Silent

Since I'm watching more Japanese dramas these days I'm able to find more hidden gems, like the drama Silent. This is a subtle, emotional romance series, and authentically portrays what it's like to deal with a major disability while trying to get on with life and fall in love.

Here's the story: in high school Sou Sakura (Meguro Ren) and Tsumugi Aoba (Haruna Kawaguchi) are a young couple. They have the same quirky sense of humor, love music, and really enjoy being with each other. The fact that they're the most attractive couple in school is obvious, but the innocent and fun nature of their relationship is what makes it so perfect. They just like talking with each other. Then, quite suddenly, Sou dumps Tsumugi (by text, no less, making him a giant ass) and vanishes.

Years later Tsumugi is now in a relationship with another guy, with whom she's happy, and is looking for a place where they can live together. By accident she runs into Sou, and discovers the real reason why he dumped her: he lost his hearing due to a genetic disorder.

As a hearing-impaired person I wondered if I could put up with seeing all the usual cliches about my disability -- the deaf and hard of hearing are always the ones forced to adapt to the hearing in fiction, for example, and we're uniformly pitied. We live in a very different world, obviously, but that doesn't make it horrible. I feel fortunate that I can still hear some sounds, and I'm learning to lip-read better. The profoundly deaf have their own language that is quite effective. I was cringed at the prospect of a miraculous cure for Sou's deafness (which is a nice dream, but almost never happens in real life.) Instead Silent broke apart from the usual dreck of handicapped romance and with great insight and sensitivity showed the situation as it actually is for those of us who are hearing-impaired.

After her current boyfriend dumps her so she can be with her one true love, Tsumugi draws Sou back into their circle of friends, and wants to revive their romance. Some of their friends are willing to try to communicate better with Sou, some aren't, and almost everyone shows some negative reaction to his disability (which in most Asian countries is regarded as ruinous.) Tsumugi takes sign language classes so she can communicate better with her ex, and then discovers she has a rival in the deaf girl who taught Sou to sign. Sou has already had to adapt to losing music and the sounds of life and other people's voices, however, and has very valid reasons for not wanting to get involved with Tsumugi again. Yet they are still attuned to each other, and slowly things start to evolve between them again.

Silent is a heart-wrencher, but it's also quite realistic. I knew everything Sou struggled with, from the hassle of trying to communicate with the hearing to the isolation from others that going deaf creates. I also sympathized with Tsumugi, who had to face her own losses because of his deafness. It is heartbreaking that they lost so much to Sou's disability, but it also gave them an opportunity to build a new relationship. Does it become romantic? You'll have to watch to find out.

I really liked the realism with this one, and all of the actors did a pretty wonderful job in their roles, so I highly recommend it. Available to watch on Viki.com.