Wen 丨 Liu Qi
The 2021 autumn Japanese drama "The Favorite" has received a Douban score of 9.0 points as soon as it starts broadcasting, and if it is only from the perspective of The Card Division and the creative team, this high-standard production seems to have the potential to become the best Japanese drama in the autumn file.
In recent years, director Ayuko Tsukahara and screenwriter Sadoko Okusera, Yuriko Yoshitaka, Yukihiro Matsushita, Shin Iura, Hiroko Yakumaru, and Hiroko Yakushimaru, all of whom have online acting skills, coupled with the blessing of Utada Hikari's theme song, this drama seems to have no reason to fail.
However, after insisting on watching the first five episodes, I only had one puzzle: what made screenwriter Sadoko Okatera confident that she could create a suspenseful reasoning drama of the level of Minamianae or Keigo Higashino?
If the high-level performance of the spring Japanese drama "Short Drama Begins" and "Soybean Field Nagako and Three Ex-Husbands" has made me a fan of 10,000-year-old Japanese dramas find the confidence to revitalize Japanese dramas again, then this seemingly elaborate "Favorite" makes people wonder, the 9-minute Japanese drama in 2021, just this?
A crotch-pulling play that neither CP nor BGM can recover
This series once again confirms that for Japanese dramas (perhaps all episodes), the role of the director is far less important than that of the screenwriter. Director Ayuko Tsukahara has maintained a high standard in many Japanese dramas in recent years, such as the bloody idealistic "Reprinted Out", the "Diary of a Middle School Saint" that criticizes social problems, whether it is workplace or daily, crime or love, serious or funny, although the styles are different, but they are all at ease.
Unnatural Death
The first three dramas of Tsukahara's collaboration with Sadoko Okutera, "Nocturnal Ferris Wheel", "For N", and "Reverse Rebirth", are all adapted from Minami Kanae's novel, and "The Favourite" is the first original series that the two have cooperated, so the story quality of this work depends entirely on the screenwriter Okutera Sadoko.
"The Favourite"
However, the level of Sadoko Okuter is not stable. Although I really like several of the anime she wrote, I have to say that Sadoko Okusera is by no means a top-level TV screenwriter like Yuji Sakamoto or Kankuro Miyato, and most of her best works are adaptations, "Move", "Jump! Time and Space Girl", "Cicada of the Eighth Day", "For N", etc., such works have the original works of Yasutaka Tsutsui, Mitsuyo Kakuda, and Minami Kanae, which can be relatively easily reached a high level.
Although there are several adaptations that seem to be better and more delicate than the original, more or less prove her screenwriting ability, the difficulty of originaling a story is certainly not the same as adapting an original solid story. Her original scripts, such as "I, get off work at the end of the hour", are obviously less interesting.
"I, get off work at the end of the day"
The advantages of "The Favourite" come from the theme song, casting, and the directing skills of Ayuko Tsukahara. The theme song created by Hikaru Utada is perhaps the most dazzling part of the series, and all the key plot points are used to set off the mood with the help of this theme song. The theme songs of the production team's previous episodes are also amazing, Yoshizu Genshi's "Lemon" and Uru's "Prologue", which almost reached the level of the golden age of Japanese dramas, and the melody was heartwarming as soon as it sounded.
The casting is also very stable. Although the opening scene of Xiao Jigao stroking his hair with a blood-stained hand is stunning enough to make people think that the heroine is a cold beauty who carries sins and secrets similar to "White Night", but after watching a few episodes, the heroine Sanada Liyang is too gentle and sweet, not at all like hiding any ulterior secrets and pain, and not like the president of a big trading company, it seems to be closer to the office worker in "I, Get Off Work". But fortunately, there is a face value to support, chat to comfort.
Xiao Jigao, ARATA, and Matsushita Huanping are very pleasing to the eye when standing together, so that a large number of CP parties in Douban's "Favorite", whether it is the bamboo horse party of the first love or the lawyer party of the lawyer, can find their own happiness and expectations.
Unfortunately, in addition to the above advantages, the whole story is a mediocre and failed imitation, and the screenwriter has seriously failed in both crime and emotion.
The story of "The Favourite" continues the pattern of "For N", the characters change their fate because of a fortuitous crime, and the protagonist often chooses to commit or cover up the crime for the sake of the person he loves. Some classic reasoning movies or dramas, from the early "Sandware" and "Proof of Human Nature", to Keigo Higashino's "The Devotion of Suspect X", "White Night", "When the Prayer Ends", or Minato Kanae's "For N" and "Reversal", are all such crimes wrapped in family, friendship or love.
