Koneko no Namida ~Tears of a Kitty~
It's Osaka and the year is 1980. This movie focuses on the wonderful and lovely bond of a 34 years old man and his 10 years old daughter. The Morioka-s were a happy family of four: father, mother, big sister and little brother. But one day, their mother decided to leave the family and no matter how much her husband begged her to come back, she has made her mind.
And so, as the divorcee and his two kids tried to move on after they lost a wife and a mother, the father falls in love with another woman and he bring the woman to the house and tell the kids that she will be their new mom...
Koneko no Namida (Tears of a Kitty) is a touching family comedy movie starring Takeda Shinji and Hirosue Ryoko. (YES! I'm STILL watching Shinji's stuff, lol!) It was premiered in January 26th, 2008. Also starring Fujimoto Nanami (child actress), Konno Mahiru, Yamazaki Hosei and Suzuki Sawa. This movie has won a special award in Tokyo International Film Festival, it also won the 3rd Japan Movie Angel Grandprize Award.
I have to say, "Koneko no Namida" is Shinji's BEST WORK next to "Kimi no Te ga Sasayaite iru"! *v* I love this movie so much, so much!! And I've watched it over and over! XD The child actress, Fujimoto Nanami, is such a talented girl! I love her scenes with Takeda Shinji as father and daughter, sometimes they argues/fights, sometimes they get along and even sings together, so cute and most of the time funny!^^
Sets in Osaka in the year of 1980, Morioka Eiji (Takeda Shinji) is a husband and a father of two. He was a professional boxer, Olympic medalist who has retired and is jobless. His wife, Kazue (Konno Mahiru), work for the family and all he does is playing around with other women, having affairs with them. Eiji loves women and he's a pervert, and even after he got married, he can't erase this sickness. He even flirts with his daughter's teacher.
Eiji and Kazue has a daughter and a son, Haruko (Fujimoto Nanami) and Kazunori. Haruko is about 10 and Kazunori is about 6-7. Kazunori wants to be a boxer just like his dad, in the future. Haruko's dream is to be a ballerina dancer. She loves ballet very much and for her, it's the only place where she can forget all of her troubles. However, being raised by a pro-boxer father, Haruko has the ability to fight as well and has very good punch.
Once, Haruko saved her classmate, a boy, who was being bullied by a few boys. Haruko hit all the boys and so Haruko's father was called and asked to come to school to talk about this. But after Eiji know the reason is because Haruko was trying to protect the weak, Eiji is very happy and proud of her. However, Haruko's teacher insisted that problems should not be solved by violence. When Eiji was going to reply back, he gazed at sensei for a few secs, realized something and said, "Sensei... beppin-san ya naa~" (Sensei... you're so beautiful...)
Having affairs with other women is like Eiji's hobby. It is unstoppable. And so, I can't say the Morioka family's nights are peaceful. Almost everyday, there's a war in the house. Everytime Kazue, Eiji's wife, witnessed Eiji with another woman, the war will start and so all kind of foods and plates Kazue can reach, she would throw them all to Eiji and she also yell at him. After she got tired yelling and throwing things at her husband, catching breath, she sit and said, "Please, just promise me one thing, don't make anyone pregnant,". Eiji said, "Rest assure! I won't make babies with other women. I got my pipe cut,". LOL XD Kazue went, "HAAA??!" and started to throw things at him again. Eiji said, "I did it for your sake!!!".
Meanwhile, in the room, Kazunori asked his sister, "What is a pipe-cut?". Haruko answered, "Maybe Dad got his thing cut off?". LOL! Pipe-cut means vasectomy, btw^^
At another night, when Kazue was throwing things at him again but Eiji smoothly avoid all of the throws, Kazunori who was peeking from his room was amazed, "Sugoi! Dad IS a professional boxer! None of Mom's throw hit him!", Haruko scold him, "Don't be amazed at a time like this!". They're so cute^^
Eiji tried to stop Kazue and said, "Trust me! The one and only woman I truly love is you!!!". Kazue screamed at him, "I don't care if you have an affair with other women, but you should get a proper job!!".
Seem like Kazue kept trying to endure all these, but I guess there's a limit to it. In the end, she can't take it anymore and leave the house one day. Eiji didn't want to let go their daughter and son, and so Kazue left alone. The scene when Kazue left was very, very touching ;_; On that day, on the contrary Eiji was angry about Kazue's decision and didn't try to stop her at all, he even hold his children back from trying to stop their mother.
Outside the house, Eiji's big sister tried to stop her from leaving.
Eiji's sister: How can you do this to your children? How can you leave them like this?
Kazue: Ei-chan got pretty angry enough that I take away the furnitures with me... if I take our children with me too, he might kill me.
Eiji's sister: You picked your funitures over your children?!!
Haruko managed to escape from her father and tried to stop her mother, but Kazue said "From now on, you and I will have to live on different paths,". As Kazue ride a taxi, suddenly Eiji came out of the house and chasing after the taxi. Kazue saw him, cried but kept going with the taxi. Since then, as Haruko narrated, her father is not really a hard-working man, but this time he really tried hard to get Kazue come back to their house, every night together with his two kids, they waited for Kazue outside the place she works and then Eiji would kneel before her, begging her to come back to them. But Kazue never gave in.
