More 'Golden Bowl' thoughts, episode 4
Episode 1 | Episodes 2 & 3
Episode 4
This is a fairly important episode. It opens with a hilarious exchange between Hitomi and Akutagawa: Hitomi has received a call from her husband's mistress requesting that they meet, and so they speculate about what the woman could want - money? For Hitomi's husband to divorce his wife? Hitomi: Will she want to kill me or stab me a few times?
Akutagawa: You are too imaginative.
Hitomi: It happens in movies all the time. [she laughs]
Akutagawa: [he looks at her curiously] How can you still laugh? You sound as if it has nothing to do with you.
Hitomi: It has nothing to do with me. You're the one who is going to meet her.
Akutagawa: [not paying attention, as he focuses for his next throw] Really? [halfway into his swing he realizes what she just said.] Eh? [He turns to look at her in surprise] What are you saying?
Hitomi: You're the one who is going to see her.
Akutagawa: Why? Why me? It has nothing to do with me. You want me to be stabbed? Are you that heartless?
Hitomi: It isn't like that.
Akutagawa:Wait a minute. You want me to be killed?
Hitomi: It's OK, so long as I don't get hurt.
Akutagawa: I may be beaten up.
Hitomi: But you bought insurance, right?
[...and then a few minutes later, after he agrees to do it:]
Hitomi: I'll visit you in hospital.
[she says this just as Akutagawa bowls his bowl and begins his victory exclamation: "oooh" but when he hears her, he turns back to say]
Akutagawa: Eh? [his ball which was otherwise going straight down the middle suddenly veers at the last minute into the left gutter]
Hitomi: Just in case she stabs you. [mimes stabbing]
Hee hee! I love that.
While on the train, Akutagawa runs into the gentleman who assisted him in the previous episode and they talk a little bit about the mission to see the mistress that is weighing on Akutagawa's mind. Later, at the alley, Hitomi runs into the developer and his goons, whose song provides one of the themes of the episode: war.
When Akutagawa goes to meet the mistress at her swimming pool, I swear he is so naive it makes me crazy! He thinks she's this shy innocent type (who lounges about in her bathing suit barely covered by her towel) and he totally doesn't see that she purposefully takes offense at his idea that she might want money - her tears necessitate Akukagawa lending her his handkerchief, which she conveniently drops so he has a lovely view down the top of her bathing suit when she moves to retrieve it, and believe me, he is NOT immune to her charms. But when she rises, she cunningly flips him and he lands SPLAT in the pool. By the time Akutagawa arrives back to his neighborhood, he is shivering from being drenched and consequently feels a cold coming on (jdorama cliche #14: exposure to rain or some kind of soaking leads to immediate cold/flu/pneumonia/imminent death). Akutagawa does not believe that the mistress is out to break Hitomi and her husband up, and then Hitomi makes the understandable mistake of asking Akutagawa how she and the mistress compare to one another - when he doesn't provide a satisfactory answer, she's upset (when he tries to think of a good quality that Hitomi posseses, he tells her that she bowls very well - her face falls, poor thing. That's the best he can come up with?). He doesn't realize that this cut her; he asks her if she has any cold medicine, but she basically tells him that it would be better if he died.
Poor Akutagawa. He must suffer the minstrations of Akira who tries and fails to make edible porridge for him, meanwhile Hitomi finds out from Chiaki that Akutagawa is very ill, and she begins to feel a teensy bit guilty for her harshness with him - especially since he became ill in her service.
Akutagawa is such a nice guy though, that he bravely tries to eat Akira's inedible porridge rather than insulting it as Takegami does (quite rudely, I'm afraid) when he tastes it later. Akira is understandably quite hurt and runs off - and our hero chases after her to the breezy playground with only a coat pulled on over his pajamas - surely the last place he should be in his condition.
[One silly note: Akira says that she feels like the leaning Tower of Pizza, and Akutagawa corrects her by saying Tower of Pisa. The funny thing is, Akira's pronunciation is correct - the 's' in Italian has the "z" sound as in "zebra" she makes while Akutagawa pronounces "Pisa" with an "s" sound as in "snake." *shrug* The joke is still amusing.]
