‘A Girl and Three Sweethearts’…Came for Kento Yamazaki, stayed for the sweet, adorkable, sun-drenched romance.

Also known in romaji as ‘Suki na Hito ga Iru Koto’.

Spoilers Ahead…

The overworked patisserie, Sakurai Misaki (Kiritani Mirei) has no time for romance, and when she is unduly fired from her job of seven years, Shibasaki Chiaki (Miura Shohei), her first love, shows up like a knight in shining armour, offering a summer job at his restaurant in the seaside town of Shonan. Bonus, she can stay with him at his place. But wait, the rom-com Gods haven’t yet stopped showering their blessing, as once Misaki lands up at Chiaki’s house, she finds out that she also has to share the house with his two equally handsome, younger brothers — Kanata (Yamazaki Kento, gorgeously bronzed) and Touma (Nomura Shuhei). What then follows is a melange of day to day activities, life lessons, heartbreaks, and the usual pull and push of will they, won’t they (spoiler alert: they will!) and that too with whom?

So, even though A Girl and Three Sweethearts is nothing new that we haven’t watch before in a multitude of other Asian rom-coms, it certainly feels fresh, and for that reason alone, this isn’t going to be a review, but a list composed mostly of what I liked about the show and that one thing that irked me. Because in my eyes, if these stories make you care for the characters and root for them despite the familiar beats, then it’s a battle won.

1. The Setting and the Cinematography: My number one complaint with all the J-dramas I have seen so far, is that I don’t get to see Tokyo/Japan as much, because, in this pandemic, that’s my only way to travel. But fortunately, A Girl and Three Sweethearts is mostly shot outdoors, with the breeze, blue waves, and the strong sunlight of Shonan permeating every shot, infusing a feeling of unwinding and relaxation. This is further complemented by the clean cinematography with minimum cutaways, wide shots — which captures the beauty of the city, and long takes for the emotionally charged moments. One of my favourite cutaways was Kanata missing his basketball shot and then immediately we see Misaki getting interrupted during her confession to Chiaki. Another favourite, was the long take when Misaki and her friend are having a conversation at a loud baseball match, during a Mexican wave. (Her friend’s attendance at various social events in Tokyo was a running gag I absolutely loved as well!) It adds a sense of dynamism to an otherwise simple scene and Misaki standing out in white in the sea of red was beautiful to look at.
2. A well-balanced screenplay: What I absolutely loved about this show was how it just lets its characters and its scenes just…breathe. In shows like Good Doctor and Queen, you get a sense of hurriedness and because of that, you can feel the set time limit these stories are operating on. Here, the plot gives time for its characters to form bonds or to just, be, so that we can understand them, empathize and connect with them. And that doesn’t mean that A Girl and Three Sweethearts is slow or the story drags a lot. The screenplay is steady, with enough background moments to keep it from being too monotonous, but never completely shifting the focus from our main leads.
3. The Female Lead: This could be a controversial opinion, but I quite liked Kiritani Mirei’s portrayal of Misaki. Yes, she is a tad bit childish and awkward, but Mirei’s portrayal gives her a sweet edge and confidence, which I quite loved. Though shy, she also regularly stands up to Kanata whenever he is rude to her and her single-minded pursuit of Chiaki makes sense, considering that she has devoted the past seven years of her life to her career. So, now she would just like to concentrate on love, and we anyway watch these type of shows to watch good looking people fall in love. Anything more is just a distraction.
4. The drama hits a snag on the road to a smooth finish: As the laws of rom-coms go, all plot progressions and character developments are thrown out the window to give viewers some more last-minute nail-biting tension. Here, that happens to be Chiaki suddenly developing feelings for Misaki, thereby giving us some semblance of a love triangle. I just wish these decisions don’t come at the cost of completely killing everything we have learned about the character.
   Chiaki is always said to be more considerate of others’ feelings, over his own and we see this in his attempt to keep Kanata’s adoption a secret, or not revealing the financial trouble the restaurant is going through. So, when he runs out on Misaki to go meet Takatsuki Kaede (Nanao), who like him, puts his feelings above hers, it's a wonderful moment. One where he could keep aside his responsibilities as an elder brother and do whatever his heart desires. But then later on, when he repeats this to go see Misaki, the girl he knows his brother likes, leaving Kaede alone on the beach, he comes across as a selfish jerk, which he has never been until now.
   This is a trope I am never going to like, and its inclusion will always leave me baffled.