Cast Kanzaki Kenji (Domoto Tsuyoshi)
Kanzaki Taeko (Kanno Miho)
Mizuhara Shosuke (Ito Atsushi)
Tateishi Ryoko (Yo Kimiko)
Hirayama Hideo (Jinnai Takanori)
Shown on 11 June 05, TV Asahi
Review:
To sum up this drama in one word: bittersweet.
In the first place, we all know that this is going to be a tearjerker but for me, I wasn't crying although I felt sad at some of the scenes. However, the mood of the drama isn't dark throughout the 1 hr 40 mins where you get really touching and sweet segments at how this couple met, fell in love and got married. To avoid spoiling the viewing experience, I'll try to refrain from talking too much on the storyline. You have got to watch it in order to appreciate the beauty of this drama.
Domoto Tsuyoshi really impresses me with his performance here. It's been some time since I felt this way about him since he irritated me to death with his image in Motokare and the indecisive character. He's a comedian who has yet to make it big and his wife has been very nasty towards him of late even though she didn't behave like this when their son passed away. He cannot understand why but he doesn't flare up at her. In order to avoid antagonising her, he even waits at the park in the bitter cold for her to switch off the lights before returning home.
When he finds out about her illness, he is very upset since he fails to notice the change in her health. Although he would have wanted to confront her and offered help, he respects her wishes and pretends to be unaware. However, he tries to show his concern by buying health supplements for her but she does not want to eat them. He also knows that her biggest wish is to see him succeed and takes part in the Comedian Newcomer contest on TV with his partner, Shosuke who is aware of how Kenji and Taeko came together.
On the other hand, Kanno Miho shines as the strong-willed Taeko who loves her husband so much that she would rather keep her illness from him. However, Taeko cannot control her emotions since she gets irritated at Kenji probably for two reasons i.e. to spur him to work harder before she dies and the other, her pain from the illness causes her to be short-tempered. When you see them together, it's as if they are a real life couple and sincerely care for each other. And when Taeko tells Kenji the things about their household and to take care when she dies, you can see Kenji turning red in the eyes but he stops himself from crying.
You really have to take note of the end of the drama where you find out the reason why these two people ended up together. Their meeting wasn't a simple coincidence after all and it feels so sweet when you see how fate has put them together. Although Taeko did die in the end, the warm feeling you get about this couple makes the drama not so dark after all.
Out of 10, this earns 9 marks. I didn't give it a perfect score since I thought that more could be explored on what happened to their son and the comedy scenes weren't too funny in my opinion. Well, maybe it's because I can't appreciate some of the Japanese-style jokes they had...
No comments:
Post a Comment