Silent (2022)

Silent like snow.

It’s 2023 and I only just watched this series and I am so glad that I did. I didn’t get the hype when this was airing in 2022. But now I understand.

The cast. I know Kawaguchi Haruna (Aoba Tsumugi) from her previous dramas and movies and I like her. She has a subtle way of acting that comes out of her naturally. I think she is a great actress. I know Suzuka Ouji as well from his past works. I would say that I like his character here (Togawa Minato) the best among his works that I have seen. I didn’t know Meguro Ren (Sakura So) other than the fact that he is an idol. But he was wonderful in this series and now, I am glad to know of the actor Meguro Ren. He had very little lines given his character’s disability. And yet, he was able to express the emotions through his facial expression, his eyes and his gestures (not necessarily the sign language). This series has a wonderful, solid main cast and supporting cast (loved Kaho here!!!).

Story and characters. I was skeptical at first. I was worried how they were going to treat the disability and those with the disability. But hats off the scriptwriter and director for giving them justice. There are no villains in this series. There is no build-up and then an eventual climax. It’s simply a story of the journey of a man who started to lost his hearing at 18 years old, and how that affected his life trajectory, his relationship with his family, his friends and everyone round him. There are no villains here, just normal people with normal feelings like insecurity and jealousy. There is character growth (specially Minato and Nana). There is a most wonderful friendship (So and Minato). There are relationship break-ups, including one that is most heart-warming and heart-breaking at the same time. There is tension within a family trying to grasp a new reality for a son and brother. This is a journey of self-acceptance, that they are enough and that they are worthy of love.

Other than the story, the main thing that made me so attached to this series are the characters. All of them.

Aoba Tsumugi is such a strong woman who knows what she wants, is honest with her emotions and can look someone in the eye and reveal herself without shame. You see this with how she just jumped head on learning sign language just so she can talk to Sou again face to face. You see this with how she handled her break-up with Minato. You see this as she fights for her and Sou’s relationship.

Sakura Sou is a man who had to go through a difficult process of accepting his disability, his new reality and that he is worthy of Aoba’s acceptance. When he finally met Tsumugi and Minato again after 8 years, he has already somewhat become a man who has faced his demons. But it was different for his family. They had to watch him suffer from the very beginning of his illness until his hearing was finally gone and that definitely changed the family dynamics. In a sense, when Sou broke off all his relationships and connections from high school, in a sense, he spared them this kind of pain that he and his family went through. And so when they met again, all they could see was the Sou who seemed to have stayed the same.

Togawa Minato is the kindest, most amazing friend and boyfriend, who is human enough to feel insecure, but is strong enough to accept that and face it head on. [Spoiler!!!] I was shocked when he suddenly broke up with Tsumugi. Then I rewatched that episode again, and the one before that. And then realized that it was not so sudden. There was always some degree of insecurity that Minato felt in his relationship with Tsumugi. It was this insecurity that made him blind to how much Tsumugi loved him. It wasn’t because of Sou that he broke up with Tsumugi. It was just that meeting Sou again made him realize that he could no longer live with that kind of insecurity. He knew that staying in that relationship would make him start to resent Tsumugi and So, and when that happens, he can no longer be kind to them. And he would be hated, and he would hate himself more. The beauty in Minato’s character is not just his kindness (because really, he is the sweetest, kindest man), but also his honesty about his own feelings and shortcomings. And did I mention how wonderful his relationship is with Sou?

A supporting character that I really liked is Momono Nana (played by Kaho). Oh, I saw her feelings for Sou from the very first shot of them together. I understood how she thought herself and those who are Deaf are different from the rest who can hear. The experience is not the same and it is something that cannot be fully understood by those who can hear (and this was so wonderfully expressed by Masaki Haruo). I understood her jealousy and the always-present-under-the-surface desire to be able to hear and have “normal” conversations and relationships. And I loved watching her subtly change her point of view and grow into this happier woman.

This is a warm and comforting drama that would make you smile and feel all fuzzy. Definitely give it a try.

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A breath of fresh air that combines a mature storyline with exceptional acting.

This is a drama where the actors are just killing it. Meguro Ren, who plays Sakura Sou, is like the MVP—his emotions are on point, making you feel all kinds of things. The whole cast, including Suzuka Ouji, is like your favorite recipe—perfectly mixed for maximum enjoyment.

Now, the story is the cool part. It's not your typical lovey-dovey drama; it's more like a chill breeze on a hot day. It talks about love, relationships, and what it's like for people in the deaf community. No clichés here, just a cool and real story that feels like your everyday life. They talk without talking a lot, and it's surprisingly deep and relatable.

The look of the show is also top-notch. It's like a visual feast for your eyes. They use pictures to show feelings, especially when it's super quiet. The places they shoot at and how they film it all just adds this awesome vibe to the whole thing.

