Series Reviews

1. The Positives
2. The Bad

“Kissing the Ring Finger” (2023) is a 10 episodes Japanese romantic comedy starring Hashimoto Kanna and Yamada Ryosuke.

It tells the story of Haneda Ayaka, a young woman facing constant issues caused by her beauty, mainly jealousy and harassment in the workplace leading her to lose one job after the other. Her latest position, as a wedding planner, seems to threaten once again. However, when she thinks she is about to get fired, Nitta Togo, the president of her company, offers her a deal. Her job in exchange of her collaboration in a publicity stunt to attract more customers to the boutique: a 1 year-long wedding.

I gave it a score of 6.5/10. And that is such a shame.
The first half of the show had so much potential. It was setting out to be a very funny and enjoyable romantic comedy lead by a couple with great chemistry; however, it was dragged down by an increasingly dramatic second half, that steered away from a fun and upbeat story straight towards a trashy melodrama.

Let’s now look at the good and bad parts of the series in more details (spoilers).

The Positives

Even not being anything original, filled with lots of clichés seen before (fake marriages, rich man with cold family encounters poorer woman with loving family, etc.), the great chemistry and acting from the leads, and the genuinely funny moments with very good comedic timing by the actors made this script appear fresh: it was fun, enjoyable and had no boring filler moments.
The best parts of the drama were, without doubt, the two main characters and their cute relationship.
Ayaka had a strong and feisty personality, which I do not often see in Japanese female leads, and I greatly appreciated. Meanwhile Togo, the cold company president, was in reality a awkwardly funny male lead who was adorable to watch fall in love.
Both were strong characters in themselves, making the relationship feel balanced, even with Ayaka in the seemingly more disadvantaged position (stuck in a contractual marriage to not lose a job she grew to love).
If the show could have had continued with the same quality and fun trajectory until the end, they could have become one of my favourite J-drama couples.
However, halfway through the episodes, the writers decide that they want to try their hand at melodramas.

The Bad

Togo’s family issues.
In the beginning episodes, I was enjoying them. The male lead seemed to be a well put together character with a very good background; when it was explained that in reality he did not have the perfect family he seemed to have, and was hiding a sad side of himself, I was intrigued…but then it became worse and worse, to the point that the fun series I was expecting to watch was nowhere to be seeing.

1. It all starts with Togo’s mother doing everything to try and break the couple up: first she pays Kamiyama Kento, Ayaka’s high school sweetheart, to seduce her. Then she instigates a series of fake customer reviews to ruin Ayaka’s family business. I was expecting something like this to happen, these are plot points I have seen dozens of times already. I thought once the leads got over this hurdle, the fun drama could start again. Instead…
2. We are shown Togo’s parents’ relation even more in depth (and honestly, I could not have cared less about them). Apparently, Togo’s mother is not his real mother, and she also have another son: a minor character who is only there to give us some filler dramatic moments. Also, Togo’s parents are, despite early appearances, not happy at all in their relationship: theirs had been an arranged marriage, and decades later they are still in love with their previous partners. This was all a big pile of melodramatic filler, where are my cute Togo and Ayaka?
3. Togo decides that I had too much hope that this drama could go back to the fun script I had actually enjoyed watching, and decides to break up with Ayaka to protect her from his mother’s schemes. Togo also gifts us an engagement with another random woman, just to ramp up the dramatics, and a separation from Ayaka that lasts until basically the finale. How many times have we seen this before? Stupid characters breaking up for the good of their partners instead of actually fixing their problems.

Overall, I recommend “Kissing the Ring Finger” to everyone wanting to enjoy a few very funny and engaging episodes leads by a great couple, if, and only if, they are fully prepared to encounter the trifecta of issues I have mentioned and a barely satisfying finale.