Karei Naru Ichizoku 2021 Episodes 1-5

 

A long time ago, there was a jdorama called Karei Naru Ichizoku about this very rich family and it was good except for Kimutaku who tried to make his character Manpyo Teppei the main character and look too cool when he was an idiot.

Now WOWOW has stepped up to the plate with their 2021 version of the show to commemorate its 30th anniversary with a crazy all star cast and rightfully so the main charcter is the father, Manpyo Daisuki played by Nakai Kiichi.

Manpyo is ruthless head of the family and head Hanshin bank with  a wife and a mistress and a family secret that threatens to tear the family apart. Nakai Kiichi plays Daisuki with pure ruthlessness with barely a glimmer of humanity may peeking through. Daisuki is not a likeable main character but he is an interesting one as he attempts to ensure Hanshin bank's survival in the coming merger storm.

Uchida Yuki plays the mistress Aiko who was hired as the tutor and butler but now basically runs the family and is charge of marrying the children off to expand the family ties. She is as ruthless as Daisuki and I immediately felt sorry for the poor mother. Then we find out what the mother had done and that she could not do a lot of things. 

Karei Naru Ichizoki 2021 is a fascinating series about a screwed up family that has everything that regular people want but are never happy. It is a story about complex characters with plenty of shades of grey and I enjoyed the first five episode and I had to stop myself from continuing to write this review.

The 11 episodes have been subbed by windflows here and I recommend everyone check it out. This is turning out to be a really great year for jdoramas and fingers crossed the rest of the series is equally as good. Must watch!