Burn The House Down: “Mitarai ke, Enjou Suru”

Kyoka Suzuki and Mei Nagano face off in  “Mitarai ke, Enjou Suru”

A soft spoken and mild mannered young woman named Shizuka Yamauchi (Mei Nagano) seeks employment at the home of a rich and succesful woman model and online influencer named Makiko Mitarai (Kyoka Suzuki).

Though she is known as an impeccable woman of good taste and style, Mitarai is in actuality a messy and disorganized person, so she is need of someone who can clean her house, decorate tastefully, and cook meals, all covertly as to keep her image intact.

Yamauchi is excellent at what she does, and the house is put in perfect order. Though still standoffish towards Yamauchi, she is impressed with what she has done with the place, and  Mitarai agrees to hire her officially! 

But what Mitarai doesn’t know is that this Yamauchi has a hidden agenda for getting hired as the housekeeper. 

Yamauchi’s real name is Anzu Murata, and 13 years ago, she lived on this very property with her own family; Father Osamu (Mitsuhiro Oikawa), Mother Satsuki (Michiko Kichise) and little sister Yuzu (Yuri Tsunematsu), until a huge house fire destroyed their home and tore her family apart. Father shortly after divorced Mother, leaving her and the two daughters to struggle for themselves.

At the time of the fire,  little Anzu (young Anzu played by Tamaki Shiratori) spotted Makiko Mitarai among the onlookers… with a VERY satisfied smile on her face, as if all her wishes had suddenly come true! Because of this, she had always suspected Mitarai had something to do with the fire...

...and when Makiko went on to MARRY Anzu’s FATHER to start her OWN family with him (and all his wealth), her suspicions only grew. CLEARLY there is more to this woman than she lets on!

In the meantime, mother Satsuki becomes afflicted with a severe case of traumatic amnesia, where she cannot remember anything of the past and has shut down. Weak and confused, she must be regaled to a bed in a hospital, with her daughters looking over her.

Now as an adult and with 13 years of anonymity between them, Anzu plans to infiltrate the home base of her number one suspect in the ruination of her family: Makiko Mitarai herself.

Along with her little sister Yuzu and the computer skills of her friend (Kie Kitano) the resident "computer expert" of the drama), they hope to find clues and proof of Mitarai’s involvement of the house fire, as well as finding the truth of just WHAT actually happened all those years ago….

Belwo: Anzu trying to get close to Mitarai’s shut-in older son Kiichi (Asuka Kudo)...

….while little sister Yuzu uses her feminine wiles to get close to the younger son Shinji (Taishi Nakagawa). Seemingly friendly and cheerful, their only ture mission is to get as MUCH information out of them that they can- to bring Makiko Mitarai to jsutice!

A dark and brooding psychological revenge drama, yet I cannot help but think that not everything is what it seems at face value- in the coming episodes I fully expect people assumed to be friends turn out to be foes and even the ones painted as the pure evil ones turn out to be on the good side. In any case, I'm excited to see what develops!!!

 “Mitarai ke, Enjou Suru” is yet another NETFLIX exclusive J-drama (along with the Tomoya Nakamura drama "Hayabusa Shobodan") that I'm really loving this current season...looks like they are ramping up to become a great source of intriguing new shows!!!

Posted by zdorama@zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

18/40: Futari Nara Yume mo Koi mo~Dreams and Love for Two

Kyoko Fukada and Haruka Fukuhara in 18/40

 Haruka Fukuhara is Arisu Nakagawa, an 18 year old teen who has been raised by her late mother to appreciate art and artists (especially the works of Paul Klee), and, upon graduation, has already made plans to attend a college life in pursuit of being an art curator.

But her life takes a wild turn when she discovers that she is pregnant with child, with a man who seemingly wants none of the responsibility or ownership of a baby. “I need some time away to think things over”, he says, as he withdraws from her, making her feel completely alone.

concerned schoolfriends (Itsuki Nagasawa and Natsuki Deguchi)

an irresponsible boyfriend (Yusei Yaji)

At home she keeps the news of her pregnancy secret from her Father (Ken Yasuda) until she can have a long talk with her boyfriend to determine what they will do about the situation.

