Isn't there a Sleeping Beauty in a forest?

[dictionarysays]

Nemureru Mori? FUUUUU
I even went so far as to upload my Tsuyoshi-bawling-in-one-of-the-most-beautiful-films-ever-made icon for this post. :*

☆ FIRST AND FOREMOST: I did not appreciate Naoki's afterthought death in like, what? The last minute or so? Don't get me wrong; I was invested and had grown to love him and thus very biased but if there had at least been some sort of BUILD UP then maybe I would've understood. Or at least been like 'sure okay fine I can deal I get it I mean there were hints being dropped along the way what're you gonna do?' but noooooooo, none of that. And if someone tries to tell me his headaches, which there were like two of after the Santa Claus beating, and him slowing down here and there were sufficient enough? Uhhhhh. No. If I didn't know any better, I would think they were just playing with our heartstrings - I was already in a very volatile position before episode 12, I thought we were over and done with the bs but nope. Unnecessary melodramatica had to strike again. NGEL. I wanted to go all yakuza on my computer's butt by the time the credits started rolling and It Wasn't Even My Acer's Fault. ;AAA; Just Wondering: How many of you actually thought he was dead and not, idk, unconscious? Did any of you... expect it?! I think I just need to know I'm not alone, lol.

★ I wasn't crazy about Kiichiro going crazy (yeah, I went there). Well, it doesn't bother me that much, but I guess I was sort of hoping he'd go on and do his best impression of a normal life while going crazy with paranoia but not literally for the rest of his days. I liked the idea of that and could sort of picture it in my head, so I wasn't expecting the psych ward-thing and I guess in the end, Kokubu still got his way.

☆ SPEAKING OF WHICH. What was the point of Kiichiro's mom? I was srsly misled by her in the beginning, thinking that maybe she had a hand in the murder, which, well, I guess she was sorta-kind of involved. BUT SRSLY. What was with that whole I won't forgive the woman who deceives your heart? Maybe I'm just not reading into it deep enough? I figured it had smth to do with Minako but even still, I don't know how to apply it. :/ IDEK. I just really wanted to fast-forward any scenes she was in (although I never did |D) by the 9th episode, and a shame too because I love Harada Mieko.

★ So exactly how many forbidden/incest-love dramas has Kimura done? Lol. As soon as he found the locket I was pretty sure it was an Ito, but still. I wanted to wish it wasn't because I was betting on a kiss-scene between the two because yes, by the end of episode 5 I was shipping them instead and firm in my belief that Kiichiro was the killer indeed. Kind of a shame too because I'd really loved their relationship (Minako's and Kiichiro's) in the beginning, especially the first scene in the first episode with the phonecall morning and siiiiiigh. It was fun while it lasted.


But you know, in general, overlooking those little things above except for Naoki's death - I'm never overlooking that I really liked this drama. There was even a few points in the show where I thought it might usurp Karei Naru which is my favourite drama ever and probably always will be unless Kitaoji Kinya works with Tsuyopon :DD but in the end it didn't. Kim' was Pretty Great in it though, creeper!Kim is slowly becoming one of the best things in this world and if only they had stuck with that a little bit longer, even just another episode or two. I've gotta admit, I wasn't pleased when the end of ep 5 brought about the death of creeper!Kim and introduced sympathy. It's refreshing to hate a lead like Kim once in a while and he played whackjob so well too - props for that gorgeous scene in ep 4? where Naoki gets all crazy-eyed on us and unleashes the beast and the transition happens physically/figuratively through a red light filter and uggggggh, prop-placement was beautiful. My ultimate favourite acting of his though is the him and Keita on the rooftop scene; emotions were literally being wrenched from his throat and rolling off his skin and just, dude, for that scene alone and the screaming after his friend I would rec' this drama.

