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| Keiko Kitagawa as Machi Sangeya |
Sometimes when a drama has a special it deviates from the original show and feels disconnected, (usually because the special comes such a long time after the original series), but with the Ie Uru Onna Special, they retained almost all of the show’s cast (the only one not returning is Yuko Araki, who is too busy taking on terrorists in CRISIS) and all the sets, and stepping into the show, it really felt like it just continued right where it left off!
When we last saw Sangeya Machi and Crew, Sangenya (Kitagawa) and Section Chief Yashiro (Toru Nakamura) had left Teiko Real Estate and started their own business “Sachi Real Estate” in a small rural town.
Niwano (Kudo Asuka) has come to pay them a visit with a favor to ask: Seems a slump in sales has Teiko in a bind: They’ve been getting competition from rival agencies, and if they don’t get their sales up in two weeks, they are in danger of shutting down!
True, the lessons she’s taught to junior sales agents Niwano as well as Adachi (Chiba Yudai) and the others have made them better and more caring house-sellers, but when you’re in a crunch, you need to call in the big guns!
Though, true to form, the stunts Sangenya pulls and methods she uses always leave the rest of them scratching their heads…no one except her knows exactly what’s going on! In fact, most of the time, the other characters spend their time musing about just what it is that makes Sangenya Machi tick!
I had SUCH a fun time watching this show. My heart ached knowing it was only going to be this ONE special, but at least, given that this was a two-hour show, they gave us not one but THREE different house selling “cases” to solve, and each one was as captivating as an individual episode!
We had a fun, sweet and heartfelt story of a lonely old man (Shoufukutei Tsurube) who dreams of buying a duplex condo to live with his estranged daughter whom he hasn’t seen in years…
We had Jun Kaname as a father of a super-spoiled child actor who puts the house agents on the run with his brattish and unreasonable demands (who learns a thing or two about bossing people around from Sangenya!)…
We had beautiful Sei Ashina as a single mother with an extremely limited budget looking for an affordable home to buy, and we see Adachi trying his very best to fulfill her wishes…a possible romance as well?
…and we even had adorable Seika Furuhata cameo-ing as a celebrity college student who needs not only a a house nearby her college but an additional, smaller house JUST for her dog! Was really nice to see her- haven’t seen her since her super-pouting character in Karen Miyama’s “Ramen Daisuki Koizumi San”!
In each and every one of these cases Sangenya Machi is the woman we deserve and she does her utmost to get each home sold and give the clients what they want…or, more precisely, what they NEED!
I’m not sure how well this special did in the rankings, but I’m hoping that this serves as a springboard for even further episodes of Ie Uru Onna…maybe even a whole, second series???? Oh man, that would be HEAVEN!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
