And we're back! I initially planned to watch a lot more for this review, more honorable mention films and series in particular. But it took me longer than I'd anticipated to finish the main meat of my Japanese viewing roster (see previous mention of medication-related brain fog), so I decided to save the side dishes for the next round. In this edition of "The J-Drama Drop" we've got a show about unrequited lesbian love that I finished in May, a show about an image consultant seeking revenge against a corporate empire that I finished in August, and a show about a heart transplant-induced love triangle that I finished on November 1st. Plus, an honorable mention film about dead people getting to act out their most precious memories.
(Note: This is neither here nor there, but since Microsoft stopped supporting Windows 10 this fall, which basically forced me to upgrade from my beloved 9-year-old chocolate black ASUS, this review is my very first time writing or publishing anything on my new cosmic blue Lenovo! Cheers to new beginnings!)
きみの継ぐ香りは (Kimi no Tsugu Kaori wa/The Fragrance You Inherit) - TOKYO MX, 2024
- Sakura, a designer in the publishing industry, realized she was gay in college when she fell in love with her best friend Mone. But she never told Mone. She watched Mone marry a man right after graduation, and was so distraught that she had a drunken one night stand with a stranger that same night, which resulted in her son Touki. Having ceased communication with Mone and moved on as a single mom, one day Sakura smells a nostalgic perfume on her now-teenage son. She recognizes it as the same perfume that she and Mone both used to wear; Sakura started wearing it first, and then gifted a bottle to Mone. When Touki later brings his new girlfriend Kanae over to introduce the girl to his mom, Sakura realizes that Kanae is Mone's daughter because her scent and appearance so closely resemble Mone's.
- After Touki finds an old photo of Sakura and Mone from their college years at his grandma's (Sakura's mother's) house and shows Kanae, who recognizes her own mom in the photo, the teens set their moms up for a surprise mother-child double date. This is how Sakura and Mone meet each other again for the first time in 18 years. And whereas Sakura was unsure if she still had feelings for her first love anymore, all doubt disappears as she sits across the table from Mone, flustered because her crush is resurging.
- Newly reunited, Sakura and Mone restart their friendship as fully-fledged adults, and Sakura's love for Mone remains unspoken and unrequited. (She hasn't told anyone about her sexuality except for On-chan, her asexual male best friend and work colleague.) What Sakura doesn't know is that Mone was aware of Sakura's affections back in college, and those affections were actually mutual! But after getting jealous due to a misunderstanding, Mone feigned ignorance the one time Sakura almost confessed to her, and started dating her now-husband because she wanted to remain "normal" by living as a straight woman. After Touki accidentally learns of Sakura's lesbianism and her love for Mone by reading her old diary, Sakura eventually comes out to him and to her mother, and weighs the idea of sharing her truth with Mone once and for all.
Meh: I find it so strange that in this already short series of eight half-hour episodes, Mone's husband (Kanae's father) doesn't show up until episode 5. We see him in college and wedding flashbacks, but in the present day he's mentioned so little that I assumed Mone was widowed or divorced. There's no real indication he's still in the picture until episode 4, and then he finally appears on screen in episode 5. If he's that insignificant in the present, then why have him there (why have Mone still be married) at all? What I've concluded is that the show needs his character to serve as one of the reasons why Sakura and Mone didn't get together in college and won't get together now either, but beyond that he's essentially a non-factor. He needs to exist, but he's not important enough to change the bond that Sakura and Mone have, nor to even warrant being informed that his wife has romantic feelings for more than just him. Throughout the entire series, Mone's husband is none the wiser.
Better: 'Kimi no Tsugu Kaori wa' isn't the most eventful drama ever made; it's mostly just people talking. However, as someone who became a scented candle enthusiast this year, the premise of scent evoking memory so strongly as to revive old or unrequited love was fascinating to me! And the way the show demonstrates the presence and movement of scent by drawing attention to the wind (in the absence of a special effects budget) is so clever.
On a separate note, I was pleasantly surprised by Imai Shuuto's performance as Touki in episode 7, where he has a heart-to-heart with Sakura after briefly running away to On-chan's house. I hadn't expected Touki to react to his mom's queerness in a homophobic way, given that their relationship is so close and he'd previously encouraged her multiple times to focus on herself and have
more of a social life. However, I also did not expect for the news to send him into an
existential crisis. Having read Sakura's old diary, he's deeply confused about why his mom gave birth to
him if she knew she was attracted to women. Touki fears that he's been a burden and an obstacle to her greater happiness; she doesn't really need him, and if he didn't exist, his mom wouldn't have to stifle the lesbian part of herself. He confides all this to On-chan while at his house, and the emotional pain in his delivery is incredibly believable, along with the tearful relief he exhibits when his mom arrives and affirms how much he means to her. Very impressive for an actor so young.
