I have holed up at home the last few days catching up on this drama "Love Shuffle" telecast earlier this year. I just thought it might be something interestin to fill up my time after Buzzer Beat is over. The series turned out to be rather ok really. It's not wow excellent but its kinda entertaining in its own ways with funny bits throughout.
The drama revolves around the "love philosophy" amongst the four lead characters who happened to be neighbors, living on the top most floors of an expensive residential building. One is a male psychologist Yukichi, a successful photographer Ojiro, an IT manager Usami kei, and lastly a female foreign languages translator Aizawa Airu.
The plot starts off simple.
3 Months before their wedding ceremony, Kei was dumped by his gf Mei without a reason. All she did was repeatedly apologising without further elaborations despite Kei's pleas to change. Mei is the daughter and fav child of a wealthy businessman who owns the company that Kei is working. In fact, Kei less than ideal academic records would not have warrant him his current position if it wasnt for the fact his gf is Mei. Thinking that the cancellation of the marriage would also means the lost of his expensive flat and job left Kei totally demoralised in addition to losing to the love of his life Mei.
That night, as Kei stepped dejectedly into the lift with 3 other people, a power breakout suddenly stopped the lift in midway. The 4 started talking after realising they are all neighbors and started self introduction. By chance, they found out about Kei's misfortune in love when his ring box fell out. At the same time, Ai realised she had to pee desperately and the guys all convinced her to pee in the paper cup, while attempting to do so themselves to make it less awkward for her. Just when she was about to relent, the lights and power resumed and saved! From there, they decidedly became friends and often had gatherings at the common corridor area together.
During their conversations, everyone revealed bits and pieces of problems faced in their complex lovelife. In the course of conversation, someone said
"Parting ways is easy, but it will only be a matter of time before you fall for someone else, but the feeling will gradually diminish again, hence, it is nothing but a cycle of repetition."At that point (and on the pretext of helping Kei with Mei), the game "love shuffle" was born. The objective was to exchange their current partners, with the idea of finding out if their current partner is worthy of love, or a new lover will really be better.
The following nite, the 4 lead characters invited their partners to a gathering, after explaining the concept of love shuffle. At the start, Kei was opposed to the idea but he invited Mei anycase since he assumed she would also declined. Airu invited her stalker bf Reiko, Yukichi invited his young patient Kairi who insisted on killing herself by her 20th birthday, and Ojiro invited the older married woman Masato whom he is having an affair with.
This is where the fun begins. To kei's shock, Mei actually agreed to the game. The only person who didnt turn up was the doctor's patient who had once again committed suicide. The doctor persuade her to join the game as he wanted her to gain the will and courage to live from the experience. Oji withheld the info that his partner is a married woman, and the doctor also witheld the fact kairi is his patient and not gf.
Kei was still reluctant about the preposterous idea despite Mei's willingness to be involve. Ai revealed Mei's sharing that Kei has lost his shine over the years after working for her dad, and playfully pretended to throw the ring into the pool. However, the ring was indeed thrown in by accident and kei dived in without hesitation and with that renewed his determination to play the game seriously so as to regain mei's positive view in him.
Hence the game begins based on a shuffle of card (which really was determined by the doctor) and the cross matching begins.
The drama continues showing how the different people remains unaffected or were affected throughout the different combination. Personally, Kei's character really shine through and one begins to understand what Mei had meant about Kei not fulfilling his full potential if he continues to be with her, and thus her decision to end the relationship despite loving him greatly.
The show is not heavy at all, and definitely not preachy about love. It doesnt get messy or entangled but executed in a light hearted manner which can be easily identifiable for all. As the story progress, more mysteries would also starts to unravel affecting their behaviour. Can kairi really see god of death, does the doctor have ulterior motive? Will Kei finally reunite with Mei or will they go speerate ways? Why Ai isnt able to wholeheartly love someone? It's a pretty interesting show. You wont really be roooting for particularly anyone, but you will have your fav However, you will go away feeling satisfied with a smile on your face after the show ends.
The victims family was shocked and the mother was left with guilt that it was her fault that she came home too late by 15mins resulting in the unforseen tragedy. The other question was also, why my son. what has my little boy done to deserve such a death.