I find it veerrrry interesting that when Hitomi is at home and considering what to do, she hears Akutagawa's voice in her head giving her suggestions! And then shortly after, we discover (as I suspected) that the man who had befriended Akutagawa on the train is none other than Hitomi's husband. AND THEN, she says to him: "Let's get a divorce."
Dun dun dun dun. ;)
I love the next scene, who wouldn't? A dazed and very ill (and also quite drunk because Mr. Tanorae forced him to get drunk with him) Akutagawa is woken by his doorbell, but he collapses when he struggles to answer the door. However, the door is already unlocked from the steady stream of Golden Bowl people who had been in and out of his house all day so whoever's at the door finally tries to open it and comes in. Next we see Hitomi grating something while Akutagawa groggily stirs on his bed with a washcloth on his forehead. Hitomi comes over and discovers that he is drenched with sweat from a bad fever, so she goes to find another pajama shirt, and comes back to help him out of the soaked one and into the fresh, clean one. It's so sweet and also incredibly intimate to watch her undressing and dressing the weak and groggy Akutagawa. After she's managed to get his arms into the shirt, she comes around and sits in front of him so she can button him up. Akutagawa suddenly seems to recognize her and says her name. She looks at him and asks him if he feels terrible. His attention seems to snap into focus on her and he says her name again in such a sexy, intimate tone. (OMGsqueee!).
And then he kisses her.
Hitomi is taken completely by surprise, but she doesn't pull away, although you can see her mind turning inside out from the shock, but then for a few brief seconds, her eyes close and she surrenders to the moment, and she kisses him back. Alas, it's terribly brief, because reality rebounds on her with a definite snap and she jerks away and runs off, leaving Akutagawa to fall back to his mattress with quite a bang. He groans from the pain, but doesn't seem any more conscious.
When they next see each other, it's time for the competition again, and Akutagawa is still under the weather. Hitomi, on the other hand, is chirpy and bubbly, and seems to be in a great mood. She tells him that she told her husband she wants a divorce - that for her own pride, she couldn't just go on as before. He seems quite crestfallen to learn this, in stark contrast to her own good mood. "You're so gentle today," he tells her, wonderingly, amazed at how kind she is to him when he stuffs up his throw.Hitomi: When I initiated the divorce, I discovered another side of me.
Akutagawa: Another side?
Hitomi: I feel I have become strong. Even if I'm alone, I can carry on with my life.
Akutagawa: It isn't easy to lead a life all by yourself.
Hitomi: Thank goodness I have no children! Perhaps I will find true love!
Akutagawa: You have someone in mind? [he asks this nonchalantly, but...]
Hitomi: Not yet.
Akutagawa: [moves into position to throw his ball, but as he tosses the ball, he thinks:] Could it be me?
Then Hitomi casually asks him if he liked the grated apple she left for him the previous night, but Akutagawa doesn't seem to remember her being at his apartment the night before; he thought that Chiaki had made it for him. Hitomi is quite taken aback and disappointed that he doesn't remember anything, because that means he doesn't remember kissing her. She presses him about what he remembers and when he protests that he doesn't remember anything, and not the "thing" that she keeps hinting at, she becomes quite distressed and eventually storms off.
When she comes back to the competition, she presses him again, because she is sure he is lying. She tells him that he looked straight at her and said her name. Akutagawa still professes not to remember, and says that he must have been dreaming, perhaps of the other Hitomi. She is quite downcast and embarassed, when she finally believes that he does not remember what happened, so she is unable to actually tell him what he did.
However...
After the competition, Akutagawa sits drinking alone and from Kuroda's comments, we know that he has had several drinks...when he finally leaves, he pulls out an earring (that we know is Hitomi's), as though he's just found it there at the bar. He drops it into his drink and leaves it with Kuroda, and when he walks off, looking quite melancholy, he flashes back to kissing Hitomi. "I remember everything," he says.
