As always, I am watching Japanese drama for several reasons:
The feel-good factor. I like a show that makes me feel happy afterwards!
They are beautifully filmed, and you get to live in Japan vicariously.
And of course it's great for listening to the Japanese language and picking up new vocab! Re-watching a favourite show gives you an idea of how far in the language you've come when you can understand that little bit more!
There are some great shows on Netflix which you can watch in the original Japanese. Here are three of my recent favourites:
Tokyo Grand Maison グランメゾン東京
I really enjoyed this show. I think the key reason is the character of the central protagonist, Natsuki Obana - an exacting genius who is a bit of a maverick.
The series opens in Paris at an important France-Japan summit. Two-Michelin-starred chef Natsuki Obana is preparing lunch in the kitchens with his talented team. One delegate is allergic to nuts and he falls ill, which causes great embarrassment for Japan - Natsuki Obana professional reputation is ruined, and no one will hire him.
Three years later, Rinko Hayami - who is nearly 50 - is being interviewed for a job in Paris. Natsuki, who has fallen on hard times and who is on the run from debt collectors, hides in the courtyard while Rinko is being interviewed. Rinko passionately says in her interview that she wants to earn a Michelin star. Natsuki is inspired by Rinko's passionate speech.
Rinko is put to the test in the kitchen, and Natsuki energetically bursts in and takes over! He used to work at the restaurant, so he knows the chef's preferences and the restaurant's concepts.
At Natsuki Obana's simple bistro, Rinko comes to find Natsuki. She has failed the test, because she made the meal she was best at, not what Natsuki had suggested to her. She was told it had one-dimensional flavour. The only thing they praised was the nasturtium oil - that Natsuki had made!
Rinko pays 100 euros for Natsuki to cook using the ingredients she has bought, and make a 三つ星 mittsu-boshi (3-star) meal. He's a maverick genius - brilliant at cooking, and really fun to watch! But Rinko is very talented too - she can identify ingredients and methods used just by tasting.
Rinko can't earn the stars she desires so badly through her own cooking, and Natsuki is an extremely talented chef who cannot work for anyone owing to his notoriety after the incident. They plan to open a restaurant together in Tokyo, assemble around them the most talented team, and earn three Michelin stars together!
Along the way, they show what it means to be a team, and what it means to care for that team. This drama is good fun, good-natured, uplifting, and highly enjoyable.
Beyond Goodbye さよならのつづき
Is it possible that a donated heart can share the memories of the donor?
Does Saeko love Kazu, or is she drawn to the heart that beats inside him..?
This is the premise of this intriguing story.
Saeko loses her fiancee Yusuke tragically in an avalanche accident.
She had met Yusuke one summer in Hawaii. At the airport, Yusuke saw her across the floor at a table looking dejected, and so he crossed to the public piano to play an upbeat song to cheer her up. They became friends and travelled together to the coffee farm where her work-trip from Hokkaido was centred. Their friendship turned to a summer romance, but they kept it breezy - they knew each other only by their first names, and shared no contact details. Yusuke believed that if they were fated to be together they would meet again.
Wherever I am you will come to me.
As the story unfolds, this throwaway line resonates deeply.
After the accident and the death of her beloved Yusuke, Saeko becomes inexplicably drawn to a young man called Kazu who astonishingly shares Yusuke's abilities and characteristics.
Yusuke had once said to Saeko:
I'm positive we'll meet again someday.
Even if you get further and further away from my sight, you'll always make your way back to me.
When we meet again somewhere, then it will be fate.
This imaginative story follows this prescient observation.
It is beautifully acted, and shot in the contrasting locations of chilly Hokkaido and balmy Hawaii, between apple orchards and coffee plantations.
Light of my Lion ライオンの隠れ家
Hiroto Komori has been living with his brother in the family home since their parents died. It was such a shock to his autistic younger brother Michito, that their life is kept strictly within comfortable parameters: for example, the park is visited every Saturday at exactly the same time, and the same bus is caught home afterwards. Each day is strictly scheduled. It is only by living within this inflexible routine that Michito can keep control of his fears and emotions.
No waves are made when you do the same things every day, in the same order, carrying on steadily.
We have lived quietly, repeating the same day for years.
For us brothers, the most important thing was that things would never change.
When Lion arrives out of nowhere, and insists he is going to stay, he sends a ripple of chaos like a 'sudden tempest' through the tightly organised household.
But the little boy is so adorable, and the way he takes his soft-toy lion with him everywhere is so delightful, and his mysterious arrival engages such empathy from both of the young men, that they begin to bond as a trio. Their boundaries are slowly extended, as Lion's presence in their 'pride' forces them to open up and try knew ways of being.
This story is the story of the bonds of togetherness forged out of crisis. It's about the bravery of extending beyond your comfort zone, and what can be found there.
The drama does take a darker turn covering domestic abuse, but it is just as much about what it means to love someone - whether he is your older brother, your younger brother, or a brave little boy who deserves his share of love, too.
I hope you enjoy these shows as much as I did!
Let me know your favourite Japanese shows in the comments below, I'd love your recommendations!
Cathy
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