The thread is open, per @FGB4877’s and @GB’s request.
I didn’t know anything about this jdrama so I looked it up. Here’s a short write-up on the leading female character from jdramas.wordpress.com. I think her story is the main focus of the dorama.
She had been working as a salesperson for a large department store’s apparel section. But she is mocked for being an abandoned old woman and demoted to its logistics warehouse. She is at the turning point in life, having lost her boyfriend, dream and pride. Wanting to change her life, she walks into the bar Old Jack & Rose where she is teased as a vivacious young girl but there is no malice to this. Inspired by the brave women who built up the bar from nothing after the war, she starts to go through a dramatic transformation.
source: jdramas.wordpress.com
I’ll pop in now and then.
Enjoy the show!
Thanks heaps @pkml3!!! I’m really enjoying this Show, very slowly… each episode gets me grinning from ear to ear. I want to savour the sweetness which fortunately is not the cloying kind.
I’ve yet to complete the series but I already want to rewatch the first episodes and come here to give my 2 cents on them.
Thanks to both of you, @GB and @PkMl3.
It is a beautiful story about getting back to oneself. Dear @PkMl3, if you have the time please check it out! 😀
The first episode could have the title “On having the courage to try new things”.
Having a very rough 40th Birthday just makes Arata look for an alternative. As we see in this episode she may be jaded yet she still retains her kindness. Not falling for the bystander effect and deciding to help the old lady she could grow to be (she is also empathic) ends up giving her a better recommendation letter than she could ever dream off. Also loved how her fears and apprehensions are signaled for change is hard.
Also love the cast of old folks. How they receive her with warmth but lowkey ask her to take better care of herself as a first step.
EPISODE 1
Hi @FGB, what a succinct and discerning perception of the Show! I agree heartily. A story of coming home to oneself…another version of ‘Meet Yourself’ (a cdrama) where the pitfalls in life may depress one, but may also galvanise one to look for change.
Episode 1 begins with the aerial view of a train arriving. This hints that we are on a journey with the FL who emerges on to the platform. She has come home to Aizu. And it will be a tale of Arata coming home to herself.
She feels the fresh breeze that is always gentle. A hint that this will be a gentle story blowing our way.
We begin with a sad Arata who looks on the dark and gloomy clouds outside as a reflection of her future alone, with demotion in work, loss of fiance, a cynical view of romance and no will to take care of herself.
I liked how despite her depressed state, she helped a stranger, and then she decided to give herself a birthday ‘treat’ and went all out to spend all her cash to get the scratch cards/lottery tickets. It was perhaps a prayer of sorts… we see the winds of change come and literally blow away the tickets but she is able to find the one winning ticket (only won 200 yen which is less than what she paid for the scratch cards I believe!!) and the entrance of the bar.
I imagine that she may have passed that bar many times, but she never noticed it. It seems well hidden. This time exactly on her 40th birthday, she sees the sign that they are hiring those of a minimum of 40 years of age and can’t believe that they don’t want young girls but women her age and older.
I loved the irony of her being called a middle-aged woman by her ex-fiance and senior lady/ahjumma by a young man and then a little later being called a young girl by an even younger man (Juzo) at the bar!! The stunned look on her face! LOL. She’s grinning as everyone calls her young girl or sweetie and that she’s still a baby!
“Take your time. Enjoy your youth.”
A woman blossoms after 40 / after 60 / after 70, no after 80!!
Their celebratory line dance had me in stitches. And the enthusiasm of all the guests!! What a great birthday it turned out to be.
EPISODE 1
At the close of the bar, she gets a birthday song and is told to celebrate her 40 years of life. She’s in tears.
Kuji Mama : “This is a special day. We met on this special day. And it’s your birthday. Happy Birthday. Celebrate the 40 years that you’ve lived so far. And let’s enjoy the rest of our lives together as long as we’re alive. Okay?”
Arata who had thought her life was over at age 40 suddenly had the best birthday ever. There’s a new spring in her step at work the next day, and her colleagues are agog and worried with the thought that she might be duped at a hostess club. LOL.
The transitions in attitude and relationships are a joy to watch.
@FGB,
I too really enjoyed the older actors and actresses. How they teased the little young ‘un. Unknown to Arata, the bar is not just a dance hall or bar, but a place of refuge. She finds herself unwittingly rescued by the people there who have imbibed the philosophy and attitude of Jilba.
However a point of significant coincidence? Arata looks like a young Jilba. Perhaps she also has the same kind heart. In any case, on this 40th birthday, she finds herself literally in Jilba’s shoes.
In our Asian shows, we often have an extra player in the ‘presence’ or influence of a person long dead, whose way of life colours how the present life is lived. In this Show, we have the constant presence of Jilba who smiles with so much life and joy from her photo portrait, and to whom conversations are addressed.
With Arata, we seem to have an unexpected new link to Jilba. We look forward to find out what her life will be now that Jilba even in death, has entered it.
A thing I love about Asian Dramas is also the presence of Family. Nobody comes out of thin air. You could say that those presences are the ones that have left the circles of the World yet their presence is still active.
Mama Jilba is one such presences. In my rewatch I am still in Episode 3 but you will see later how Lovely Ghost she turns out to be. A person that has suffered a lot yet found the courage to save and reinvent herself, and also gave new life to the people around her.
We humans are beings made up of stories, both the good and bad ones. This “Lovely Ghost” trope is a tip of the hat to that… perhaps even a knowing smile to us viewers that are into stories and the sageness they contain.
She is not the only Lovely Ghost in this series, though 😉
Also I really dig in these old folk tales. Back in the day had a blast with “Dear My Friends (2016)” even if only reading the then excellent DramBeans’ recaps. Folks that had every kind of life imaginable but found a way through.
Every time any of these old actors came into scene they made it memorable. The old lady that didn’t marry but got rich and helped all her family members yet was despised by the intellectuals she admired so much just because in the aftermath of the Korean War everything was destroyed and she didn’t had the opportunity to progress in her studies.
Even the sour Security Guard Grandpa that comes across as a villain end up being the one pushing his family to a better place and fiercely protects his family all his life without a single sliver of recognition, nevermind gratitude.
What a grind and what a character.
@FGB, it was the same for me and why I keep on with Asian dramas. The warmth of family whether families of origin or found families makes so many dramas rewarding to watch. They engender hope in relationships that can evolve to be sweeter, and more filled with understanding and acceptance.
The sacrifice and fortitude of the grandparents’ generation: I wonder if we will be the same and can carry that forward. To give without counting the cost and in the face of rudeness, a lack of appreciation and even rejection. Those who are able to do this for the long-term are the true heroes and saints in our midst.
Dear @GB, sometimes I think that appreciating our ancestors, getting into their shoes (for it would be incredibly stupid to ask them to behave under their circumstances like we *think* they should given the morality in *our* circumstances), walking a mile or seven in them and learning from them is an excellent way to incorporate their wisdom to ours.
And we should strive to become wiser as time goes by. That is why I love so much your nickname, “Growing Beautifully” because not only recognizes that yearning of wisdom: it also peeks into the reality of how hard yet important is to become oneself’s Work of Art.
My dear @FGB, my goodness! Thank you for your good, kind words! When I chose my handle, it was with the thought that I wanted to keep growing no matter how old I became. I did not think so far as to consider becoming a work of art but I’ll gladly accept that interpretation of my name!!
And there is great truth in what you say. I know that you are more a Buddhist, but even in Christianity we believe that we are all made good and can choose to become better and better under the guiding hands of the Artist of our lives.
Yes, the putting on of Jilba’s shoes struck me. They were painful to wear and walk in, but Arata patiently wore them. I watched up to Episode 6 so far and imagine that just as Arata’s feet conformed to Jilba’s shoes, so too did the shoes fit more comfortably as it stretched, as the staff of the bar stretched to accommodate each new person or lost waif that came through its doors.
Well, you could say that Becoming a Work of Art is, basically, striving to be the best, happiest and more balanced person you can be.
I made it sound simple, but as we all know it is incredibly difficult… so difficult that without a Great Representation of a Goal (inspiring oneself in The Lord, His Saints, Buddhas, any Holy People in your tradition or just ordinary people that inspires us and leaves a better place than they originally found – like Jilba), Their Teachings, and Good Friends to inspire us to go through hardships because doing so correctly gives us satisfaction and peace of mind (or call us out when we are not living to our best potential) and also it is really easy to get lost. Even with all those Auspicious Conditions it is still easy to get lost.
Personally I love Lord Jesus. His Teachings on Love are never to be missed… if anything it makes me a little bit sad that some Christians doesn’t really understand what He tried to convey as for them His role as God (The Son) totally eclipses His role as Teacher… for He has a LOT to offer in Oh So Many practical everyday situations.
Lord Buddha had a different approach: he asks us to take good care of ourselves and to detach from situations so we can think for a better answer.
You could say that asking Arata to improve her posture is a first step in becoming more useful to herself, for a happy Arara will be more useful in the bar… but also to the wider world.
As you are in Episode 6 (I still have to catch up with you 😉 )
SPOILER
You could say that Arata’s opening up to a better life inspires her lady boss to let her guard down, and we are able to see behind her rough exterior to a person that had a really hard past.
The slave driver lady boss turns out to be the first one to preach with her example, but also being an orphan really appreciates having some stability in her life and asks her coworkers to appreciate her blessings. What a lovely turnaround of a character! 😀
@FGB I’ve just watched Episode 7, but I’ll go in order here and avoid spoilers in case we have readers who come and have not yet watched the Show.
EPISODE 2 – Brief Recap
The likely downsizing of the warehouse staff spreads a pall over the transferred employees. Team Leader Hamada Sumire is her usual frank self, who says they are ‘useless’. We are given the impression that she’s hard of heart and harsh towards her subordinates.
This episode reveals more backstory of the first owner of the bar, Jilba Mama and those who started the bar with her. I like how we get to hear the backstory retold to Arata in such a way that it does not feel like tedious narration. We also get to see a snippet here and there of the past and lovely black and white photos of the cast as young adults.
Arata is introduced to social dance at the bar. The ladies dance beautifully with their partners but poor Arata’s dancing was more like Sumo LOL. She’s embarrassed by her inability to dance and has negative thoughts about it.
Arata gets a crash course in social dance with the help of Master’s granddaughter, but it is Master who’s the better partner. He leads her well in the dance and Arata begins to enjoy herself thoroughly, with no more thoughts of being unable to dance.
Arata is such a sweet person, touched and grateful to receive her pay directly in cash, and thanking her colleagues at the bar, plus Jilba. Kiju Mama and Master like her very much. Master thinks why he likes Arata and remembers that Jilba who looks very much like Arata had taught him to dance. She had been much older than he (by 13 years?) but she had been his first love.
Arata gets herself a present with her pay from the bar and looks different the next morning in a nice dress and shoes and with her hair down. She decided to live her life more fully at age 40. Her colleagues notice the change in her at once and foolish ex-fiance finds her cute. Muraki Mika figures out that he’s the unfaithful fiance who had dumped Arata.
What I liked: seeing Arata’s ungainly dance, her colleagues rallied around to help and give moral support. In the warehouse, work roles were well-defined, but at the bar, it was like family, with even Master teaching Arata how to dance.
It was sweet to know that as he had learnt how to dance from Jilba, he now was passing on the knowledge to Jilba’s lookalike, Arata, who was dancing in Jilba’s shoes.
