Driven by morbid curiosity by how the makers could top the WTF of the first two eps, I watched ep 3 of Ouku. I am glad to announce that the makers did not slacken in their race to the bottom. In ep 3 we have:
1. Another rape (of heroine, in flashback). So far, we are three-for-three, on the rape-per-ep front.
2. Rape!baby. Who starves to death on screen.
3. An adorable kitten being murdered and mutilated.
I am avid to see how they can continue to top themselves. At this rate, they will have to resort to cannibalism by the next ep and shut down production entirely an ep after that.
Also, we got heroine's backstory and if this was supposed to convince me she was an OK human being, it failed miserably. She is a violent, abusive, unstable sociopath. Her background explains why that is so, but it doesn't diminish the fact that she is one. I think the makers think they are so clever, doing the reverse of typical gender drama tropes - she is the violent one with a traumatic past who can only open up to one person, and he is the one with patience, goodness and emotional bravery. BUT. It's one thing to do a wounded woobie thing, another to have a bona fine psycho. (If the roles were swapped back, with her characteristics being given to a man, it would be even worse).
Also, there is no way this drama would convince me he is romantically in love with her. They even have a voiceover where he says that he wanted to help suffering people (as a monk) but that has been denied him so he is going to help at least one person (her). That's not love. That's him following his religious calling, the best he can under the circumstances. The only ship I have in this is Arikoto/monastery. Sorry.
It's a pity the writing and the set-up are both so insane, because the drama can be gorgeous when it tries, as can be demonstrated by the scene where he lets her be a woman:
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So pretty, so well-acted, so insane. It does not help that the premise makes no sense (I could pick about a million holes in the set-up without even trying). I pretty much want to airlift Sakai Masato, Tabe Mikako and Tanaka Koki into a different, and awesome, period drama and let them do their thing there. Well, at least I have the awesome Atsuhime for Sakai Masato.
I will probably keep up with this. Morbid curiosity is strong with me...
1. Another rape (of heroine, in flashback). So far, we are three-for-three, on the rape-per-ep front.
2. Rape!baby. Who starves to death on screen.
3. An adorable kitten being murdered and mutilated.
I am avid to see how they can continue to top themselves. At this rate, they will have to resort to cannibalism by the next ep and shut down production entirely an ep after that.
Also, we got heroine's backstory and if this was supposed to convince me she was an OK human being, it failed miserably. She is a violent, abusive, unstable sociopath. Her background explains why that is so, but it doesn't diminish the fact that she is one. I think the makers think they are so clever, doing the reverse of typical gender drama tropes - she is the violent one with a traumatic past who can only open up to one person, and he is the one with patience, goodness and emotional bravery. BUT. It's one thing to do a wounded woobie thing, another to have a bona fine psycho. (If the roles were swapped back, with her characteristics being given to a man, it would be even worse).
Also, there is no way this drama would convince me he is romantically in love with her. They even have a voiceover where he says that he wanted to help suffering people (as a monk) but that has been denied him so he is going to help at least one person (her). That's not love. That's him following his religious calling, the best he can under the circumstances. The only ship I have in this is Arikoto/monastery. Sorry.
It's a pity the writing and the set-up are both so insane, because the drama can be gorgeous when it tries, as can be demonstrated by the scene where he lets her be a woman:
So pretty, so well-acted, so insane. It does not help that the premise makes no sense (I could pick about a million holes in the set-up without even trying). I pretty much want to airlift Sakai Masato, Tabe Mikako and Tanaka Koki into a different, and awesome, period drama and let them do their thing there. Well, at least I have the awesome Atsuhime for Sakai Masato.
I will probably keep up with this. Morbid curiosity is strong with me...