Haru and Yuki Saito play Mizuki and Akiko Hayase, a mother and daughter pair that gets along so well and are so chummy together that everyone says that they look like a couple when they stroll down the street! But beneath the cheerful and optimistic veneer lay two people with troubling and distraught personalities.
The two seem to love exactly the same things, and whether it be the color of floorboards or wallpaper for their new house, they seem to be in total agreement. But looking closer you see that Mizuki always follows her mother’s lead, carefully studying Akiko’s face for approval or disapproval, and whatever sign she is given, whether a grimace or a wide smile, is the one she adheres to.
Of course, living your life from day to day like this can only lead to stress, and though she would not ever tell her mother, Mizuki has been slowly developing a nervous habit: Every time she is stressed, she absentmindedly scratches the back of her head in frustration, and this has been going on long enough that a coin-sized bald spot has started to spread there...
Mizuki’s day job as an English teacher isn’t any less stressful- lately, she’s been dealing with the failings of one of her students who is absent all the time, a girl named Ayami Goto (Anna Ishii) and when she DOES come to class, she spends most of her time in the infirmary. No matter what she tries, Goto seems to only draw further away, and Mizuki has been looking to her mother for advice. But when her suggestion that Mizuki go over to the house and talk to the studnet’s mother backfires (Mizuki gets yelled at and berated by the student’s mother and chased out) for the first time she sees that mother may not always be right.
Besides her normal housewife duties, Yuki spends one day a week at a craft shoppe that creates vintage dolls. and as she talks on the phone to Haru while working, advising her on what she should do on a daily basis, the correlation is pretty clear: this is one woman who wants to live her life grandly through the life of her daughter, just like a child lives fantasies out through dolls.
One person who has seen just how Yuki controls Haru with her soft suggestions and gentle persuasions is Taichi Matsushima (Yuya Yagira, fresh off of "Frankenstein Noi Koi"), the general contractor assigned to work on the house they are building. He sees how Mizuki changes her mind about things when Akiko gives off a negative vibe and sees how Akiko strongly “suggests” her ideals onto Mizuki to get what she wants.
When Akiko (who has taken a liking to Taichi) arranges for Mizuki and Taichi to go on a date, he takes her to a photo exhibit where he hopes to find the time to try and talk honestly to her. Little do they know, but Mom is close by, using her binoculars to keep tabs on every little thing her daughter does!
Confronting her, He tells her he knows she had no desire to go out with him and it was her mother who pushed her to do it. He tells her he knows she wanted a different wallpaper design than the one Mother chose for her, and he knows she does whatever mother says.
Mizuki is properly offended by this accusation and walks off from him. Eventually Taichi comes back and apologizes for his rude accusations...but just then, Mizuki looks at a framed photograph…
...and in the reflection, she sees that her mother is lurking behind them…spying on them!
And thus for the first time she realizes that her steadfast and capable mother may have some issues all her own!
When I saw the Hayase’s house being built and it looked exactly like Yukie Nakama’s house in “Utsukushii Rinjin”, I was already set for another great psychological thriller, and so far it’s just what the doctor ordered, very intriguing scenes and gripping moments with a great cast (though honestly I never felt like Haru and Yuki were really that close, part of the problem might be that the very first time you see Yuki she is spying on her daughter so I already had a negative vibe from her?) with some old familiar faces from yesterday including Yumi Aso as Akiko’s Dollmaking Business Boss Fumie Makimura and Terawaki Yasufumi as Akiko’s beleaguered Husband Koji, who slaves all day to satisfy the whims of his intense wife.
OOOH, and it was VERY nice to see sultry Dan Mitsu again, here playing Matsushima’s co-worker (and possible future rival for affection?) Maki Tachihara. Mmm, she’s looking as stunning as ever!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