Oh my dear @GB, we humans are so culture bound that we are born, grow-up, have children and die inside cultural boundaries. Culture must be passed down and hopefully enriched along the way.
In Buddhism we strive to listen to skillful teachers that passes their knowledge to us. But for that transmission to occur we must be open to the teacher, so we must establish a bond based on trust. Also he/she should have the experience to discern where the student is in his/her path, and what mistakes he/she are dealing with in order to work the roadblocks… for it is said that Enlightenment is natural but our blockings keeps us in ignorance.
So when the Granddaughter tries to teach Arata, she still does not have the experience to help Arata and her frustration impedes her growth. Yet when Master takes over she discovers all she ever needed was to just walk a different way 😀 .
It is funny that we are talking Religion in a Drama about a middle-aged lady that just opens her eyes to a new, more fulfilling life… yet it oddly makes a lot of sense 😉
On another note dear @PkMl3, I would like to ask you on your favorite kind of Dramas. You can send me an e-mail or just send me a reply with @GB. Loved to have you in “Shitsuren Meshi” (2022) and would like to have you onboard again 😉
I sincerely think that Japanese Dramas doesn’t receive as much recognition as they should. But being perfectly honest Chinese Dramas fly under my radar so I am not someone that should preach.
EPISODE 2
@FGB, I found it hilarious that Arata’s colleagues were concerned that she was ‘hooking’ up with a young man who might be using her, or that she was working on the side as a ‘hostess’ at a hostess bar. They were all agog with curiosity and conjecture when she received the phone call from Master to buy burdock root. She smiled and giggled and looked truly like a young girl who’d received a message from her sweetheart LOL.
They all believed she had received a message from a ‘man’. And they were right but they were also wrong!!! If only they knew that the man in question was more than 80 years old and quite the gentleman.
= = =
Now that I’ve watched a few Japanese Dramas, I find that I like their realistic ‘look’ and succinct storytelling. The scenes are not so highly coloured all the time, the cast do not have to look impeccably polished and much is conveyed with good voiceovers, mise en scene and somewhat fewer words. Their exposition is done with lots going on and with many speakers so that we get more “show, not tell” instead of just a monologue. They tell a good tale, offer sufficient character development and elicit my emotional response, without needing 16 episodes.
As I am still catching up to you, in Episode 3 minute 7:14 found a lovely Easter Egg. The door has a plaque that says “OPEN – There is always a way to open any door”. What a lovely memento of how past opportunities may be lost to us but the future still have its fair share! 😀
As I told you earlier, this one was one of the Dramas that warmed my Pandemic days. It is a bottle full of optimism without sugarcoating the hardships of the ensemble.
All these Ladies plus Master are breathing Archetypes, and a lot can be said about them. Master is a masculine protector and guide, but also the Eternal Lover. The Lover as an archetype finds passion in what he does and his lust for life is contagious.
===
Funnily enough, while looking for more information ended up searching an article about Mature Masculine Archetypes:
https://www.artofmanliness.com/character/behavior/king-warrior-magician-lover-introduction/
I think we could be into something. Master is a wise man indeed 😀
SPOILER Episode 3
Arara: How much time it took for you to forget him?
[… Eri explains she was rescued by Mama Jilba and had to learn to dance]
Eri: I danced, fell, and laughed.
SPOILER Episode 3
It is so important to have a place to belong…
EPISODE 3
@FGB I’ve just rewatched Episode 3. Yes, what a lovely Easter Egg. The Door that can be opened even after we think it has been locked, and the key, lost.
The 40-year olds thought that their doors had been shut and that they faced lonely lives in their 60s, but Eri demonstrated that despite being tricked and having her heart broken again in her 60s, despite a painful back and the regret of being a bad daughter, she could bounce back with friends. She could still enjoy being a woman and hope to fall in love.
We shut the door on our lives too soon!!!
“There is always a way to open any door.” Therefore we need to ensure we don’t cement over the door to make a wall!!
= = =
It took the will of Arata to try something new for herself for her to rediscover her ability to enjoy life, and rediscover that her colleagues/superiors/ex could be her friends. Despite flaws, the majority of people mostly acted out of goodness, and experiencing that, Arata began to be positive and see her life more positively.
I liked that Master and Mama understood the need to celebrate little achievements, whether on the part of a guest/customer or staff, they celebrated with cake and champagne and took many opportunities to have a party.
They counter the usual negative attitude we have towards mistakes, failures, aging, being frustrated … by celebrating the positive things.
@FGB, yes, with such a positive, wholesome vibe, it’s no wonder that those who experience Jack & Rose would consider it a place to belong to. A kind of home where we are accepted for whom we are and where our lives are celebrated.
I read the article on Mature MasculineArchetypes. I may end up trying to fit the male characters into the types or see which types predominate in each character. 🧐🤔🤪
Episode 3
That little Heart-to-Heart between Mika and Sumire shows such a goodwill… Sumire really understands that for someone that was on a stellar path being in the warehouse must be almost an embarrasment. Yet for her that was a Yankee (a Hooligan) just to be able to have a normal job despite her violent past and lack of education must have been an achievement.
Dear @GB, I am 12 hours behind you so for me it is time to sleep.
That little moment when Arata, Mika and Sumire decide to be informal was another milestone, them being Japanese. On the clock they must follow hierarchy but after the work is done their lives are another story.
@FGB, I found the scene where Arata introduced her colleagues as Mika-chan and Sumire-chan so delightful.
I looked it up: “Chan (ちゃん) expresses that the speaker finds a person endearing. In general, -chan is used for young children, close friends, babies, grandparents and sometimes female adolescents. It may also be used towards cute animals, lovers, or youthful women.” https://www.google.com/search?q=when+do+we+call+a+japanese+person+chan&oq=when+do+we+call+a+japanese+person+chan&gs_lcrp=EgZjaHJvbWUyBggAEEUYOdIBCDgwODdqMGoxqAIAsAIA&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8
They were shocked, embarrassed and pleased at the same time. Then they gloried in being able to call Arata Arara-chan LOL and to be accepted as young women, ordered to come in by Master.
EPISODE 3
I loved the lack of formality in the bar, in a society where following customs and maintaining formality are constantly expected. Everyone who entered the bar soon began to let their hair down. Even stage performances included not only the staff but the customers of the bar, and no one cared how well or how badly the performance was done but joined in enthusiastically to sing-along or play along.
Hello dear @GB, today we had 31°C in Caracas. That I am cooked is an overstatement yet it feels so. Hope you are better in Singapore… but if we are 1 km over sea level and have no significant water bodies near us I don’t count on it. Are you and your family keeping hydrated and safe?.
Will do my best complete Episode 4 today and comment properly. If not at least advance a good while.
We start Episode 4 with the invitation to Jilba Mama’s Death Anniversary Party. The three of them laugh as they are considered young there (love the shake-up of expectations in the Old Jack & Rose) and we learn that Jilba Mama was a Brazilian-Japanese. As I am intrigued by the Nikkei experience in Brazil I am reading at this moment the Wikipedia page on Japanese-Brazilians:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_Brazilians
Hi @FGB, our humidity is the problem. We might get a smattering of rain in my part of the island but the heat continues and the humidity. Other parts seem to get better rainfall in the last few weeks.
Yes, I’m drinking all kinds of teas and drinks (coconut water!!) to keep cool and hydrated. Please make sure you do the same.
I mentioned in the Queen and I thread that I’ll be out of the house later and may be late or may not be able to do the rewatch today, however I’ve left some comments already and will come by when I can. I hope to get back in time.
As for this sweet Jitterbug show… no hurry. It’s one of those shows we can savour slowly. It’s only now that I’m getting to Episode 10, that I’m feeling the compulsion to know how it ends.
The beginning gave me a bit of concern because in Ep 1, Arata’s brother says “I’m sorry” as if she had a sad experience and he was commiserating with her. So I wonder what happened before she went home to visit.
It makes me very sad to read the mistreatment Japanese-Brazilians suffered in the beginning. They seemed to be perceived as insoluble: unwilling to intermingle with the locals. Well, if they were exploited in coffee plantations from the beginning it is kind of understandable. That said I am glad that circumstances have changed for them, but during Mama Jilba’s time it must have been awful.
Episode 4 SPOILER
Arara’s little brother is going to appear in the bar. I still remember it from my first watch. I am interested in how events develop vs. what I do remember.
Episode 4 SPOILER
Well, you could say that Episodes 1 and 2 were about Arata’s accepting her new life and adapting to it. Accepting her Arara side. Episode 3 did let us know Eri better and now in Episode 4 we will focus on Arata again, and see Arara starting to deal with her family preconceptions.
Love Ararta’s heart-to-heart with her brother. A thing I love about this series is how it is so deliciously uplifting but doesn’t shy away from suffering.
Episode 4 SPOILER
Didn’t remember her conversation between Arata and her brother, just the unexpected bar meeting. That flashback with Arata trying to help her brother back in 2011 when he lost everything to the Tohoku earthquake and Tsunami on March 11, and he finally exploding after holding his suffering inside for the sake of his wife and children… beautiful. 2011 Arata would disagree, but 2019 sees things more clearly.
Of course it is not what siblings are for, but it is really important to have at least someone to be able to be honest.
This series is an ode to family, both the one we came into and the one we make along the way.
Dear GB, happy to hear you are mindful about the heat. These days wherever I go I try to advice people on heatstroke prevention.
Caracas has been one of the Capital Cities with the best climate all year round, but lately our “winters” have been colder (don’t laugh but in January this year temperatures here in Caracas went barely above 10ªC – I felt like turning into an icicle) and our “summers” hotter. The river that runs across town – the tiny Guaire – is a small stream that has been sadly turned into an open air sewer but has almost no humidity to offer. On the other hand, we are blessed by the Venezuelan Coastal Range (Cordillera de la Costa) so we are kind of surrounded by the montane forests (very few parks with greenery inside the city yet lots of planted trees along roads). So our humidity comes from there. It has also rained A LOT. We are still winding down from the Lash of Saint Francis (Cordonazo de San Francisco) with 45º windy torrential rainfalls. These last days we have been calmer but the heat (or the thermal sensation) have been increasing.
That said there is some magic in our beautiful sunrises and sunsets with the Ávila National Park at the background and yellow-and-blue macaws (Ara Ararauna) traversing the sky.
Episode 4
Sumire story resonated with Namako. I kind of get the frustration of Kujira Mama with Chi Mama, also chuckled with Master’s sage observation that Chi Mama telling Jilba’s story was an author’s way to show respect (by passing her story to the new generation) and the side effect of making sad memories resurface in both Master and Kujira didn’t even register. A steamroller of a lady! 😉
Episode 4
Master: “We need a storyteller like her, otherwise this era will be forgotten”. Everyone have things they don’t want to speak about yet it is important to pass the baton properly for our offsprings not to make the same mistakes as we did… their ow are unavoidable, but if our wisdom removes a roadblock or two then we have succeeded.
Still Episode 4
That little moment when Arata’s brother contemplates the photo of the devastated city and speaks how that hardship of losing everything on 03/11/2011 broke him even with his laidback attitude and how Jilba’s story moved him to work harder… was beautiful. Both that long past disaster of World War II and the recent Tohoku Earthquake (a disaster still etched in his memory) holding hands and making he realize that suffering and setbacks even as radical as those are Natural (as in Human Nature or actual Mother Nature), for there are few experiences as universal as suffering.
We viewers see him watching that photo and we can imagine the brother linking both events together, realizing that Master, Kujira Mama and Jilba herself are versions of him someway and to know that they had full lives afterwards makes he understand that he can also be happy.