I will always frown at the cut of his tank top though; I LOVE THAT HIS ARMS WERE CLOTHES FREE AND THE LINES OF HIS BODY WERE ALWAYS IN REACH but I just didn't like the way the tank top looked. Smth about the way it was cut on the sides and how it rounded around his chest and how any minute now there could've been a nip-slip. IDK. This means nothing but it bugged me enough that I've got to mention it again, ahaha. The hair-flipping-pushing-playing was very pretty and I loved the way he'd push it up and out of his face (I'm a sucker for shit like that), but I did wonder: how much of that was Naoki and how much of that was just habit-nerves? ♥

Omg, how could I forget? YURI. THE VERY BANE OF MY EXISTENCE AND THE MOST ANNOYING CHARACTER I'VE WATCHED THIS YEAR. DD8 I just couldn't for the life of me learn to love her, not even when Naoki was being a dick and she was crying and then she would try to assert herself... nothing could sway me to care. Okay, that's a lie, I did feel bad and cried when she died But She Was Stupid. Who goes after Santa Claus? ALONE? And then to make it worse it was Keita all along! I liked him and yeah, it probably had mostly to do with the fact it was Yusuke because I love me some Yusuke but still. He was cute sometimes and I liked his acting at parts. The look on his face when he saw Naoki and Yuri get back together though was just tragic. Also: Scene where Naoki and Keita are wearing the giant heads and confessing their Yuri-feelings was really sweet in this baaaaaw-the-boys-are-saying-shit-they-wouldn't-usually-say-if-they-weren't-disguised sort of way.

I guess I should talk about Minako, huh? She was good. idk, it's not that she was bad or anything but there were scenes (particularly big arse more truth is being revealed scenes) where I thought she could've given more. Admittedly though, I can ignore that because Miho is just so beautiful, every time she was on screen I was just all *__* for the first few seconds. And despite how not-excited I sound about the entire thing, I wouldn't have wanted the role to be played by anyone else. I liked her best when you could see her feelings toward Naoki change throughout the entire thing, just from the little subtle ways she'd look at him, the things she'd say - they were key.

Hmmm, I feel like there's more but at the same time I really just think I wanted to get the four bullet points out of my system, lol. I was raging really hard afterwards and needed to find the time to write these out so a few hours later, here I am. 8D;;

IF YOU'VE SEEN THIS
Rage/rant/flail/fuss/squee/anything under this as much as you want.
I neeeeeeeeeeeed more people to talk to about this. ಥ⌣ಥ

Comments

[christwong1060.livejournal.com]

I'm glad that you finished the drama :D Will try to come back to make some comments later (try to remember all the details cause I must have watched it more than one year ago). However, I got to say that I was all shocked and hurt by Naoiki's death :(( It hurt me so badly that I couldn't get over it for days. What's with that? Still can't accept such a dramatic truth.

[girltype.livejournal.com]

I HAVE NOT WATCHING IT IN OVER 10 YEARS BUT OMG. I CAN STILL REMEMBER IT AS IF IT WAS YESTERDAY.

THE ANGST. THE RAGE I FELT. THE MUSIC.

I. CAN'T.

[ohmiya-sg.livejournal.com]

I barely remember this drama, just that the ending drove me crazy. And there's a lingering feeling that Kimutaku was being really creepy. /shrug

[pu-ni-yo.livejournal.com]

So you finally watched NemuMori! This is my review: http://pu-ni-yo.livejournal.com/19550.html

But just to give a short version... I didn't like Minako so much as I wished. Although I understand her situation I wish she was stronger. And Miho-san is not the best actress in my opinion (I don't know why but suddenly his wifey face pop up in my mind... xDD)

And psychic Kimura!! Love it!! Love it!! LOVE IT! It's not that I don't like the typical hero but I want to see something different, extreme, out of my mind. It was a pity that his "twisted attitude" was gone so fast (I still remember those scenes in GIFT with the butterfly knife). BUT, what came next, those sad emotionless eyes... ahhhhh... *died*

About the ending, I wish he hadn't die but I'm ok with it too. He suffered a head injury (checked) and maybe in death he will finally find the rest and peace he always longed for. I know it's just my twisted mind, still if he lived I wanted to see him in a new quiet town and somehow, lost all his memories, not through hypnosis, and the last scene would be he looking at some picture of his father with Minako and him and throw it away. It's kinda of a happy ending... well... all the thigs that happened to him so far were not good too... :P

[csaca.livejournal.com]

Maybe I could leave you a proper comment, if my mind would have not gone totally blank after Noaki's death, and let me forget everything... Still I know, I went to sleep that day with the thought, he.is.not.dead.that.can.not.be.
I guess I'll rewatch it... with my grandchildren, when they past 20. x'D Awesome drama, but too much.

