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This is for @Fern who likes this Japanese movie. It’s on Youtube. It’s an hour and 40 minutes long. The comic version is on Netflix. 12 episodes, 24 minutes each.
The movie version looks better than the comic version. In the comic version, the heroine aggravated me to no end. She was spineless, gullible, and self-effacing. She had zero sense of preservation. Thank goodness, the movie skated over her milquetoast personality when it condensed the story.
The lead actor is Meguro Ren. He seems to be popular. He was in “Silent” and “Trillion Game.” The female lead is Imada Mio. They were together in “Trillion Game.”
Here’s the synopsis from mydramalist:
Saimori Miyo was the unfortunate child of a loveless, arranged marriage. After her mother died, her father brought in his lover and her own daughter, Kaya. From then on, Miyo’s life was reduced to that of a mere servant. Even worse, while Kaya inherited the family’s psychic abilities, Miyo had none—she was truly the daughter with no merit.
After years of being treated like dirt, Miyo has learned to keep her head down, hide her pain, and obey every order. So, it comes as no surprise that she is arranged to be married to Kudo Kiyoka, a military captain rumored to be so cruel that he has driven away every one of his potential wives so far.
From a painful upbringing to a painful marriage, that’s the future that awaits Miyo—or so she thought. Contrary to her expectations, her new husband is actually kind-hearted. What really awaits Miyo is a blissful, everlasting marriage full of happiness!
Enjoy the show.
Gosh, thank you, @packmule3. One review said it had a partnership between magic and love. I liked the historical references which take place in a mythical version of the Meiji or Taishō period – probably the 1920s. The main actors were charismatic.
Thanks @pkml3 and Hi @Fern! Thanks for reminding me about this Movie. The thought did pass through my mind that I might watch it, but as usual, I forgot all about it.
Wow! What an interesting world this show inhabits and how exciting it was. Did you watch until after the Closing Credits? I was a bit stunned after hearing the upbeat OST ending music to suddenly hear dialogue. I was reading something else and had to go back to see. There was a very short epilogue which was tantalising in that it hints that a Season 2 or a follow-up story of some kind is possible. I assume the manga will have continued, hence there might be lots more plot to add. I found the movie sufficient and satisfactory as it was, though.
A nice way to spend almost 2 hours!
I may pick up Trillion Game to see our leads again! 🙂
@GrowingBeautifully, I didn’t watch the epilogue, so I’ll go back and do that now. Many thanks for the tip.
@Fern, oh do! And tell me what you think!
@Fern I looked up the OSTs for this movie. What I seem to have found is the OST for the Manga??? So many pieces. I have not listened to them yet to know if some of these are also in the movie, but I was thinking that the music was not bad as I wateched. 🙂
Sorry I meant OST for the Anime. The Anime seems to be available on Netflix. Since I don’t watch anime, I’m not going to check it out, but the music sounds ethereal. I believe the movie has it’s own soundtrack.
I watched the movie on youtube a couple of months ago but missed the epilogue. I’m about halfway through the anime and so far I like the movie better, although I do like that I’m getting more story in the anime. Glad that Netflix is making a second season.
I’ve only watched the anime on netflix- did not know there was a movie as well. What I enjoyed most was how reminiscent the early episodes were of Diana Wynne Jones stories. She is lot like the book version of Sophie in Howl’s Moving Castle. (Howl’s was itself made into an anime, but that is a different story in a lot of ways) Of course Sophie grows in confidence and power, which this heroine did not do as well.
Hi @Stacy and @Neottwiggi, thanks for the news about Season 2 of the anime. This link gives us the brief for Season 1 and what’s expected for Season 2, plus the names of the voice actors, I believe, who’ll voice the anime characters in Japanese and English.
It’s interesting that the live-action Movie hints at Season 2, hence I hope there’ll be a Season 2 in movie form.
Out of curiosity, I might watch the anime, but it’s going to take more time than I may have.
@Growing Beautifully, I saw the epilogue. It looks like Miyo will be chosen by a group of plotting men with the same wrist brand that the ‘doctor’ had. For what she will be chosen, I don’t know. I’m curious about their group. I would think that they will want to use her or destroy her for her powers.
I remember something about if someone with the dreaming gift (like Miyo) had a greater power than the emperor the dynasty was endangered. The emperor thought that Kioka Kudo could gain control over the emperor’s family by an alliance with the Saimori family. The emperor’s doctor seemed to have poisoned the emperor and was also the architect of the release of the grotesqueries which targeted the special unit of gifted soldiers including Kioka Kudo. The aim was to have the solders in the unit kill each other. I may not have those details correct. I thought these details were a bit vague and all came at the end of the film at the moment of the emperor’s death. Perhaps if I watch the anime again, it will be more apparent.
What was your impression?
