Yuriko Yoshitaka & Takumi Kitamura “On a Starry Night” – “A New Vein of Love Stories” Found in a World of Diversity

The drama series “On a Starry Night” (TV Asahi), scripted by Shizuka Oishi, a “master of love stories,” has just finished its final episode, and viewers have been moved to tears. After the final episode, many viewers were moved by the drama.

The drama is an adult love story about Suzu Yukimiya (Yuriko Yoshitaka), an obstetrician-gynecologist in a peaceful seaside town, and Issei Hiiragi (Takumi Kitamura), an estate agent 10 years younger than Suzu, who lives freely in a world without sound. Since this drama, the follow-up to last fall’s much-talked-about drama “silent” (Fuji TV), once again portrays a young man with a hearing impairment, it was a hot topic among drama-loving netizens even before it began.

However, this drama does not portray the hearing impairment negatively, but rather portrays Issei as a bright and passionate man with rich emotional expression, which makes the hearing impairment seem to be “one of his personalities. In this sense, it is different from “silent” in that it is a love story appropriate for the age of diversity,” said a producer from the production company.

From the opening scene of the first episode, this work will catch us, the viewers, by surprise.

In the beginning, Suzu, who has just moved in, visits a solo camp, fuels herself with alcohol, and looks up at the brilliant stars. Kazuhoshi, who is facing her and clicking the shutter of the camera, suddenly kisses Suzu.

This happening comes only a minute or so after the opening. I sensed a determination on the part of the production to make this more than just a pure love story about a hearing-impaired person,” said the director of the production company.

Kitamura on his role in the film.

“There were many scenes where the more I read, the more embarrassed I felt.

Yoshitaka also said

It’s not a modern love story, but a story with a speedy, emotional atmosphere and a very passionate way of telling the story.

There are no weird tactics or suggestive scenes, and since they come straight to you, you come straight to them.

He also commented, “It’s a love story between an able-bodied person and a deaf person. The thrilling storyline that makes us forget that it is a love story between an able-bodied person and a deaf person is always a sight to behold.

However, they are put to the test.

The last part of episode 6. Soichiro Ban (Muro Tsuyoshi), the husband of a pregnant woman whose condition suddenly changed at the university hospital where Suzu worked five years ago and could not be saved, suddenly arrives in front of her while she is working at the maternity hospital.

The sorrow of losing a loved one so suddenly. The sorrow of a man who has lost a loved one suddenly, the anger of a man who has been fired from his job for raising a child he is not accustomed to. Muro’s performance, in which the sadness of having no choice but to turn his anger toward Suzu, was so palpable that it was almost maddening.

However, in the eighth episode, which was the last episode of the series, Ban’s attitude changed drastically. He apologized to Suzu, saying, “I’m sorry for the trouble I’ve caused you.

I’m troubled by the fact that you are a good person. I beg you. Please be a jerk. Otherwise, I won’t have a goal anymore.”

Ban, who has lost his cause for revenge, tries to throw himself into the sea, overcoming his restraint. Kazuhoshi embraces him like a messiah.

His parents died when he was a student, and his grandmother, who also had a hearing impairment, raised him with tender care. Ban is embraced by Issei and cries like a child. This heart-warming scene is the most famous scene in this film.

The scriptwriter, Shizuka Oishi, is teamed up with Ayari Kijima, a successful producer who also worked on “Ossan’s Love.

Speaking of Kijima’s other works, “Otona High School,” “My Uncle,” and “The Wastefulness of High School Girls” are all edgy works. Among them, the late-night drama “Ano Toki Kishitoshita” (If I Kissed You the Year Before Last), in which he teamed up with Oishi the year before last, was a particularly shocking experiment.

The main character, played by Momori Matsuzaka, loves a woman (Kumiko Aso) who is replaced by the soul of a dull old man (Arata Iura) whom he does not know at all. I could not hide my surprise at this surreal and novel “swap-over romantic comedy.

Kijima P. said of the film

Kijima P. said, “I depicted the ‘real life’ of a deaf person I met in a sign language club I belonged to when I was in college.

But is that really the real purpose of this work?

The first viewing rate of “Ossan’s Love,” which was made into a Saturday night drama series, bombed with 2.9%. However, it became a sensation when it was made into a movie and then into a second season.

This is the work of P. Kijima, who is always ahead of the times. In a world of diversity, he must be smiling now that he has found a new “vein of love stories.

(A reporter from a sports paper mentioned above.) Come to think of it, Kijima P’s father was the director of the hit drama “Tell Me You Love Me” (TBS) in which Etsushi Toyokawa played a hearing-impaired man. What does Mr. Seiichiro Kijima, who worked on numerous hit dramas and retired from TBS last year, think about this drama now that the final episode is over?