The best works of emotional reasoning often absorb the advantages of the Benge school and the social school, not only the wonderful suspense of the Benguet school, the meticulous reasoning process, but also the complex and ambiguous human factors of the social school, the delicate and entangled emotional relationships, and there is no lack of detailed depiction of social reality.
"The Favourite" has the classic emotional pattern of such Japanese dramas, the bond between father and daughter, sister and brother, and the crime committed for love. But on both the level of love and sin, "The Favourite" is a failure, and it does not show the fatalism and tragedy of carrying sin and secrets for love at all (Utada Hikaru's theme song has a bit of a fatalistic flavor). The script of the first five episodes is not only full of crime/investigation plots, but also very superficial and sloppy family and love lines.
Failed crime stories with routine love stories
Screenwriter Sadoko Okutera is better at warm and delicate plots, and it seems that she has not been able to create a crime story that is heart-wrenching enough. Because for a crime story, what is most needed is the depiction of complex human nature and the insight into the subtle human heart. At the same time, since there are criminal incidents, whether it is an active crime or an accidental crime, it must bear the burden of crime and punishment.
But "The Favourite" as a whole feels too bright and positive, and it seems that everyone is kindly shining for love except for the one who was killed. The younger brother's first killing was justified by self-defense and manslaughter, and the second killing was even more reckless and unnecessary (although the deep emotional motives for this killing have not yet been revealed).
In contrast, the crime of killing people and hiding in anonymity for decades in order to protect her daughter's reputation in "When the Prayer Ends" contains a human shock brought about by the interweaving of love and hate, good and evil, and even if love is so deep and great, the sin committed for love is an irrefutable evil. Unfortunately, the crime in "The Favourite" seems to have some kind of rationality, and a child who accidentally kills a bad person who does evil can be described as a substitute for Skywalker.
"When the Prayer Ends"
According to the plot of the first five episodes, Sadoko Okiza seems to only want to show love and dedication, and has no intention of touching a little evil of human nature, so everyone becomes a good person, even a saint who sacrifices to protect his loved ones.
The way the younger brother exists (hiding in the shadows), acts (killing for his sister), and even the physical condition of amnesia, these various character characteristics make him a tool of the author's pen, as if the author deliberately designed to show the emotional bondage between the sister and brother and protect each other.
This character setting is largely borrowed from the male protagonist of "White Night", a shadow guardian who hides in the shadows and does all the bad things for the heroine. But "White Night" is much darker and more fatalistic, so that the male and female protagonists become the emotional bondage of accomplices, the murder for desire and success again and again, and the separation of light/dark places, all reinforce the tragic sense of fate.
《Midnight Night》
But in "The Favourite", there is neither the conspiracy and the evil committed for desire in "White Night", nor the entanglement of the past and mutual redemption between the characters in "For N", nor the puzzle woven with lies in "The Dedication of Suspect X", "The Favorite" is only a kind of protection that is detached from reality, seemingly beautiful but particularly naïve.
Even if the story begins with this kind and innocent bondage protection - the young brother protects the sister to kill, the sister and the first love encourage each other, but fifteen years later, the heroine has become the president of the big trading company, the story still stays in this innocent and bright tone, which is inexplicably childish and ridiculous.
Moreover, although the story is obviously intended to imitate "For N", the screenwriters clearly lack control over the narrative information in the first five episodes, and tell the story too clearly. Even though the author designed a reversal of the story in the unaired episodes, the first five episodes were grossly inadequate in laying the groundwork for clues. The second episode reveals that the younger brother was the perpetrator of the first crime, and the fifth episode further tells the audience that the second crime was also committed by the younger brother.
Although the revelation of the two truths may not be the complete truth, there may be some reversals, such as the murder of the sexual assaulter was not the heroine's brother alone, but more people involved in the killing/throwing of the body, or the heroine's father did not die accidentally but was killed. Another reversal may be that the latter episodes push the heroine (or the police protagonist, the lawyer) into a more irreparable crime, so that they kill others for the purpose of cover-up and protection and thus embark on the road of no return.
But even if there is a reversal, the foreshadowing given by the screenwriter in the first few episodes is seriously missing, and the crime/investigation event and the relationship between the character are framed in the narrow range of the four people of the brother and sister plus the police first love and the lawyer, without involving more participants, nor weaving a network of confusing character relationships in "For N".
For example, in the first episode, the victim's father came to the dormitory to inquire about his son's whereabouts, and several people in the dormitory obviously had something to hide. Or another girl who was sexually assaulted, in the narration of the male protagonist, wanted to stop talking. The past of the female journalist also seems to be linked to the case. How the heroine's mother and a group elder have to do with this matter. These clues all hint at the possible reversal of the story later, but the special failure of the play is that in the second to fifth episodes, all the previous doubts and clues are broken, and a confusing and harmonious puzzle is not created. At the same time, the screenwriter began to tirelessly use a love drama to show the reunion of the male and female protagonists.
