Million Yen Women

An unsuccessful writer is suddenly visited by five women that claim to have been invited to live in house under strict rules. One of them is that the monthly rent for each of them is 1 million yen per month.

Right off the bat each woman is so distinct that the guy seems bland and boring in comparison. With every episode you learn more about the women and the guy and every interaction uncovers another layer.

This is the kind of series you can binge in one sitting, Every time an aspect of someone is revealed it leaves you wanting to dig deeper and learn more.

The filming style is artistic and beautiful, writing is sharp and the acting is superb. It's proof that you don't have to shout everything to the heavens to make your point. Sometimes just a quiet moment would do... or a kick to the rear!

It's a very Japanese show with people being too polite and subtle which just adds another layer of charm to it. Watch it!

This too showed up in my Netflix recommendation, and I thought I'd give it a shot since the format is nicely kept at 25mins each episode. About 5hours straight-on bingeing if that's your thing. Good God, I couldn't have been more pleasantly surprised by how riveting this series was. I've seen my fair share of Japanese series, but personally, this is truly a refreshing take, perhaps it's due to the genre change. I thoroughly enjoyed it! I remembered kept saying to myself, "What the hell is going on?" positively in an inquisitive direction several times during the 12 episode series. Initially, it's palpable how bland the main male character was, but the performances of all the main female characters (which I love individually) really brought out very interesting dynamics with him in the household, which brings that much weight to his character. If you want something short and refreshing (even if in a foreign language), give this one a shot like I did!

I was amazed with every episode. With this show I realized how used I am to Hollywood films and TV. The story is so unpredictable and my jaw drop at every scene. Funny, sweet, sad, charming and mysterious, this series has it all. Even tho I didn't like much the actor for Shin at the beginning, the series sure did won me over. This is a very Japanese show, so it can be weird for western audience to see how the Japanese people are always so polite and stoic, but also, very charming. I would totally recommend it 9/10

I'm happy that this show popped up in my recommended section in Netflix. The story line was intriguing & so captivating that I finish all episodes in 2 nights. It's story telling is much different than Hollywood, yet if you enjoy drama in general, you will enjoy this. Scene by scene changes in an unpredictable way. You feel like you want to know more about its character stories and you are teased with clips of flashbacks, side stories etc. LOVE IT.

"Million Yen Women" is a Japanese TV series on Netflix that is based off a manga. The protagonist is Yojiro Noda, lead singer of RADWIMPS, the band that did the very popular soundtrack of animated film "Your Name."

The structure of "Million Yen Women" is the basic set-up of a "harem" manga. "Harem" is a a popular sub-genre in manga where a clueless man lives together with many young, attractive women, many of whom develop crushes or fall in love with him. Although the harem set-up is fine for comics, it rather loses its tenuous credibility in live-action film such as in "Million Yen Women." However this TV series has a twist, an element of mystery, that is almost as fantastical but rather more welcome. Kudos to Yojiro Noda, anyway, for making his protagonist likable anyhow.

Harem is not particularly my cup of tea, but I did enjoy some of the character development in the series and some surprising moments of depth and pathos sprinkled throughout.

Although "Million Yen Women" contains elements of romance and murder, it also is about Yojiro Noda's character, who is an upcoming novelist, and his rivalry with a popular established author. This rivalry is pretty basic, but I did enjoy some of the discussion about novels and expression and "creating a new emotion" and etc. There's an odd peace about Yojiro Noda that makes character as a novelist believable, and makes him unique against the backdrop of criminal intrigue he stands against.

Unfortunately however, the rivalry between the two authors isn't as resolved as I would like, and there are various other plots of the drama that seem rushed or underdeveloped or sort of like afterthoughts. (I haven't read the manga so I make no comparison.) Nevertheless, "Million Yen Women" does have a degree of substance that elevates it beyond a typical boy's fantasy, and it is mostly fun and enjoyable to watch so I recommend it.

This drama also has Japanese audio description and Japanese captions for those wanting to learn the language.