Synopsis:
Matsushita will play the lead role of ‘Kanai Yuriko’, the daughter of a corporate executive and full-time housewife. Although she exceeds in her studies and work, she is incapable of doing any type of housework. ‘Yuriko’ falls in love with the eldest son of the Hayami family, and gets married thinking they can enjoy a newlywed life on their own. However, her husband’s family is poor, and his mother has disappeared, which forces her to face adversity as she settles in with her husband’s father and brothers. —Tokyohive
Directors: Kono Keita, Joho Hidenori (城宝秀則)
Screenwriter: Oshima Satomi
Main Characters:
- Matsushita Nao as Kanai Yuriko
- Inohara Yoshihiko as Hayami Kyoichi
- Nakamaru Yuichi as Hayami Kaoru
- Kaname Jun as Hayami Kenji
- Morinaga Yuki as Hayami Yuzo
- Funakoshi Eiichiro as Hayami Keitarou
- Kotegawa Yuko as Hayami Yuko
Genre: Drama, Family
No. of episodes: 10
Broadcast Network: Fuji TV
Airtime: Sunday 21:00
Broadcast Period: 2012-Jan-15 to 2012-Mar-18
Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
Thoughts:
Okay.
I haven’t watched the special episodes yet! Kill me now!
Nah. Just kidding! Don’t kill me, I’ll watch it asap. That’s a promise. 🙂
Anyway, I must admit, this review is a terribly, horribly late one. Not because it’s a drama that ended around March but because I watched it around April and I haven’t written my reactions about it at all. 😦
Well, at the very least, the drama’s really good and memorable, thus, I’m pretty sure I can nail a decent review (if not detailed) for first-time viewers. *I’ll try to avoid spoilers and all that* 🙂
As was mentioned above, this is a drama where the girl almost literally ‘marries’ the family of her husband. I’ll say that it’s a fairly common plot but there are two things that made this drama different.
First, the rich girl marries into a not-so-rich family and she gets bullied because she’s a pampered, brilliant girl. Usually, we see the poor girl stereotype who gets ordered around or humiliated because she was, well, a poor girl who married a rich boy. It must be said that the Hayami men actually discriminate her because her merits are the abilities that the men actually wish they have. They tell Yuriko that she’s a spoiled brat because their idea of a married woman entails making breakfast, lunch and dinner, doing the groceries, cleaning the house, doing the laundry, and well, you know what I mean. Second, there’s no maliciously villainous in-law who tries to break the married couple apart just because of spite. The Hayami men, especially Keitarou, are full of pride, ego and insecurities which caused their somewhat domineering attitude. However, they are more realistic in such a way that you see glimpses of kindness or concern towards Yuriko as the story progressed. To be honest, I look forward to each episode because the way the characters and their relationships to each other have definitely been developed quite well by the writers. 🙂
Sometimes, I get angered by the Hayami men’s bullying–their egos and their shouting–that I wanted to scream at them or force Yuriko to fight back and bitch slap those lazy, good-for-nothing, ungrateful, insensitive men (Kyoichi probably won’t count as much ’cause he’s nice but he’s also insecure so maybe he also deserves a slap or two). But then, the Yuriko character happens to be very kind and understanding (sometimes naive) that she overlooks the ‘bullying’ in a way that was sometimes unreal. You got to give her credit, though, for finding (sometimes unknowingly) clever ways to resolve the family issues that was left behind by the Hayami mother, Yuko. I think the older woman’s decision to leave quite suddenly was a bit selfish but by the end of the story, I somehow understood why she did it. I still wasn’t completely satisfied but I understand. And I accept the way things ended.
The most memorable subplots of the drama (at least for me) was that of Kenji and Kaoru (I might drop some spoiler-ish comments here). Kenji was an achiever when he was young but when he got dropped into a different world where he couldn’t achieve a perfect 100, he got frustrated and didn’t know what to do. In a way, I can relate because as they say, the higher you went, the harder you will fall. I can say that it’s more difficult to maintain your success than it is to travel towards it. I like how his problem got ‘resolved’ though. They only showed the possibilities but you know it will get there. On Kaoru’s case, I can relate because yeah, I am (somehow) on a job hunt and it’s frustrating to be rejected or ignored all the time. I also feel the pressure he got and the idea that he feels that he has no special skill or talent. Gah, I’m pretty sure that I’m that way too. It’s nice that through the help of Yuriko, he was able to find the one thing he wanted to do (while I still don’t. Sad.).
There was also bits where sexuality was tackled and explored, as well as how to deal with regrets, apologies and how to lower one’s ego for the sake of the people who are important to you.
To be honest, I love this drama so much mostly because of the values presented very clearly in each episode.
To think I initially watched this because of my crush, Nakamaru Yuichi.
P.S. The OST sounds very nice especially the main instrumental themes. 🙂
