Sore wa, totsuzen, arashi no you ni (2004)

Country: Japan
Format: drama in 10 episodes
Genre: romance,
Cast: Esumi Makiko, Yamashita Tomohisa,Yanagiba Toshiro, Miyaji Mao, Kimura Tae, Kohashi Kenji, Kato Takako, Katsuji Ryo, Yamada Yu, Ayase Haruka, Hamada Mari,
Synopsis: Ogawa Kozue has been married to her husband Hideo for 7 years already, but their relationship has become dull and silent. One day she meets with high school guy Takuma who attracts her attention. As it it is raining they end up going to Takuma's work place - dance studio, where he is dance instructor. After meeting young and bold Takuma, Kozue begins to think about her own life.
Rating: 2/5
To tell you the truth, I expected much more from this drama. I think this drama can be explained with

Kozue having pre-middle-aged crisis, where she discovers that her life has not gone as she wanted and there is no flame in her marriage. Of course then she meets 18-year-old guy, who shows her all new and different things in life, not to mention the powerful passion that is missing in Kozue and Hideo's relationship.
And basically that's it, nothing more or less. I do not think that thing like this can be called love. It is just one small feeling of wanting things you do not have.

Kozue who once had really powerful personality is now only a shadow with former glory. After 7 years of marriage she and Hideo have not had children and live in Kozue's parents place. I think Kozue is the master of poker face, because she smiles really rarely. I think that the only mistake Kozue does is telling the truth about her feelings to someone - it is common fact that you can only trust your family (and sometimes not even them). Everyone else can stab you in your back when it is convenient to them. The good thing is that Kozue actually learns a lot during this time and becomes slightly better. Another interesting thing is that drama also shows how Kozue becomes suspicious about Hideo, because this is something that happens a lot to pairs - the one who cheats starts to think that maybe other cheats too.

Takuma is sure that Kozue is his one and only. Only thing that I enjoyed in this drama was Takuma's

lines in first episodes, but later it all disappeared due to his illness and it got more pathetic trying to get close to her. I do not have anything against age differences, though I think that over 10 years is a bit too much. Kozue literally could have been his mother! In real life Esumi Makiko and Yamashita Tomohisa have age difference of 19 years, which is 2 years more than in drama. I must say that I am really happy that they did not have any kiss-scenes. I did feel some love from Takuma's side, but I more think that it was some kind of affection, because she was older and said things that made him think. We can explain it with the fact that he basically did not have mother's love, when he was small and now there is a older woman who worries about him. 

Hideo is great husband, but at the same time he has forgotten that sometimes women want to be

reminded that their husband still loves them. There should still be flame burning inside the relationship, because only reading stocks in morning, day and night is really a big turn-off. Otherwise Hideo is really caring and considering man, who thinks the best of his wife. If I were him, I would have been suspecting things since a long time. Everyone has one or two secrets that they rather leave hiding into the closet than bring out in front of everyone and Hideo is no different. Maybe because he had secrets from Kozue, was the reason why he gave his everything to be a good husband. I loved how in the end he reaches his limit, because for the whole time he is suffering alone, without showing his worries out. 

The family plays a big part of drama development. Kozue's father has really strict rules and values

about marriage. This is a reason why Kozue knows that everything must be kept as a secret - even things that have not happened. At the same time mother is really kind and she always knows more than she shows out - as usually it is with mothers. In the same house also lives Kozue's younger sister Yukie and her daughter Nanohina. Yukie is going through divorce, but at the same time she is thinking getting back together with her husband. Yukie acts like a immature teenager, even though she should be in her twenties. Most of the time I was really annoyed by her.

Co-workers play an important role as a lot of topics related to marriage, dating younger guys, cheating and etc come under discussion, even though no one got to know truth about Kozue. As she was only working as part-timer, mostly like coffee- and copy-girl, then she was rather underestimated there. I must say that if they had shown more Katsumi and if it were in better quality I had fallen for this bad cheat.

To tell you the truth then I was really annoyed by Saho, because she was the most immature person

in the drama. She has an attitude that "When I cannot have Takuma, then f*** off everyone!". Most of the time she either wanted to seduce Takuma or was scandalizing everyone. Only thought that I had was "dear, girl, please look into the mirror and ask again why Takuma does not love you". Keisuke is much better friend than Saho, because he is more thoughtful. The last from this young generation is Kaori, who is something between ex and current girlfriend to Takuma. She is from a rich family and her daddy is Takuma's former sponsor. Even though she is really sweet, at times it feels that she only wants Takuma to dance again.

To sum up the drama I do not know how many times they decide to say goodbye to each other and

Takuma trying to quit dancing, but still being unable to do it. Gyoza, if you want to end it then do it properly and remove all the possibilities to fall back. I know that I am annoyed by it only because I do not like people who say one thing, but still act differently. If I had understood the time development better, then maybe I would have had better thoughts, because it seems to happen all at the same time and then there seems to be long time between. 

Drama shows many things about marriage and sadly this is the point where I do not agree with the Japanese thinking that is bought out by scriptwriter, Kaneko Arisa. I do not think that housewife cannot do anything other than house-chores or they lose their market value, I believe that women are

always capable on managing many things at the same time. I also do not think that being married means that you cannot have hobbies like dancing. Besides, I do not like the way they say that married couple becomes silent and stop talking about important matter just because they see each other everyday! If I watch my parents from aside, then they always talk about everything! I think there has been no day without the question "How was your day? What news did you hear?". They discuss everything! I know my parents are the best example of true love and successful marriage, but still, I do not believe that marriage means not being able to speak anymore. But I do understand that in drama we are talking about Japan 10 years ago, though I just feel that marriage is shown here a bit too gloomy and dull.

Lastly, about dancing. As many readers know, I used to dance etc etc etc, but I did not do ballroom dances, so the truth is that I am really bad when it comes to dancing in pairs, though as I now know

that the most depends on male dance-partner. But back to the main point - most of the time they say in drama that dance is a moment of feelings, giving emotions with bodies etc, as if dancing is already cheating. Well here's something new for you "dance is not equal to sex!" (dancing is way better). Some dances can be really sexy and hot, but that does not mean that you actually feel it for that person. Okey, maybe I have done too much show-dance, because what I learned - dancing is similar to acting - you take the fullest and show what you feel about the dance, not about the person you are dancing with or the audience. I know that many will have different thoughts, but this thinking helps me through at the moment. It is not crime to dance, so "Is it okey for housewife to dance?" is simply ridiculous to me! 
If you are able to watch drama about older woman X high school boy, then feel free to do it. Even though I was able to understand every reason in this drama, I do not like it - too many disagreeable things. (Big thanks for SARS for subbing it!)

SPOILER-review:  The ending was predictable, because it is Japan and year was 2004 - it would be too big scandal that housewife would end up with 17 years younger guy! I think 10 years ago it was something that Japanese society was not ready to accept. But at the same time, it looked like in the end Kozue finally understood that these feelings for Takuma are not comparable to feelings for Hideo. The weird thing that I heard about this drama, is that Takuma dies in the end.. I do not know from where this rumor came.