The last scene wit Sumire contemplating the world and the life she has fought so hard to achieve crumbling under her feet is a memento of how nothing is stable in this world and that change is probably the only constant.
Started Episode 5 with Mika hunting Makoto like a Banshee. From disliking Sumire to worrying about her is a great memento on how far a little bit of understanding can go.
Today I will go to sleep early to avoid sleeping until late.
Harata fell in love with Makoto by the Suspension Bridge Effect XD XD XD XD XD
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misattribution_of_arousal
EPISODE 4
@FGB you may be right about Arata falling for Makoto through Misattribution of Arousal, because she first met him in a lift that stalled and he seemed happy-go-lucky and different. Now that she thinks about what she liked about him, she has no clue!!
We find that everyone has different sides that they show or hide at different times. Not only that, but people have similar stories and the story of one person persisting and succeeding despite hardship and loss can inspire another who identifies with the similarities.
Hikaru takes heart that Jilba took 9 years to start the bar just as he was starting his cafe after 8-9 years. Sumire discovers that Namako was also an orphan who did not know her parents and was alone except that she got married.
I like how unexpected things come out so funny in practically every episode. This time the 3 colleagues party all night to celebrate Jilba’s 9th death anniversary. Arata figures that despite this she’d be fine the next day at work because she was still ‘young’. LOL.
But the ‘young girls’ had a hard time at work the next day. 😵😵💫🥴 😬🤪😂
EPISODE 5
After Sumire quits, and then Mika too, Makoto really gets the short end of the stick from all his colleagues, especially Arata. She takes Master’s words to heart that perhaps Makoto went to talk to her, hoping for a push from her. She tells him off for not protecting his staff and he really does take action to save Sumire’s job.
So Makoto turns out to be silly, not too brave on his own, but not mean either. LOL I loved how at the bar the description of Makoto ended up making him into a round an pan/sweet bun with a toupee!!
The poor man squatted outside among the trash bins waiting to speak with Arata … – a sign that he felt like garbage himself – needing someone to help him clear his thoughts.
He reveals that Sumire was targeted by the management for her bluntness and lack of consideration of others’ feelings but that was not a good reason to let go of a person who held the warehouse distribution work together so well. Arata asks him an important question: what does he think of Sumire as a Team Leader. When he can verbalise that he thinks her capable and passionate in her work, he already has half the answer to what he should do.
It took the signed petition of the staff in the warehouse to galvanise him to return the resignation notice to Sumire and to talk to HR on her behalf. So he gains some esteem in his own eyes and in the eyes of the staff there.
EPISODE 5
Mika seems to have been quietly thinking of quitting for a long time. She held on out of pride and greed… she says that when she put that aside and her concerns too, and then thought of what she really wanted, she knew that she was tired of Tokyo and wanted to be with her mum in her home town.
She’d been thinking that she might be ‘losing’ by giving up a full-time job without any future plans, and that her neighbours would be spreading rumours about her. However Arata and her mother put those thoughts in perspective… there was never an issue of winning or losing when choosing what she really wanted over the unhappiness she had expressed in keeping the current job. And rumours are like the breeze. We see that a breeze moves Mika’s hair for a while and then is gone.
Eye-opening Wisdom
This episode was a good reflection on why we stay put doing what we are doing, and whether we are doing what we really want or whether we are staying out of fear, pride, greed, etc.
Are we concerned about the really important things or killing ourselves over stuff that does not matter.
The girls spend the night chatting and Arata points out that happiness is found in the ordinary joys of spending time with friends, talking, being at peace …. hence they were ‘all good’.
Jilba showed that success and happiness is not found in some grand event or getting/keeping everything we want, but in being content with what we can do and what we can give. This I’ve personally found to be true. Hence happiness is within the reach of everyone.
What a gem of a Show!!
Dear @GB, sorry for being so slow in watching the very show I recommended. Right now is 10:24 PM, is raining so the sultry weather has receded a little bit.
It is interesting that daytime work at the distribution center has such a rigid structure and protocol that nothing can be really discussed. You could say that Mika jumped over the fence of protocol by hunting down Makoto. A huge risk if you ask.
At night in that Honne (honest, in contraposition of tatemae) haven that is Old Jack & Rose masks can fall and real worries can be discussed.
@FGB, I’m doing the rewatch very slowly too… I’ll be preparing other work this week and so will pause from time to time. The idea is to do this in a relaxed, leisurely way, because we enjoy the show and the protagonists in it who had to wait and live 40 – 60 – 70 – 80 +++ years to be where they are now. So we can take our time to watch and discuss this show as and when we can (but of course we will not take 40 years!!!).
I’m in horrible humidity most of the day time. It is cloudy and dark but refuses to rain where I am. If it does rain it’s just a little, not enough to water the plants well or cool the air. It’s hard to concentrate unless I keep putting on the a/c which I try to avoid. 😥😓🫠
I like the juxtaposition of the rigid and formal during office hours and how they change into their own clothes and become relaxed and informal as they leave the warehouse. Theirs is a structured society with rules of propriety to follow. However all hair is let down and everyone can just be themselves, let the stress go, be somewhat wild, childish, emotional, but always considerate once they enter the bar. Even Chi Mama who irritates Kujira Mama has consideration in what she does. 😉
You noticed sagely the visual cues on Makoto feeling remorseful by him waiting for Arata surrounded by trash cans.
Arata became his “Clean Alien” 😉
The desire not to get rid of people has very different roots between Sumire and Makoto:
* Sumire respects the lives that salaries grant to her workers. She works them hard to keep them safe.
* Makoto just does not want to be the bad guy (TM)
Hope it rains soon there… in a safe way. It will help cooling the ambient if only a bit and also plants needs showers! 😀
Chi Mama vs. Kujira Mama’s confrontation is still some episodes ahead, but as you saw there was method in their madness 😉
Just when Arata is finally leaving the bar, that little conversation that highlights how men and women complements each other. Makoto just needed the push of the Eternal Feminine in Arata to get the Courage (an Eternal Masculine attribute) to confront his own observations with honesty and act in consequence of what he considers to be what is right.
Namako has her struggles by having a sick husband and have to work by selling probiotic yoghurts, yet she still have the good heart to worry about her kindred spirit Sumire. This cast and script made a show that was particularly memorable to me.
To love is to be responsible, even if all you can do is rage in impotence as a loved one struggles. Keeping the door open for when the other finally shows up.
This show takes me back on one of our viewings where I viewed love through the very philosophical Greek lenses of Eros, Philos and Agaphe and you introduced me to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. It was like being color blind in my previous analysis and then finally appreciating colour.
I have commented and analyzed all that and still haven’t got to the middle of the episode.
The little Arata thought process in the bar where she realizes that everyone has many sides of them for their lives are as complex and varied as hers.
Is it me or this episode was particularly lovely?
Mika might have hated her work at the distribution center, but she endured and was gifted with two friends!!!. She was in Tokyo for 22 years but the last 3 were the hardest as she lost her dreams along the way.
So when at rock bottom she finally asked herself what she wanted to do she finally got her answer: to get back home.
Her deciding that she wanted to enjoy her way back home as she rushed when she came to Tokyo 22 years ago is a sign of her understanding.
A tale for you:
A commercial passenger plane is flying over the sea when a military jet intercepts them on the side and greets the airline pilot:
“Hello Sir, hope you are having a good flight. Now watch this”
That said, he accelerated and broke the sound barrier, did some acrobatics, flew almost a sea level then recovered his position near the liner’s side.
“How was it?”
The liner pilot said
“Very impressive, now watch this”.
The airliner keeps flying at constant speed and altitude, nothing changing. Twenty minutes later the pilot greets its military colleague:
“How was that?”
“I didn’t saw anything… what was that???”
“Well, I left the control of the plane to my co-pilot, went to the back of the plane to go to the bathroom, took a delicious coffee and talked to my stewardesses then came back” 😉
Sumire opening up and telling she never thought she could ever find as good friends as them in her 40’s was the best.
Dear @GB, I did read your two last comments but after re-reading them (and as Jorge Luis Borges used to say, “to re-read is to read”) found your reflection on Mika’s journey.
It made me sad that she stayed in a place she hated just not to feel she had lost. Redoubling on a failed strategy does not push anyone out of a bad place, if something, it takes away precious time we could employ going into a better direction. Sunken Cost Fallacy.
Also loved your take on Jilba’s philosophy of success: to enjoy what we have and with whom we share it.
SPOILERS
Hi @FGB, thanks for reading and re-reading! I usually need to do that too. Having once read does not mean I internalised what the words conveyed.
Yes, the Sunken Cost… something like throwing good money after bad? As in putting in more time in doing something just because one had invested so much time in it before in the hopes of ‘success’. In investment terms, Mika finally decided to cut her losses. We find that she becomes happier, although poorer without the fixed salary. It reminds us that true contentment comes not in having material things alone.
The reason I admire Jilba is that she rose above losing so much that was beloved and important to her: her family, her home, her money, and that coming without much to a strange land, she did more than just survive. She chose not to keep what she earned for herself, as something she was entitled to, but chose to share it with others who were lost or homeless as she had been. Instead of turning inwards, wallowing in grief and resentment, she expanded and expended her love to others.
Yes, that was her real success… and it is manifested in the long success of her little dance-hall turned bar, that is run more like a family business with friends, where life is celebrated every night.
SPOILERS on the end…
Arata who resembles Jilba, is inspired by her, and literally walks in her shoes. Realising that she has also been imbued with Jilba’s spirit, Arata decides to take over the bar and to not let it be retired. So Jilba’s legacy of living life with joy and accepting all who came looking for belonging continues.
EPISODE 6 (partial recap)
Another lovely episode with a mysterious twist at the end.
Romance is in the air as Sumire and Arata receive talismans that promote successful romance from Mika, and reveal the type of men they liked. LOL Makoto sneaks in to eat around the corner and is all ears to listen to their conversation. I was chuckling like crazy at his expression of utter curiosity and desire to hear when Arata spoke of her favourite type of guy. The girls catch him listening to them but don’t really bother about it. Arata passes him some pain relief patches, as she would to any friend. I like that soon after this, she realises that she is quite free of the trauma of the break-up. She finds that she can even joke about it. Gone are the days when she had cried and hated her life. She thinks: The grudge is gone and her heart felt lighter and uplifted, like Jiruba Mama’s smile.
The bar girls and Kujira Mama take incorrigible Eri in their stride by helping her finish her Christmas present for Asayama-san. It’s so sweet seeing them all working on the sweater like big sisters helping their young sister.
We get to find out more backstory of Master and Jilba, and that Jilba had lived on the floor above the bar.
I enjoyed the Christmas party especially the fact that wives and children came along for it with the regular men folk. I loved the fact that the men dressed up in skirts and did the bar’s line dance for their wives/girlfriend and that the ladies all stood up to support them. Such good fun!
In the midst of the jollity we are reminded that reality has it’s downs as well. Hinagiku says farewell to her first love who had died. She had loved her own step-brother and so had remained unmarried all her life. A willow tree? magically lights up with flowers for her and she sees it as her step-brother saying goodbye. Still instead of saying goodbye, she says: “See you again.”
The something mysterious that happens at the bar every Christmas takes place this time as well. Not only does a mysterious, attractive stranger walk in and give Arata some flowers, but Isurugi-san discovers that he is more attracted to Sumire than to Arata. It seems that the romance inducing talismans are working!
