4/5
Love In Translation.
7 Episodes. Starring: Asami Mizukawa, Atsuko Maeda, Nana Eikura, Tasuku Emoto, Ran Ito, Ryo Ishibashi, Ryo Narita, Kaho, Hiromi Nagasaku, Yūsuke Santamaria, Sosuke Ikematsu & Naomi Scott. Created By: Atsuko Hirayanagi.
A young, working mother (Asami Mizukawa) in a beautiful LGBT partnership (with Atsuko Maeda) that wants to stay close to their child through breastfeeding. But finds herself in a dilemma when she's called to a conference in Singapore and must keep her milk fresh on the move and with the time's changing of airport security regulations. What's more, her mother's coming to stay.
A biology teacher (Nana Eikura), recently divorced, who is studying more regarding the human condition as she plays the field, young, free and single. She wants to know why the married men she sleeps with cheat on their wives. Meanwhile, her bridge photographer former partner (Tasuku Emoto) wants to build that same sort of iron back to her...even if he doesn't know, or admit it yet.
Legendary sixtysomething Ran Ito joins a dating app (I'd Super Like swipe) after being persuaded by a friend. Here she meets the bespectacled, charming Ryo Ishibashi, taking us to hallowed corners of Harajuku. A young couple swiped to the left of them are doing the same, with more than some parallels. When you find out why, you'll be left uttering the famous Japanese sound which can be closely translated to, WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED?!
A gentle and kind young man (Ryo Narita) and his perfect pug (is that you, Frank from 'Men In Black'?) who wants to save his wife (model actress Kaho) from a deep depression that threatens to subtly consume everything around them like Elizabeth (the actual name of this beautiful pug (now I finally get this breed) to be Frank). The peculiar perplexities of the darkness of depression are brought to this fiction's fore in strange but true symbolism.
The journalist (Hiromi Nagasaku) who investigates a date (Yūsuke Santamaria) who doesn't match his profile picture (I mean, it's not even close). But this sweet and sombre love story that will have you second-guess and not trusting (such is actual modern love) until the end is much more than a catfishing as it fades to black. This is deeper than ghosting.
A young English Language Teacher ('Aladdin's' Princess Jasmine and underrated 'Charlie's Angels' hero Naomi Scott) who sparks an interest with one of her students (hey, it happens. Trust me) played perfectly with gentlemanly grace by Sosuke Ikematsu. From Hollywood to a love story you just couldn't script, staring out at the city of stars of a Shinjuku skyline. Blinking red with love like the tip tops of the aeroplane warning, boundless buildings. Only in Japan.
And of course, an amazing anime that whispers to the heart of your name in the silent voice of a lost love from high-school. This seventh seal concludes the perfect picture of 'Modern Love-Tokyo'. Which you shouldn't binge, but let accompany you on your journey to work this week from Yokohama to Tokyo (or, is that just me?). It's a great lesson in language, love and life in Japan, following in the travelling footsteps of Amsterdam, Mumbai and Hyderabad on Amazon Prime. Based on the Bowie beautiful 'Modern Love' American anthology featuring the likes of Anne Hathaway, Tina Fey, Dev Patel and Kit Harington ('Modern Love UK' anyone?). Themselves based on personal penned essays of love and life, signed, sealed and delivered with a heart to The New York Times. Watch all about it, as showrunner Atsuko Hirayanagi's Tokyo stories, like a 'Midnight Diner', show you all the subtle beauty and complexity of love in all the faces of the big rising sun city with all of the lights. Like neon illuminating all the loneliness, but also showing the confides in confidence, cramped corners of the city where people can only get closer. If this is what modern love is like in Tokyo, then this city well and truly has my heart. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Further Filming: 'Modern Love', 'Midnight Diner-Tokyo Stories', 'This Is Us'.
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