'Golden Bowl' w/Takeshi Kaneshiro - Episode 6
Today's recap is short compared to the last two! And how bizarre, there's an advertisement for "Strike Bethesda" the popular bowling alley on the radio right now!
Episode 1 | Episodes 2 & 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 |
Episode 6
This is the episode in which worlds collide...
Akutagawa meets his friend (who we know is Hitomi's husband) on the train and the man calls in the favor that Akutagawa owes him for helping him out - his mistress cut her wrists in the previous episode and is now in the hospital, and since he can't visit her there without drawing unwelcome attention and possibly getting himself into trouble, he asks Akutagawa to visit her in his stead. Poor Akutagawa! How does he get drawn into these things! When he meets the mistress, she reveals that her plan all along had been to break up the marriage because she wants Hitomi's husband all for herself. "I might be cruel to say this, but he loves his wife," Akutagawa tells her. "She has her charm," he explains. "By her side, you won't sense it. It's just so natural. When she is not around, you'll feel lonely. You can't bear it." Oh! Utterly swoonworthy... We can see from Akutagawa's expressions that he is speaking from his heart of his own true feelings, which he's never articulated before.
Ah the potatoes! I love Hitomi and the potatoes - when her mother sends her a box of potatoes, Hitomi admires the shape and then she bowls with one of them! Hee hee!
Hitomi's husband is waiting for Akutagawa at the train station when he comes back from the hospital and invites him for dinner and drinks. Akutagawa walks a very fine line in not revealing that he had met the mistress before and that he knows the man's wife. When Hitomi comes to meet her husband and finds her bowling partner with him, she's shocked as much as Akutagawa is mortified (after all, it probably looks like he deserted to the enemy or something like). Hitomi's husband, Sakura, introduces Akutagawa as his subordinate and invites him home, not knowing that the younger man lives across from their house.
The next morning, after getting drunk with Hitomi's husband, Akutagawa wakes up in their house, and he creeps downstairs to run into a vacuuming Hitomi who proceeds to interrogate him on how he knows her husband. She is quite adorable as she does this, seizing his tie and pulling him closer to make sure he doesn't lie to her - her final truth detection method is to shine a flashlight in this face, and ultimately she is satisfied.
In this episode it almost seems like Mr. Tanorae and the developer have become friends! The developer has lost his Bluebird of Happiness (and he and his goons are color-coordinated with bright blue shirt & ties) and so Mr. Tanorae compassionately agrees to another competition to cheer him up.
Hitomi admires an elderly couple who have come to bowl at the alley - they are very cute in their little celebrations after bowling well. "They are my ideal," she tells Akutagawa after the older man has bent their ears with a history of bowling. "Don't you see it? They are always smiling happily. I hope to grow old with the man I love and still be as happy as them." Hitomi looks slightly embarassed to tell him this, but her hope is a deep one, as we can see, but what is even more beautiful is the expression on Akutagawa's face as he looks down on her.
After bowling, Akutagawa goes grocery shopping with Akira and Hitomi (Akira will be getting cooking lessons from Hitomi), so they all three walk home together. Unfortunately, Izumi, the mistress, has come to the Sakura house to catch a glimpse of Mr. Sakura's wife. Akutagawa is walking with the two large grocery bags in front, so he can't see Izumi standing before them, but when he realizes, the groceries go crashing to the ground, and it's clear that his only thought is for Hitomi's feelings. When the horrifying happens seconds later - Sakura goes down on his knees and bows his head to the pavement to his mistress in apology, again, Akutagawa's main thoughts are to shield Hitomi from the humiliation. He is so sweet and thoughtful of her! He has Akira take her inside, and escorts them to the gate, using his body to shield Hitomi from the disgraceful view of her husband on his knees bowing to Izumi. He tries to convince Mr. Sakura to get up, only to see that Izumi has a knife and wishes to mark Sakura the same way that she will be scarred from slashing her wrists. Sakura holds out his wrist, but Akutagawa intervenes and his own wrist is cut as a result.