One of the keys to the hearts of such crime stories is, of course, the emotional bond between the characters, whether it is affection or love.
But the main line of love that the screenwriter and director spent a lot of effort on is also childish and old-fashioned to be unbelievable. Even though many viewers are obsessed with the CP of the show, this is mainly because of the character image. And the level of the main plot of love, even the edge of the Golden Age Japanese drama can not reach. Even if Tsukahara Yayuko's own love drama "Junior High School Sacred Diary", the love part of the heart is lingering, "The Favorite" is difficult to match.
Diary of a Middle School Saint
One of the scenes that has gone viral on the Internet is when the male and female protagonists meet on the street in the second episode. The heroine was eating while walking, and a car that followed closely behind her saw that it was about to crash into the heroine, and the male protagonist who suddenly appeared pulled over and hugged the heroine. This kind of cliché that makes people feel like they are back twenty years old, and I am stunned to see it. There is also the plot of the first episode of the heroine's two Japanese dramas running to see the male protagonist's athletics competition, which is also a bit difficult to say. Friends who feel touched can close Utada Hikaru's BGM to try it.
The first episode of the kind of young love of high school students, completely unable to show the emotional depth of the two people. After the reunion, the male protagonist's suspicion of the female protagonist cannot see how deep the emotional bond between the two is. Of course, the original intention of the screenwriter is definitely to create conflict and emotional tension through the male protagonist's police identity and the heroine's suspect identity, but at present, the emotions and conflicts of the two cannot be convincing, and it is not as good as the tacit understanding between the lawyer and the heroine. This is all the consequence of the lack of adequate preparation of the main line of love.
The lawyer's protection of the heroine is not emotionally convincing at all, it seems that the lawyer fell in love with the heroine at the beginning, and from then on began to pay and wait without reservation, and a "Mary Sue" smell came to the face.
The same problem exists in the main line of family affection. Although the emotional setting between father and daughter and brother and sister is deep enough, the performance of the series is too simple. The younger brother says to guard his sister several times, the father says to protect his daughter, and the characters are also sacrificing themselves for this protection (throwing corpses or hiding their names), but the plot setting does not keep up with the emotional motivations of the characters, and it is not enough to rely on a large number of flashbacks and tear-inducing BGM. Comparing the family bondage in "When the Prayer Ends" and "Meteor Trip", you can feel the pale powerlessness of "The Favorite".
Although "For N" or "Reverse Rebirth" is also a number of characters who are involved in accidental criminal events and thus change their fate, because the objects depicted are low-level small people, these characters have their own dark past and psychological scars, and have entanglements and bonds that are difficult to get rid of, so they will fall into the sense of fatalism and powerlessness brought about by criminal events, and also give them the inability to break free with convincing.
But all the characters in "Favorite", the relationship between the characters, the history of the characters, are too bright and positive, except for the sexual assault (attempt) incident, the characters have no dark past and entanglement, so the crime of child manslaughter lacks the tragic power that makes all the characters trapped in it and cannot escape.
Even in the presentation of social reality, there is a lack of sufficient strength. All the tragedies of "The Favourite" come from an attempted sexual assault, but it is not deeply criticized enough, and because of the popular nature of the TV series, the creators cannot even let the heroine really suffer, but only stay in the attempted crime. It is not necessary to consume sexual violence, but if there is no actual crime, the heroine seems to have no psychological shadow, except for the manslaughter of her brother, she is an optimistic and active heroine who tries to develop a new drug to save patients from beginning to end.
Therefore, the drama does not reach the basic level of a social reasoning work at all, and Japan's social problems and social realities (family, class, gender) are all vacuum in this work, which is far inferior to "For N" or "Reverse Rebirth".
"For N"
So let's not mention Kiyoharu Matsumoto, even compared to the worst works of Keigo Higashino or Minami Kanae, "The Favourite" has a big gap.
Before I always felt that Korean dramas were too strong, but in the past few years, there have been more and more excellent Korean dramas, the warm "Please Answer" series and "Witty Doctor Life", the depressed "My Uncle", "Human Disqualification", the relaxed "Spring Night", "Romantic Physique", the profound "Secret Forest" and "Signal", and the Japanese drama as a whole seems to be more and more lax and self-indulgent to the naked eye, although I always insist that the highest level of Japanese drama is still more advanced than the highest level of Korean drama, but the disappointment again and again is indeed helpless.
So, I hope I misread this "Favorite", because I really hope that the new Japanese drama can compete for it.