Looks like Magerarenai Onna is not a shigoto dorama like Hatarakiman and Kiina but rather a character study of the three eccentric characters of the show. Ogiwara Saki gets put through the wringer when she loses her job and her mother passes away. Her mother was her main motivation for sitting the legal exam 9 times and suddenly she is rudderless. Her single minded pursuit of following in her father's footsteps and making her mom proud has been the driving force of her life. She has always been an empty shell and now her shell has cracked and she doesn't know how to put her life together.
Riko is attracted to Saki's misery because it makes her feel better about her life. She is a stranger in her own home and the scene where she confronts her husband about his affair is pure black comedy gold. Riko is looking for affirmation of her existence and she meddles in Saki's affairs because Riko believes Saki needs her and this gives her happiness. Riko has no direction in life, having discovered that married life is miserable. Yet, she continues to perpetuate the lie and hide her head in the sand.
As for Misuteru, the cop, his story seems to be too similar to Riko's but its still early. Magerarenai Onna has just started to get into the meat of Riko's problems and ep 5 will be fun to watch. I still don't give a fuck about Masato. Absolutely no chemistry between Tsukamoto Takashi and Kanno Miho. Saki and Misuteru however make an interesting pair. Too bad chances are, its probably gonna be another everyone grew stronger, lets go separate ways ending.
If I have one complaint its the idealised concept of being a lawyer put forward in the three episodes. Sure, Japan practices civil rather then common law, ie finding the truth rather than an adversarial system but saying that lawyers are responsible for his/her client's happiness? Lawyers act on the instructions of the client and if they want more effort, they need to sign a bigger cheque. Riko's family story is like a dark comedy and yet the lawyering part is like your typical idealistic bullshit jdorama.
I don't really mind it cause I enjoy watching the three characters interact. Someone mentioned that the writer of Magerarenai Onna wrote Jyoou no Kyoushitsu so no wonder the seemingly cliched characters have turned out to be fun to watch. As long as it doesn't turn into Enka no Jyoou with it monotonous dark but unfunny comedy Magerarenai Onna will be ok.
Enka no Jyoou was really bad, wasn't it? I tried to like it, I really did, but the balance of 'comedy' to 'dark' was just not right at all, soon the jokes went stale and the guy killed his own mom and it was like WTF AM I WATCHING HOW IS THIS A COMEDY JAPAN
ReplyDeleteI'm only 2 episodes in but I'm enjoying it so far. The introduction of Riko and Mitsuteru seemed random and forced but the dynamic keeps things interesting. I'm sure being a big Kanno Miho fan helps. (Thanks to this site.) Saki is more interesting than Kiina, almost as watchable as Hiroko in Hataraki Man.
ReplyDeleteI blame the directing in Enka no Jyoou. I watched the whole thing because I could tell what the writer was going for but what was presented on screen didn't work.
ReplyDeleteSaki and Misuteru should end up together. Since they have better chemistry but this is J drama. They will probably find a way to NOT make that happen.
ReplyDelete