Sunao Ni Narenakute or loosely translated as "hard to say I love you" is written by Kitagawa Eriko, who is famous for works such as Tatta Hitotsu no Koi, Orange Days, Overtime and Long Vacation. Hence, when this drama was announced, there was much anticipation. Furthermore, with cast members like Ueno Juri, Eita, Seki Megumi and Tamayama Tetsuji, one can expect this to be a good drama.
The story is about 5 person who follow each other on twitter and decides one day to meet up for a gathering. "Linda" is the main organiser, who is actually a magazine editor trying to get a story out regarding the usage of twitter and the effects it has on the people involved. "Haru" is a substitute teacher for a prestigious private school who just couldn't pass the examination to become a full fledged teacher. "Nakaji" is an aspiring photographer who could only get work taking photos for AV models while also living under the shadows of his dad. "Doctor" is an ethnic Korean struggling to make ends meet as a underperforming salesman selling medical products. "Peach" is the last member to join the group, who is Haru's real time friend but has a troubled past being a mistress of a married man and getting shunned by him after she got pregnant. The story tells the struggles of every character and how they overcome it through each other's support.
At first when I watched the first 3 episodes I was afraid this story will be like "Last Friends" where Ueno Juri and Eita were in it as well. Among all the Japanese dramas I've chosen to watch, Last Friends is considered to be one of the dramas that has the heaviest and darkest content, talking about domestic violence, lesbianism and incest. Sunao comes close, however it did not go that deep, which I feel luckily it did not. I will not comment much on what happened in the show but I do have to admit Kitagawa Eriko's scriptwriting is indeed different from the rest of the scriptwriters. In her shows, it seems to be more precise and more dense, making the content richer.
However, it is still disappointing that there are quite a number of characters which I thought seems excessive. Haru's brother Shu, who has a drug problem, together with one of her students who is also into drugs and even main character Peach herself, Kitagawa did not give them much room to grow, or to end these characters well. In a well scripted drama, having these loopholes is somewhat disappointing.
Have said that, the drama is still a pretty good production. The soundtrack for the drama is rich as well and differ from other dramas by using not self composing their own tunes but instead used various international songs to provide the background music. Expect a lot of music from the Ting Tings that is featured in the drama.
