Beyond Goodbye Review 2024 Tv Show Series Cast Crew Online
Beyond Goodbye has all the ingredients to make for a really compelling and heartwarming Japanese drama. It’s well-shot, beautifully composed and well acted throughout. The trouble is, it’s all undercut by the show’s biggest weakness – the writing.
The story itself starts strongly, with immediate chemistry between Saeko and her partner Yusuke. The pair discuss their future together while on a bus ride up to the mountains, and everything seems hunky-dory. There’s even a firework display that goes off right as they start talking about spending the rest of their lives together.
Unfortunately, a sudden avalanche completely derails their plans. Yusuke is killed, and Saeko slips into a deep despair. As she tries to come to terms with her new life, Yusuke’s is not over just yet. No, he doesn’t revive and come back to life, but, well, actually he kinda does. Let me explain.
At the same time as Yusuke’s death, we’re introduced to another couple. Miki and Kazuma are very much in love but unfortunately, a heart defect causes him to struggle to do the things others would. He’s in the hospital when we first meet him and he’s becoming weaker. He’s on borrowed time and isn’t sure how long he has left. While Miki tries to remain positive, it’s hard to do so with the prospect of losing the love of her life.
A chance encounter comes though when Yusuke passes off. His heart is transplanted into Kazuma and he’s given another shot at life. With the surgery a success, Kazuma starts to open up and become a lot more vibrant and full of energy. It’s almost as if another person is living inside him.
As fate would have it, Kazuma and Saeko end up crossing paths. They share the same train ride to work, and they also both love coffee. Although as we soon learn, Kazuma never loved coffee before, this was all Yusuke.
This journey of self-discovery and love on Kazuma’s part is influenced by Yusuke’s spirit. Yusuke slowly invades and overwhelms Kazuma. Kazuma struggles to keep a grip on his own reality as more and more of Yusuke’s personality traits come to the foreground. Kazu drifts away from his wife, who’s left a worried wreck and facing the possibility of losing her husband. Kazuma meanwhile, wrestles with the possibility of never being himself ever again. Oh, and this is a romantic drama by the way, so we’re supposed to champion all of this and root for Kazuma and Saeko to have their happily ever after.
The narrative of Beyond Goodbye is truly bizarre because with such strong themes like grief, love and reincarnation, the show handles them about as effectively as a baby with a shotgun. It haphazardly fires off what the writers deem to be a sentimental romance, without once considering that the actions these characters are taking aren’t exactly redeemable.
We can all agree that cheating is bad and most of us have had experience with this. Whether as a recipient, the culprit or even as a bystander to friends and family caught up in this, one thing can be universally agreed on – it’s not a good thing. Sure, the circumstances can be complicated and messy, but morally it’s not something to champion.
This is all worth mentioning because Beyond Goodbye actually does condone it and expects audiences to rally behind Kazuma and Saeko’s growing bond. These scenes are always intercut with shots of Kazuma’s wedding ring or Miki at home or with her family, worried for her husband, and it just leaves a really sour taste in the mouth. It just feels really at odds with what this show is trying to accomplish, and it’s more frustrating to see this than anything else because there’s such a simple solution.
With Saeko having lost the love of her life, why not have Kazuma face the same thing? Maybe after the transplant, Kazuma finds himself overcome with grief because Miki ends up in a horrible accident and passes away. That way, we have a fresh slate for Saeko and Kazuma to find each other, and then add in the elements of Yusuke and see what blossoms from there.
To be fair, the show does try to remedy some of its issues with a rather haphazard finale. Here, everything is wrapped up with a neat bow that waves away some of the strange decisions made with the story.
The other issue with Beyond Goodbye comes from its chemistry between the cast. Yusuke and Saeko have such a great rapport and compliment one another in every scene they share. They have palpable love for one another and that definitely can be felt leaping off the screen. Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Kazuma and Saeko. While the acting all round in this show is great, Kazuma just doesn’t have the same spark with Saeko, which is a real shame.
Visually, Beyond Goodbye looks great. There are so many sharp edits and beautiful establishing shots that really boast the beauty of Japan. From the cityscapes to the more rural sections, it’s very obvious that this one has been shot on-location. The colours are vibrant and in several scenes used to tell a story in itself.
During a typhoon for example, when emotions are high, there’s a dark, grey-blue hue hanging over every scene. As Saeko and Kazuma connect more intimately, that colour changes to a warmer shade of orange, with the sun peeking through and casting light on them. These little moments pop up throughout the show and where the narrative falters, the aesthetic never does, which is at least something.
The soundtrack here is fine, but similarly, there aren’t really any tracks that stand out, nor is there anything particularly outstanding here, but it at least does its job to keep things ticking over.
Ultimately, Beyond Goodbye is a drama that so easily could have been more than it ends up becoming. A strong first part is mired by a weak second, eventually leading into a rather subjective (and somewhat absurd) ending. Unfortunately, this one’s a bit of a misfire.
