Pending Train

Wow why are some people so angry about this show!? Some hate reviews are really hostile, surely there's been worse shows than this so why!?

In any case, I liked it. I watched Lost years ago so I barely remember it, yes I can see the similarities but even though it was strange at first, somehow I prefer an upbeat random daijobu Japanese song playing whenever something bad happened rather than the usual doom music that sets us up for a heart attack or depression in most US shows. In general, there was no overall sense of doom and terror which personally I appreciated, but I understand that's not everyone's cup of tea. Maybe all the hate reviews are from die hard Lost fans? That I'd understand, but still, expect the concept to be repeated again as it has been in the past too.

This is the Japanese version, with all the usual tropes, we have the option to skip or fast forward the super slow melo scenes but we also get to see that side of the world. Which means no sex, drugs, nudity, swearing, etc and it's refreshing for some of us. Overall this was an exciting and entertaining family friendly show that also tries to make a point about being grateful for what we have.

I remember sitting glued to the the screen over the years of LOST, loving every minute of its mystery and weird conspiracy and undermining western culture with exceptional knowledge of travel in time, and all of the insane and quirky and deceitful characters onboard the plane, who found themselves washed up on the island and had to survive and build relationships and trust and agree to survive and build alliences with the people already on the island and find food and water and keep up hope among each other and assist births and bury the dead and be inventive and strong and compassionate etc.

Pending Train tries and fails. No tension, just stereotypic characters acting stereotypical confronted with very little happening. And maybe they represent an average of Japanese culture, but when no one had moved to find water on day two, I began wondering if the series writers were paid to extend a 3-parter to 10 or more episodes.

This is WEAK and a wast of money and other resources, chiefly human watching this in the expectance that something will improve, but that is not the case. NOTHING happens that will come as a surprise to anyone. Most characters are depicted as outright stupid - as if having lived 20, 30, 50 years under all kinds of pressure in life had not emparted preference, idiosyncracies (apart from those needed to separate main characters from each other) and a general IDEA of how to survive. Like in a universe, where No One has spend hours binging youtube videos to gather an abundence of information about all kinds of stuff related to living and surviving and pleasure and communication and relations to others etc etc. IGNORANTS, basically.

Actually I am a little horrified that this "product" has met some kinds of production standards somewhere in the world. As if its basically a tax write-off, where nobody really cares. A deal, where some actors are introduced, payment for that service met, and production costs used to leverage an abundance of wealth.

Horrible. Just horrible.

So, why 5/10?

I am at episode 6/10, and there are 5 more episodes to go. So, 1 star pr. Episode, basically. But if wont end with 10/10, be certain of that. Ye Gods!

Fun premise, ruined by absurd actions (as mentioned by other reviewers) of the lead characters.

GUY WHO DOESN'T TRUST PEOPLE - Gets life saved, has his precious tools returned, convinced not to stay behind.... still treats people like pests.

GIRL WHO THINKS SHE'S INVISIBLE - Helps everyone, plays critical role, eventually loved by all... still acts like a wet noodle.

GUY WHO THINKS HE MUST SAVE EVERYONE - Kinda does, still mopes around like a clueless tool.

They are just so unlikeable in that this traumatic defining period in their lives doesn't seem to affect them, or improve them, or change their behavior in any way. Normal people don't behave like this. Well written characters don't either.

And then the ending...oh lord the "ending". Can't really call it that. More of a two episode slog of people running around aimlessly doing their own thing without any coherence as to why it was being shown on screen. I felt like I was watching water molecules exhibiting Brownian motion. The whole, "you take her! No, you take her! No, YOU take her!" hot potato between the two male leads was nauseating as well.

By the end, I thought I was watching a really bad Korean Romance Drama, and not a "pseudo-sci-fi" show.

I think the first thing to know when watching anything that comes from Japan is that it's not South Korea or a K-DRAMA, the Japanese entertaiment people do their works and projects with Japanese people in mind, they don't care one bit about making ot outside of Japan so they want to just be liked in Japan, and that's a big difference on how they do things and how things are written or directed at the end, because we all have very different cultures and way to portray feelings or do art. Japanese entertaiment and writting on movies or tv shows is HEAVILY based on the facial expressions more than anything, specially the eyes (that's why on anime, the eyes are THAT big), so it's not surprising when we watch Japanese movies or shows that have a good plot (be it a 'LOST' copy or not, we know it is, but LOST itself probably came from somewhere too I assume), most of the times the writting or directing takes points off from our point of view due to the fact that Hollywood and Europe write or direct things very differently.

I think the show could be great, the actors are amazing dramatic actors, I did watched some of the works of some of them and I know they're not bad at acting, the plot of the story was also good, sci-fi, time travel thingy, the way 'LOST' was great, however I think the lack of choosing a good song (It's a J-DRAMA after all, and Da-ICE are actually really famous and respected in Japan, they have great music, 'Tattoo' isn't just a good fix for this specific show) for the theme music and the cultural difference on how things are written in her and in Asia, played a big part...So overall, I think this show could've been great if it was written and directed like Hollywood does it for us, but it's made for Japan and I think more or less, Japanese people enjoyed it.

So my take on this whole thing? Watch it if you want, it's entertaining and at times fun and sad, like usual, I ended up shipping the two male actors more than the female and male actors, it's always nice to see actors I follow, again, it's no masterpiece, it's a J-DRAMA, but if you like these genre of tv shows, give it a try, it's not THAT bad in a drama from Asia level.

What we have here is basically the Asian version of the TV show "lost", but with an explanation for everything within 1 season of 10 episodes. Japan is hit by an earthquake event that somehow triggers a moving train to be thrown into another world. In this world, the passengers of car 5 must find a way to get on with each other and survive in a strange territory.

I was initially intrigued by all of this, until I realised I would be spending each episode listening to the same piece of music over and over that tries to rouse some emotion out of you.

Characters achieve something towards survival, play music, show show mo emotional faces.

Characters realise a new strength, play music and show emotional faces in show motion.

Characters sneeze, play music and show slow mo faces.

It's terrible and makes up the overwhelming playtime of the show, especially when throwing in a love triangle and people delving into flashbacks of their previous lives. It's even funny when something bad is happening, yet upbeat sounding music starts playing

If it were shortened to just the bare minimum melodrama, it would be alright.... ish. The last 2 episodes do a lot more for me but I can't really spoil much. Was the stock footage at the end necessary though, it's more cheap cheese thrown on top.