It is not often that the topic of race comes up in jdoramas. After all, Japan is a mostly homogeneous society. However racial issues are everywhere and its interesting whenever it comes to the forefront.
The murder victim in episode 9 of Cold Case is a Japanese war orphan. Left behind in China as a child, the victim was raised by a Chinese foster parent and discriminated by the Chinese for being Japanese.
The victim returns to Japan with his son and is discriminated by the Japanese for being Chinese and being able to work because he can't speak nor write.
It is the sad story of someone who is not accepted by both countries and does not have a place to belong.
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Not a must watch episode but I found the war orphan thing interesting especially the Chinese foster parents who took the Japanese kids in the Japanese orphans going back to Japan even though they were culturally Chinese.
Not must watch but I found the subject matter fascinating. I wonder what the story of the original series was about? I have to mention that I love the camaraderie between the characters.
Interesting. Usually it's not a subject matter often talk about in jdorama indeed but this is actually the 4th dorama that touched on racial issue this year. There's MIU404, Kanojo ga Joubutsu Dekinai Riyuu, and that dorama with Emoto Tasuku about mental health.
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ReplyDeleteKanojo ga Joubutsu Dekinai Riyuu is nothing special in terms of story, but exploring Japan from perspective of weaboo foreigner is such interesting subject
Where do you get the raw for Eps 9? Nyaa hasnt been updated for a while
ReplyDelete@notpenk: I get my raws from https://dramahd.me
ReplyDeleteThanks AM!, the JPTV Raws for Eps 9 and 10 are up in nyaa now. Nyaa is just a bit slow these days.
ReplyDeleteI was also wondering what the American equivalent of these unfortunate Japanese orphans was. However, I think this episode might not be based on any existing American episode. Usually the name of the writer of the original appears after the title sequence, between "Format created by Meredith Steihm" and "Screenplay by [Japanese writer]". But I can't find any such credit for ep9.
ReplyDelete@Amelda: You are correct! I just check the Japanese wiki and episodes 3 and 9 were original stories.
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