Oh, and the music! The songs they pick are like the secret sauce in your favorite burger. It's not just noise in the background; it's what makes you feel things, you know? It's like they knew exactly when to play the perfect song to make you laugh or cry.

Now, the people in the show are like your buddies. They mess up, they learn, and you cheer for them. It's not just about the main characters; even the friends and family have their own stories. It's like a drama buffet—you get a taste of everyone's life.

"Silent" is not your usual drama—it's that one gem you find when you least expect it. It's got a killer combo of a great story, awesome actors, and cool visuals. It doesn't follow the typical romance rules, and that's what makes it stand out.

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Slow

At some point, one of the characters says something along the line of "it's difficult to convey emotions using sign language".
I think this drama suffers from the same problem. The scenes that are designed to break our hearts and make my little sister cry just fall flat.

The very - very - slow pace doesn't help. Many times I felt like pushing the fast-forward button.

Some support characters become very quickly unlikable (especially Togawa - I felt pushing the super-fast-forward button every time he appeared on screen).

Bottom line: it's well made but something just doesn't work.

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I really enjoyed it except for one thing

I hate open endings, the show was extremely well-written and the actors did a superb job. Everything was amazing, especially the ost but the damn open ending. Idk what is going up lately with Japan but the last few dramas that are new have been open endings and it erks the shit out of me. I had really enjoyed this drama a lot up until they made the ml character keep running away from the fl which is completely understandable due to the fact he is deaf and is still coming to terms with his deafness and doesn't want to burden anyone with his impairment. His self-consciousness suffers a lot due to him going deaf out of nowhere before graduating high school and gradually getting worse when he is in university. Anyone would have a difficult time losing any of their senses. The part that bothered me is that near the end of the drama they really really heavily focused on his issues on him not wanting to be a burden in multiple episodes. After like 2nd or 3rd ep of the plot still on him trying to run away from the fl due to his deafness I had to take a break and come back to the drama cuz I had a feeling the writers/directors weren't going to have enough time to allow the ml or fl be together after the struggle they both had to endure with them breaking up in high school cuz the ml was going deaf and had to come to terms with his deafness and he still didn't really come to terms with it when you follow his story in the show. We get to see his character development throughout the show that he isn't a burden that he kept assuming he was going to be he just couldn't take not being able to listen to music anymore and be able to communicate like he used to. Again it is completely understandable, I just wish the problem between the fl and the ml didn't take so long to resolve. It is implied the couple got together but they never flat out come out with it which pissed me off and that's why I had to take a break. Would I recommend it yes but you have been warned the ending for me personally could have been better. Did I enjoy myself yes I did, but the ending left a sour taste in my mouth it took away everything that was building up between the two leads to just the end without knowing if they became a couple or stayed friends. Would I rewatch it, no, it was good but the ending ruined it for me.

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Tenderness Meets Kindness

About once or twice a year I come across a "wow“ drama.
At the very end of 2022 this treasure wow-ed me in the best possible way.

A music lover that lost his hearing and a girl that will go the extra mile for the person she treasures.

Essentially that’s the story but there was sooo much depth and nuance that I - once again - fell in love with the genre "melodrama". A genre that often gets a bad rep but this one is just so good.

This drama features the most kind FL I‘ve ever seen - but not in a generic way. The ML is having a really hard time and I don’t want to spoil anything so I‘m just gonna say, that he is very tender and she is very kind to him.

Without any words the actor has given a 10/10 performance that touched my heart.
His smile is so pure and deep in a way. It lights up the room in a natural way. It doesn’t feel like he’s acting.

The drama also is very poetic and has very good dialogue (even in sign language) and people are very honest with each other. Although some interactions may be a bit too good to be true, for a drama it was just heart-wrenchingly beautiful.

My recommendation while watching this drama is to give it a few episodes. It doesn’t start weak or anything but the more you watch the more meaningful and touching it gets.

Let’s end this with a quote that I really liked.
"A world without sound…is not a sad world"

Minus Point:
- the music editing is very off putting at times since the music cuts off all the time mid lyric. Idk what they thought they were doing.
They may wanted to show that for him it’s silent but she hears it but it happened even in scenes where he wasn’t on screen so it felt random.

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Beautiful

"As pessoas tem sua maneira de pensar e seus caminhos de vida. É inevitável que não consigamos entender completamente um ao outro. Mesmo assim, acho que as palavras existem para que você possa se agarrar a alguém que você gostaria de estar."

Um dorama sobre amor e palavras, a fala não é o único meio de transmitir palavras, é possível pela escrita, pelas mãos e até mesmo pela arte. As vezes nós pensamos de uma maneira limitada, e precisamos que outras pessoas nos mostrem outro ponto de vista. A conecção e evolução dos personagens foi gradual e lindo de se ver. Todos me conquistaram de uma maneira, que me fez querer ter amizades assim. Um jdrama lindo, que trás muitas lições que levarei para minha vida!

