Wonderfully Sombre "Grace no Rireki"

Kikuo Hasumi (Kenichi Takito) is a quiet pharmacist living with his vibrant and positive wife Minako. Since they live a low-key life , Kikuo is shocked when Minako suddenly quits her job and makes plans to take a trip to France! He can’t understand why she would do this on what seems like the spur of the moment, but knows she knows best.

In her beloved Honda she affectionately calls “Grace”, she says her goodbyes before leaving for Narita Airport where she’ll board the flight for France. She worries that he’ll be lonely without her, but he assures her that being alone is like second nature to him and that she should enjoy her vacation!!

Kikuo sends her off with a smile, but what he doesn’t know is that this is the last time he will ever see her alive. Some weeks later, Kikuo gets word of a horrible accident involving a Tour Bus in France, and his worst fears are confirmed when he arrives and she is among the passengers who died in the tragedy.

For the next few weeks, Kikou is a wreck, and he spends his days lying listlessly in the house alone. It’s only when Minako’s car is returned to him that he is forced to come out and interact with people.

The Car is among the items willed to Kikuo by Minako, with the written hope he will use it and learn to enjoy driving it like she did. Kikuo has never driven before, so must take lessons before he can get behind the wheel of Grace. But when he does, he finds a curious thing in the car’s GPS tracking system… A record of a FULL  WEEK worth of traveling in Japan BEFORE her flight to France!

Where had she gone? And what was she DOING and why was it SECRET? Using the Car’s navigation, Kikuo decides to use the GPS to retrace Minako’s steps in the week before her death,  taking a long journey into the unknown! And as he does, he will connect with old friends,  befriend new strangers and make new acquaintances as he eventually uncovers the truth and learns the final gift of love Minako has left for him.

MAN, this was one heart-wrenching and bittersweet drama! Very sombre and slow paced, I had to take the drama in small doses to really appreciate what it had to offer. Loved going along with Kikuo on his spiritual journey and thought the ending was just achingly perfect!

This was a drama from last season that I only now finished, and have to say it’s one of the season’s finer ones!

An American Journalist In Japan: “Tokyo Vice”

 Caught the new HBO MAX mini-series TOKYO VICE, based on the book “Tokyo Vice: An American Reporter on the Police Beat in Japan", the real-life memoirs of an American reporter named Jake Adelstein who worked for the Yomiuri Shinbun covering crime in Japan, specifically the dealings with the Yakuza.

Ansel Elgort stars as reporter Jake Adelstein, who begins working for the newspaper where he is met with some resistance, including a curt and strict supervisor named Eimi Maruyama (Rinko Kikuchi)  and a loud and unabashedly racist editor (Kosuke Toyohara) who calls him “Gaijin”  and singles him out for beration.

He is assigned to the lowest of levels, covering the police beat, where he is assigned mundane crimes to cover and is given no help by the police, though he tries to ingratiate himself with them, like trying to befriend abrasive cop Miyamoto (Hideaki Ito) who only gives him dead-end tips.

But when he is assigned investigating a routine suicide, he finds things aren’t quite as they seem. The victim was heavily in debt, and Adelstein is further confused when he tries to follow up on the creditors and finds an empty building. When a second “suicide” turns up with another person in debt to the same creditors, Jake feels he has a real story to pursue. But his superiors won’t let him run with it and is told to stick to the basics.

It’s only when he happens to catch the attention of a hard-as-nail veteran detective named Hiroto Katagiri (Ken Watanabe)  that his work begins to get traction.  Katagiri takes Adelstein under his wing and slowly the real underworld of Japan is revealed to him...

There he finds a whole world full of ruthless and colorful thugs as well as slick and charming vipers like Sato (Sho Kasamatsu), and while trying to investigate the suicide debts, falls into the middle of a burgeoning power war between two Yakuza clans!

At the halfway point of Tokyo Vice and so far it’s been pretty engaging, though I must admit I’m not too interested in the parallel story of the American hostesses which takes up a good portion of the show,  following American Samantha (Rachel Keller) dealing with her slimy bosses and Yakuza suitors while she tries to get out and start her own business…

A show like this is guaranteed to get names like Ken Watanabe and Rinko Kikuchi (names that most American audiences know well) but I was glad to see a whole bunch of other Nihongo actors here, Hideaki Ito, Sho Kasamatsu, Ayumi Ito and Yuka Itaya, even Tomohisa Yamashita as a rival club owner (!!!)

Below: Yamapi with Ella Rumpf

First episode was directed by Michael Mann (who also serves as co-producer) so you knew you were going to get a gritty crime drama, and so far it hasn’t disappointed!!