Somiya Hiroichi

(Spoiler alert) It was hard for me to get into this drama at first. Because I don’t like it when they portray the female lead as weak, naive, and childlike (bordering simpleton). Aren’t there enough movies that portray women this way? I forwarded through a lot of the dialogue towards the end because I really just wanted to know what ended up becoming of the characters. I felt bad for the night immortal and could relate to his change in perspective and becoming what he became. Same with The Princess of the bird tribe. They became enemies of the main characters and when u follow the things that made them the way they are, it’s sad but understandable. She did go too far when she started killing others to achieve her ends and that is true for the night immortal as well. What I don’t like about the movie is when they portray the actor and actress as being without flaws. I mean that’s not reality. No one is perfect. They make the god of fire this great hero, beloved and respected by all who finds the lead actress by mistake and she is innocent and pure. She hides him and goes with him betraying her tribe and throws them into conflict with the bird tribe. Also, I found it annoying that the actress was engaged to the night immortal yet spent most of her time with fire immortal. Even giving him a special gift made from a part of herself when he didn’t deserve it and sleeping with him too? But no one finds anything wrong with what they did. It’s kept between them and there are no consequences except that they get closer which drives a wedge between their relationship with others around them. She inevitably learns her true fate and spends it following her heart (after the god of fire) and him the same. Not taking into consideration anyone else’s affection or situation. She makes up for her lack of Wisdom at the beginning later on. But if the princess of the bird tribe woke the prince instead and cured him, I think the story would’ve been different. I mean we even see that she did try many times but only the lead character managed to get to him. Not only that but I feel like this movie could’ve been done in 50 episodes. The longer it is, the more it feels like it just dragged out due to it being popular or whatever. Overall, it’s nice to see more and more Asian dramas with happy endings. This was one of my pet peeves with Asian movies. It never feels complete at the end or it starts out good and ends sad. Like in the series, Rise of the Phoenixes. They make us fall in love with the two characters and well...I’ll let you guess what happens at the end, in case you haven’t seen it. If I was to grade Ashes for Love, I would give this series a B+.