While Sumire starts a new life of dating, Arata is disgruntled that the handsome stranger had seen her in a racoon-dog costume. LOL obviously she was quite bowled over by him.
Later the stranger comes back to ask about Jilba but hears that she had died 9 years previously. And what a shock to us to find out that Jilba who had accepted everyone, had actually kicked out this man when he had been a boy, many years ago. We are agog to find out why!
EPISODE 6
Missed you this week. Hopefully will see “Queen In-Hyun’s Man” with all of you tomorrow!. How have you been?
Loved Arata finally finding herself free from her trauma. Kind of liked Makoto sitting with both Arata and Sumire and eating together (Makoto sitting below the girls kind of recognizes he appreciates their wisdom). That common Humanity finally uniting them.
Also liked Makoto taking Arata’s jabs in stride. He deserves it, he knows it yet he does not take it personally anymore. He does not need to walk in eggshells anymore.
Love the Culture that Jilba Mama created in the bar. Even if she has been dead for 9 years (both her and Arata’s lives actually never intersected) her presence and generosity still looms large and pervades Old Jack & Rose with her distinctness.
Sumire getting together with Ryouichi kind of makes me sad, a grown woman falling for a little attention. Thankfully Ryouichi is an excellent person. It speaks volumes about her isolation.
EP 6
Personally Takiguchi drinking with his son is almost a story hoping to be told. A son discovering that a business is about getting to know people and help them fulfill their needs. That there is another, unsuspected sides to all the people that he thinks he knows so well… an endless endeavor.
I get why Sumire and Isurugi got together, they are lonely people so their experiences resonate (they feel sad when good moments end as they want to keep that feeling that still lingers). If they were real people I would worry for them yet I would do my best to support them.
EP 6 with SPOILERS
Hi @FGB, I’ve been great, thanks for asking… how about you? At this time, the flu or cough/colds season seems to be taking place here with all the humidity, but I’m taking precautions galore!!!
You’ve mentioned my fave scenes of this episode. All the times when people who had been separate and isolated, have the opportunity to be more united and friendly were great. I liked that even Makoto whom he girls had regarded with so much negativity just a couple of months earlier, gets to enjoy his lunch with them. And yes, loved that he was sitting lower than the ladies… some nice reversal in the ranking structure going on there, outside of official work hours!
I liked the scene where Arata finds herself comfortable with Makoto, and she can joke about what was once her trauma. She smiles like Jiruba Mama in her portrait.
In this episode we think of families getting together to celebrate at Christmas, and commiserate with singles like Sumire who has no family of origin. On the one hand, Hinagiku says goodbye to her first love who is step-brother and family member, while Sumire gains a boyfriend (who will become her family).
It is of course unwise to jump into a relationship based on the fever of the moment, however we understand that in this short series, there is less time for slow development. In any case, because both Sumire and Isurugi are past their first flush of youth, they are more in a hurry and hopefully a little wiser.
EP 6 with SPOILERS
@FGB
The continuation of Jilba’s legacy is a testament of how deeply she touched the lives of the ‘young’ people who had come into her orbit. She must have met them at (and been able to assuage to an extent), their greatest needs. Her example of love in action must have struck all who observed her and inspired them to continue with a similar disposition. So the continuation of Old Jack and Rose is also a testament to the goodness of those people who decided to follow through with Jilba’s worthy aims.
It occurred to me that culture is full of contradiction… on the one hand propriety and respect is paramount with a distinct hierachy to uphold, but at the same time there is a right time to let loose and lose loads of inhibitions. Takiguchi doing the line dance in a skirt met with the approval of his son and wife (when I might have expected at least the son to cringe!) LOL. Even the very staid Mika did a crazy sideways gallop dance as her farewell, and no one thought it odd.
This is an interesting observation of yours. The lesson that is not couched as a lesson. The coming of age of the son who gets to drink what his father is drinking (probably for the first time). A growing understanding about what it takes to do business which is outside just the accounting.
EP 6 with SPOILERS
@FGB
I liked that Master finally admits that Arata looks a bit like Jilba. It’s quite an admission of sorts, because he had refused to admit it all along. There is a change in status for Arata too, when Master suggests that he and Arata get together to have a drink. She thanks him for hiring her but he thanks her instead, and says the bar has been revived since she came. Something has changed. She is no longer the needy one whom the bar had to help, but like Nanako who had come as a needy child, Arata is now equal in the giving and receiving. She is proving to be like Jilba in the way that matters, by her loving the bar, its people, and contributing to it.
Arata’s Dressing
When she had first stepped into the bar, she’d been dressed like someone who did not care about herself. She had gained confidence and interest in herself through the positive encouragement and advice of the bar girls. As her self-esteem improved so too did her style of dressing, her hair style and overall bearing.
In between, during bar work time, she was dressed like Jilba… in celebratory, party mode. For Christmas, she was dressed as a creature that does not exist, I think?, A Raccoon-dog masquerading as a reindeer? LOL. She is aghast that the handsome stranger (Shirahama Shunsuke) sees her in that get-up, something that her past self who had a poor self-image would likely not have felt.
However Shirahama hands her the flowers he had brought, likely meant for Jilba, although at that time, he did not know that Jilba had passed away. I thought it interesting that even dressed as a Raccoon-dog, Arata receives flowers (meant for Jilba?). At New Year’s Eve, Shirahama sees Arata in her own clothes, and recognises her still, and so that they can become acquainted.
She had said that her ideal type of guy would be someone sincere. We look forward to seeing the sincerity of Shirahama Shunsuke.
EPISODE 7 RECAP of sorts with SPOILERs
The episode where the youngsters (40-year old Arata and Shirahama Shunsuke or SS for short) get advice from their elders, and consider where home is.
SS returns to the bar on New Year’s eve to ask after Jilba, only to learn that she had died 9 years previously. Chi Mama comes into the bar in time to hear him speak of Gataro whom he’d seen as a child and who had belonged to a group of Japanese Brazilians (the Victory Group) who mistakenly thought that Japan had won the 2nd World War. Hearing that SS wanted to write about the Victory Group and Gataro who had been Jilba’s brother-in-law (the one who had stolen her money), Chi Mama educates him (talks non-stop) all of New Year’s eve.
Arata and SS walk home at midnight to hear the horns/bells ringing in the New Year. SS promises to return to the bar after he returned from Brazil to do research for his book.
Arata returns for a holiday at home with her parents and brother’s family. Hikaru’s family were living with her parents after his home had been swept away in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disaster.
Her news that she wishes to quit her day job to work full-time at the bar is a shock to her mother who causes a commotion. Mum considers poor Arata a troublemaker who could not get married and now was spoiling the family name by working in a bar.
However Mum had prepared Arata’s futon (she thinks Mum had sunned it) for her and in her sleep, Arata dreams or has a vision of grandma (now dead) who tells her that she had been away so long she’d forgotten Aizu’s winters where snow kept falling. Mum had used the futon drier and could not possibly have sunned her futon LOL. Grandma is supportive and would cheer Arata on no matter what decision she made.
Continued below…
EPISODE 7 recap continued.
Dad does what Mum should have done ie instead of judge Arata, he asks why she wanted to switch jobs. He notes that she is an adult, that she looks happier and is in favour of her decision. Most importantly he tells Arata that if things don’t work out, she can always come home.
At work Sumire is in Cloud 9 over being in love so Arata cannot ask her about changing jobs. Makoto gingerly asks if her family spoke of him because he knows they would want to ‘kill’ him for ruining Arata’s marriage opportunities for life.
SS meets Arata to give her his fave book, a collection of photos of the Japanese in Brazil. He says he would do research in Brazil and visit Japan again, but he was confused if he should say that he was coming back to Japan instead of saying he was just visiting it. He felt ‘homeless’.
Arata applied his words to herself. She wondered if she was visiting her home town, Aizu, or coming back to it. It no longer felt like home to her. However when she stepped into Old Jack & Rose, she was welcomed home warmly by everyone, and felt that she belonged.
She asks Master and Mama if she could officially become a bar girl. They had been a bit worried about her taking on the job since unlike the others, she had not been homeless or abandoned, (it was not a last resort option and her family might disapprove) and the job required someone who would be tough enough to last in it for at least 30 years.
Although Arata admits that she cannot say she was prepared for the long haul, she was determined to do her best. She knew that she wanted to live happily now that she was 40, and because she loved the bar, working in it was her path to happiness.
Master and Kujira Mama gladly accept her as an official bar-girl and they celebrate with drinks.
Continued below…
EPISODE 7 with SPOILERS
The best part of this episode was Arata’s relationship with family and her realisation that home was really where the heart (happiness in this case) was. It was where she felt most accepted and welcomed, and therefore where she was happiest.
I liked her relationship with her brother, Hikaru. He had loudly rejected her offer of help 9 years previously, and now was apologising for shouting at her. She sweetly pretended that she did not remember and that Hikaru could not have shouted at his older sister. So all remained good between them.
I liked also that although younger, he gave Arata good advice ie she should have given her news to Mum in small bits instead of shocking her with all her news at once. One piece of info that she wisely held back was that Makoto was in her workplace LOL.
The other scene that I liked was Arata’s sharing with Dad about how she felt she was losing herself by just doing her daytime job. It was like being stuck in the mud for years. It was suffocating. She couldn’t see her future and wasn’t motivated at all. Her co-workers at the bar rescued her. “It felt like I found a new me.”
The bar was where she had finally actualised herself and been accepted as she was … hence it was home to her emotionally.
Conjecture: if SS could find that he is accepted by Arata and the people at the bar, it’s likely that he too would be able to find his home in Old Jack & Rose, and be yet another lost ‘waif’ who’d be taken in by the bar… by another Jilba in the form of Arata. 😆🥹🥰🤭
Dear @GB, I am experiencing technical problems with BitchesOverDramas and with WatchAsian. Hope to have them sorted out soon.
Hi @FGB, no rush… come back when you can.
I’m having tech problems with my office laptop. But fortunately not with my devices at home which bring me to BOD.
So far I changed my WatchAsian page from .pro to .city and so far, so good.
The racoon-dog trying to pass as a reindeer seems like a funny meta on how Arara has advanced a lot in her self-esteem road yet she still has to finally become truly comfortable in her new life. She is still faking it until she finally makes it 😉 .
I truly felt sorry for Isurugi. He tried so much to make that simple bouquet counts yet he was no match for the careless Shirahama.
Loved all the bar girls become impish like teenagers (Namako joking on the origin of the sweater with Kujira Mama). A good memento on work seriously and take our relationships properly… but not to get too roped in them. There is a lot of life and joy between the confines of good relations, and life is there to be explored! 😀
@FGB what a cute analogy! To be sure, it was Master and whomever else made the mistake of buying the Racoon costume who made the youngest bar girl pass herself off as a reindeer. However I noticed that although Arata protested wearing it at first, unlike Eri, she did not change out of it at all. She was at home in it until Shirahama (SS) walked in and called her a Racoon Dog. In other words she was comfortable with everyone and her self-esteem was not affected until someone she might want to impress came into her orbit.
Isurugi’s transfer of his crush was at the speed of light! One moment he was trying to give the flowers to Arata, and the next he discovers he’s actually more into Sumire.
Yes, it didn’t occur to me that the completion of the jumper/sweater is an interesting reflection on life and work. So often we cannot complete what we begin and we need our friends/colleagues to help. Often again, the people who put in the effort do not necessarily get the credit, but it’s all good when service is offered for its own sake, without requiring acknowledgement.