In the meantime, Kyoko Fukada is a near-40 single businesswoman named Toko Naruse, who has spent her life working hard to become a success in her field of art promotion who is lauded and respected among her peers. 

 She is satisfied where she is in business life, but due to her dedication to her job, she has not had time for romance or a family, and finally, on the eve of turning 40, decides that it is finally time to begin one...

She has met a prospective partner thru a matching app, on a site that pairs up people with the intention of getting married and having children. They both even have the same child-rearing pamphlets! But this will be one of the dreams she has that due to circumstances, she will be unable to fulfill…

Arisu finally gets a message from her boyfriend who says he is ready to meet, but when Arisu gets there, she is confronted by his MOTHER instead. She informs Arisu that her son has moved away and that all dealing with the pregnancy will go through her. She tells a shocked Arisu that they will cover the bills for a termination, though Arisu herself has not yet even decided what she will do about the baby. She rejects the Mother’s help, and says she will take care of the problem herself.

A visibly stressed Arisu is walking aimlessly through the city with the weight upon her shoulders, when she feels sharp pangs of pain lacing through her stomach. Just at that moment, Toko happens to walk by, and, seeing the young girl doubled over, rushes over to help her.

“The baby” Arisu mumbles through her pain, and Toko tells her there is a clinic nearby that she was on her way to, and asks if she can make the short trip. Helping her up, Toko guides her to the center, where her friend Dr. Shibasaki (Wakana Matsumoto) agrees to see Arisu immediately.

Thankfully  all seems well, as the Doctor cites Arisu's stress for her pains. She does tell her that she is 5 weeks pregnant, and that now is the time for her to decide what to do about her situation. If she decides to keep the baby, the clinic can keep her on and help. If she ultimately decides to terminate, they will recommend a clinic she can go to.

The doctor sees Toko next, who is there to begin her regular checkups in anticipation of having a child. But after she is looked over, she is horrified to be told that there is a problem with her ovaries (swelling and cysts), and as such, will be near impossible for her to become pregnant and bear a child. In an instant, her dreams of a family are dashed.

The doctor is more concerned with taking care of the malady at hand, and Toko is taken to a bed to get a drip put in her. As it happens, it is in the same room where Arisu is recovering.

Arisu hears Toko softly sobbing through the curtain, and when she asks if she is okay, she realizes it’s the same lady who brought her here. 

Through the curtain, the two have a heart to heart talk- One, the older, wiser woman who is regretful she passed on childbirth for her career and now cannot have a chance at it, and the other a wide-eyed youth who has dreams and plans to accomplish and sees a baby as a hindrance to her goals.

From this first chance meeting, both women who are total strangers to each other will eventually go on to change each others’ lives.

This was VERY weepy tearjerker of an episode, at least for the premiere, but I found it very moving and heartfelt. The interaction between Haruka Fukuhara and Kyoko Fukada is great, and if the whole drama was about the two and their friendship, it would be 100 percent solid...

Unfortunately, they’ve shoehorned in two romance interests for the ladies, and I must admit they interest me NOT IN THE SLIGHTEST. Very generic and one-dimensional romance stuff, and every time  the show diverts to their scenes, I just go "Gehhhhh" and want to fast forward thru  it! 

Below: Toko with her romance interest Kase (Shuhei Uesugi)

...and Arisu with Yuma (Ouji Suzuka)

Truthfully, part of me wonders if the guys are there just so the friendship between Arisu and Toko won’t seem, you know, sexual.  I DID notice that in the drama’s initial promo pics, it looked like this:

...where even I had to double take and think “Are these two women…together?”

But by the time of the next promotional pic, they had added the male interests, making it look more like a regular romance drama:

In any case, we’ll see how this one goes. As regular readers of this blog know, I love both lead actresses and will watch anything they’re in, just hope it doesn’t get bogged down with the usual romance stuff….