Another Fractured Marriage with “Soredemo Ai wo Chikaimasuka?”

 After the heart-wringing time I had with “Ukiwa”, I’m not sure I’m ready for yet another tale of matrimonial woes, but since this drama stars pretty Marika Matsumoto (last seen by me as the beautiful eye-patched demoness Oiwa in “Youkai Share House”), I HAVE to at least give it a peek!

Soredemo Ai wo Chikaimasuka? tells the story of a married couple who are drifting apart. At some point months ago husband Takeyuki (Hiroyuki Ikeuchi) stopped making love with his wife Jun (Matsumoto) and they have not been physical ever since.

On the surface they seem like a happily married couple, showing a contented face to relatives and friends, but as more and more of them have children, Jun finds herself desiring a child of her own. But Husband seems to not want kids at all.

This topic is to drive a wedge between the couple, right at the moment when Jun is starting a new Job. Her work becomes her safe place and Interacting with new associates like the stoic Mayama (Kisetsu Fujiwara), she can focus on something other than her home life.

At the same time, Takeyuki has run into an old friend from the past, a woman named Saori Adachi (Wakana Sakai) and he finds himself laughing like he hasn’t in years.

Coming home from drinks with her fellow employees, Jun happens to see her husband engrossed with this mysterious woman! Terrified of confrontation, she flees and is left to ponder who the woman is and what she means to Hiroyuki.

The life of this married couple is set to change…

It seems infidelity is the hot new trend with these dramas lately! Meh, not sure how much I’ll get into this one, but at only 20 minutes an episode I guess I can continue to check it out! We’ll see where this one goes….

Toumei na Yurikago

The story of a young girl starting as a nurse in an obstetric clinic in a small country town didn’t seem like something that would grab my interest so I initially passed it by. But during a stretch where I was dying to watch something new and there wasn’t anything up to see, I noticed that mikilove had completely subbed the entire series of Toumei na Yurikago, and, on a whim, decided to download one episode and see if I liked it.

I knew the show was going to be about pregnancies, childbirth and all the drama that goes with it, but somehow I wasn’t expecting it to be so gentle and sombre in tone. Lots of scenes with main character Aoi Aota (Kaya Kiyohara) reacting and reflecting upon things she is seeing, with only her eyes to tell you what is going on in her head as she watches young Dr. Tomohira Yui  (Koji Seto) do his work.

More than just “stories of pregnant women” (though, of course, the drama is comprised much of that), we focus on Aoi and all the different aspects of life, birth and death that is presented to her in all its happy, sad and tragic facets.

Her day goes from joyous moments of happy childbirth with a cheering family... 

...to silent and still moments with women asking for abortions, (the moments where Aoi passes off the remains to a collection agent is particularly solemn) and in between it all is Aoi struggling to make sense of it all.

I liked the drama enough that I did go ahead and grab the entire show, but unlike other dramas, this was one that I had off to the side and only dug out to watch an episode or two when I was in a melancholy or pensive mood, and in that, it was a perfect drama to keep in store.

I began watching the drama in February of 2019 and have just completed it now, and can safely say what a nice, calming  (and tear-inducing) drama it was! Lots of old favorites in it like Asami Mizukawa, Mieko Harada and even Wakana Sakai (when was the last time I saw her!) as Aoi’s scatterbrained mother...

...but the clear star is Kaya Kiyohara who does so much without having to say anything!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com