Karei-Naru Ichizoku, episodes 1-3. Drama has rarely been this good.
We watched the first three episodes of Karei-Naru Ichizoku tonight.
Yes. We.
Mr. Mousie watched this with me and loved it. I didn't have to push him or anything. And he wants to continue it, and we had a discussion about it afterward.
My.
This has to be the first drama he's ever watched. I think the fact that it was about finance and family power struggle, with no love confessions or sparkly hair anywhere, really helped.
It was also awesome watching it with him, because he knows a lot about (a) steel industry operations (pig iron and Japanese resources and imports); (b) restructuring in Japan in the 1960s; and (c) just how Japanese financial systems operate (with aversion to risk, lack of interest in bond issues, which is how Teppei would finance the furnace in the US, personalized banking etc etc). And other matters...
So this is very interesting.
This really reminds me of French novels I read, with the complex interactions between society, finances, and poisonous family connection.
These people are largely horrifying human beings, or victims of those people, with some exceptions (Teppei being the most notable. I love Teppei and am anxious for him, and want him to win against his monstrous father) but their interactions are incredible to watch.
Oh my God, what a horrifying family. My loathing of Teppei's father, Daisuke, and the mistress who rules the household, inflicting dozens of daily humiliations on Teppei's mother, is almost irrational now. I don't care how it ends for anyone, but I want them both to die. DIE.
As Mr. Mousie pointed out, what kind of man would deliberately sabotage his own son's plans out of anger at having unpalatable truths pointed out to him. Or his horrifying treatment of his wife. I keep thinking of that almost unbearable scene with the threesome, where he wants to have his wife and his mistress both, and it's almost the rape of the wife, who manages to run off at the end. It was viscerally brutal to watch. And Teppei sees his mother run out of the room, but thank God he doesn't realize fully what went on (and just thinks Mother saw mistress and Dad together).
I love Teppei so for his rightness. He is no cloying plaster saint, but he is a good person. And what is even more amazing is that he has strength and courage to stand to his monster father. Because I think both his sisters seem nice, and Genpei, the younger brother, has a conscience too (as his reaction to finding out the Father deliberately worked a loyal flunkie to death demonstrate), but they have no strength to fight the monsters. It's pretty indicative that Genpei gives in to the arranged marriage after finding out about the dead flunkie: he sees himself an unequal to the fight. And the only hope of the unmarried sister to avoid the arranged marriage like all the siblings, is Teppei.
But yes, Teppei has courage. I love it when he tells the mistress to leave the household, I love it when he tells the truth of the disgustedness of the actions to his father (ugh, I remember the earlier scene where the wife calls the mistress to give a message to the husband that there is a call), even though he knows it might cost him all of his plans re furnace for his factory (and it does). Genpei is wrong when he implies the only reason his older brother stands up to Dad is because Grandpa (who clearly seems some sort of bugbear for Monster Dad) left a steel factory to Teppei but nothing to them. Teppei, who seems to have a lot in common with his Grandfather (and the person he was closer to than Dad) is strong not because of that but because of innate will-power and a moral compass.
I love his relationships with his wife and with his old girlfriend. Because he loved his girlfriend (and they cohabited in the University, YESSSS, omg adorableness at the thought!) and there are still touches-leftovers of that intensity (their first meeting years afterward, in the hotel, is full of unspoken longing and pain). And you find out that the mistress broke them up, telling the gf that marrying Teppei would ruin them both (so the gf left) and oh, the UST is still there. But at the same time, she encourages him, and there is gentleness and kindness there, but that is all: they would never have an affair (he would never do it to his wife, not after seeing what such an arrangement has done to his mother). And in fact, arranged or not, Teppei has grown to love his wife, and is happy with the small oasis of sanity that is her and their small son. The scene where they cuddle over their sleeping child's head and he tells her 'I love you' is one of the rare normal, peaceful scenes.
Or the fact that while the father has no respect for weaklings or those who are cowed by him, the very fact that Teppei is strong-willed and capable drives him nuts? It's as if it's a competition.
Oh, that scene where Teppei asks 'Do you dislike me?' and the father actually pauses for the longest time, and then answers with a non-answer 'You have always been put first in position, for me' or something to that effect. Teppei's face!
I could go on and on and on and analyze this. The beaten-down mother, trembling before the mistress, the expansive father in law of Teppei. Etc etc etc.
But it's late and I must go to bed.