I watched the series on Netflix last year and just watched the movie. I thought it did a pretty good job at exposition and world building but if I hadn’t seen the anime series I would have been more confused. I wish it had slowed down a bit (something I would never say about most k/c/j-dramas). RM looked rather dashing with the long gray hair. I wouldn’t have recognized him from Silent. I do think this story line is intriguing enough for its own lord of the rings or Harry Potter treatment. I hope they follow through with a second season and it is not just a teaser. The scene when he complimented her cooking was quite touching.
Hello, @Good Twin. I liked that scene too, in combination with the previous morning when he had been scolded by Yuri. Although we don’t see it, I think he was used to being set up with devious, capricious, spoiled girls similar to Miyo’s half-sister. He developed a blunt routine to get them to leave almost immediately so he could have peace at home. That, in combination with the spy ‘bird’ arriving at the same time, made him very suspicious of Miyo.
He understands the next day some of the depth of abuse that Miyo suffered at home and it affects him. Credit to the actor for showing that without words and without overacting.
@Good Twin and @Fern
I had to rewatch enough to recall the finer points here and there, and even so, since I didn’t take notes, I have forgotten some of what flashed through my mind.
The Epilogue’s last voice over said: “At last the flowers have bloomed. I’m going to pick you this time, Miyo.” The flowers probably refer to the sakura pattern on her face, the sign of her powers coming to fruition. And about picking her ‘this time’, means there was another who had been chosen before, for something or other. So much left untold!
We need a lot more story to know how she is going to control her nightmares if she’s not in the Usuba family home, and how will she know the way to control and use her powers, etc. We also have the considerations: whether she’s to be hidden from all prominent gifted families – even though there seems to have been a prophecy that she would turn up – and how is she to be protected since the clan with the scar knows about her.
I liked the part where although Miyo claimed to have no inborn gift to offer, she still gifted the hair tie to Kiyoka, and how he accepted it. Miyo’s smile as she tied his hair was sweet. He showed by words and gesture that he accepted her as she was.
@Fern, I’m trying to figure out if it was the case that the King knew that his doctor was the one who released the grotesqueries (since this was in the memories that the young king’s son absorbed from him) and took the opportunity to get them to kill off the gifted soldiers, mainly to kill Kiyoka, or whether the King was in cahoots from the beginning all this time. Yes, @Fern, I agree that all this part was vague and the cutting of scenes here and there did not help with comprehension of the whys for things happening.
I guess it is precisely to control such so-called ‘gifted’ leaders, that the Dream Weaver has a job to do. The Usuba elder said the gift was to defeat other gifted people, to stop them from going beserk. And ‘beserk’ is a pretty good word to describe the ‘doctor’ and the King.
A point of interest to me… all along the soldiers were fighting each other trying not to hurt or kill the other ie without using their swords to cut/slash at each other. If Miyo had not sent out the message that the grotesqueries should be cut, might not the soldiers have found that out by themselves by slashing at their colleagues? Or was it because Miyo was present, and able to get into all the minds of the soldiers, that the grotesqueries alone got cut, while the human beings infected with them were unhurt?
I’d be happy with a mini-series rather than another 2-hour movie. There is much story to develop that a quick movie cannot give details of.
I re-read what I posted above and discovered that I didn’t leave the link to the news about the Season 2 of the anime series. (At least I didn’t see the link!) Here it is:
https://www.digitalspy.com/tv/a45206795/my-happy-marriage-season-2/
@Growing Beautifully, I entirely missed the pattern on Miyo’s face. Well spotted. I thought it was a euphemism.
I went back to watch parts of the battle scene. Immediately Kudo sealed the compound to keep the citizens safe and he tried to get the affected soldiers into a holding area without killing them. The problem was, they were infecting the other soldiers so quickly.
As to how Miyo will control her dream power, I don’t know. Arata’s last words to her in the film were that she was incredibly foolish. She herself told Kudo that she would be the more troublesome one of the pair when he proposed. Perhaps Kudo will let her be assisted by the Usuba family without letting her go.
I believe that the king was acquiescent due to the prediction, as were a number of his advisors, but he was not in control as he was being poisoned. Clearly it was kept a secret from the prince. If the prince and Kudo can keep their friendship and allegiance to each other, there is hope. The prince admitted that Miyo’s mother sealed Miyo’s powers to keep her safe from his father and those who wanted to abuse her power. I’m not sure about the translation – it seems a bit awkward when Kudo and the prince are speaking at about 1h45. Kudo agrees that Miyo was loved and protected. I think he’s saying that in a similar way the king acted out of love to protect the prince and that only the prince, as future ruler, will be able to sort out the nobles.
I would be sorry if a second film is made with a different cast. And I know what @Good Twin meant when she said it could have been a bit longer to fit in these explanations.
I thought it interesting that this story was first published on a self publishing site – something similar to watt pad then was published as a novel and then adapted as a manga and then the anime series and movie. It is the type of fairy tale success story for a writer that I love to read about.
@Good Twin, I didn’t know that. What a story, indeed!
Watched the first 40 minutes of the movie and enjoyed it. Will report when I finish it.