Nojima Nojima's masterpiece "Love Shuffle" (Part 1): A lover exchange plan in the name of love

Speaking of one thing, in fact, he is a master of love in private. In the beginning, they kept each other's hands, and the relationship was disgusting. When you go to bed, you show your true nature, and when you get bored, you say that your values are different.

Such unrelenting and straightforward dialogue is the forte of genius screenwriter Nojima Nojima. Nojima, who is a social realist, has always been criticized for his works in two extremes. Controversial themes such as "High School Teacher" often make people either love them very much, or they are unbearable, and even provoke complaints from conservatives. .

Nojima's works often use the dark side of human nature to show the value of noble personality, just as Kitano Takeshi talks about an ideal utopia with violent killings .

In contrast, "Love Shuffle", a Japanese drama 11 years ago, has been regarded as his more relaxed drama. Although the theme is "exchanging lovers" and there are sex scenes in every episode, it may still be "teach a bad way" to the defenders. Maybe this is the reason for the sluggish ratings that year.

According to Nojima's usual style, in fact, you can probably guess the plot a little; "Love Shuffle" uses the behavior of "exchanging lovers" as a facade, which is actually an exploration of the nature of love. Even though the theme of love has become a commonplace, it has been proven for a long time that this topic still has many difficulties for the world to understand, and the story will still unearth new surprises when it is handed over to Nojima.

Four men and four women have their own stories

The four pairs of men and women in the play, under the arrangement of the plot, appear to practice a social experiment and join the lover exchange plan of "Love Shuffle" (Nojima explained the original intention of "exchange lovers" in the play. experiment”), in fact, each has his own thoughts.

Ordinary office worker Usami Kei (played by Hiroshi Tamaki) is in love with the president's daughter , Mei Kagawa (played by Shiori Kanjitani), soaring in the company, but his self-knowledge ability does not match his professional title. When the wedding day is approaching, the always docile girlfriend suddenly proposes to break up. Qi Ben was quite resistant to "Love Shuffle", thinking it was immoral, but Mei agreed to participate. In order to prove that he was the most suitable candidate for his fiancée, Qi Wei only joined.

The straightforward translator Aizawa Airu (Karina) and the young capitalist boyfriend Oishi Yukichi (Daigo) have different personalities and want to break up but are stalked by the man. Airu participated because he agreed with Dr. Kikuta's "social experiment" concept, while Yukichi joined in order to save him.

Photographer Sera Wangjiro (played by Shota Matsuda) has a dashing and unrestrained appearance. He is full of talent and has always been cynical in the face of emotions. He brought to the "Love Shuffle" his sexy wife Reiko Kamijou (played by Sei Kojima). The two participated because it was fun.

Psychiatrist Masato Kikuta (Shosuke Tanihara) is the initiator and host of the entire "Love Shuffle", falsely claiming that Art University student Hayakawa Kairi (Yuriko Yoshitaka) is his girlfriend who brought her into the plan, in fact Hayakawa It was his patient who had suicidal tendencies. Dr. Kikuta hosts "Love Shuffle" for a secret conspiracy.

Four pairs of men and women shuffle once a week (that is, every episode), exchange love objects with each other, and finally decide whether to embrace the new love or continue with the original object.

Change objects once a week

The cards are shuffled once in each episode, and 10 episodes are two rounds for each person, which is a bit like the setting of speed dating. The first match and rematch of the same love object can already produce different atmospheres and scenes, plus the hidden agenda of each character, the plot is quite rich, and the rhythm is lively, humorous, and the dialogue is fine. If you know a little basic Japanese, It's even more fun to be able to understand the "yeah panda" joke they often mention.

I liked this Japanese drama a lot when I watched it, it felt fresh and exciting. Revisiting it recently, I don't know if I have become picky when I am older, or because I already know where the four couples of men and women will end up in love and the core secrets of the plot, so it seems that I am not as invested as I was in the past.

There are 10 episodes in total in the whole drama, the first 8 episodes I spent most of the time watching while distracted. It wasn't until the ninth episode that I realized that, fortunately, I was still a person of flesh and blood, and the emotion was still the same as before.

The next chapter will have serious spoilers. In addition to revealing the final pairing of the eight characters, I also want to focus on the one that touches me the most. Some drama critics say this couple is the most difficult to understand, but I think they have the darkest but most romantic and heart-warming love.

And of course the ultimate Hayakawa Kairi suicide mystery.

From the trailer, you can feel that this drama about taboo topics takes a comedy line, and it is very relaxed and comfortable to watch, but the Nojima-style darkness of human nature will still poke you every now and then. By the way, the background music is the theme song, "Fantasy" by Earth, Wind & Fire (not Feng Huo Hai!), which matches the style of the show very well and is also very endearing.

Write your own thoughts

Every time I write an article, I find that I am a freak. A few days ago, I suddenly wanted to write this old Japanese drama, and I found it to revisit it, and while watching my thoughts became more and more (which is probably part of the reason for my mind wandering), I wrote nearly 3,000 words without realizing it (and it should be Only half written!)...1,200 to 1,500 words is usually the length I'm most "comfortable" with for general reading (i.e. light writing that is neither good nor bad), thinking that word count control is also one of the required skills for an author (although It seems that I have practiced for many years and have not fully practiced it), so I will break the sentence at the right time, let myself stop for a while, and let the reader take a breath (?).

Since I have written nearly 3,000 words, the sequel should not be uploaded too long, although the final draft may be 5,000 words... Then I will break it down into paragraphs.