When Akira binds his wrist later, he finds out that they have to compete on the following day! (and he with a cut wrist on his bowling arm...) Hitomi is surprisingly cheerful in the locker room with Akutagwa, as though she has come to terms with the previous night's trauma, and seems quite certain in her divorce plans. Amusingly, when they walk out to the bowling competition, they find out that their opponents are Hitomi's "ideal" elderly couple! Who, of course, happen to be very good - better than our heroes had expected, and with Akutagawa's injury, they are at a distinct disadvantage.
The conversation between Akutagawa and Hitomi is significant - of course they talk about what has so recently happened with her husband and Izumi, the mistress, and Akutagawa tries to convince her that her husband still loves her very much and wants to stay with her, and that the fling was only about sex, never about love. However, Hitomi throws his own words back at him: "True love doesn't lose to sexual desires, or am I wrong?"
The elderly man does a kind thing then - he falls down and fakes a serious back problem when he realizes the severity of Akutagawa's wrist injury, so a doctor is called and Hitomi goes with them to look after him. "I'll be alone," Akutagawa says to her before she leaves. "If you score a Strike, we will win," she says saluting him. "But I'm lonely," he complains to her departing back. He is so cute!
Sadly, when chatting with the elderly woman later, she discovers that her ideal couple are not as ideal as she had imagined - that the woman had an affair many years ago - but that they stayed together despite the infidelity. "You don't realize what love is until the very last," she tells Hitomi.
Akutagawa's wrist is bleeding, so he consoles Akira by telling her that he will bowl left-handed for the final strike - and so he does, even though he's a complete amateur, and by the grace of the television gods, the ball veers sharply to the left and rolls along the edge of the gutter before curving back toward the center for a perfect strike. Golden Bowl is safe from the real estate developer for another episode!
After the competition, we come back to find Akutagawa and the elderly woman in the locker room, clearly after having had a long conversation. "Did I scare you?" she asks him. "I told you some strange things." "Thanks," he replies. "But it's all true," she says. "Your husband used to be so active?" he asks (I think this is reference to having a lot of extramarital affairs). "Yes," she says. "But you didn't separate," he says to her wonderingly, "because you love him very much." He smiles at her.
"Not exactly." Akutagawa's smile fades to hear this. "If I were in her situation," (she's referring to Hitomi) "I might have left him."
"What's the difference," Akutagawa asks, perplexed. "Completely different," the woman insists.
"Financially?" he asks her. "No," she replies. "Because there wasn't such a good man like you by my side." She turns to look at him as she says this, and Akutagawa laughs in disbelief at her words. Awwww...it's apparent even to strangers! I love that this old woman can see the bright shining love that is growing between Hitomi and Akutagawa even if they don't exactly realize it themselves.
Later, when Hitomi and Akutagawa leave the bowling alley, she asks him why he bowled with his left hand - he makes up an excuse, still not telling her about his injury and its cause. "The rain is crying for me," he says as they walk out to see a terrible downpour and Hitomi hunts for her umbrella. "Don't cry," she tells him adorably. "I'll shelter you." (her umbrella however, looks barely serviceable to me! All pink and floppy without any proper tension..) But then she notices that Akutagawa has gone to crouch down by the door, and she wonders why. He points out that her husband is standing out in the rain waiting for her. He convinces her to go to him, since he's clearly been standing out in the rain for a long time. "Ignore him," he tells her, "and you'll be guilty of a deed worse than his infidelity." She finally concedes that the woman was very attractive so if she were a man, she probably would have wanted her too, to which Akutagawa responds so sweeetly: "You don't know your own charm," as he looks down on her with the nicest expression. When she thanks him and goes to meet her husband, we are left with the fading smile on Akutagawa's face, and the sadness that descends on him as he realizes that he just convinced the woman he loves to go back to her husband. "You don't notice it when she's by your side," he tells himself. He watches them walk away and finishes, "because it's so natural. Only when she's gone do you realize it."
