The Savior of the Morning Drama “Kamukamu evuribadi” – From Rui to Hinata

The summer of 2008. In the summer of ’20, it was announced that Yuki Fujimoto would be writing the script for NHK’s morning drama “Kamukamu evuribadi,” and fans of morning dramas were delighted. As its reputation precedes it, it has received high praise from viewers.

The ratings for morning dramas plummeted in the ’00s. After “Gegege no Nyobo” was aired in 2010, the broadcast time was moved to 8:00 p.m. in an attempt to turn things around, and “Ama-chan” aired in 2001 became an exceptionally big hit. It is said that the number of viewers has expanded and the morning drama has made a successful comeback.

However, this is a big mistake. It is no exaggeration to say that “Chiritotechin,” which was aired in 2007 and depicted the world of Kamigata Rakugo, is the savior of the revival of morning dramas.

Morning dramas have always portrayed heroines who are cheerful and energetic as they pursue their dreams. However, the heroine played by Shihori Kanjiya in “Chiri to Tettechin” is the dark and reserved “not-so-bright” B-girl. Fujimoto was in charge of the script for the drama.

The refracted Kiyomi (Kanjiya) has a fateful encounter with Kamigata Rakugo and shines. In addition, the linking of the story to the rakugo performance is unique and groundbreaking. The story was later used as an inspiration for the morning drama “Ama-chan” (NHK), which was written by Kudo Kankuro.

However, when the drama first aired, it was not well received by the morning drama viewers of the time, who mostly watched the drama while watching it, perhaps because of the overload of information, and the ratings suffered. However, from the middle of the show, it gained young viewers who recorded it and enjoyed the foreshadowing. The DVD box that was released after the broadcast sold like hotcakes. As a result, it became a masterpiece that will remain in both memories and records.

Fujimoto, the “savior of morning dramas,” is back in a morning drama for the first time in 14 years. In addition, for the first time in the history of morning dramas, “three heroines” will portray a 100-year family history. Fans have been waiting with bated breath to see what kind of surprises this drama would bring to the history of morning dramas.

The story begins with the birth of the first heroine, Yasuko (Mone Kamishiraishi), in Okayama in the year 25, when radio broadcasting in Japan began. The cheerful, honest, and healthy heroine, Yasuko, and her first love, Minoru (Hokuto Matsumura), instantly fall in love, and Rui is born.

However, her beloved husband dies in the war without ever seeing his daughter’s face. In addition to her mother and grandmother, her grandfather’s wagashi shop, “Tachibana,” was destroyed in an air raid. She lost her father, who was working hard to reopen the store, and Yasuko was left in the depths of despair.

However, many viewers were moved to tears by the mother’s determination to live for her daughter without losing hope. However, a sudden and unexpected turn of events awaited her.

Her brother, Santoshi (Gaku Hamada), unexpectedly absconded with the money he had been saving up to revive the famous restaurant, “Tachibana. The mother-daughter bond was severed, and Yasuko left for America without Rui, setting social media ablaze. However, it is this cruel turn of events that gives us a sense of the greatness of Fujimoto’s script.

In 2004, Fujimoto won the Kuniko Mukoda Award for “Chikaemon” (NHK), which depicted the birth story of Chikamatsu Monzaemon’s puppet play “Sonezaki Shinju” with elements of humanistic comedy. In this film, Tokubei (Teppei Koike), a wealthy merchant called “Aho-bon,” is forced to commit suicide with a prostitute named Ohatsu (Akari Hayami) for some reason after his best friend spends his money.

Yasuko, Rui, and their daughter also suffer from misunderstandings stemming from their brother Santa’s absconding, and the mother-daughter relationship is severed. Some say that this scene is an homage to “Sonezaki Shinju” (production company producer).

There are moments when people are in the grip of evil. Who could have imagined that the day would come when Yasuko, who had decided to live for her daughter Rui and had endured all the hardships of poverty, would leave Japan without Rui? The darkness in the human heart is as deep as it is sad.

Abandoned by her mother, Rui leaves for Osaka at the age of 18 to reset everything, keeping the memories of her mother locked deep in her heart. However, when she meets Joe, a trumpeter played by Odagiri Joe, her certain memories of her mother come back to her. A series of brilliant foreshadowing sequences gave me goosebumps.

In “Dippermouth Blues,” before the war, Yasuko and Minoru met and repeatedly listened to Satchmo’s “On the Sunny Side of the Street. Minoru had named his newborn daughter “Rui”.

When the restaurant reopened after the war, Yasuko took Rui there to listen to Satchmo’s song. Furthermore, Joe (Joichiro), a war orphan, was picked up and raised by the store’s master, Teiichi (Masanori Sera). The way in which Rui’s painful and regrettable thoughts, which she had locked away deep inside her mind, are somehow repainted into sweet memories is nothing short of brilliant,” said the director of a production company.

In the morning drama “Chiritotechin,” the rakugo story “Atagoyama” showed us the path that not only the heroine Kiyomi but also the three generations of her family should take. In Kamukamu evuribadi, “On the Sunny Side of the Street,” born in ’30, bridges three generations and 100 years of family history.

The song was born in the middle of the Great Depression in the United States. The song gave courage to many Americans and people all over the world who had lost hope. Only four years later, Satchmo also recorded this song.

At that time, there was a lot of racial discrimination, and I wondered what kind of feelings Satchmo had when he sang this song. It is also interesting that the beginning of “Aldebaran,” the theme song of “Come Come,” is sung with such respect for Satchmo: “Can you and I get along, before this world ends?

The song “On the Sunny Side of the Street” captures the heart of the listener and never lets go. The song that is sung in it

“I want to walk the sunny side of the street with you.

I want to walk with you on the sunny side of the street,” as sung in the song, will weave a story in Rui’s daughter Hinata’s mind. I’m sure I’m not the only one who wants to get drunk on the catharsis of Yuki Fujimoto’s work for a while longer.