Category: Japan
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THE JOURNEY TO KILLING YOU – 2025 – Japan
BLISS RATING: ★★★★★ “The more beautiful something is, the more I want to destroy it.” – Quote from The Journey To Kill You Wow, I was not expecting this! The series is hard to describe yet somehow made scrutable by the organic, unadorned human interactions. It is sequences of contradictions composed of oxymoronic concepts. Full of…
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TAKUMI-KUN SERIES: DRAMA – 2025 – Japan
BLISS RATING: ★★ “You are not afraid of new love. You’re afraid of old pain.” – Pinterest Confusion. I just did not get this series. Perhaps had I known this was composed of snippets of movies/series, I might have appreciated it more. I assumed it was a stand-alone series. Not having seen any of the…
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DATING GAME – 2025 – Thailand/Japan
BLISS RATING: ★★★★+ “Thank you for always being my comfort zone. Ganbatte ne!” – Quote from Dating Game I loved this series! It has charm, wit, sweetness in all the right spots, and a bunch of endearing human warmth. While not overly saccharine, it is also not traumatizing. Curiously pensive and reflective, it has all…
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10 THINGS I WANT TO DO BEFORE I TURN 40 – 2025 – Japan
BLISS RATING: ★★★★★ “Love has no age, no limit; and no death.” – John Galsworthy While I have no way of scientifically testing my theory out, I am guessing that this series will be way more poignant for individuals OVER 40 than under. Moreover, its cogency will also be greater for those of us who…
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STAY BY MY SIDE AFTER THE RAIN – 2025 – Japan
BLISS RATING: ★★★ “The future is just built from countless present moment, isn’t it?” – Quote from Stay By My Side After The Rain I was a bit surprised as to how inward and esoteric this series was. It was prodigiously reflective. I found myself surprisingly moved by its content and the detailed struggles of…
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THE PROPER WAY TO WRITE LOVE – 2025 – Japan
BLISS RATING: ★★★★ “Love is the flower you’ve got to let it grow.” – John Lennon This is one of the more honest BLs to come out of Japan in a very long time. It is also surprisingly sincere and heartfelt. It had a deeply personal grok about it. There was an unawareness of the…
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I BECAME THE MAIN ROLE OF A BL DRAMA SEASON 2 – 2025 – Japan
BLISS Rating: ★ “In your hesitation, I found my answer.” – Sad Love Quotes Some things simply should not be extended. And this is one series that should not have been prolonged. While I was not particularly enamored with the first season, I thought its concept was an interesting one and found it reasonably entertaining.…
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DEPTH OF FIELD (HISHAKAI SHINDO) – 2025 – Japan
BLISS RATING: ★★★★★ “What use is having great depth of field, if there is not an adequate depth of feeling?” – W. Eugene Smith This is one of those dramas that, once you begin to reflect and remunerate, it more deeply affects you than perhaps it did when you were watching it in the moment.…
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AICHAKU – 2025 – United States/Japan
BLISS RATING: ★★★ “…That someday it is going to love you back. So why didn’t it love me back?” – Quote from Aichaku The title of this movie is aptly named. Aichaku literally means in Japanese ‘attachment’. But an attachment to an object that is more like a feeling of affinity – what the object…
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FUTTARA DOSHABURI (WHEN IT RAINS, IT POURS) – 2025 – Japan
BLISS RATING: ★★ “Just when you’ve had enough, live gives you more. And just when you think it’s rained enough, it pours.” – Proverbial Idiom I have seen a lot of BLs but admittedly, this series is one of the most problematic and deeply troubling stories I have ever seen. Cinematically, it is treated so…