To Be Continued...[Episode 7]
Episode 1 | Episodes 2 & 3 | Episode 4 | Episode 5 |
Episode 6
This is the episode in which worlds collide...
Akutagawa meets his friend (who we know is Hitomi's husband) on the train and the man calls in the favor that Akutagawa owes him for helping him out - his mistress cut her wrists in the previous episode and is now in the hospital, and since he can't visit her there without drawing unwelcome attention and possibly getting himself into trouble, he asks Akutagawa to visit her in his stead. Poor Akutagawa! How does he get drawn into these things! When he meets the mistress, she reveals that her plan all along had been to break up the marriage because she wants Hitomi's husband all for herself. "I might be cruel to say this, but he loves his wife," Akutagawa tells her. "She has her charm," he explains. "By her side, you won't sense it. It's just so natural. When she is not around, you'll feel lonely. You can't bear it." Oh! Utterly swoonworthy... We can see from Akutagawa's expressions that he is speaking from his heart of his own true feelings, which he's never articulated before.
Ah the potatoes! I love Hitomi and the potatoes - when her mother sends her a box of potatoes, Hitomi admires the shape and then she bowls with one of them! Hee hee!
Hitomi's husband is waiting for Akutagawa at the train station when he comes back from the hospital and invites him for dinner and drinks. Akutagawa walks a very fine line in not revealing that he had met the mistress before and that he knows the man's wife. When Hitomi comes to meet her husband and finds her bowling partner with him, she's shocked as much as Akutagawa is mortified (after all, it probably looks like he deserted to the enemy or something like). Hitomi's husband, Sakura, introduces Akutagawa as his subordinate and invites him home, not knowing that the younger man lives across from their house.
The next morning, after getting drunk with Hitomi's husband, Akutagawa wakes up in their house, and he creeps downstairs to run into a vacuuming Hitomi who proceeds to interrogate him on how he knows her husband. She is quite adorable as she does this, seizing his tie and pulling him closer to make sure he doesn't lie to her - her final truth detection method is to shine a flashlight in this face, and ultimately she is satisfied.
In this episode it almost seems like Mr. Tanorae and the developer have become friends! The developer has lost his Bluebird of Happiness (and he and his goons are color-coordinated with bright blue shirt & ties) and so Mr. Tanorae compassionately agrees to another competition to cheer him up.
Hitomi admires an elderly couple who have come to bowl at the alley - they are very cute in their little celebrations after bowling well. "They are my ideal," she tells Akutagawa after the older man has bent their ears with a history of bowling. "Don't you see it? They are always smiling happily. I hope to grow old with the man I love and still be as happy as them." Hitomi looks slightly embarassed to tell him this, but her hope is a deep one, as we can see, but what is even more beautiful is the expression on Akutagawa's face as he looks down on her.
After bowling, Akutagawa goes grocery shopping with Akira and Hitomi (Akira will be getting cooking lessons from Hitomi), so they all three walk home together. Unfortunately, Izumi, the mistress, has come to the Sakura house to catch a glimpse of Mr. Sakura's wife. Akutagawa is walking with the two large grocery bags in front, so he can't see Izumi standing before them, but when he realizes, the groceries go crashing to the ground, and it's clear that his only thought is for Hitomi's feelings. When the horrifying happens seconds later - Sakura goes down on his knees and bows his head to the pavement to his mistress in apology, again, Akutagawa's main thoughts are to shield Hitomi from the humiliation. He is so sweet and thoughtful of her! He has Akira take her inside, and escorts them to the gate, using his body to shield Hitomi from the disgraceful view of her husband on his knees bowing to Izumi. He tries to convince Mr. Sakura to get up, only to see that Izumi has a knife and wishes to mark Sakura the same way that she will be scarred from slashing her wrists. Sakura holds out his wrist, but Akutagawa intervenes and his own wrist is cut as a result.
