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Tokyo Tower Okan to Boku to Tokidoki Oton (Tokyo Tower, Ma and Me and Sometimes Pa)
This is an eleven episode family drama series version of the movie with the same title, starring Hayami Mocomichi as Nakagawa Masaya (Ma-kun). Having been abandoned by his father at an early age, Ma-kun is raised solely by his loving mother. Although poor, his mother dotes on her son and works several jobs a day to ensure he isn't impoverished. Although Ma-kun acts tough and pretends to be independent, he is a Mama’s boy and can’t stand being away from his mom. Upon graduating high school, Ma-kun enrolls in a Tokyo university as an art student. Soon after graduating university, Ma-kun’s mother becomes deathly ill, and at Ma-kun’s insistence, comes to live with him. As the mother’s illness worsens, Ma-kun has to come to terms with a motherless future. Although there is a romance side story between Ma-kun and his beautiful girlfriend, this series is mainly about the loving relationship between a mother and son. Be sure to keep the box of tissues nearby.
The English captioning was problematic: For the most part, the translations are close enough to follow the drama; however, occasionally, it wasn't even close. For example, in one scene the son asks his mother why did she marry dad? She answers, "A week after we first met, he came to our house with wedding betrothal gifts." The translation is, "A week after we first met, he rushed into our home to hide from loan shark thugs." HUH??? Clearly whoever was doing the captioning didn't bother listening to the dialogue, he/she simply made things up. Disappointing.
As long as you can get by with the somewhat inaccurate English captioning, the story was compelling, the characters believable and likeable, and the plot was moving.
Rating:  [5 of 5 Stars!] |
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