You said it right:
.
Dear @GB, this venerable computer is very old. I am having a problem with self-signed certificates with various pages, BOD included. Will keep fighting!!!
A little tussle with my old friend (this computer belonged to Dad) gave me a little oasis.
Back to Episode 6:
Loved that the Christmas celebration includes the whole families like here in South America. The wives understands that their husbands needs a third place, out of home and work, to round their lives… for there is much more to life than just family and work. That they understand that is a sign of maturity and trust.
On drinking with young family members, I had the pleasure to have several beers with a fourth degree cousin that is like a nephew to me. He happened to have his 18th birthday several months earlier in the States where he is studying College, and as you know is seeing that person you knew as a baby, then a child, then a teen and even if he is still technically a teen, the (good) burden of responsibility generates an adult that you know so well yet will change as he takes his own decisions. All the memories flow in your heart and you just feel Oh so happy!!!… Gave him a nice pen and a videogame, he was happy even if the first one was a “grow up” (utilitary) gift and the second was of a genre he had yet to explore!!!.
Widening horizons. That is the new name of the game once they reach that age. And guidance by providing perspective… when asked 😉 .
Is the magic of getting to know people and be able to go alongside them while they grow. It is silly yet it kind of marks the time in your heart.
Both Master and camera putting emphasis on the glass of whisky being served to the son: that transmission of knowledge from the mind of the father to the mind of the son.
On Japanese Christmas: it seems it is more a day for couples both old and new. The old and unrealized one is Hinagiku who carried a torch for her step-brother all her long life. Sometimes Love is not enough for a series of conditions and opportunities must be fulfilled.
Star-crossed lovers.
The couple that will succeed that same night is Sumire and Isurugi, their stars were aligned.
On the Cherry Tree flowering to send away Hinagiku, I still remember that when an uncle of mine passed away a particular orchid he really loved flowered that night and out of season. There are more things in this World than our Philosophy can dream of…
@FGB, I like your observations.
Same with me about the Christmas Party with family… I was so pleased that wives and children came along too. As a ‘family celebration’ seems the way Christmas is commemorated widely and also in Japan. That was why Sumire was so happy to get the Christmas Party invitation. Without a family, she probably felt most lonely at Christmas.
So true about how the wives were mature and trusting, which earned them the men’s line dance!! And that only Sumire and Isurugi succeeded in becoming a couple that Christmas. However it must be said that even Arata got to meet the man who might become her boyfriend, later that night. It seems that the ‘love’ talismans given by Mika were effective.
I am with children over the years and of course it’s both amazing and a little saddening to see them grow and move on. They do indeed stretch out to go wider after first going deeper, and then we hope they go deeper again. It’s a delicate balancing game, just how much guidance, how much letting go and how much control one has to exert.
Although I noticed the emphasis on the whisky for the son, I thought it a coming of age ‘ritual’ of sorts but I like your take on how is was a transmission of more from father to son.
What a sweet anecdote about your uncle and the flowering orchid. I know of pets who mourn the loss of their masters but it is only here that I see plants can respond as well!
@FGB, I guess, sadly, that you are not able to get your computer to work for you and come online recently. I missed you at our Queen and I rewatch.
I’ve been meaning to come back here to complete thoughts on the last 3 episodes but they will not be complete without your input.
EPISODE 8 – A recap of sorts but very briefly
Sumire and Arata have news for each other and for Makoto. It’s good that we see more of the good side of Makoto. We find that he’s shocked Arata is going to quit the job after he tried so hard to keep her. He also factors in maternity leave for Sumire and advises her to do less strenuous work because of her pregnancy. He’s even good enough to check on her accommodation because she had forgotten that with the job, her company housing would be gone as well.
The dream solution of course is that the Bar can offer Arata not only the job but also the accommodation at a ridiculously low rent.
We move on into Sumire’s insecurities. Isurugi has been offline for too long and by chance Sumire and Arata while in the bar, find out to their surprise that no one really knows Isurugi. He was not an employee or colleague of any of the regulars, and Eri fears the worst ie marriage fraud LOL.
But the great shock comes to Sumire to hear that Isurugi had actually meant the flowers that she received, to go to Arata whom he had had a crush on. It’s too much to take in and Sumire is already about to leave but Isurugi comes in, with a flat battery cell phone and an offer to make.
Sumire won’t listen to him and leaves. Arata and Isurugi pursue her so that Arata gets to witness Isurugi’s marriage proposal and Sumire’s rejection of him.
Arata leaves the warehouse saying goodbye to Makoto and Sumire. While Makoto’s farewell built bridges with Makoto, because Arata found that she was glad to have met him again and to have resolved all grudges… her farewell with Sumire was more like a tense break-up.
Kujira Mama hears of the tension between Sumire and Arata and recalls what Jilba had done for her when she was in distress about her past. She says the exact right words that Sumire needs to hear ie that she’s afraid to be happy but that she deserved to be happy and she should trust people.
Sumire asks why Mama cares about her and we see a flashback to Jilba and a young Kujira or Kirako. Jilba had advised her to put her past behind and be reborn/to start a new life and had hugged her. Sumire apologises for yelling at Arata and they all have a group hug.
We end the episode with the Sumire’s fun wedding at the bar. Although she has no family, the bar girls support her like a family does and Master gives the bride away.
The wedding party is in full swing with bride and groom singing on stage, but everything comes to a sudden halt when Kujira Mama faints.
Dear Jeanne, I have come to terms with my computer since. It seems that the wars between ad-blockers, youtube and browsers have left an interesting trail of destruction, in my case the self-certificate errors have been a mild reminder on how fragile this web life can be, but considering other things this is nothing. What I am doing is rotating between Firefox and Brave as browsers.
When I can I try to download complete episodes. The trick seems to be watching as much as I can and try to remember where the bar is, so if stream fails and error appear again, I know where to start watching again once the computer subsides.
Starting Episode 7. Master was harsh on the writer when he explicitly called for a storyteller when talking about Kujira Mama and her stirring their bad memories. I guess it is almost a reflex as the last time Shirahama spoke with Jilba he upset her so much that she drove him away. Poor man stepped on a landmine! 🙁
Hello @FGB, I’m glad to see you back. I hope the certificate errors have been sorted out. I’m still trying to find out if I can get all email notifications for threads that I subscribed to. The ‘new’ WordPress does not seem to be giving me the Subscribe option like before.
On hindsight, I find it sweet of the writer, Chi Mama, to do something unpopular, so as to be helpful. She knew that Master and Kujira would not like her taking over the bar, but she did so anyway to major disapproval, so that Kujira would get well faster and come back to take her place.
I thought it was a pity that Jilba had kicked the boy Shirahama out just because he had come after seeing her brother-in-law. Given the chance, she would have found that he, too was ‘homeless’ since he did not belong in Japan or in Brazil.
SPOILER
SPOILER
It gets resolved in a convoluted cycle of life where a new Jilba in the shape and form of Arata welcomes him into the bar and hopefully into her life.
I saw my comment again… Sorry I was stupid with the heading!!! 🙁
Jilba’s brother in law was as miserable as he could get. That said for some reason watching Gataro having a delirious rant at the garbage inspires mercy mixed with disgust and horror. I would not harm him yet I would not come near him. I would rather ignore him.
Failing to see reality for almost 50 years must be incredibly taxing, so he probably retreated from the world.
That is the cycle of misery: someone does something stupid that affects the people around him/her then leaves others to clean the mess… probably getting mentally scarred by it.
Remembers me the history of Marguerite Duras. She had a brother who came to visit and stole four years of her savings while visiting her.
There are people that can’t be helped.
As you said, had not Jilba Mama had her scar reopened by Shirahama (who didn’t know the whole story) and listened to him, she would have pitied the author of her miseries. Yet for some reason I think that even her charitable ways would have let a sigh and let Karma run its course.
There are some people best left alone.
Dear @GB, elaborating more on Gotaro and Jilba, it makes me remember a tale by Jorge Luis Borges. It is in “Ficciones” [Fictions] and “Sur” [South]. It is called “Tres Versiones de Judas” [Three version of Judas].
POTENTIAL BLASPHEMOUS ALERT:
Borges, as in several of his tales, refers to a fictional book by a fictional Swedish author (Borges loved Enmanuel Swedenborg’s ideas with a passion). The three books are increasingly more deep in its description of Judas the Iscariot role in Salvation:
Through the Sacrifice of Christ all the Humanity is saved, but the plan had to be set in motion by someone. The material author, Judas, is also divine: he represent us Sinners by being the lowest one, for he perpetrated a crime that had no redemption – a thief must be courageous at least to accept his possible demise when Judas just abused Lord Jesus’ trust. It could be said that as some people mortify their bodies to make themselves worthy of Heaven, Judas mortified his spirit by backstabbing Lord Jesus. And unlike Lord Jesus that had to suffer an evening, Judas has passed into posterity as the worst scum ever. A broken man hanging at the end of a rope, his thirty useless silver coins.
By Judas even the worst part of Humanity is redeemed.
-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-
You could say that “Old Jack & Rose” was Jilba’s way to cope with tragedies on a national and personal scales. But without Gotaro’s backstabbing Jilba would had been just an anonymous housewife.
Dear @GB, my Posts don’t show. Will revisit later to see if they reappear. Sorry again for making you worry. Also this is kind of my state of affairs XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD .
“Jilba Mama’s life was beyond my imagination”. It could apply to anyone, even ourselves. That is why being open and kind is generally the best approach.
@FGB4877
I can see all your four posts on the “Sono Onna” thread plus one on the “Watch Are You Watching” thread. I’m on an “Admin” mode, though.
I don’t know why they aren’t showing up on the blog, though.
Just wait half an hour please. Maybe the site is still downloading. It usually downloads all the contents around 6 pm, my time. Thanks.
@FGB, I will get back to you in more detail later.
My one quick thought is that God can even make good come out of evil, as He did with the horrific death of His Son. And I have heard another version of the role of Judas Iscariot. 😜😄
@GB,
Can you see @FBG4877’s posts now? Do you need me to copy and paste them?
EPISODE 7
Hikaru and Arata’s conversation: she could not understand what her brother was going through… but could get a peek view on his bottled grief when he yelled at her.
Hikaru could find a way through all the mess he went through in 2011, while Arata had to stumble upon an answer to her stagnation. That is why she can’t beat him 😉
That’s it at 22:00, the dreaded truth confrontation…
Truth will set you free, but will make you mad at the beginning 😀
@FGB4877,
As of 6:47pm EST, your comments are posting in real time, i.e., there’s no more lag time between your posting and uploading of your comment on the blog. You should see your posts already.
🙂
pm3
Funnily enough, the marker on the number of comments is 74 outside this Post but when I click it, it marks only 71 and the last one is yours.
Shaky camera at the reveal. Arata’s family worldview is shattered and her mother fears for her stability.
That Kotatsu, the coziest place in a Japanese house, suddenly became a battlefield XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD .
Ese carajito de mier… [that sh*tty runt – the nephew that only worsened everything] XD XD XD XD XD XD XD XD
In a more serious note, my best friend from University, when she married, told her husband that since he had brothers (as she is an only child) she would appreciate if they had two children for him to teach both brothers to have a good relationship. There are things that must be shared and sometimes your parents are the worse people to open up with, that is why good siblings are important (among many other things).
Comment N° 75 coming!!!