When Akira binds his wrist later, he finds out that they have to compete on the following day! (and he with a cut wrist on his bowling arm...) Hitomi is surprisingly cheerful in the locker room with Akutagwa, as though she has come to terms with the previous night's trauma, and seems quite certain in her divorce plans. Amusingly, when they walk out to the bowling competition, they find out that their opponents are Hitomi's "ideal" elderly couple! Who, of course, happen to be very good - better than our heroes had expected, and with Akutagawa's injury, they are at a distinct disadvantage.
The conversation between Akutagawa and Hitomi is significant - of course they talk about what has so recently happened with her husband and Izumi, the mistress, and Akutagawa tries to convince her that her husband still loves her very much and wants to stay with her, and that the fling was only about sex, never about love. However, Hitomi throws his own words back at him: "True love doesn't lose to sexual desires, or am I wrong?"
The elderly man does a kind thing then - he falls down and fakes a serious back problem when he realizes the severity of Akutagawa's wrist injury, so a doctor is called and Hitomi goes with them to look after him. "I'll be alone," Akutagawa says to her before she leaves. "If you score a Strike, we will win," she says saluting him. "But I'm lonely," he complains to her departing back. He is so cute!
Sadly, when chatting with the elderly woman later, she discovers that her ideal couple are not as ideal as she had imagined - that the woman had an affair many years ago - but that they stayed together despite the infidelity. "You don't realize what love is until the very last," she tells Hitomi.
Akutagawa's wrist is bleeding, so he consoles Akira by telling her that he will bowl left-handed for the final strike - and so he does, even though he's a complete amateur, and by the grace of the television gods, the ball veers sharply to the left and rolls along the edge of the gutter before curving back toward the center for a perfect strike. Golden Bowl is safe from the real estate developer for another episode!
After the competition, we come back to find Akutagawa and the elderly woman in the locker room, clearly after having had a long conversation. "Did I scare you?" she asks him. "I told you some strange things." "Thanks," he replies. "But it's all true," she says. "Your husband used to be so active?" he asks (I think this is reference to having a lot of extramarital affairs). "Yes," she says. "But you didn't separate," he says to her wonderingly, "because you love him very much." He smiles at her.
"Not exactly." Akutagawa's smile fades to hear this. "If I were in her situation," (she's referring to Hitomi) "I might have left him."
"What's the difference," Akutagawa asks, perplexed. "Completely different," the woman insists.
"Financially?" he asks her. "No," she replies. "Because there wasn't such a good man like you by my side." She turns to look at him as she says this, and Akutagawa laughs in disbelief at her words. Awwww...it's apparent even to strangers! I love that this old woman can see the bright shining love that is growing between Hitomi and Akutagawa even if they don't exactly realize it themselves.
Later, when Hitomi and Akutagawa leave the bowling alley, she asks him why he bowled with his left hand - he makes up an excuse, still not telling her about his injury and its cause. "The rain is crying for me," he says as they walk out to see a terrible downpour and Hitomi hunts for her umbrella. "Don't cry," she tells him adorably. "I'll shelter you." (her umbrella however, looks barely serviceable to me! All pink and floppy without any proper tension..) But then she notices that Akutagawa has gone to crouch down by the door, and she wonders why. He points out that her husband is standing out in the rain waiting for her. He convinces her to go to him, since he's clearly been standing out in the rain for a long time. "Ignore him," he tells her, "and you'll be guilty of a deed worse than his infidelity." She finally concedes that the woman was very attractive so if she were a man, she probably would have wanted her too, to which Akutagawa responds so sweeetly: "You don't know your own charm," as he looks down on her with the nicest expression. When she thanks him and goes to meet her husband, we are left with the fading smile on Akutagawa's face, and the sadness that descends on him as he realizes that he just convinced the woman he loves to go back to her husband. "You don't notice it when she's by your side," he tells himself. He watches them walk away and finishes, "because it's so natural. Only when she's gone do you realize it."
To Be Continued...[Episode 7]