In the end, Kazue never came back to them.
As they move on, Eiji met another woman, Hiroko (Hirosue Ryoko) and he falls in love with her. Hiroko was one of the new hostess in the club Eiji frequently goes to. Hiroko made a scene in the club when an old man was groping her and she was very raged that he attacked the old man. She was immediately fired from the club, and outside the back door, Hiroko was still angry and tried to throw glass bottles to the door, but Eiji saw and stopped her. He was immediately attracted to her personality and tried to kiss her.
Eiji likes Hiroko alot that after spending a night together, he immediately invite her to live together with him and so she become the children's step mother. Eiji forced the kids to call Hiroko "Okaachan", Kazunori is willing to do that but Haruko hates Hiroko to the core. Haruko runaway from home and stayed over at her aunt's place.
One day, Eiji waited for Haruko in front of her school, as Haruko saw him, she ran away but Eiji managed to catch her and he begged her to come home.
Eiji: First, Kazue leave. Now you, Haruko. What am I suppose to do??
Haruko: Then, just live together with that woman.
Eiji: Haruko! I cannot live with you!
Haruko: That's fine, you don't have to live!
(Eiji made a sound which is kinda ambiguous, we don't know whether he's laughing or crying)
Haruko: What's so funny?
Eiji: Aho! Naiteru yan! (You idiot! I'm crying!)
I love this scene so much. The father and daughter interactions made me smile alot^^
Haruko came home but she doesn't get along very well with Hiroko. They even have cat fights in the house and sometimes it's so funny^^ Before, Hiroko told Eiji that his father is sick and so she needs money to open a restaurant, so she can financially support her parents. One day, when Hiroko was just drying the clothes, Haruko asked her, "When will you go home to your parents' house? Your father is sick right? Is it okay if you stay here?". Hiroko nonchalantly answered, "Oh that? I lied. Actually, I'm an orphan,". Haruko got very angry and she grabbed the clothes Hiroko was holding, throw it to the ground and stomped on it with her foot. Hiroko was very angry to see that, and so a cat fight happened here. Eiji tried to separate them, but then he realized something, "Wait a minute! Why are you two tearing apart my shirts??!". lol!
Hiroko told Eiji the truth and she said it's okay even if Eiji would like to dump her, but Eiji said he won't do that.
Besides the stories I mentioned above, there were also stories about how Eiji become a yakuza's bodyguard and has a boxing training place financially supported by his yakuza boss. Also how a murder happened in that place and so it has to be closed down. Then at the end, Eiji's older brother bought a fake stock and asked Eiji to keep it for him. One day, a police came to Eiji's house and arrest him.
As for Haruko, there is also her first love story with a boy in her school, also how she couldn't go to the ballerina class anymore because she hasn't pay for 3 months.
It is basically a story of the ups and downs of a man and his family, and how their family bond keeps them together and made them goes through all the troubles.
Morioka Eiji might be an unreliable man and father. But he loves his kids more than anything and he is such a loving father. I love the scenes where he's just playing around with his son and daughter.
Being Kansai people, the characters seem used to do violent stuff (like hitting and slapping, or throwing things at each other) plus they just yell at each other and openly reveal what they feels regardless it is appropriate or not, to say. This really adds in the comedy element for the movie^^
Usually, Kansai-dialect-speaking dramas or movies would cast real and true Kansai people, as far as what I've watched. They would even just lump in all the Kansai comedians available, sometimes. So it really surprises me that they casted Takeda Shinji and Hirosue Ryoko as the leads for this movie. Shinji was born in Sapporo, Hokkaido. Hirosue was born in Kochi, Shikoku. So they both has to make up their Kansai dialects. It really puzzles me a bit, since the director himself is a Kansai-jin, I wonder why did he cast Shinji and Hirosue? But besides these two, the other casts were really Kansai people, the child actress, Suzuki Sawa, Konno Mahiru.
In an interview, Shinji said he had to listen to Kansai-dialect-speaking shows everyday. He said it was very difficult for him to speak the dialect naturally. But I think he did a good job in this movie with the Kansai dialect^^ Hirosue Ryoko's Kansai dialect sounds even more natural than Shinji's, imo! A few times Shinji still kinda mix up with Tokyo dialect, I think XD But Hirosue's Kansai dialect was almost perfect!
In the premiere greetings, Shinji said this movie is where he filmed a "bed scene" for the first time! Woo... I'm surprised, I thought someone like Shinji would have done a "bed scene" since long time ago XD And no, "bed scene" in this movie is not just the scene with Hirosue... there was more^^
This is definitely Shinji's BEST MOVIE ever, not to mention it was probably the best acting performance Takeda Shinji ever did! He was very natural in this role. Hirosue Ryoko did an amazing job too. I esp. love her final cat fight scene with Haruko, that turned out pretty serious and not funny like the previous cat fights.
I HIGHLY recommend this movie!^o^ A very nice 'countryside' family story^^
CB link: http://down.clubbox.co.kr/ysy2021/4iqgp1
No English subs found, so far, though.