Awwwww...!
To be Continued...Episode 5
Episode 4
This is a fairly important episode. It opens with a hilarious exchange between Hitomi and Akutagawa: Hitomi has received a call from her husband's mistress requesting that they meet, and so they speculate about what the woman could want - money? For Hitomi's husband to divorce his wife? Hitomi: Will she want to kill me or stab me a few times?
Akutagawa: You are too imaginative.
Hitomi: It happens in movies all the time. [she laughs]
Akutagawa: [he looks at her curiously] How can you still laugh? You sound as if it has nothing to do with you.
Hitomi: It has nothing to do with me. You're the one who is going to meet her.
Akutagawa: [not paying attention, as he focuses for his next throw] Really? [halfway into his swing he realizes what she just said.] Eh? [He turns to look at her in surprise] What are you saying?
Hitomi: You're the one who is going to see her.
Akutagawa: Why? Why me? It has nothing to do with me. You want me to be stabbed? Are you that heartless?
Hitomi: It isn't like that.
Akutagawa:Wait a minute. You want me to be killed?
Hitomi: It's OK, so long as I don't get hurt.
Akutagawa: I may be beaten up.
Hitomi: But you bought insurance, right?
[...and then a few minutes later, after he agrees to do it:]
Hitomi: I'll visit you in hospital.
[she says this just as Akutagawa bowls his bowl and begins his victory exclamation: "oooh" but when he hears her, he turns back to say]
Akutagawa: Eh? [his ball which was otherwise going straight down the middle suddenly veers at the last minute into the left gutter]
Hitomi: Just in case she stabs you. [mimes stabbing]
Hee hee! I love that.
While on the train, Akutagawa runs into the gentleman who assisted him in the previous episode and they talk a little bit about the mission to see the mistress that is weighing on Akutagawa's mind. Later, at the alley, Hitomi runs into the developer and his goons, whose song provides one of the themes of the episode: war.
When Akutagawa goes to meet the mistress at her swimming pool, I swear he is so naive it makes me crazy! He thinks she's this shy innocent type (who lounges about in her bathing suit barely covered by her towel) and he totally doesn't see that she purposefully takes offense at his idea that she might want money - her tears necessitate Akukagawa lending her his handkerchief, which she conveniently drops so he has a lovely view down the top of her bathing suit when she moves to retrieve it, and believe me, he is NOT immune to her charms. But when she rises, she cunningly flips him and he lands SPLAT in the pool. By the time Akutagawa arrives back to his neighborhood, he is shivering from being drenched and consequently feels a cold coming on (jdorama cliche #14: exposure to rain or some kind of soaking leads to immediate cold/flu/pneumonia/imminent death). Akutagawa does not believe that the mistress is out to break Hitomi and her husband up, and then Hitomi makes the understandable mistake of asking Akutagawa how she and the mistress compare to one another - when he doesn't provide a satisfactory answer, she's upset (when he tries to think of a good quality that Hitomi posseses, he tells her that she bowls very well - her face falls, poor thing. That's the best he can come up with?). He doesn't realize that this cut her; he asks her if she has any cold medicine, but she basically tells him that it would be better if he died.
Poor Akutagawa. He must suffer the minstrations of Akira who tries and fails to make edible porridge for him, meanwhile Hitomi finds out from Chiaki that Akutagawa is very ill, and she begins to feel a teensy bit guilty for her harshness with him - especially since he became ill in her service.
Akutagawa is such a nice guy though, that he bravely tries to eat Akira's inedible porridge rather than insulting it as Takegami does (quite rudely, I'm afraid) when he tastes it later. Akira is understandably quite hurt and runs off - and our hero chases after her to the breezy playground with only a coat pulled on over his pajamas - surely the last place he should be in his condition.
[One silly note: Akira says that she feels like the leaning Tower of Pizza, and Akutagawa corrects her by saying Tower of Pisa. The funny thing is, Akira's pronunciation is correct - the 's' in Italian has the "z" sound as in "zebra" she makes while Akutagawa pronounces "Pisa" with an "s" sound as in "snake." *shrug* The joke is still amusing.]