Amei a trilha sonora, e como também eles deixavam tudo em silêncio focando somente nos sentimentos transmitidos ali! Atuação incrível merecedor de prêmios!

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Heart-warming and touching dorama

Honestly, I came across to watch this drama because of the clip of eps 1 that went viral on Twitter. This drama is absolutely worth the hype.

Silent explores what some of us take as granted. It is the ability of hearing. This dorama not only reveals the point of view of hearing people towards the deaf people but also vice versa.

Sou's hearing impairment becomes the center of this story. How he feels so little toward everyone else, how he tries to adjust his life after losing his hearing ability, and how he shuts down from society to protect himself. For me, that is a normal reaction. To suddenly not be able to hear is painful enough. I have to give a standing ovation to Mame since he is able to convey all of the emotion with facial expressions and sign language.

The triangle love story between Sou-Tsumugi-Minato is beautifully made. At first, I thought Minato, for Tsumugi, was just the substitute for Sou after he had gone. But It was wrong. Minato holds another place in Tsumugi heart while Sou holds a special place in her heart. Yes, she falls in love with them over different periods of time. Their story gives the same feeling when someone loses her or his lover and she or he starts to love and be loved again. You can't help but keep yearning for the deceased one while start loving another one. In addition, for me, Minato character is truly the hero here. He just loves to see Tsumugi and Sou together even though he does love Tsumugi.

Tsumugi also gives her best effort to communicate with Sou by immediately learning sign language. Along with time, she understands that it is not the only voice that can convey someone's thinking but also words. I love how she tries as much as she can to understand Sou.

The other characters complement the story as well. Sou's family and friends' acceptance of Sou's condition, Nana's thoughts as a born-deaf person, and Masaki's thoughts as a hearing person really blend well.

Another thing I like about this dorama is how every sound is showcased more to my ears. I could hear clearly those sounds compared to another dorama. Subtitle as the OST also makes this dorama complete. How I wish this dorama could end with Sou calling Tsumugi name and holding her hand. Nevertheless, the ending is still beautifully created.

Regardless of its xenophobic and gate-keeping screenwriter, I hope this dorama could be streamed legally on the official streaming platform (aside of Viki ofc) so it could reach more audiences. I sincerely hope the screenwriter would apologize since her reckless statement has hurt a lot of people.

Lastly, Silent is a really worth-watching dorama which could leave you in tears in each episode.

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magnifique ! !!

Magnifique drama plein d'enseignements.
On y apprend qu'il est primordial de transmettre ses émotions, ses sentiments quelle que soit la manière ... les mots, les signes, les gestes, les yeux, ... les non-dit sont les ennemis des relations inter-personnelles
Ce drama est émouvant et les acteurs font tellement bien passer les messages.
C'est mon premier drama japonais ! !! Moi qui n'ai regardé que des bl asiatiques et des kdramas, j'ai sauté le pas grâce à un acteur de Yaoi et j'en suis très heureuse ! !!
Me voilà au début d'un chemin qui s'annonce palpitant??

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La forme des mots

Ce qui est frappant dans la diffusion des dramas, c'est le respect de la saisonnalité. Et cela, jusqu'à diffuser le dernier épisode d'une série à succès se terminant à Noël…, le soir de Noël. Silent ne déroge pas à la règle et si vous n'en pouvez plus de ses dramas romantiques au long cours où le dénouement est inscrit dès le premier épisode dans le regard de nos héros, vous pourriez passer votre chemin. Mais vous feriez l'impasse sur un petit bijou de sensibilité et surtout sur une tentative de faire comprendre le monde du silence à notre monde très, voir trop bruyant.

Autant le dire tout de suite, vous ne serez pas scotchés par des révélations à chaque épisode, et cela, malgré les flashbacks incessants. Mais loin d'en abuser, la mise en scène montre, de manière subtile, le parallélisme entre les scènes du présent, de protagonistes adultes et vaccinés, et les moments ultra school life de leurs années lycées. On nous rappelle continuellement à quel point nos amoureux ou leurs amis étaient proches afin de renforcer l'émotion dans les scènes actuelles. Et ça marche. Que ce soit le jeu des acteurs, avec Kawaguchi Haruna au regard pénétrant ou Meguro Ren au regard fuyant, ou la mise en scène qui fait l'éloge de la lenteur et du non-dit (c'est le cas de le dire), rien ne vous laissera insensible.