But in conclusion: How come I always forget just how amazing Kimura Takuya is in between watching his dramas?
Yes. We.
Mr. Mousie watched this with me and loved it. I didn't have to push him or anything. And he wants to continue it, and we had a discussion about it afterward.
My.
This has to be the first drama he's ever watched. I think the fact that it was about finance and family power struggle, with no love confessions or sparkly hair anywhere, really helped.
It was also awesome watching it with him, because he knows a lot about (a) steel industry operations (pig iron and Japanese resources and imports); (b) restructuring in Japan in the 1960s; and (c) just how Japanese financial systems operate (with aversion to risk, lack of interest in bond issues, which is how Teppei would finance the furnace in the US, personalized banking etc etc). And other matters...
So this is very interesting.
This really reminds me of French novels I read, with the complex interactions between society, finances, and poisonous family connection.
These people are largely horrifying human beings, or victims of those people, with some exceptions (Teppei being the most notable. I love Teppei and am anxious for him, and want him to win against his monstrous father) but their interactions are incredible to watch.
Oh my God, what a horrifying family. My loathing of Teppei's father, Daisuke, and the mistress who rules the household, inflicting dozens of daily humiliations on Teppei's mother, is almost irrational now. I don't care how it ends for anyone, but I want them both to die. DIE.
As Mr. Mousie pointed out, what kind of man would deliberately sabotage his own son's plans out of anger at having unpalatable truths pointed out to him. Or his horrifying treatment of his wife. I keep thinking of that almost unbearable scene with the threesome, where he wants to have his wife and his mistress both, and it's almost the rape of the wife, who manages to run off at the end. It was viscerally brutal to watch. And Teppei sees his mother run out of the room, but thank God he doesn't realize fully what went on (and just thinks Mother saw mistress and Dad together).
I love Teppei so for his rightness. He is no cloying plaster saint, but he is a good person. And what is even more amazing is that he has strength and courage to stand to his monster father. Because I think both his sisters seem nice, and Genpei, the younger brother, has a conscience too (as his reaction to finding out the Father deliberately worked a loyal flunkie to death demonstrate), but they have no strength to fight the monsters. It's pretty indicative that Genpei gives in to the arranged marriage after finding out about the dead flunkie: he sees himself an unequal to the fight. And the only hope of the unmarried sister to avoid the arranged marriage like all the siblings, is Teppei.
But yes, Teppei has courage. I love it when he tells the mistress to leave the household, I love it when he tells the truth of the disgustedness of the actions to his father (ugh, I remember the earlier scene where the wife calls the mistress to give a message to the husband that there is a call), even though he knows it might cost him all of his plans re furnace for his factory (and it does). Genpei is wrong when he implies the only reason his older brother stands up to Dad is because Grandpa (who clearly seems some sort of bugbear for Monster Dad) left a steel factory to Teppei but nothing to them. Teppei, who seems to have a lot in common with his Grandfather (and the person he was closer to than Dad) is strong not because of that but because of innate will-power and a moral compass.
I love his relationships with his wife and with his old girlfriend. Because he loved his girlfriend (and they cohabited in the University, YESSSS, omg adorableness at the thought!) and there are still touches-leftovers of that intensity (their first meeting years afterward, in the hotel, is full of unspoken longing and pain). And you find out that the mistress broke them up, telling the gf that marrying Teppei would ruin them both (so the gf left) and oh, the UST is still there. But at the same time, she encourages him, and there is gentleness and kindness there, but that is all: they would never have an affair (he would never do it to his wife, not after seeing what such an arrangement has done to his mother). And in fact, arranged or not, Teppei has grown to love his wife, and is happy with the small oasis of sanity that is her and their small son. The scene where they cuddle over their sleeping child's head and he tells her 'I love you' is one of the rare normal, peaceful scenes.
Or the fact that while the father has no respect for weaklings or those who are cowed by him, the very fact that Teppei is strong-willed and capable drives him nuts? It's as if it's a competition.
Oh, that scene where Teppei asks 'Do you dislike me?' and the father actually pauses for the longest time, and then answers with a non-answer 'You have always been put first in position, for me' or something to that effect. Teppei's face!
I could go on and on and on and analyze this. The beaten-down mother, trembling before the mistress, the expansive father in law of Teppei. Etc etc etc.
But it's late and I must go to bed.
But in conclusion: How come I always forget just how amazing Kimura Takuya is in between watching his dramas?