KareiNaru <333

[enders-girrrl.livejournal.com]

Alas, I'm one of those dimwits for whom Naoki's death didn't quite sink in -- until someone had to spell it out later, lol. @__@ I didn't even think he was merely unconscious -- I honestly thought he had decided at the last minute not to get off the train, that he had chosen the higher path by severing all ties with Minako. The flowers and fruit falling from his hand, the big fat tear rolling down his cheek -- they seemed to me like signs of a man in grief, not of a hematoma victim in his death throes. To live the rest of his life apart from Minako would've been the biggest heartbreak of all, IMO. So yes I thought he lived. :-(

In spite of my wrong take on the ending (or maybe because of it?), Nemureru Mori really left me in pieces. I remember telling someone in the comments thread of my Wordpress review that after watching Nemureru I went on vacation and spent most of it brooding on the beach while replaying the Naoki scenes in my head, and altogether feeling sh*tty and bereft and stuff. Post-vacation I had a talk with my best friend ('coz I still needed closure) and she was like, "You DO know he DIED, right?" and I was like, WHUTTDOYOUMEANHEDIEEEDDDDD lolz T_____T

That said, I share your disgust with the wham-bang ending; this in fact was my biggest issue with the drama. The "warning" signs weren't enough, just didn't tally up -- so Naoki slips and falls in one scene, then he has some difficulty peeling an effin' orange on the train -- and next thing you know, he's DAID, LAWWD HE'S DAID!!! -- I mean, rly hematoma rly??? x__O

As for Kiichiro's mummy, I think she was written in to give viewers a sense of unease towards Kiichiro's character -- a hint that maybe, just maybe, he wasn't all that he seemed. The mother apparitions don't exactly spellitout that Kiichiro is tha killah, but they're ambiguous enough to suggest that he might have a little disturbia of his own going on, and therefore viewers can't discount him outright as a murder suspect. (All the major characters are initially suspect, anyway.) So that when he finally gets unmasked as the baddie, the writer can say, "hey -- it's not like I didn't leave enough clues along the way that good ol' upstanding citizen Kiichiro may actually be a total psycho." My 2 cents anyway ;-)

[zheinpathos.livejournal.com]

ITA with everything you've said. I HATE HIS DEATH AT THE END! IT WAS TOTALLY OUT OF THE BLUE AND WTF-INDUCING AND UGGGGGGGGGGGGGH

AND I HATE YURI WITH EVERY BONE IN MY BODY! UGH HATEHATEHATEHATE

It's a good drama, but I still think Sora Kara is better than this one. This ain't one of Kimura's best dramas, but compared to some of the crap they have now, it's MUCH better XD

[hereticpop.livejournal.com]

aaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhh

so maybe I just masochistically collect All The Dramas And Movies Where Kimu's Character Dies [there's quite a few, after all] but while I was crying my eyes out when NM ended, it also gave me some weird sense of completion? after the initial WTF-they-killed-him?! reaction, of course. no, I didn't see it coming either. but that was somehow even more satisfyingly angsty, without any build up and just something no one expected. ...alright, I shut up.

Kiichiro and his mother where another of the WTF things for me. apart from the fact that we were led to believe at some point that it was her who was the murderer, the only point for her to be there I can find is that it justifies Kiichiro ending up in the psych ward: he was already going crazy before. well he was quite fucked up since his early days, probably, but it would've been a little bit too sudden if he went crazy at the end out of the blue. I didn't like his character from the beginning, though.

lmfao. I watched NM right before That Other Incest-Love Drama and it was horribly misleading because even though I had my suspicions at the beginning, NM made me think that if it's going to turn out to be incest love, there's not gonna be any kissing, or anything. how naive of me. ._. that's why I now suspect every dark mystery drama to turn into incest-love thing, just not to be taken by surprise. 8D

but my feelings about Yuri and Minako are quite opposite, I think. at first I wasn't particularly fond of Yuri either, but then she sticked around and kept sticking around even though she was treated so badly and then even though she wasn't the brightest girl, she actually understood that the person Naoki is hurting the most is himself and I don't know, I just always end up sympathising with the obsessive girlfriend character, I guess. Minako on the other hand was just... uh, I couldn't care less for her. I found her boring, not that pretty and I wished her character actually did something, but she was constantly lost and unsure while other people were getting killed [or beaten up with a pipe, hah].