@PM3!!! Love Youuuuuuu!, Hope to catch your attention in another watch later, when my PC problems are solved.
BTW, do you have a genre that could attract you?. Would love to have you and @GB again as in “Shitsuren Meshi”!.
Dear @GB and @PM3, my very last Post before this thanking @PM3 still doesn’t show. I guess I must live with this lapse. It is what it is, hope it will improve later.
Will keep commenting. This show is truly magnificent!!! 😀
Hope to pique your interest the next time, dear @PM3. Would love for you to join us!!!
Loved how Hikaru’s wife and son feigned their retirement of the showdown yet stayed behind the door to get the juicy story complete.
Overemotional mother playing with the head of the Akabeko Cow. Sagely advice from the father: instead of worrying about the appearances, let your ADULT child to search her own path. Much like the decision Mika had to take earlier.
That little conversation Master and Kujira Mama have, reveals how pleased they are about Arara going full-time. It is not only her lovely usefulness but also knowing there is a new generation to hand over the institution (the bar). She has not seen true Hell, and Master doesn’t know if she have the will or the commitment of someone that knows how hard things can be without places to get help, sanctuary or even a little bit of relief.
It seems that the problem lies in my PC. My cellphone shows all te comments. Not the best one but a solution is a solution. 😎
Arata’s mom is still angry yet she will never cease to do her best for her happiness, well-being and growth 🫡
She maybe mad yet prepared her Futton and let it dry in the sun. Those little details that shows how much she cares.
@GB, do you remember when I told you that Jilba was not the only Lovely Ghost 👻 ?. Here is another one 😉
My Dear @pkml3, yes, fortunately for me, I have recently no issues with connectivity and could see all that FGB posted. I did have issues with WordPress removing my subscriptions to BOD!!! But I think that’s more or less sorted out now. Gotta run!
Grandma asks Arata for understanding on her mom. She tells that she is opinionated, caring… and lazy 😹😹😹
In all truth, Arata does not remember how her life was in her hometown anymore. In synthesis Grandma asks for understanding and forgiveness. She will be always on her side because she loves and trusts Arata.
🥰 👻
Father knows that his daughter is making her best efforts to find happiness again. Mother still wrapped-up in her own feelings.
Sumire having her first love in her late 30’s early 40’s is a sight to enjoy. I remember a 60’s Spanish movie comparing having the first love later in life with having measles: innocuous when young but dangerous if immunity is not acquired early in life for adults. Let’s se🥹
Seems like I have overloaded this Post. Sumire finally revealing that she grew up in foster care puts a lot of her gratitude towards work in perspective. She is one of those dislikeable characters that ends up being extremely wholesome once one stops judging and starts listening.
Majority feels comfortable now with both Sumire and Arata. He is a cowardly goofball with no Ill will but also easy to overpower. Glad to see him reclaiming his agency in his work at least.
Both Shirahama and Arata pondering on the belonging dilemma. The shots makes me think hunk that Arara has her answer already 🥳
@FGB, some ad hoc thoughts that arose from reading your posts.
There was more than 1 ‘Judas’ that led to unexpected good results. Not only was it the case of Gotaro’s backstabbing that led to Jilba saving herself and others with the bar, it was Makoto’s betrayal of Arata that led in a more convoluted way to her discovery of the bar, and to become Arara… Otherwise both these women would have been anonymous housewives.
Shirahama and Arata pondering on the belonging dilemma.
I forgot to continue with the thought on the belonging dilemma. Where we belong does not depend on how long a time we spend there but on the people to whom we want to attach ourselves. Shirahama had no one he felt attached to, in Japan. Mika retained her attachment to her mother and could return home and was happy. Sumire, as you rightly pointed out, had no family and so attached herself to her work. Arata had derived energy and a sense of purpose from the ladies at the bar, and had automatically attached herself to them. Hence the bar was her home.
It’s left open but we hope that Shirahama will become more attached to Arata and find his home with her. It was a good indication that this is likely, when he decided to give her the book that bridged her life with the lives of those like Jilba, and to an extent to a life like his.
@FGB, I hope you come back here before forgetting about this thread. I am not that much of a completist nowadays, but I wanted to end this sweet show properly. I have Episodes 9 and 10 to go.
EPISODE 8 INTO 9
With Sumire’s wedding, she really begins life after 40. However Kujira Mama’s/Kira’s faint seems to raise fears that life may end for her in her 80s.
All’s well with Mamaa, except that she has nightmares of her past traumas. This explains why Jiruba had advised her to forget her past and start anew. On the whole Kujira had not been depressed by her past, seeming to have moved on very well, but her trauma continued in her nightmares.
The ability of the bar to run without Kujira and the 3 permanent bargirls who are way over 50 years of age each, is put to the test. With just Master, Arata and help from Maika, Juzo and Chi Mama, the average age of bargirls dropped greatly LOL.
Chi Mama calls the domino effect of the bargirls becoming unwell, Kira’s curse, and proceeds to take over the bar as if she owns it. (I feel this is her ploy to get Kira up from bed as soon as possible.)
A new style dance takes place in the bar with Juzo putting on a skirt and the regulars joining in. The bar is really buzzing but Master protests that it should be the Old Jack and Rose and not a New one LOL.
Kira rejects all male visitors, because she does not look her radiant best, but accepts Master, asking that he spends some time with her as he had done when nursing Jiruba. He stoically notes that she’s so spoilt she will get her way, even as he looks at the photo of them as youngsters with Jiruba, where he only had eyes for Jiruba.
Chi Mama refuses to visit Kira. I’m guessing she won’t see Kira so Kira won’t have a chance to nag her. She tells Arata that she has to choose her own style in fashion as a means of self-expression. A throwaway line but hinting perhaps that although Arata looks like Jiruba and has come into her home and bar, she is still to be uniquely herself.
Chi Mama reveals that she knows about the bracelet belonging to Jiruba. Chi Mama had received the ‘will’ of Jiruba who wanted her ashes and those of Master to be placed in her parents’ grave in Brazil. The bracelet would go in with them. This shows a special regard that Jiruba retained for Master. I wonder if he knows.
What really needs to be buried however is Kira’s trauma as more bad dreams cause a disturbance so that Arata wakes up to comfort Kira. Kira finally talks to Arata about her past, how she had not been treated like a human being but survived after the war without her father. She had run away from the people who ill-treated her, after burning their quarters. Jiruba had found and saved her.
In the present, Arata saves her too, by assuring her that she had done nothing wrong and should stop torturing herself. Kira felt that she’d waited 70 years to hear someone absolving her of her sins.
We end off with Kira back in the bar, congratulated and welcomed back by everyone.
On hindsight, it seems that without ever planning it, Arata had come to take on, and even to take over and continue the legacy that Jiruba had left behind. As she grows in stature in the bar and as Master ages, she will be the successor to carry on the will of Jiruba. Even the fufilment of the request that the ashes of Master be placed in Brazil might fall into her lot. She will have to continue while still maintaining her own style.
Dear @GB, sorry. I have been in a hard mentals space this last month. I am a little better but as we say here “la procesión va por dentro” [funerary procession goes inside]. Nothing too worrisome, I just had to survive on 85 USD in November when usually my budget is around 140-160 USD.
I am a little better yet still shook. Lately I am getting why depauperate folks gets drunk or gamble in a race to get at least a little bit of pleasure to release the horrible feelings of being stuck, also to try to regain a little bit of agency -not control- over their lives.
Thankfully I have curiosity, good books, art (still learning to draw), my flutes, YouTube (mostly Geopolitics, Japanese culture, occasionally some documentaries and guitar playing). Also Dramas and this Blog.
I haven’t forgotten you nor this Post. It is just than when overwhelmed the best thing is to do your best to keep levelheaded and keep some normalcy (avoid getting overwhelmed).
Starting Episode 8!
Sumire that never had a family and always felt lonely will have a family of her own!!!. That is a really important gift!!! 😀
Isurugi seems like an incredibly good man with an awful timing and a shyness that does not people to appreciate what a gem he is. As before, their stars were aligned unlike Hinagiku and her stepbrother.
@FGB, I’m sorry you are facing serious worries. I believe many of us are feeling the pinch in many ways. My mother-in-law is back from hospital and so there’s the hospital bill to settle and new specialsed ‘furniture’ that she’ll need which comes to a hefty sum. I’ve been avoiding some social media too to avoid stress.
Hope your mother-in-law gets better. Personally when we found ourselves in that situation was in late 90’s with my grandfather. Back then our country still was one of the best in South America in Public Health even if sliding down, that said since he was a man in his late 80’s we feared that recurring hospital internment would break us financially, so we did several things:
1.- Looked for used equipment. A lot of folks, even family members, had such specialized equipment laying around from their own sick loved ones. Many wouldn’t let a wheelchair go permanently as it is easy to collapse and could be useful later (they could lend it, though). On the other hand an hospital bed is incredibly bulky, sterile and bring bad memories, so we could buy for cheap as long as we were going to get the monument of doom from them.
2.- In our country (I don’t know how things work in Singapore) there are public hospitals associated with Universities. They are cheaper and the Medicine and Nursing students while still inexperienced are eager to provide a good service since their grades depend upon it. Of course they are also highly idealist due their age… and their Professors are top-notch that have their own private practice.
3.- A decade later we had to fight my father’s Cancer. We learned that our by then socialist government had several programs to help. I still remember waiting in the Social Security line (thankfully our folks are joyous even in dire straits like we were, so a depressing line became a funny place to visit and connect with a lot of folks sharing their stories – a mother doing the line for her daughter still haunts me to this day: she eventually lost) with my portable ice cellar to keep medicine cold in transit.
4.- There were a lot of associations of folks that had lost their battles and had a surplus of medicines lying around, that brought bad memories for them yet still wanted to do good so they donated them or sell them for cheap to offset their expenditures even by a little.
5.- My father’s oldest sister ran an Association about Myeloid Leukemia. Even if unrelated to what he had, she still had the contacts in the Cancer Community to smooth our landing and direct us for a better outcome.
This might have been a long Post, my overall advice is to ask around. What we did back then by asking and searching classified ads (Facebook Marketplaces didn’t exist back then or we did not think about it), you can do with social media. Also an M. D. friend or family member will prove invaluable. Nowadays Medicine is becoming an extinct Art here, but back then the problem was to find an adviser that cared for us beyond the financials.
If you want, I can help you. I have no contacts (much less in Singapore) but since we all can speak English I can serve you as a third pair of eyes. Of course such communications would be done via e-mail.
Thank you, @FGB4877.
You have a good soul.
pm3
My very dear @FGB, how wonderfully kind, generous and sweet of you to offer help. I appreciate all your wise advice. Yes, we do look out for second-hand items and we check out the prices with online stores. There will be many recurrent expenses too, of course, but we do feel blessed that we get subsidised help here and there, and that there are schemes to help defray some costs.
What you have narrated of your experiences where even in difficult times the better parts of the human spirit emerge to share, warms my heart. You have imbibed the best of your generous culture well and are sharing it with me, and for this, I’m truly grateful.
I have met very sweet people who have come forward to offer practical assistance, when they heard about my mother-in-law, and feel very blessed indeed. One thing I do realise is that one is never completely alone in any situation, and that there are many good people who are willing to help.
Let’s pray for each other in the many decisions and situations that we face, for rightness and peace. Bless you!
Dear @GB and @PM3. I don’t know if it is having a good soul or not, is simply being a human exposed to a human life with its ups and downs and all that comes between. It can harden you (yet being steeled and prepared can be a good way to grow up from harsh realities) or make you kinder. I choose to try to be the best of both approachs.
