O.A. 3 March 06Ratings: 17.7%
This is truly worth watching because it offers a rare insight into the adoption scheme in Japan from the viewpoint of the child. Actually, there was a similar story previously which talked about the issue from the viewpoint of the foster parents which earned rave reviews thus leading to the production of this current SP. After watching the SP, it made me realise suddenly that adopting a child is not as simple as it is always made out to be.
Let me talk briefly about the story. Koono Maki was abandoned by her mother 2 months after she was born because she couldn't live with her alcoholic and abusive husband. Subsequently, her father put her into an orphanage and killed himself. As such, Maki had never really tasted the feeling of being in a family nor feel the need to have parents.
When Maki (Yamauchi Nana) was 8, a couple by the surname of Ichimura came to adopt her and she agreed to go home with them even though she was under the impression that she could stay together with her friends in the orphanage. One of them was Sei-chan (Narimiya Hiroki) who is 10 years older than her and he was placed in the orphanage because he almost got killed by his violent father.
Even though Maki enjoyed many things she had not tried before e.g. overseas holidays, she didn't feel that she fitted into the family and only called her foster parents Father and Mother because her foster mother Chikako (Matsushita Yuki) insisted on it. In addition, Maki didn't see sense in the things Chikako forced her to do like abide by her household rules and get punished for not doing certain things. However, she never felt the need to voice out her opinion because she somehow had the gut feel that this wasn't allowed.
When Maki (Fukuda Saki) became a teenager, she kept questioning why she had to obey Chikako's commands and felt that the latter was being too intrusive into her lifestyle. Thankfully, her foster father Takayuki (Shokuhutei Tsurube) helped her over this tough period but this wasn't enough for Maki who was bottling up her frustrations. The final straw came when Maki found out that Chikako was reading her diary without her permission and even threatened to kill herself. This sort of upset the balance in the family and the relationship between Maki and her foster parents got shaky.
Subsequently, when the adoption officer came to visit Maki, she revealed her wish to leave the Ichimura household and got him to lie to Chikako that she was going to live at the orphanage for 1 week where Sei-chan was working at. However, Maki's refusal to return home made Chikako so desperate that she went to the family court to contest Maki's one-sided initiative to nullify their foster parent-child ties. In the end, Chikako lost the case and confided in Maki that she regretted not letting Maki change her surname right from the start even though the latter asked about it when she was a child. At that time, Chikako was persuaded not to do so yet but this sort of formed the basis of why Maki did not feel at ease in the family. Despite Chikako leaving in tears, Maki was not prepared to return home with her.
At 20, Maki (Hirosue Ryoko) went to a make-up school and worked part-time. Just as she thought that life would be a bed of roses from now on, she succumbed to a serious illness which was life-threatening. During her long stay in the hospital, Chikako and Takayuki took good care of her and Chikako even managed to get Maki's biological mother to visit her. This prompted Maki to reconcile with her foster parents when she was discharged.
However, the happy days were short-lived as Chikako suddenly passed away due to an illness. Maki found out how much her foster parents loved her and decided to move back home so that she could take care of her foster father...
Frankly speaking, other than the narration part, you won't get to see much of Hirosue Ryoko since a lot of attention is focused on Maki's growing up days. As such, to those who are going to watch this for her sake, sorry to disappoint you. Anyway, she didn't get to do much for this role so I can't really judge if she acts well or not. Same goes for Narimiya Hiroki where he plays a brotherly figure to Maki and there's absolutely no romantic sparks between him and Hirosue. By the way, he just cannot pass off as a guy in his 30s so he should just stick to his current age group.
I must say that I am very impressed with Yamauchi Nana and Fukuda Saki's performances. Well, Yamauchi can be considered as a veteran child actor so it's not that much of a surprise if she can do well. The surprising thing was Fukuda Saki making her debut as an actress and she showed the rebellious and desperate sides of Maki completely. Appearance-wise, she may not stand out among the many young actresses of today but she does have potential to go far if she gets the right roles in future. That scene when she was holding the knife while screaming crudely at her foster parents was full of impact.
Another person worth mentioning is Matsushita Yuki. Her character is an university professor so she has a desire to keep things in proper order thus explaining why she was so strict with Maki. Although she may seem detestable when she thinks that she has done nothing wrong, her heartfelt confession to Maki and how she cried on the way home was very memorable. Matsushita may be doing a lot of these supporting roles these days but her performance usually steals the limelight from the leads though.
Out of a score of 10, I would give this 8.5 and recommend it to all those who are looking for meaningful and insightful tales in a family setting. And it provides valuable information on how the adoption system works in Japan which seems so complicated as compared to local standards.
No comments:
Post a Comment