home-away-from-home.
Lastly, he thought she’d see it as a “win” for her. He surrendered. He was giving her unrestricted access to him because he wasn’t embarrassed anymore about his poverty. 🙂
Thus, the key symbolized “ownership” not only of the dwelling place, but also of his person. He was showing her that he had come to accept her presence in his life. He didn’t think of her as an annoying pest anymore.
But for her friends, they were shocked because they thought it was a sexual proposition. That he wanted them to level up the relationship and *live-in* together. 😂 I don’t think the physical aspect of their relationship entered his head at that point.
And I like that Hana knew that Takane wasn’t thinking of sex and living-in. I think she was three steps ahead of Takane. She wanted to know if they were both on the same wavelength, if the key meant the same thing for them, or if she was reading too much into it.
I thought Takane was unusual. In the other doramas I’ve watched that were manga-adaptations, it’s usually the female character who acts cartoon-y. You’ve seen it: exaggerated facial contortions, big eyes and open mouth to express shock, mime, freezing up, and so on.
But here, it’s the male protagonist who acts like a manga character and the girl behaves normally.
Yes, Takane is very manga-esque, complete with transforming into Doll-san whenever he’s really upset. 😁. It’s like he’s deprived of his humanity and becomes a symbol of hurt feelings.
I liked that he started helping Hana with her revision homework, too. Having a daughter that age now, preparing for her big exams, I would welcome a tutor like him. She reciprocated by cooking and doing some cleaning for him, which also contributed to lightening his mood when he was depressed. I really disliked the cruel extremes his grandfather went to, but he was onto something because Takane and Hana learned to help each other out and grew in the process.
I liked the advice given Takane by his friend (frenemy) Nicola, to appear naked before Hana. Of course Nicola meant it metaphorically, for Takane to allow Hana to see himself stripped of the appearances and benefits of wealth. If Hana appreciated Takane as a person in that state, her affection was the real deal. Nicola had seen too many girls try to attach themselves to Takane solely because he was rich, even going so far as to unmask one’s insincerity by providing temptation and seeing her quick pivot away from Takane. Takane interpreted the advice literally and was scandalized, of course. But we have seen that Takane does have the capacity to respond sexually to Hana. Shortly after Hana demonstrated what happens after a wall slam, Takane was amazed and thrilled to recall the kiss.
@Welmaris, I think that the grandfather’s actions of freezing Takane’s accounts, taking away his possessions, making him move into a cold and ugly studio flat and changing his job ended up making Takane metaphorically naked.
I thought it was interesting that Hana accepted Takane’s rejection at that point. I think she thought she was being sensitive to his situation. But then Okamoto pointed out to her that it would make her no better than the gold-diggers Takane met in the past. Okamoto isn’t happy about encouraging her but he is true to his moral code. She regains her competitive and fierce persona after that.
I think one of my favourite scenes was on the bridge in the hot springs town when Takane wraps Hana’s hands in his scarf. She asked Takane if he had an arrest warrant, ha. But Hana speaks about the little positive things about winter that bring warmth and make the cold not so bad after all. I think that’s when he starts to really appreciate her. He leads her away, hands still bound, by holding onto the scarf ends.
This j-dorama makes me laugh a lot. I am enjoying it. 🙂
By the way where is the thread for The Blessed Girl? I can’t see it anymore.
Wait. I have something to post. Ugh!!! I’ve been so busy today so I haven’t had time to edit.
All good. Take your time. I’m about to drive off now. Boss said to go to the bank and get our bank bags and deposit books then go home. Yay! I’ll catch you later!
My Boss is so cool! 🙂
Okay. I should be up till late tonight finishing my blog posts.
here it is.
https://bitchesoverdramas.com/2021/02/08/the-blessed-girl-open-thread-for-agdr03/