It's also worth noting that during this coming out conversation, Sakura doesn't have to spell it out because Touki bluntly asks her, "You like Kanae's mom, right?" Then, as she responds in the affirmative, she begins to say, "I like women," but then corrects herself and says, "I like Mone" rather than letting the more general blanket statement linger. And I wonder what that's about. At this point she's acknowledged being a lesbian
in prior conversations with On-chan, so I'm curious about what makes this moment
different and why that verbal distinction needs to be made. Regardless of the reasoning, I appreciate the subtleties that are written into this scene.
Best: This drama handles sexuality so gently, it has such an abundance of grace for young Sakura and young Mone being afraid and confused about expressing their attraction, and it allows adult Sakura and adult Mone to be at peace with their choices. It's not so much that they doomed themselves to a life of sorrowful yearning and regret by staying in the closet, but rather that as full as they've made their lives already, finally seizing the opportunity to embrace themselves and be honest with each other enriches that fullness. In the aforementioned episode 7 discussion with Touki, Sakura insists that although he was unplanned, she was elated to have him to focus on and take
her mind off her troubles once he was born. He became, and still is, her
life's treasure. As for Mone, she's shown responding in
similar ways when she touches hands with Sakura and her now-husband respectively, which would imply that she's bisexual. So she might have married a man anyway, but she would've been able to do so with a clearer sense of her own identity if she'd spoken up to Sakura or let Sakura fully confess to her when they were in college.
Just like with another LGBTQ-centric drama called 'Prism', I selfishly hoped for mess and scandal when I decided to watch 'Kimi no Tsugu Kaori wa'. (Specifically that Sakura and Mone would boldly profess their love, Mone would leave her husband, and the two women could enjoy the lesbian relationship they always deserved in their 40s.) And just like with 'Prism', I was mistaken but not necessarily disappointed. In this show, Sakura embracing her sexuality, owning her affection toward Mone, letting her loved ones know her truth, and having ample support to do all of those things, is more important than "getting the girl," so to speak. Because technically, she doesn't get the girl. Mone tries to broach the subject of Sakura's feelings towards her near the end of episode 8, but Sakura interrupts her and says to wait until the children are grown, promising to properly confess when the time is right. To a certain extent, by agreeing to delay this necessary conversation, they're also tacitly acknowledging their love for each other. Cut to Touki and Kanae's wedding reception six years later, in a scene where the mothers of the bride and groom are standing off to themselves. After all these years, Sakura finally admits to Mone that she's always loved her. Mone says "I know." Sakura says, "That's all." And both are all smiles as the series ends. So again, there's no onus for either of them to do anything about Sakura's feelings, other than to openly acknowledge them.
マル秘の密子さん (Maruhi no Mitsuko-san/Secretive Mitsuko-san/Secret Makeover) - NTV, 2024
- Mitsuko is an image consultant ("total coordinator") who frequently espouses a mantra assuring her clients that their world will change once they change themselves. ("Anata ga kawareba, sekai wa kawaru.") After the CEO of a family-owned development corporation called Kujo supposedly dies in his sleep, it's revealed that he willed his company shares to his caregiver Natsu. Natsu had been employed by him since he survived a construction site fire six months prior, and because she was the only person who encouraged his dream of doing more philanthropic projects, he supposedly hired Mitsuko in advance to groom Natsu into becoming his successor.
- The Kujo family is incensed by the intrusion of Natsu (a poor single mom) and Mitsuko (a complete stranger) into their midst, and as a new CEO vote approaches, the family conspires to thwart Natsu's efforts and ascertain who this mysterious Mitsuko really is. Of the many secrets Mitsuko is harboring, the most pertinent are that her older sister Mariko used to be the dead CEO's secretary, the philanthropic pivot was initially Mariko's suggestion, Mariko died in that construction site fire, and Mitsuko is on the warpath to infiltrate Kujo and punish whoever's responsible for her sister's death. Her fabricated persona as an image consultant is a means to that end.
- With Mitsuko as her advisor, her two adult children (also Kujo employees) helping her, and several lucky breaks, Natsu eventually ascends to power. But once newly-appointed, Natsu begins to shut Mitsuko out, and it's clear that Natsu has some secrets of her own. Mitsuko's pursuit of justice for her sister and Natsu's priorities as CEO suddenly seem opposed, but this wedge between them can be removed by uncovering the real culprit behind that fire and the former CEO's death.
