On an emotional basis I want to give "With Love" a 10 out of 10, because as is the case with many other Americajin, the first J-Drama one sees is generally an unforgettable experience. This was the first J-Drama I watched, on the now-defunct International Channel (later renamed AZN Television before it shut down,) sometime in '98 or '99. It was also the very last dorama aired in America with English subtitles, after FCI discontinued providing subs. That was a crushing blow for me - to discover something you love instantly, only to have it yanked out of reach just as you're anticipating the next. I had to wait nearly ten years before I found some incredibly poorly-translated DVDs in LA's Chinatown, and eventually found sites like Crunchyroll and Dramafever - before I could continue the long-delayed addiction.
Presumably everybody here has his own deeply personal story of "discovering" Japanese dramas, so can understand the weird kind of emotional bond one has with one's first dorama experience. "With Love" has some serious flaws that require a lower rating, but I *want* to max it out - because I feel like I'm reviewing a part of my own life, shared vicariously with a group of people that I came to love almost like family over the span of the series. (Hey, am I maudlin or what? 8^)
Anyhow... "With Love" tells the same general story as the American film "You've Got Mail," but as a 12-part soap opera rather than a single feature-length movie. Both were released in 1998 - "With Love" on April 10 and "You've Got Mail" on December 18, a full eight months later - so apparently the similar storylines were created spontaneously and independently of one another.
The flaws of "With Love," as I see them:
- The relationship between Takashi and Amane is central to everything, but there's little or no chemistry between the two either as actors or written characters. They don't even mesh as mutually-disdainful adversaries, which they become by roughly halfway through. Takenouchi-san is perfectly cast as the brooding and somewhat-cold composer who's haunted by a past relationship, but Tanaka-san's role is far too bland and detached to be believable as Takashi's eventual love interest. The fault lies equally in casting (Tanaka-san is badly miscast as Amane,) and the way her character is written. Amane works at a bland job, has a relatively bland social life, and isn't particularly passionate or deep in her everyday life in the way her online writings would suggest she ought to be. The online Amane is a deeply poetic intellectual, while the here-and-now Amane is a shallow bank teller who doesn't talk with her friends about much of anything except banalities, who doesn't do anything of interest but cursory after-work socializing, and whose personality is incredibly wooden and uninteresting. For someone with such a passionate and poetic outlook on life, a career as a bank teller is implausible from the outset; I can't say if it's Tanaka's acting or the direction, but Amane's reaction on recognizing Hata-san's song at her reception...it should have been an expression of shock, but all she does is sit up a little straighter and blink a couple of times. The scene demanded a more expressive display of recognition and emotion from Amane, but neither the directors nor Tanaka-san provide it.
By the climactic final episode, it's difficult to believe Takashi's attraction for her is genuine, or that Amane's distaste for what she had seen as his unrefined nature has suddenly turned to love. As a result, the audience is left with more affection for *the general scenario* than for the actual people involved in it. A drama with such an interesting and then-timely story concept should have had a central couple about whom one would end up caring deeply almost immediately (think: Soichiro and Natsuki in "Over Time.")
- The inability of Takashi and Amane to recognize one another becomes more and more difficult to believe as time goes on - the classic suspension-of-disbelief problem. A more subtle and varied set of circumstances and "almost" moments were needed to pull off the "mystery identities" scenario through the course of twelve episodes. There are quite a few moments here when you're just shaking your head at the television, thinking "Figure it out already!" This is more of a writing and direction issue though - Takenouchi and Tanaka generally did a great job of acting what they were given to do.
- I disagree with what people have said about the "villains" in this dorama being "two-dimensional." Haruhiko Yoshida and Kaori Imai are excellent dual counterpoints that continually threaten the core relationship from either end. Where the problem lies, however, is again with chemistry - specifically between Yoshida and Amane - and again with suspension of disbelief. There's really no reason to believe that Amane would be attracted to Yoshida, except that he pursues her relentlessly - not a strong enough reason to believe she'd go anywhere with him, much less decide to marry him. That eventual decision makes Amane seem even more shallow and capricious, neither trait being a positive addition to the character. The suspension of disbelief becomes difficult here too, in that we're expected to believe that Amane would accept Yoshida's assertion that he is HaTa-san, the composer of "Once In A Blue Moon." In order to believe that, you as an audience member have to conclude that Amane is a complete fool - again, not the desired outcome in a story's character development.
