There are more and more Japanese film and television works depicting the emotional relationship between men and men that transcend friendship, such as last year's blockbuster "Uncle Love".
If the popularity of the work is measured by the number of derivatives, "Uncle Love", which launched a TV series after the success of the special edition and launched a movie after the success of the TV series, is worthy of being the king of popularity. In 2018, "Erotic Novelist" launched by Fuji TV's online platform FOD was diametrically opposed to "Uncle's Love" in terms of overall temperament - the former was melancholy literary, the latter was funny and comedic - but it still achieved a great success in popularity. And this year launched the highly anticipated "Indigo Mood".
If Erotic Novelist is The Old Driver's Love Story, then the ex-plot summary describing how the hero embarked on the road of the novelist is the record of the old driver getting a driver's license, skilled drag racing and bumpy road have their own wonderful.
Poster of Indigo Mood.
Part of "The Mood of Indigo" is also reflected in "Erotic Novelist", and part of the personality of the main character, Rio Kijima (Yoshinosuke Takeki), has been known to the audience in the past.
Risei Kijima was born in the countryside, with literary dreams, and his literary works won awards, but then entered a bottleneck period, and his works did not sell well, and there was a big disagreement with literary editors. Forced by life, Kijima embarked on the path of an erotic novelist and became "Onijima Renichiro". Erotic novelists are beautifully worded, the writing is fluent, the setting is both catering to the public interest and novelty, the grasp of the character's psychology is precise, the text is good and fleshy, and it is the best in functional literature.
"The Mood of Indigo" shows how the self-righteous and depressed literary and artistic youth learned to gradually control functional literature.
Screenshot of "Indigo Mood".
The so-called "indigo mood" refers to a mood that is more gloomy than blue. This phrase, which is said to be derived from the title of a jazz song, is set as the name of the famous work of the protagonist Rio Kijima. This melancholy phrase also sets the tone of the theme of the entire series.
In this story, Riso Kijima is just a legendary genius literary young Ritsuo Kijima at first, some people say that he has soared to the top, and others hear that he has failed in business. Shiro Jodo (Yoshida Munehiro) meets this low-key and mysterious character at the funeral of a university seminar instructor. After contact, I found that the talented literary youth was already in debt and could not even get the transportation costs.
The character of editor Shiro Jodo has appeared in the previous "Erotic Novelist", and in "The Mood of Indigo", Johto becomes a perspective character, depicting his story and the Kijima Riso in his eyes.
Screenshot of "Indigo Mood"
Shiro Johto had also thought about embarking on the path of literary creation, but after reading Kijima's famous works, he denied his talents, and because his job search was not smooth, he eventually stayed at the functional novel publishing house where he had interned.
After the funeral and Kijima's reunion, Johto, who cherished Kijima's literary talents, persuaded Kijima to write functional novels for his livelihood.
Despite Kijima's literary talents, it is still impossible to enter the new field of writing subjects, and the description of the functional part cannot provoke the reader's desire and lacks charm.
In order to obtain the publishing rights of the master of pornographic novels, Ikuo Utsuo, Johto brought Kijima to the master on the grounds of recommending a disciple. This also triggered the crossing of the line between Johto and Kijima, and the two went beyond friendship to a more intimate relationship...
Sohiro Yoshida as Shiro Jodo (left) and Yukinosuke Taketori as Rio Kijima (right)
If "Erotic Novelist" shows the loneliness of the creator and the desire for love, then "The Mood of Indigo" shows the loneliness of genius and the vision of ordinary people for talent. "Erotic Novelist" is full of temptation, provocation, a collision without accidents and vicissitudes, and the other side of pain is healing and tolerance. "Indigo Mood" focuses on the unspeakable past, the contradictions of life's turn, the constant oscillation between self-affirmation and self-denial of individuals, the poverty of life, the exhaustion of talents, the love full of impurities, the pursuit of learning and surpassing predecessors... In terms of content, "Indigo Mood" is obviously richer, but the scale of the functional part is much smaller than that of "Erotic Novelist".
Whether it is "Indigo Mood" or "Erotic Novelist", it is based on a high degree of restoration of Marugito's manga. The first season of the web series, from the poster to the storyboard and the story rhythm, is a vivid reproduction of the comic. In the second season, in order to match the melancholy atmosphere of "Indigo", the network drama has made great adjustments to many plots with jokes and comedy implications, the salty and bad taste of Kabuta in the manga has become serious, and the cross-border scenes have the intention of young people and old men to win, and the network drama has become one party's emotional contribution to the other.
In order to meet the needs of the audience, as a prequel, "Indigo Mood" also joined the role of Haruruhiko Kusumi (Kenta Inozuka) in "Erotic Novelist", adding people not to mix water, or the audience's familiar gloomy, amorous, emotional and talented old driver tone, the functional literature repeatedly told by the subject still rejects the instrumental narrative in expression, and thus achieves the literary nature of film and television dramas.
If last year was fascinated by the old driver's love story, then this year's same prequel "Indigo Mood" will also accompany the audience through this spring that is more melancholy than melancholy.