It was subtle change in the characters’ behaviour that moved the plot seamlessly. These subtle changes are what made Ritsu comes alive.Īnother thing that I love about this drama was the characters development. He was unkempt and rough in this drama which implied that he was not well taken care of with only a few clothes on his back when he arrived in Japan, looking for his mother. His appearance in the drama was also different from that of Fragile, his previous drama. Apart from that, the way Tomoya portrayed Ritsu and emoted through his eyes and facial expressions without saying anything were incredible.
There was a lot of warmth and empathy for the people around him even though he himself was suffering and had gone through a lot of pain in his life. He was passionate, melancholic, emotional, vulnerable and awkward at times when it comes to love because he had never experienced it before Rinka came into his life. Okazaki Ritsu is the best character that he has ever played. He has proved time and again that he’s one of the best actors in Japan and extremely underrated. Last but definitely not the least, Tomoya Nagase. I also liked that Rinka was someone who in someway a strong character and had the courage to move on with her life when she needs to because she knew that Ritsu wanted her to be happy no matter what. The difference is that Satoru manipulated her for his own security while Ritsu saw her as an equal. She was the anchor of Ritsu’s and Satoru’s lives. Riho Yoshioka as naive and faithful Mita Rinka was excellent. Otake Shinobu as Hyuga Reiko was interesting as the ‘hateful’ person which I kinda empathize for her later on because yes, she made a huge mistake but at the same time she also suffered the consequences for what she had done and I think it’s unfair. Kentaro Sakaguchi shone as Ritsu’s privileged and pampered but terminally ill step-brother, Hyuga Satoru who was selfish at times that he had hurt Rinka emotionally because he was so obsessed with Touko. Ayaka Onishi made an impact as commitment-free Furusawa Touko. Chizuru Ikewaki was flawless as Kawai Wakana, Baijaku Nakamura as Mita Tsuneo was good, though there were moments where he was over the top which I think it’s necessary for the character. Moving on to the performances, the cast did a great job at playing their roles effortlessly. They didn’t give you the answer right away, instead they left it all to us to make our own interpretation because life is like that. Its ambiguous ending is what makes Japanese dramas special. Several changes have been made to the story which I think for the better. And I realized that Gomen Aishiteru was more about Ritsu’s journey and how the people around him affected by it rather than his destination. I also liked how the Japanese version treated the story differently. Like Tomoya Nagase said, it was more of a tribute/homage to the original version of the drama. But I’m glad that they actually remained faithful to the original version and interpreted it with Japanese drama’s sensibilities. Granted that it was a remake of Mianhada Saranghanda and they could have done it with Japanese drama’s quirkiness. In addition to that, Gomen Aishiteru has that 90’s - early 2000’s romance feel that I missed so much. And nothing good comes out of extramarital affairs. Gomen Aishiteru also has the extramarital affair bit but it has been handled well. And they also tend to glorify extramarital affairs a lot lately. One more thing I noticed is that love stories in Japanese dramas nowadays seem so dry and detached. Currently I’m watching Quartet and after a few minutes in, I was already bombarded with the characters talking incessantly about lemon and karage. Sometimes a bit too much to the point of making no sense at all. I know that Japanese dramas like to emphasize on their characters’ and stories’ quirks. The simplicity in its storytelling was what drawn me to it. It has a lot of heart and warmth in it without saying so much. It was one of the most emotionally invested Japanese dramas I’ve ever seen. So, I finished watching Gomen, Aishiteru.
This review may contain spoilers Non-spoiler review (If you wanna read my spoilerish review, it's in the comment section)