Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Review of Onna no Ichidaiki: Setouchi Jakucho ~ Being a nun is as good as dying while living

"The passion hidden in my heart has a terrifying power to destroy."

This drama talks about the days of passion during her youth till she achieved peace at heart after becoming a nun.

Setouchi Jakucho's teachings bring courage and purify the followers' hearts. Whenever she takes part in preachings, many people would come to listen to her. In addition, female fashion magazines visit her regularly for interviews. As an author, she has released many books and is still full of energy at 83 years old.

However, her life was not a smooth-sailing journey. She got married while she was a student, abandoned her husband and children to elope with a young man, got involved in affairs, broke up with the men in her life, started writing fervently before she became a nun at 51.

Cast:
Setouchi Harumi (Jakucho) - Miyazawa Rie
Kosugi Shingo - Abe Hiroshi
Kinoshita Ryota - Nakamura Kantarou
Saeki Juuzo - Kano Shohei
Setouchi Koharu - Ichige Yoshie
Ima Tomitsu - Ibu Masato
Kusumoto - Sano Shiro
Setouchi Toyokichi - Oosugi Ren
Setouchi En - Saito Yuki
Kohita Kin - Izumi Pinko

Frankly speaking, amidst the hype over this series, the first instalment did not impress me too much. I have to admit that Miyazawa Rie is my least favourite among the three actresses in this series so you may feel that I may be picking on her. Somehow, she didn't convey the aura of the character Setouchi Jakucho strong enough and I think that she should have done more to show the writer side of Setouchi instead of focusing on the emotional side. I think that would be something worth exploring in depth since she actually got banned for writing a provocative novel where no publisher wanted to deal with her. No doubt I thought that she did OK for her scenes with Abe Hiroshi who acted as her married lover but sparks did not fly between her and the younger lover Ryota whom she abandoned her family for. A little bit lacking here and there is enough to make me feel that this is not as good as it seems on the surface. And Miyazawa is so thin that I can't help but worry that she might get blown away by the wind especially for the scene when her husband made her take off her belongings as she wanted to leave him.

The story itself was not very condensed and I felt that the links between each development was done in a hurried manner. One moment they were talking about this but the next, something else happens. And the final section about how Setouchi became a nun was quite vague. I thought that should be the climax of this story but I couldn't feel the weariness of the character with regards to her life at all.

On the whole, I'm quite disappointed with this segment so I hope the other two can impress me.

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