- More broadly, in addition to the lost opportunities for more dramatic impact in "almost" moments and the richness that better chemistry between the leads would provide, the Hasagawa Takashi character is needlessly undercut in the script on a number of key points.
The writers begin with an emotionally-conflicted yet brilliant and principled artist, but later have him blithely acquiescing to a sellout of his ideals. Imagine how much stronger the story - and HaTa's character - would have been if he had flatly refused to cheapen his work for the sake of a lucrative contract, then had suffered a disheartening (yet temporary) consequence for sticking to principle. Instead, the writers make Hasagawa act as capriciously as Amane, thereby severely undercutting the excellent character they'd built up to that point. Such a waste, in both cases - though it was arguably necessary in Amane's case, in order to make the storyline work. Better writing would have found a way to do it without undercutting the integrity of the characters, though. Integrity is the key to both characters from the outset, yet the writers apparently didn't realize it.
- Finally, the scene with the two reciting their entire online conversation from memory is horribly contrived, implausible and maudlin - which is a big part of why I liked it anyway, hahahaa. By that point you're so glad they finally hooked up that you're willing to swallow anything. 8^D The scene really cheapens the whole series though. A better scene would've been a more fleshed-out conversation in which they would *occasionally* throw in a line from their emails, then react to it with either humor or affection or both. Instead it's written almost like the final act of a high school play. It gives the impression that the producers were in a rush to complete the final episode, took a look at a rough draft of the episode's script and said "This'll have to do."
The positives:
They're hinted at in my list of negatives and on balance they handily offset those negatives, and even nudge this dorama into "classic" territory.
=> The music is easily the one element that carries this dorama, more than anything else.
* The love theme "Once In A Blue Moon / Link to Fate" is simple, yet powerful and unforgettable - ideally suited as the "fragment" that Amane accidentally hears and can't resist, and as the key to the ultimate revelation of identities;
* HaTa-san's "Ash" composition "Miniature Garden" - sung magnificently by the late Kaori Kawamura - is incredibly entrancing and packs an emotional wallop that weaves through the entire fabric of the series (I'm listening to it right now, as I write this, and I'm nearly choking up - it's like being physically shaken);
* Though only presented in full in one scene, Iwashiro Taro's composition "A Day Like This" is another great piece, intensely evocative of the series' mood;
* The opening theme "Destiny" by My Little Lover is oddly incongruous in its light, breezy attitude, but is iconic of the series regardless.
Taken together, and given the central role that music plays in the plot, the music is actually another principle star of "With Love."
=> The Hasagawa Takashi character is the other great strength of the series, even though he's severely undecut by the script midway through the series, as I noted earlier. HaTa the composer reminds me of Roark the architect in the novel "The Fountainhead" - fiercely yet calmly independent, supremely self-confident, endlessly innovative and competent at his art, and unshakingly principled. ...until the writers undercut him with capricious compromises. ~ arrggh ~
Nonetheless, the overall strength of the HaTa-san character - along with the soundtrack - is key to what makes this dorama so interesting and enduring, where it otherwise could have been mundane and trite. It's just too bad that inconsistent writing and direction, along with some poor casting, prevented it from being a truly great story.
Even with its flaws (and acknowledging a definite bias,) I consider "With Love" as a must-see dorama - do not miss this one. It's worth the trip for the music alone.
[P.S. - becca82, below, apparently missed my point. I didn't say there was any "connection" between this drama and the American movie "You've Got Mail" except having the same general story. I explicitly said: "...apparently the similar storylines were created spontaneously and independently of one another." I only brought the point up because it's an interesting coincidence that I thought others would find interesting as well. But I don't have any "misconception" - we're basically saying the same thing here.]