and I also really liked the Naoki-Yuri-Keita trio and they were all awesome and it was heartbreaking that they ended up dying one after another. Kiichiro and Minako on the other hand survived [more or less]. :|

I think I wasn't particularly fond of the tank top the first time I watched it either [the second I didn't care so much because I just focused on the hot...] but anyway, lol, I completely understand the unimportant detail kind of pet peeve thing. :D

[damn now I really want to watch the last ep just for the moment when he dies but it doesn't have the effect if it's just the one last ep, but I Am Not Re-watching This Again, Dammit.]

[hpswf1.livejournal.com]

SO IT WAS DEATH????????????? DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD:
I so hope it wasn't, that he is just sleep DDDDDDDDDDDDD:
I'm fucking very SADDD T____________________________T

[orenji-kiseki.livejournal.com]

Hi! :D

uh, I'm terribly late and behind on my LJ, but you're talking here about Sleeping Forest, and that's one of my fav dramas, and also a one I hate so much. I have so many confusing emotions concerning it, even after years since I watched it.

This ending really annoyed me, ripped me into pieces and I couldn't get over it for a month, ugh X_x and at the same time it's the reason why I hate this drama.

Naoki is really a great character. Creepy stalkers were never that hot before. But I think I liked the change thorought the series that you mentioned and even if the focus changed from stalker to a tragic hero, he never stopped being a stalker for me xD;
His death was really sudden and unfair, and left me confused as to what happened, and guessing, and then denying it, and finally crying my eyes out. I'm uncertain if it was build up well enough. I think creators were kinda playing with us for sure, the ending sequence being the same with the opening one, but explained the bits that were going to happen. We had our hints right at our nose, but we never had a real chance to guess what they are portraying really. But I have seen that opening sequence like almost every episode, and it was always ending with Naoki and Minako standing before the same hammock and there was these words of this song "And we found our way at last", to top it all - repeated twice. They made me hope that things can go better. But no, it seems it always meant they can't meet each other anymore, even if they are standing in the same place, and this song's words are just cruel and bitter and a false hope. That was honestly too much...
(and I just rewatched both the opening and ending sequence - now I feel sad X_x)

Minako was a bit of a boring main character, I wasn't particulary fond of her. Neither I liked her relationship with her fiancee. It was Kimura who made the whole drama for me, I'm afraid. But I enjoyed the suspense and constantly changing suspects - even when it changed to the main heroine, though now I agree that the way they did it was kind of ridiculous xD
And I think I never guessed correctly before the half an hour before revelation who was the killer :/ but I sometimes hoped it could be Kiichiro xD he was another boring character - before we finally learned he had this crazy side to him.
And I never truly understood the scenes with his mom. They were misleading, confusing, and it felt like it was a thing never properly explained. At some point I thought maybe he was seeing his mother in Minako? But I don't know if it was hinted or said in the drama, it was a few years since I saw it... I just remember I didn't get it.

I think I'm extremely slow - I never realized it was reference to Sleeping Beauty flying around the drama X_X and even in japanese it's called "Nemureru Mori no Bijou" uh. Me fails a big time :/
But now I think the princess had actually two princes to choose from - and she was unable to get even one of them in the end. Dark fairytale without happy ending. at least there wasn't any rape xD

eh, why is that even today I feel so strongly that the ending was completely unfair X_x

[elway714.livejournal.com]

how can stalker look so creepy and hot and cute at the same time is beyond me. XD

oh and can i ask what show is from (the gif on hpswf1 comment that you gave), where the other 4 hugging and Nakai looks like he want to join to??

i just read your numerous comment with herecticpop, it's very entertaining. Lol
when they start to give Kimura some cheap and crap dramas, i think it's the day that i stop watching Jdramas. but oh well, maybe tsuyoppon drama only ;p...