Caution: Hazardous Housewife!! Ayase Haruka is Back in Action!

 

I really loved the Chiaki Kuriyama drama “Himitsu Chohouin Erika”, the story of a mild mannered housewife who is secretly a covert operative secret agent, and now we have Haruka Ayase in a similar styled situation with “Okusama wa, Tori Atsukai Chui (Caution: Hazardous Housewife!)”

Out story opens with Secret Agent Yuko Shimada in the midst of a dangerous hostage situation. Despite the grandiose threats of the thugs, she quickly breaks her chains and effortlessly disposes of the bad guys. When it comes to James Bond Heroics, this gal is right on par! 

But as she makes the break for freedom, she confesses that despite all her abilities, the one thing she’s always craved for in her 10 years as an agent has been to have what everyone else does: a normal life with a loving and caring family. 

And so, with this mission as her escape cover, she jumps off a bridge into the chilling water as the criminals close in, faking her own death in order to leave the world of espionage behind her!

Starting her whole life over anew, she adopt the name Nami Katayama and gets a job as a receptionist where she begins enjoying her life for the first time, enjoying food, friendship and fun!

She goes to goukons with her colleagues, but never seems to find a man who can fulfill what she’s looking for…until Yuki Isayama (Hitetoshi Nishijima) steps into her life!

"It was love at first sight!” she exclaims, and from that meeting sparks a friendship that three months later culminates in a marriage! Her dreams are moving along smoothly!

Soon the newlyweds move into a quaint suburban town with equally quaint and friendly neighbors, and on her first day there she meets two women who will become her best friends there, the proper and (very) lectury Yuri Ohara (Ryoko Hirosue), and the spritely and giddy Kyoko Sato (Tsubasa Honda).

Sadly for Nami, once things get settled in, she finds that the idyllic life of a housewife is much more bland on a day-to-day basis, and she finds herself aching to get out from cooking (which she does very, very badly) and back to the kick-butt judo-throwing ways of her old life.

Adding to that,  Yuki has been coming home later and later from work each day and when she tells him dinner is ready, he indifferently tells her he’s already eaten. This infuriates Nami but she holds it in to keep the peace.

Fortunately, her friends are always there to cheer her up and give a helping hand, and when they notice that Nami’s culinary skills aren’t the best (the veggies are cut sloppily and the dressing is tear-inducing) they tell her they should all attend the town’s cooking classes!

 

Hilarity ensues as Nami tries her best to keep up in the cooking class, but more than the lessons, Nami’s observant eyes fall upon a timid and nervous woman named Chika Mikami (Kana Kurashina) standing off to the side. Looking like she could use a friend, Nami extends her hand of friendship and invites her to join them for lunch.

 

After watching her over the meal, Nami confronts Mikami of what she suspects: that she is being battered at home. She has noticed the way she covers her arms and oddly uses her hands and tells her if she wants help, but the flustered woman shamefully runs away from Nami, hissing that she should mind her own business.

This affects the stoic Nami, and when she sees Chika at the market the next day hiding a black eye under dark glasses, she knows she has to do something. Her friends say the only thing they can do if she rejects their help is to be a friend to her. A friend who will be there for her if and when she decides to seek assistance to her plight.

 Gratefully, she accepts their friendship and begins having lunches with them. But Nami keeps a watchful eye on her behavior, and knows the problems are getting worse for her new friend.

One night Chika is beaten so badly by her husband that she finally seeks solace with her caring friends. She confesses to them that she is in a abusive situation, and finally asks for their help. They first try social measures to solve the problem by talking to her husband, telling him they know of his misdeeds and threaten to call the police if he continues. But of course he rejects their testimony, and in front of her husband, the timid Chika backs down.

Finally the day comes when the husband goes to far, and stabs Chika. When  a concerned Nami visits Chika in the hospital the next day, she gently asks what she wishes. When Chika wistfully says that all she wants is for her husband to divorce her and leave her alone, Nami’s face turns serious and promises her solemnly, “I will take care of it.” 

She goes home…and says to herself: 

“I tried to solve this problem as a normal housewife. It did not work”.

“After finishing preparations for dinner…

I will cast aside my role of housewife for awhile.”*

When Mikami’s husband comes home that evening, the woman who confronts him at the gate is no longer the mild-mannered housewife  he first met…but the steely-eyed special agent she truly is! She aks him for the final time to consider his actions and let his wife go, and when he rejects it once again, the lout finally receives the full retaliation of what the incredible Nami Isayama can deliver!

As expected, I really really LOVE this new show and Haruka Ayase continues to reinvigorate my love for her- as you may recall, it was she who singlehandedly brought me back to the world of J-dramas (after I had lost interest in 2000) with “Hotaru No Hikari” in 2007 and with this show she continues her winning streak!

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PS: There ain’t now WAY that this show won’t end up being like the Angelina Jolie/Brad Pitt movie “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”, (with the secret agent wife discovering that her hubby is a secret agent as well), because that’s the ONLY REASON they could have for casting Hidetoshi-FREAKING-Nishijima as Nami’s mild mannered husband! “cause otherwise that’s just the most miscast role EVER! Just wondering how long it will be before she finds out!!!

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* I think these lines are the coolest lines ever! I’m suspecting that this is what Nami is going to say in every episode when she changes back into her Secret Agent mode, and how AWESOME that will be!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com