A Girl of 35 (2020) User Reviews

VERY GOOD, UNTIL A BIZARRE PLOT DEVELOPMENT ALMOST DERAILS IT !

[lyntonadam · 9/10 · 16 March 2021]

My first thought was of the excellent K-Drama "30 But 17". Both concern a girl who has an accident, falls into a coma for a LONG time & wakes up as an adult. Nozomi ( Kou Shibosaki ) is 10 at the time of her calamity & wakes after 25 years. Unlike the Korean girl who has no proper relatives to return to, the Japanese girl used to have a warm, loving family but that's no longer the case. Her mother ( Honami Suzuki, scarily implacable at times ) totally devoted herself to caring for her daughter and the marriage couldn't handle it. Her father ( Tetsushi Tanaka, good-hearted but feckless ) has re-married and has a hostile NEET step-son to cope with, while younger sister Manami ( a bitter & often abrasive Ai Hashimoto ) was neglected by both parents & has serious work problems. Rounding out the main cast is Yuto ( Kentaro Sakaguchi, cynical & world-weary ), who was Nozomi's first love in school and is now a failed teacher. I found a lot to admire in the script, which creates intriguing, believable situations for Nozomi and everyone around her. And various subjects raised are quite topical too. Using periodic flashbacks to happier times works well in a bitter-sweet way, while a 10 year-old voice-over from the heroine is also effective & occasional humour is also most welcome. The cast are uniformly excellent, with Ms Shibosaki in particular managing the childish and the adult with equal aplomb & Mr Tanaka breaking my heart at times thanks to the unadulterated joy he took from his young family. A special mention too for the adorable & effervescent Elena Kamata as the young Nozomi. The director keeps things moving efficiently & the DP makes the flashbacks beautifully golden and uses smoke to good effect with a few interior shots. And then there's episode 8 to spoil things. Sigh. Specifically, a bizarre, unexplained & quite silly plot development is unleashed. At first I thought I'd missed an episode, but no. Such a pity ! So, a definite entry in the "what-were-they-thinking" category, though the show in general is still definitely worth your time and my tears were flowing more than once.