imdb-26375

I've watched a lot of Japanese series and films over the years and this is one of the best I've seen. It's very well put together, with a good storyline, a fascinating collection of characters, and above all a good script. What's great is that there is no single "hero": all the main characters are equally important. All the actors are excellent especially Tasuku Sato as the little boy.

The Autistic man Michito is played by Ryota Bando, who is not Autistic. At first I was annoyed at this: I thought why isn't an Autistic actor playing Michito? But Bando plays him well. The character of Michito is explored fully and is central to the story: how refreshing to see Autism depicted like this.

I liked the way it plays with the usual format of recap, intro, story, cliffhanger, credits. Sometimes the intro appear halfway through, sometimes there's an extra crucial segment tacked on the end.

It has subtitles for non-Japanese speakers, but in fact the language is quite easy to understand compared to other Japanese series. Although the story itself is very dramatic, the locations are ordinary, so by watching this you can get a good picture of everyday life in Japan.

This is an astonishing series that reveals the true complexity of what surgeons can actually do nowadays. It's also a great example of exactly what the BBC was created to do. Unlike most of the TV drama depictions of operating theatres, full of drama and emotion, the reality pictured here is a reassuringly calm and matter-of-fact, as surgeons carry out incredibly complex and high-precision operations with confidence and minimal drama. The thing that most surprised me is how surgeons play the role of super-precise carpenters of plumbers: chiselling, drilling and sawing their way into people's bodies, gluing pieces of bone, or joining arteries together. Every episode makes you gasp in amazement.