You are never alone. You will find that in these kind of situations you will resonate with a lot of people, sometimes the ones you least expect to.
If Suffering is the basic state of all living beings then Solidarity and Compassion is a must.
Makoto just needed to put a face to his task to humanize and understand what he was doing. Once it happened to someone he still cared it was natural the course of action to take.
He has worked so hard to keep them for Arata to resign and Sumire to ask for Maternity leave XD XD XD XD XD . Life throws curveballs indeed!!!
Makoto really cares about the well-being of Arata. Love that dynamic where he has to say something using a rulebook but when he goes to the Old Jack & Rose he can express himself more freely. A facade and a true self (Tatemae vs. Honne).
Arata has not understood all the implications of her decision yet still had the courage to do something for herself. Good for her!!!
Poor Sumire is so used to be let down and abandoned that she already expected the worst… it is heartbreaking. Also not a good mental place to be while raising a family.
@FGB, I like that Show chose to make Makoto a pretty substantial side character and a sympathetic one, at that. If we had only Arata’s perspective, we would have been like her family who wanted to beat Makoto to bits. What he did was wrong, but at least he is not a meanie, and he did do his job as a supervisor well (he even joined in working alongside the team members) and in his private capacity, he checks that Arata is well prepared to quite her steady-income job.
What I really liked about the Makoto arc is that he did regret his bad treatment of Arata, he was as fair as he could be in trying to have her keep her job, and his arc gave Arata the closure she needed.
She really was in a bad place of resentment and self-loathing in Ep 1, but by the end of the series, she has forgiven Makoto, has no regrets over losing him, actually wishes him well and even considers him a friend of sorts. Seeing him as a hen-pecked husband and struggling team leader, she can empathise and even support him. Her healing is quite complete and self-esteem reclaimed.
It began because the people of Old Jack & Rose valued her, when she least valued herself.
@FGB, yes, there are many like Sumire. They are all around, appearing to be fine, but actually lonely, insecure, traumatised by hurt and abandonment.
The scene of Sumire worrying that Isurugi may have abandoned her, and how no one actually knew much about Isurugi, underlines how we take many persons for granted. We think we meet them often and therefore know them, but in actual fact we know little. We see and hear only what the other person chooses to show us.
It was a risky thing, throwing in her lot with an almost stranger she met at a bar, and Sumire must have felt the weight of her recklessness when she could no longer reach him by phone and knew no other way to contact him. It was fortunate that there were friends she could turn to.
More fortunate still, those friends included people who actually had been abandoned before, and who knew what she needed to hear. The legacy of Jiruba was her care for the lost and abandoned, and her wisdom in advising them. Although she had no children of her own, her legacy passed through her charges to the next generation of lonely, abandoned individuals like Sumire.
Dear @GB, Happy 2024 for you and all your Family!!!.
Will keep posting here. Decided to get back a little bit to Episode 7 to get a little context before going to Episode 8.
Hope you are well,
FGB
Also, how is your MIL doing these days?.
About Arata and her dad talking after the fallout, he encourages her to live as healthily and as happily as possible. As St. Augustine said, “Love and do whatever you want”, meaning: do everything with love.
About Hikuko and her star-crossed love for her step-brother it made me remember a quote by Gabriel García Márques, “the worst way to miss someone is sitting beside her(him) and knowing you will never have her(him)”.
Arata’s father, if something goes wrong she can always come back home. This is her hometown. A good memento that we belong where people loves and accepts us.
35:02 Snow men, a large one and a smaller besides it. Their “heart to heart” was successful and both Arata and her dad deeply understood each other.
Dear @GB, will be offline from Friday onwards for a little while. Nothing to worry.
My Dear @FGB, I’m always glad to see you whenever you can come online. I wish our timing could be synchronised ie that they could be more in real-time.
My MIL is well enough, thank you. We adjust with new schedules and tasks to accommodate as days go by.
I have to rewatch Ep 7 to remember what you’re referring to, however I know I was warmed by the father-daughter scenes.
@FGB, your comment about Kikuko made me feel like I have hardly a sentimental bone in my body (at times). I’m probably more a pragmatist. My thought is: “Don’t waste time pining after the one you can never have.”
One should meet lots of people and likely find another lovely soul to spend life with, … make memories with others.
I feel that Kikuko did at least make more of her life by working at Old Jack & Rose, but it would have been good if she was not alone for all her decades. Show never says if she ever got married but I get the impression that she never did.
I don’t actually feel that keeping the light alive for just the 1 first love or the 1 long-ago love is all that romantic. One might be wasting one’s potential and the opportunities for happiness in many other places.
Probably the reason I didn’t mind it in ‘First Love: Hatsukoi’ is because the individuals of the OTP did not just pine away when they were separated and when getting together was ‘impossible’ but they continued with others in their lives. When the way was opened up for them both to be together, it was that much more satisfying that they’d never ‘wasted’ their time in between.
Dear @GB, it is a pleasure to read you, and even better to know that things are improving on your side.
Ahhh… Romance… I got heartbroken fifteen years ago by a woman that didn’t know what she wanted (in time I realized that she wanted the lifestyle of “dating” the upper echelons of that multilevel while having me pining for her) while we were caring for my father that had Cancer. Finding myself heartbroken while facing the road for the demise of a loved one was breaking me so I decided to simplify my life. Never spoke to her again. She can keep her Evangelical “Equality of yoke” with whatever ox that wants her and all her bullcr*p.
Since then zero romance or dating for me. Especially after these incredibly taxing years.
And yes, my way to deal with it is trying to have hobbies… but they are not a substitute for a family. Is more like bracing myself for what is to come than a happy expectation.
It breaks my heart watching Kikuko alone, I don’t know if its me but even having a found family as good as the one in “Old Jack & Rose”‘s is a pale shelter when I remember old Christmas on my grandparents. Also watching nephews and nieces grow up and become adults is an incredibly rewarding experience that Kikuko never had the pleasure to experience firsthand.
And we are synchronized, you just live 12 hours into the future 😀
PS: I don’t think you are unromantic, it is only that you are fulfilled. You have a great husband, great children and excellent grandchildren.
You have lived your fair share and have the good sense of loving what you have instead of pining for what you didn’t have (a sadly common experience and relationship-shattering malaise for lost souls).
@FGB, right now we are synchronised in real current time. A last word before I hit the sack.
Even though it was some time back, my deepest sympathies over the loss of your father. I’m sorry to know you’ve had a rough patch in dating and that you face difficulties in your daily life. In the way your heart is broken over KikuKo, I feel for you.
My children are grown but not married and we have our challenges. Yes, I feel and am very blessed. I’m grateful for all the ups and downs and all that comes my way or falls within my lot. Still, I am more pragmatic than overly sentimental in real life compared to when watching reel life.
I hope for you that you’ll still be able to embark on having a family of your own. Where there’s life, there’s hope! 🙂
Life IS a challenge 😉 . We all face problems yet in some ways they keep us grounded. I used to be more sentimental and life has shown me some hard truths… which is OK. Not happy about all of that, just hope a little bit wiser.
Since I have seen my fair share from time to time I can advice, even help someone sometimes. Usually the people I try to protect don’t follow my advice and find themselves in dire straits… and that’s OK. I can’t even help them find all the pieces back but sometimes my perspective can help them to construe their experiences in a more wholesome (or at least less traumatic) way. Sometimes they surprise me and pull it through in ways my imagination could not even grasp after the event and I have to laugh, learn that I do NOT have all the answers (in such cases not even a fraction of the questions!) and that is even better.
Sometimes I even learn something new!
I really don’t know. That is also part of Life.
Yes, @FGB, that’s the spirit in which we live and thrive. We accept to an extent the difficulties that we must face, get through them, learn more about many things including ourselves, and grow.
One of the acknowledgements that make for much peace is knowing we are not god and don’t have to have everything in our control, while at the same time striving even in little ways, to be always more loving in our decisions. We try our best and then let go. For us who subscribe to a loving God, we seek to unite our wills with His.
Eri has good intentions, but she is the worst of matchs for what Sumire is going through not finding Isurugi. A good warning about being able to watch and know ourselves properly. It is hilarious yet heartbreaking watching a proxy of our experiences and the way we construct them limit our worldview.
Arata pondering on Sumire and Isurugi’s situation: Old Master and Mama Kujira thinks that they will figure it out, Arata not so sure. Old Master and Kujira Mama: they are old enough. Arata not so sure – that MAY be the problem. They have lived alone for so long that they could have lost a sense of otherness and intimacy needed for a relationship as close as husband and wife. They might be too old and scarred to see the other for what the other is, beyond expectations.
Arata while giving her uniform to Makoto, “I am glad I met you here. If not I could have held a grudge with you forever”. SHe finally saw him as the cowardly yet caring person he was. Not an angel as she saw him while in love, not a monster after he left her, just a human being doing his best to survive while looking for happiness. Just like her.
Arata confronting Sumire at the rooftop of the Company: that is WHY having good friends that loves us and are not afraid to fight us when stupid are a gift.
While Sumire’s analysis is spot on, the thing is there will be another person that will need both of them: the baby.
Loved the conversation between Kujira and Sumire. Sometimes a different perspective can make all the difference in the world. Also the transmission of Hope: from Jilba to Kujira, then from Kujira to Sumire all those years later for Love is atemporal.
When I was younger all the older people inspired a special kind of respect to me. I believed that they had all that experience and wisdom in spades, I saw them in awe.
Now in my mid to late 40’s I see them for the genuinely good people they worked hard to become in spite of many difficulties, people that can be relied on but as human and fun-loving as myself.
Less worship, more relatability. That is what Sumire and Isurugi delivers in singing together.
About your last comment, dear @GB, it made me remember something a Professor of the Course in Miracles said to us: that God has a Design for us, a place helping Him to make His Creation better… but if we let our ego get the best of us we create a destiny.
Over a month later: Even other patrons don’t know Isurugi all too much. A lonely soul like Sumire.
Sumire getting that her relationship began as a mistake and that she is Arara’s unsuspecting seconds. Definitely Eri is a bad match given her bad experiences.
Episode 9. Kujira Mama’s story. Conversation between Arara and Sumire: Old Kujira Mama is tough as nails, even tougher than them. Her body is not the problem, her spirit (kokoro) is.
Hi there @FGB… just letting you know that I popped by to read you!
About what your Professor said…
My take on it is that God has a Plan for all creation to be united with Him in fullness of life and joy. This does not mean that life will just be easy, in fact we realise that we need to travel the path of the narrow gate which will have its obstacles, but the destination is sure. Unfortunately, ever so often, we let our egos take over and we think we can be gods to determine our own paths…usually the easier ones. The easier paths are like building a house on sand. When the storms come the house will be ruined.
When we can come back to accepting that the will of God for our happiness is the one that will guarantee lasting joy, we start back on the right path again. The interesting thing is that God chooses to have us work together with Him in His plan. We keep veering off the path, but He patiently waits and helps when we ask for it. 🙂
Everyone falls ill. Master will open anyway, ¡show must continue! 😀
The Mama Wars XD XD XD XD love the pettiness even in old age, both Mamas are like toddlers.
Kujira Mama does not let any man to see while she looks untidy and weak. Master is different tough: he is family.
They have seen the best and worst of each other over the years.
The conversation between Chibi Mama and Arara is interesting, how Chi thinks that they had it so rough that in their effort to make their children’s lives more easy they ended overprotecting and domesticating them.
