Fishbowl Wives

Japanese Drama "Fishbowl Wives" is a drama about toxic relationships, and wives that are facing various marital problems.

The story starts with the introduction of the main lead and her seemingly perfect life. Things are rushed to have her running away, which was the highlight of the drama. However, she stayed in that avoiding reality phase for the whole drama, until the most cliche thing happened and she had finally to face her problems. The ending was realistic, on that note, and it was probably what fitted the story the best. However, the love story was bleak and boring after a while of not having anything happening.

On the other hand, the short stories that were added on the main one were pretty interesting and some of them often stole the thunder from the actual story.

Finally, the cinematography was pretty, especially the posters for the drama, and the performances were excellent.

So, overall, 4 out of 10.

This short series is based on a manga and tells the stories of a group of ladies living at the top of a high rise who all enter into affairs. It has a main story running through of a successful businesswoman and a goldfish seller and these two appear in a thread throughout the series. Over the eight episodes it also looks at five other women who enter into extra marital relationships and their reasons behind that decision. It is quite an erotic series and it may overdo the titillating sex scenes but it does not judge the women and leaves you to decide if the ladies actions are justified.

It's a good movie pulling all the right strings that keep you engaged. It's erotic but it has a lot of sensible, heartfelt drama to offer. While it revolves on Sakura and Haruto, the stories of other women living in that high-rise condo are fascinating, too.

Rhiko Shinohara shines as Sakura. The character playing Haruto succeeds in making him too good to be true. Is he for real? So cool and so mature.

Women don't have to live in a fishbowl because they can decide to be free and be what they dream to be with determination despite the odds.

Adaptasi manga populer berjudul sama karya Ryo Kurosawa ini sukses menempatkan 'ikan mas' dan 'akuarium' sebagai analogi dari kisah enam wanita yang tengah berjuang dalam hubungan cinta/rumah tangganya masing-masing, terlepas dari problema yang berbeda-beda.

Semua terangkum dalam 8 episode berdurasi tergolong singkat dengan bingkai Haruto-Sakura-Takuya yang jelas menjadi sorotan utama. Minusnya, Michiko Namiki & Hiroaki Matsuyama seperti terbentur oleh keterbatasan saat mengeksplorasi tiap karakter sekaligus mendalami tiap subplotnya.

Mini series Jepang ini lebih mengedepankan emansipasi wanita walau di satu sisi agak terkesan melegitimasi perselingkuhan, see those sex scenes with purposes. Namun rekonsiliasi atau perpisahan akan selalu jadi perdebatan dilematis dengan segala konsekuensi sikap dan pilihannya.

Karakter dan plot terfavorit: Sakura Yuriha Noriko Hisako Saya Yuka

Terlepas dari open ending yang cukup mengganggu terlebih bagi pasangan utama yang sudah begitu apik membangun karakternya, antologi pahit manisnya pernikahan ini hadirkan insights menarik yang sifatnya universal.

I really enjoyed this series... until the last episode.

The series revolves around the relationships of some couples living in a high rise condo, focusing mainly on a single wife per episode.

Most of the episodes offer poignant, if sometime predictable, stories. The biggest problem I had with the individual episodes was that the writers failed to "wrap things up" before moving on to the next one.

Interwoven through all this is the story of Sakura, who is in an abusive marriage and trying to find happiness away from her husband. Unfortunately, the writers lead you on, and then gut punch you in the final episode with one of the worst endings I've ever watched. Disappointing hardly covers it.

It seems to be a trend in recent series that writers want to give you the worst ending possible.