Drama: Soredemo, Ikite Yuku ep01

I've mentioned before that I typically only watch comedies, but I do like the occasional dramatic drama types.  I wasn't particularly anticipating this drama, but I did want to see it since the story sounded interesting.

Plot:
A man (Eita) whose younger sister was killed by a friend, who meets the friend’s sister (Mitsushima) 15 years after the incident. Both of their families have been burdened with grief, but through their meeting they struggle to find a brighter tomorrow
Credit: Dramawiki

Cast:
Eita, Mitsushima Hikari, Kazama Shunsuke, Tanaka Kei, Sato Eriko, Fukuda Mayuko, Murakawa Eri, Kurashina Kana, Ando Sakura, Emoto Akira, Danta Yasunori, Ono Takehiko, Fubuki Jun, Tokito Saburo, Otake Shinobu

Official Site: Fuji TV - Soredemo, Ikite Yuku

Comments:

So the story starts off with the title screen saying it's the year 1996.  Doing the math, Eita's character Fukami Hiroki would have been 14 at the time, which makes Kazama Shunsuke's character "Amemiya Kenji" (in quotes because that's after he changed his real name) about the same age.  So Hiroki's family is all doing their own thing and he's the one left in charge of watching his little sister, but he ignores the request and goes off to do some stuff

(Hiroki, right, and his friend, renting a porn video!)

So while he's off illegally renting a porn vid, his little sister is off in the forest, or woods, or the mountains or whatever it was... there was a lake there... anyways, his little sister is off flying a kite and just so happened to have Kenji there with her.

(Aki flying the kite)

Thinking back to this scene, I'm not sure if I missed it in the dialogue or not, but it made me wonder why Kenji was there in the first place.  Did Aki ask him to fly the kite with her after Hiroki said no?  Maybe I didn't miss something in the dialogue and they'll mention it in a different episode, especially since we only got to see Kenji for a total of 2 minutes or so.  While Aki is flying her kite, Kenji pulls out this small hammer he had in his pocket and hits her in the head.  We only see the reflection in the water and we only see him do it once, but according to Hiroki, he hit her "five, six, or maybe seven times."

After this incident, both families break apart due to different circumstances.  Hiroki is sent to a juvenile facility, his father divorces in order to protect his wife (name change), but the family still lives together.  Kenji's family is split up due to his father getting a little crazy and his wife just not wanting to deal with him anymore.  Kenji ends up living with his father, running a fishing place while his mom takes his little brother and lives in the city (i believe).

 (Bottom Left: Hiroki now, Bottom Right: Kenji's family)

I need to stop stating Kenji for now as Futaba (Mitsushima Hikari) is actually the leading co-star.  So Futaba ends up going to Hiroki's fishing lake (this part I for sure missed why she went there in the first place, i'll look into it later) and all this awkwardness occurs between the two of them.

 (Left: When they first meet, Right: Awkwardly holding an electric water cooker)

When they first met had so much awkwardness.  Their movements on the dock and not being able to speak was so weird.  In the end, Futaba says she's hungry, so Hiroki invites her in.  So after all this stuff happens which I'm not going to mention, he lets her stay at the house, which makes me wonder if this is a house or a hotel, but Hiroki thinks Futaba is going to commit suicide (he doesnt mention it to her, but to his dad).

(Hiroki's dad and Hiroki visit their old house, with Futaba alongside)

Hiroki's dad goes crazy, ends up at the police station because he was found with a knife on him.  It turns out that his father found out the whereabouts of Aki's murderer and had planned on killing him before he dies.  We find out that Hiroki's dad has cancer and is very ill.  While hearing all this and the pain and suffering that has been filling up, Futaba runs off back to her home and has a talk with her grandma (which is what I had missed about why she went to the fishing lake in the first place).

 

(Floating in the lake where Aki had died) 

While Hiroki's dad is in the hospital, Hiroki finds out his father had been buying shoes for Aki, every year for her birthday and even kept her school backpack in their closet.  Hiroki has some sort of vision and decides to make a kite and fly it where Aki was murdered.  He envisions his sister and breaks down crying and soon after, he jumps into the lake.  I swear at this part, I thought he was going to try to drown himself, especially with what he says.

 (Hiroki chopping off his hair)

Hiroki goes home and cuts off his hair.  Yep, while he was in the bath, he chops off his hair.  How he did it so nicely without a mirror, is beyond me.  Cutting hair is a symbol for starting anew, so I'm guessing this scene was to show an epiphany that Hiroki had.

(Hiroki pulling out a knife from a drawer)

Turns out his epiphany was to kill Aki's murderer for his dad.  After he pulls the knife out of the drawer, he gets a call telling him that his father had passed away.  We find this out after he visits his mother for the first time in awhile.  I didn't mention this earlier, but we got to see Hiroki's brother, Kohei (Tanaka Kei) after he drops off their drunk dad back to the house.  Kohei seems like a douchebag, and their mother seems like one too.  I know the family has been through a lot, but when compared to Hiroki, they weren't seen as the friendliest.

 (Left: Kenji, staring off into the distance, with... a lemon? Right: Futaba stopping Hiroki)

So, Hiroki sets off to the funeral of Kenji's parole officer (I think that's what I understood) to see if he'd be able to see him and then kill him there.  Futaba shows up and has a monologue about little sisters which prompts Hiroki to ask her "who ARE you?"  That's when he sees Kenji on an overpass (man, I swear I haven't seen Kazama in a LOOOONG time), pulls out the knife and heads toward him.  Futaba intercepts and yells out to Kenji.  By the time they get to the top, Kenji had gone.  This is when Hiroki finds out that Futaba is Kenji's little sister and that's how the episode semi-ends (haha, it actually ends with Kenji on a fruit farm)

I've seen many dramas with Eita and I thoroughly enjoy everything that I've seen with him in (no bias haha).  So far, he's delivering his usual quality performance, as for Mitsushima, I think she lacks a certain quality.  So far, I'm not convinced with her performance, but that's primarily because all she had to do this episode was to listen to Hiroki's (Eita) story about how his sister died, cry a few times and yell to her brother.  I'm really looking forward to the next episode though, I'm sure their performances will get better over the course of this drama when the story starts getting more in depth.  They got a pretty average first episode rating (10.6%), hopefully after watching the first episode, the ratings will go up.