Definitely Arara has a lot of wisdom fountains to nurture herself. As do we!.
The last advice asking Arara to be bolder in order to achieve what she wants (it is my understanding of their conversation) was beautifully done. Celebrate the people that has come before us is a duty, and should be a happy one!!!. At the end of the day we are beings made of stories.
Dear @GB!!!, how are you and how have things panned out with your MIL???. Here is 02/29/2024. ¡This is an “Año Bisiesto” (Leap Year)!
About your comment: Is exact and precise. God asks us to walk besides Him and be an Instrument of His Designs. As St. Francis prayed:
*St. Francis of Assisi: Make me an instrument of your peace*
Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
and where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console;
to be understood as to understand;
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive;
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.
https://www.archspm.org/faith-and-discipleship/prayer/catholic-prayers/st-francis-of-assisi-make-me-an-instrument-of-your-peace/
It implies a lot of work and will to remain true, but it is always worth it!!!.
One of my very best friends was a Catholic Missionary. She told me that, for her, her worst enemy was time. Sometimes she wasn’t sure she was doing the correct thing even with the best of intentions, and her impatience was hard for her. Her watcher replied to her that she had her best intentions yet at the end of the day she was only human. That all of them were sowing seeds that probably would grow and bear fruits wayyy after them, so their work was to sow seeds and do the best for them to grow properly but at the end the Process belonged to Him.
Will go to sleep soon!. Found the song Master is referring to with Spanish lyrics. Funny how the author paints a story by making a succession of images,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grUz7u3NPVY
While the Western counterpart (as a girl selling flowers – violets in this case) is “Violetas Imperiales” (Imperial Violets), here sung in Spanish by Roberto Alagna:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CMSPAbQOJLU
He tells a more conventional story from the point of view of the lovestruck singer. It is a stream of thought.
Will go to sleep (it is 1:46 AM right now and I must wake up early to collect water), but will return!!! 😀
Beautiful storytelling on Kujira Mama’s background. Show – don’t tell – the subtle parts of the story. Viewer has the imagination and intelligence to fill the gaps.
This is why I tend to gravitate to Japanese storytelling.
Just by watching the spirit form of Kujira playing with the pearl necklace and letting them drop without a hint of love insinuates that she had to prostitute herself.
Would not comment on the falling flowers, the blood or the oh so many petals lying around out of respect of you as a Lady.
Loved when she finally encountered Jilba. Treat people like human beings, you find a good person behind… treat a person like a subhuman thing you get a feral response.
Loved Kujira’s resilience. Also made me sad to learn that the part of her that had to do all those harsh things to survive ended up bottled inside herself all her life, like a curse.
Also I concur with Arara. Even the lowest dog has the God-given right to defend itself with all its might.
Everyone in the bar talks on how much Arara resembles the late Jilba. In some ways this is Kujira Mama finally confessing to her dear late mentor.
Arara and Kujira crying. Arara finally starting to understand all the miseries her forefathers had to endure. A very visceral scene.
A lifetime of holding back the tears and heartbreak. Arara fears that Kujira Mama’s pain might come back even stronger, my guess is it will not. There are widespread tragedies that begets personal tragedies, you can talk about the former, the later sink in your heart where they get trapped and can even become trauma.
Also, Kujira Mama finally opening her eyes to confront the innocent rose that has been a haunting symbol of her misery tells me that she is afraid to see things for what they are, devoid of the content she imposes on them.
Arara being comfortable with Jilba’s ghost. People are always way more complex than we credit them for.
The teatrical treatment was very well done. I have no doubts that Ms. Kusabue (Kujira Mama) has a solid teatrical background (looked it up, she has at the very least three roles under her belt).
Hope your flu and your COVID relents soon my dear friend.
Chibi Mama confiding that her taking the Old Jack & Rose was a ruse to get Kujira Mama up her arse and recover soon. That is what a person with a deep understanding would do knowing her friend.
For tough love is still love 😉
Sorry, Kujira Mama opening her eyes on the rose finally accepting the innocent flower for what it is, devoid of the meaning she imposed on her her whole life.
Episode 10 starts with Arara’s Birthday that sadly becomes the opportunity to tell all the girls that Old Jack & Rose might need to close due to failing finances.
For Arara it must been a shock the possibility to lose her newfound haven, but for the rest of the girls it must have been devastating news as they had invested their whole lives since youth to the bar and its philosophy.
For Master and Kujira must have felt horrible to lose what they had fought for since the postwar era. Doubly traumatic to have to make the decision and triply traumatic to have to break the news to people they have worked since forever.
Hi @FGB, thanks for pointing out so many points. I feel like I’m getting a recap of some scenes with depth of feeling. 🙂
Love how the two men feel so helpless that they follow the ladies’ leads in the giving birth sequence. They might not understand it but they are ready to go far and beyond for Sumire.
Nothing more can be asked from them 😀
As long as we are alive there is a way forward.
Powerful words. Even more powerful at the height of the Pandemic.
Loved the small exchange between Arata and Mika about Sumire. They could be at the opposite extremes of the Earth yet they are together.
Such a beautiful, show don’t tell definition of friendship and solidarity.
Mika: “I learned a lot of stuff away from Tokyo.Why was I so desperate to hold onto such silly things while I was in Tokyo?.”
The writer of this gem makes us think that it was because of pride of losing the notion of herself she had (even if descending from her former place must have been an ego wake-up call).
My personal answer is simpler.
That was life for her at that point.
She was so attached and blindsided by what life was for her there that she lost the notion that life could be lived in a lot of different ways.
Also Mika: I’m still broke,but it doesn’t matter where you are”.
Oops… I might have read into the writer’s mind 😉
Arara and Master’s exchange: he asks for her to put the bracelet he gave to Jilba in her family grave as he always wanted to visit her hometown.
He had a family with another woman (Maika being her granddaughter is literal the living proof) yet his love and gratitude for Jilba Mama stayed steadfast and pure as the family she eventually became.
Him wanting to know the place she lived and loved was a way to connect with her friend even further.
*****
Remembers me a beautiful subplot in Ray Bradbury’s “Dandelion Wine”, the very personal account of his imagination running wild as a child in his hometown in 1928. It reads like Science Fiction while being totally anchored in the technology available at that time.
The subplot is about an 80 year old lady being frequented by a young 20 year old man. They talk about all sort of things, but mainly she was a great traveler in her day. Her then friend turned into fiancee could not make her settle down and died before they could marry, so she never married. This young man’s mannerisms remembers her a lot of her departed love.
She talks him about all the places she visited like if she were touring it. He loves and listens intently.
One day they meet and he asks for a walkthrough of their hometown. She remembers splashing her feet in the nearby creek yet this time is different: every part of the walkthrough is from a place they both know and love, so they (his childhood self as well as her childhood self) go through all what the town has to offer in the 1860’s, they visit the railway station and get the thrill of riding a steam locomotive for the first time and so on.
That was their longest conversation. She knows her time is coming and asks him to die young so in the 1990’s a young couple could meet in an ice cream shop and ask both of them for a lemon and real vanilla cone (her former love and her favourite), both laugh at the odd choice of flavours and start chatting.
She dies soon and he goes to an ice cream shop to ask for a lemon and royal vanilla ice cream.
Some loves can’t be born in this world yet the longing lingers.
*****
Finally when Arata asks him to go with all the girls to Jilba’s hometown in pilgrimage he corrects her.
He can’t fly. He is afraid of heights.
He is well aware of his limitations. A wise man indeed.
The final paycheck scene was beautifully done. Such a big part of their lives represented in the Old Jack & Rose are now behind them. Yet Arara, the youngest one, is the one that starts crying and everyone starts doing so.
That she keeps her measly 3$ winning ticket that originally put her in front of the bar is a signal that it was indeed a lucky number. It was thanks to that that she was able to reignite herself as a Phoenix.
Master dancing with Kujira Mama and regretting tying down Jilba Mama to the bar. Now we know that him letting Arara go back to her hometown is his way to set her free to continue her life as she sees fit.
Now she knows she has options.
If I remember correctly she getting down the train at her hometown stop, reuniting with her brother and he feeling sorry for her asking if she is OK is where the show started back in episode 1.
But now we have context.
Loving family accepting her back.
Her feeling that she arrived to the mainstream life. His father answering her that both her and her brother’s name put together means a piercing light that cuts forward is his way to encourage her.
Shirahama-san finding out on the whereabouts of Jilba’s brother in law. While she found a new hope and a new place he descended into despair. As the Greek gates of Hell announced, beyond that point abandon any hope. Yet he couldn’t muster the courage to let go going back to a triumphant Japan. It was the lie – maybe hope – that kept him going.
He missed his homeland more than any.
And that love consumed his life.
What a waste.
Then we learn that there were more siblings and while they despised what Gataro had done they couldn’t let him alone.
Arara decides to take the mantle as the new Mama.
She was reborn by the bar and its culture. Her scratch ticket became a ticket for a better life. Now it was her time to face the music and make its culture survive. For Love wants to spread and growth. Love is being steadfast and responsible.
Several years later Sumire and her family is well, Mika has a dog she loves, and in Kujira Mamam’s Birthday finally Arata’s Family comes over to the Old Jack & Rose that Arara’s now regents.
Both Arara and her writing friend find each other in front of Jilba Mama that united them with her story, because like in the Thousand and One Nights, as a story ends it begs for another story to begin.
Like life that never ends.
Now I remember why I didn’t want to finish this drama back in the day.
I didn’t want to let hem go.
@FGB, how poignant! What a wonderful, heartfelt sharing of your enjoyment of this show! I feel I’ve missed so much when I read you.
Well you do not need to let it go… rewatch and rewatch, as I do! LOL 🙂
Thank you for sharing your journey with this sweet show. I enjoyed it all the more with your thoughts surrounding it.
I am so sorry I spent 6 months to finish it. And it was my idea!!!.
How are you doing?, is your MIL well?
It is always a good day when I get to read you.
Maybe I will revisit Okaeri Mone, an Asadora with 120 episodes, 15 minutes each. It is one of the most beautiful experiences in any media I have encountered.
BTW the beauty of sharing thoughts is that we both enrich each other with our points of view.
As it usually happens in real life, it is open to interpretation. Some readings can be more insightful and useful than others, though 😉
Hello @FGB, your thoughts do enrich my perspectives. You seem to penetrate to the persons behind the mere characterisations, their motives and attitudes. What I’d have taken at face value, you delved into further. It’s been a joy seeing the characters come more alive with your thoughts.
So does your perspectives, my dear @GB. You see both Principles and Values in the fictional characters you find, so you use them as secondhand experiences of what to do vs. what not to do.
A wise way to approach storytelling. As learning experiences for its lessons to be incorporated into decision-making.
It enriches you. Your kind of viewing is why Fiction as a genre is so useful and relevant.
Hope you and your loved ones are OK!!!
BTW, had problems with my Modem (poor thing was 18 YO and finally it gave the Ghost… Wireless Router is brand new!!!) so had to buy a secondhand one as this one is old technology. Sorry for being disconnected!
@FGB, thank you kindly. I try to learn from all sorts of experiences even if from the virtual world of dramas. 🙂
I’m glad you managed to get a replacement router. I hope we can connect more on another show. I’m watching Queen of Tears and Wedding Impossible, and am thinking of some light stuff like cdramas, Guess Who I Am and Will Love in Spring. See you! 🙂