Meh: There's a point at the end of episode 8 where Mitsuko confronts Natsu with evidence that appears to prove that Natsu was responsible for Mariko's death, and Natsu turns uncharacteristically cold-blooded and responds, "And what if I did?" before banishing Mitsuko from the premises. I was both shocked and thrilled at the idea of the underdog being the villain the entire time, someone who played the long game by using Mariko and pretending to be the meek, helpless, and unassuming woman
that everyone assumed her to be, just until she attained what she wanted. And remaining soft-spoken, even when she calmly reveals her true nature to Mitsuko and kicks Mitsuko out of her office.
That's power! I respected Natsu's commitment to her strategy! Middle age actresses aren't given the chance to play such juicy roles often enough, and I was glad that Matsuyuki Yasuko (as Natsu) received this rare opportunity. My enthusiasm was short-lived, however, because by the end episode 9 it's unveiled that Natsu actually tried to save Mariko and was unfortunately unsuccessful. Not only that, but Natsu only started acting cold and distant to protect Mitsuko from anonymous threats that she'd been receiving. Which was a slight relief, but I enjoyed the story more when I thought Natsu was a thug. Mitsuko's already her own kind of thug, so the two women could've had a thug-off. Like, if we're gonna go there, let's go there. But not so.
Better: Old money evil though they may be, I couldn't help but be impressed once I noticed that the Kujos are mostly women. In a country where the dream of gender equality is even further off than it is in the US, women run this corporation. These women consist of a grandmother (the elderly chairwoman
of the company whose approval everyone vies for); a mother (the chairwoman's daughter and the dead CEO's wife, who makes their two adult children compete for her affection as well as the CEO spot); and a daughter (one of said adult children). The deceased CEO orignally married into the family in order to take on that executive role, and he secretly resented being akin to a puppet, like hired help who only served to do his wife's and mother-in-law's bidding. Unfortunately for him, that description is accurate; the Kujo family is traditionalist, and having a man at the helm in such a male-centric society made it easier to do business. While the Kujos as a whole are far from aspirational, it was nonetheless refreshing to see women pulling the strings.
Aside from the murder mystery, corporate intrigue, and rags-to-riches of it all, part of what makes 'Maruhi no Mitsuko-san' engaging is how conspicuously stylized it is, especially through fashion and decor. The story is set in the present but the design makes everything feel like it's happening outside of time, like in a dream. The show's look is both
colorfully whimsical and slightly anachronistic, with a hint of
underlying mystery or darkness to it. From episode 1, 'Maruhi no Mitsuko-san' immediately put me
in the mind of the anime 'xxxHolic' and the work of
Ninagawa Mika (Helter Skelter, 'Followers', and coincidentally also the live
action film adaptation of xxxHolic which I haven't seen). There are moments where watching 'Maruhi no Mitsuko-san' feels a bit like watching a dark fairytale, and that visual component helped keep me coming back.
Best: Mitsuko is such a well-written, well-designed, and well-acted character. She's like the Mary Poppins of image consultants, just popping up
randomly wherever her services are needed, and eating heaping bowls of lemon shaved iced (kakigoori, a sentimental dessert she used to eat with her sister) instead of that classic "spoonful of sugar." At the beginning of episode 1, Mitsuko even carries around a weekender bag that clasps at
the top, and a huge, long-handled, vintage-looking umbrella reminiscent of Mary Poppins. But Mitsuko's charm is nothing compared to her cunning; she knows no bounds when it comes to accomplishing her
schemes. Would she kill someone? Maybe not. But would she push people in
front of cars, surprise attack them with paralytic injections to the
neck, find out where their kids attend school, and wield all manner of
incriminating or humiliating information against them, just to set her
machinations in motion? Absolutely. All while consistently being the best
dressed out of the entire cast! The costume designer of this drama deserves an award, because Mitsuko be wearin' them outfits! She's not the only impeccably styled character, especially as Natsu begins to evolve, plus the grandmother chairman always sports her sharply-cut bright ginger hair and a red lip. But Mitsuko and her fashions always stand out.
These glowing qualities all boil down to the fact that Fukuhara Haruka (as Mitsuko) absolutely makes this show. She's thoroughly showing her acting chops here, so much so that I didn’t even recognize her right away. What an astounding change from the
naive but earnest college student and teen mom she played in '18/40'. In 'Maruhi no Mitsuko-san' she's
grown, she's devious, her fashion sense is lethal, and depending on the circumstances she might be
lethal too! But considering that 'Maruhi no Mitsuko-san' is ultimately about sisterhood and female friendship, particularly between a younger woman and an older woman, this show is more thematically similar to '18/40' than it may seem on the surface. Which makes Fukuhara Haruka's casting make even more sense.
Last but not least, hearing Superfly's voice sing the ending theme song "Charade" for the first time put a smile on my face. Her music career took off back when I was in high school, and it's nice to know she's still around.
As I write, this review is already looking longer than I'd anticipated, so I'm splitting it in half. Read part 2 here!
No comments:
Post a Comment