I find it veerrrry interesting that when Hitomi is at home and considering what to do, she hears Akutagawa's voice in her head giving her suggestions! And then shortly after, we discover (as I suspected) that the man who had befriended Akutagawa on the train is none other than Hitomi's husband. AND THEN, she says to him: "Let's get a divorce."
Dun dun dun dun. ;)
I love the next scene, who wouldn't? A dazed and very ill (and also quite drunk because Mr. Tanorae forced him to get drunk with him) Akutagawa is woken by his doorbell, but he collapses when he struggles to answer the door. However, the door is already unlocked from the steady stream of Golden Bowl people who had been in and out of his house all day so whoever's at the door finally tries to open it and comes in. Next we see Hitomi grating something while Akutagawa groggily stirs on his bed with a washcloth on his forehead. Hitomi comes over and discovers that he is drenched with sweat from a bad fever, so she goes to find another pajama shirt, and comes back to help him out of the soaked one and into the fresh, clean one. It's so sweet and also incredibly intimate to watch her undressing and dressing the weak and groggy Akutagawa. After she's managed to get his arms into the shirt, she comes around and sits in front of him so she can button him up. Akutagawa suddenly seems to recognize her and says her name. She looks at him and asks him if he feels terrible. His attention seems to snap into focus on her and he says her name again in such a sexy, intimate tone. (OMGsqueee!).
And then he kisses her.
Hitomi is taken completely by surprise, but she doesn't pull away, although you can see her mind turning inside out from the shock, but then for a few brief seconds, her eyes close and she surrenders to the moment, and she kisses him back. Alas, it's terribly brief, because reality rebounds on her with a definite snap and she jerks away and runs off, leaving Akutagawa to fall back to his mattress with quite a bang. He groans from the pain, but doesn't seem any more conscious.
When they next see each other, it's time for the competition again, and Akutagawa is still under the weather. Hitomi, on the other hand, is chirpy and bubbly, and seems to be in a great mood. She tells him that she told her husband she wants a divorce - that for her own pride, she couldn't just go on as before. He seems quite crestfallen to learn this, in stark contrast to her own good mood. "You're so gentle today," he tells her, wonderingly, amazed at how kind she is to him when he stuffs up his throw.Hitomi: When I initiated the divorce, I discovered another side of me.
Akutagawa: Another side?
Hitomi: I feel I have become strong. Even if I'm alone, I can carry on with my life.
Akutagawa: It isn't easy to lead a life all by yourself.
Hitomi: Thank goodness I have no children! Perhaps I will find true love!
Akutagawa: You have someone in mind? [he asks this nonchalantly, but...]
Hitomi: Not yet.
Akutagawa: [moves into position to throw his ball, but as he tosses the ball, he thinks:] Could it be me?
Then Hitomi casually asks him if he liked the grated apple she left for him the previous night, but Akutagawa doesn't seem to remember her being at his apartment the night before; he thought that Chiaki had made it for him. Hitomi is quite taken aback and disappointed that he doesn't remember anything, because that means he doesn't remember kissing her. She presses him about what he remembers and when he protests that he doesn't remember anything, and not the "thing" that she keeps hinting at, she becomes quite distressed and eventually storms off.
When she comes back to the competition, she presses him again, because she is sure he is lying. She tells him that he looked straight at her and said her name. Akutagawa still professes not to remember, and says that he must have been dreaming, perhaps of the other Hitomi. She is quite downcast and embarassed, when she finally believes that he does not remember what happened, so she is unable to actually tell him what he did.
However...
After the competition, Akutagawa sits drinking alone and from Kuroda's comments, we know that he has had several drinks...when he finally leaves, he pulls out an earring (that we know is Hitomi's), as though he's just found it there at the bar. He drops it into his drink and leaves it with Kuroda, and when he walks off, looking quite melancholy, he flashes back to kissing Hitomi. "I remember everything," he says.
Awwwww...!
To be Continued...Episode 5