Les tentatives de mettre en avant le handicap dans les dramas sont louables et ont été longtemps maladroites. Mais depuis Perfect World et ses nombreuses adaptations, j'ai l'impression de comprendre un peu mieux comment vie une personne dans un monde fait pour les "valides". Impression seulement. Car au fur à mesure des épisodes, je me surprends encore à dire, "ah ben, je n'y avais pas pensé, c'est horrible". Ne plus entendre, alors que l'on est un fan inconditionnel de musique, comme moi (de Spitz en plus), ne plus entendre alors qu'on vit les moments les plus importants de sa vie, en groupe, dans le sport (ça, ce n'est pas comme moi, mais je peux comprendre) coupent non seulement la communication, mais aussi et surtout les liens forgés. Ne plus entendre la voix de sa bien-aimée, ne plus s'en souvenir. C'est la double peine. La perte de son ancienne vie

Loin de dire que c'est pire de perdre l'ouïe quand on a déjà entendu, on comprend quand même que c'est bien plus qu'un sens que l'on perd. Mais la galerie de personnages qui intervient relativise aussi ce drame. Je pense à L'actrice Kaho, que je regrette toujours de ne pas voir plus souvent, et qui ici démontre encore tous ses talents en arrivant à nous émouvoir et à nous faire rire sans un mot prononcé. Elle nous rappelle que même affublé du même handicap, il n'est pas simple de se comprendre. Et c'est la justification des 11 épisodes qui apparait ici. La vie et les sentiments d'une personne née sourde, d'une personne devenue sourde à 20 ans, d'une personne entendante et même d'une personne entendante et parlant parfaitement la langue des signes sont si différents qu'il est quasi impossible de se comprendre et de s'aimer. Chaque épisode essaye donc de se concentrer sur le passé et le présent d'un personnage. Sur ses renoncements, qui peuvent parfois énerver, tournant trop souvent autour du : " je me sacrifie pour ton bonheur", mais qui me touchèrent souvent… Ou énervé avec ce machisme qui revient toujours insidieusement, ("elle est pour toi X non, non, elle est pour toi"). Les clichés ont la vie dur, même pour Cyrano. Dans ce sens, le personnage interprèté par Kaho est salvateur de réalisme par les sentiments de jalousie qu'elle dégage.

L'utilisation de la langue des signes dans 25 % des dialogues pourra rebuter, mais je n'y crois pas vraiment. Non contente d'être parfaitement interprété par nos acteurs, elle apporte réellement quelque chose en plus. De la sincérité, bien sûr. Un certain calme même si les mots peuvent être violents. Je n'y comprends pas grand-chose et pourtant, ce n'est pas faute d'avoir voulu m'y mettre, après les nombreux visionnages de Silent Voice. Mais ces dialogues m'envoutent et me transportent. J'aimerais pouvoir les comprendre sans lire les Subtitles. Les mots prennent une telle place dans cette série et du coup ce n'est pas que le fait de ne pas comprendre la langue des signes qui frustre, mais aussi de ne pas comprendre parfaitement le japonais.

Heureusement, la musique vous transporte et atténue un peu cette frustration récurrente de tout dramavore. La BO, bien choisie, même si on a du mal à se souvenir des thèmes, revient immédiatement en tête à la première note. Évidement, j'aurais tellement aimé un inédit de Spitz en Ending, mais ç'aurait fait too much. Les ultra-récompensés Official Hige Dandism ferme évidement avec brio chaque épisode. Accompagnant ses torrents de larme qui inonde l'écran. Mais, sans honte, j'avoue être dans le même état à ce moment. Donc les mots deviennent inutiles.

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Slow, delicate and quiet

It's a beautiful drama that revolves around the themes of relationships, self-worth, coping with hardships in life, and the true self as opposed to the idealized self. These themes already make it very interesting, as every single character is shown as a whole person with proper depth and elaborate feelings and thoughts.
An important part of the plot, if not the most important, is deafness (and Deafness) and the many facets of it. Since I'm not deaf myself, I'd rather let actual deaf/HoH people judge whether it's good representation or not; all I can say is that it was a very interesting theme and it seemed to be explored properly and not just used as a fancy plot device.
What I liked the most about this story is that it doesn't make fun of its audience with poor writing. There is no villain because there's no need for one, and all the characters have both their perks and their flaws in good balance. All the events flow nicely without annoying decisions that don't make any sense or annoying events that are just there to make us feel bad.
The actors all did amazing. The friends felt like actual friends, the lovers felt like actual lovers, the siblings felt like true siblings, and so on. There's little to no physical touching in the entire drama, so I suggest you looking elsewhere if you're expecting passionate kisses or anything like that.
While the music is very pretty, I was mostly impressed by the use of the silence in many scenes, which make them have a bigger impact on me. The only thing I really didn't like about this drama were some abrupt cuts between one scene and the next, which were pretty jarring: at some points the music just cuts off to silence all of a sudden, which can be confusing.

Overall it was a very sweet and memorable drama, probably one of the best I've watched. If you're looking for something sweet and slow, I highly recommend watching this one.

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