Umareru : Initial Thoughts

I wrangled with this one. Not watching it but the decision to watch it. I’ve resigned myself to the opinion that Ohkura is drama poison and I tend to avoid dramas that have him in some significant role. But, surprisingly enough, Umareru, ended up being interesting for a first episode.

Everything suddenly changes for the Hayashida family

Umareru, or To Be Born, is a drama about a 51 year old mother who, late in her life, is pregnant again. With her well beyond her child baring years, she’s considered to be a high risk pregnancy and struggles with the idea of being a high pregnancy all the while dealing with the sudden death of her husband and explaining this news to her four children. Ironically enough, her eldest child, Manami (played by Horikita Maki), is writing a book on high risk pregnancies.

Stories about unexpected pregnancies are almost a norm in Japanese dramas. They’re almost written to be a PSA to the Japanese public about what you should and shouldn’t do in situations like this. Umareru is no exception to this genre of dramas. In the first few minutes, we’re shown raw, documentary, footage of Japanese women giving their thoughts on what it is like to give birth after 30.  They go on about how wonderful it was to give birth and how they view their baby to be a miracle, a gift in their lives. It is only to assume that the drama would take the path of highlighting why it is great for Japanese women still pursue having children, especially after they hit the high risk pregnancy stages of life.

They're not the best actors in the world....

But, this drama does not go without highlighting the negatives. In fact, episode one is all about Aiko (played by Tanaka Misako) struggle with aborting the baby due to dangers of having a child so late in life.

I’ll leave the rest of the episode’s events alone to talk more about the acting and other elements I usually rag on in my reviews.

The acting in this drama is surprisingly decent, but that goes to say that there’s a pretty good set of actors working on this film. I’ve seen Misako Tanaka in several dramas before and know that she definitely can put on a performance of a life time. My biggest reservations were with Tadayoshi Ohkura and Maki Horikita, two people that I have dumbed plank of wood because of their stale, flat, acting. When I found out that Horikita was the lead in this drama along with Ohkura, it immediately put me off. It took boredom and a discussion on Tumblr to actually convince me to succumb to this drama’s whims.

Horikita’s character Manami, seems to fit Horikita here. She’s simple, average, and there. There’s nothing in the first episode that demands much from her character. She is the first to find out her mother’s situation but majority of the episode is focused on her showcasing her “big sister” skills. I wasn’t disappointed with her performance but I wasn’t impressed with it either. I find the delivery of her lines a slightly unnatural, like when she’s talking to Ohkura as a “big sister”, as if she’s playing the role too hard, but other than that I didn’t need to flip any tables — yet.

That vapid, " Hun? ", expression is pretty prevalent in this episode.

Ohkura’s character, Taichi, has more of a dramatic presence in the first episode due to the news that is suddenly delivered to him out of the blue. His performance wasn’t that spectacular either and its still very apparent that he can not really get emotion out there. When he’s shocked or bewildered, he has this vapid, “hun?”, expression that kind of kills the whole scene at times. Now, I’m not saying he be comical about it, but there is a way to deliver shock that’s believable and not “acted”. The only thing he’s really capable of is being angry or frustrated. Though, even then, sometimes it seems misdirected though I would blame that moreso on the writing and direction. At one minute he’s comfortable with the news and suddenly he’s not and angry at the world for being a lie.

It becomes a bit distracting at times.

The writing overall is good, I must say. We get a feel for every character and who they are as a person in episode 1, setting the stage for the rest of the drama. It’s a far cry from Control, which in that drama, we don’t even know who these people are in eleven whole episodes. But that’s the strong point of slice of life dramas; they tackle the human condition. It would be odd to watch a slice of life drama and not know who the characters are by the end of the first episode.

Overall, I like Umareru. It reminds me of a reversal 14sai no Haha… I just hope it does not get too ridiculous in terms of the drama. 14sai no Haha is a great drama, but looking back on it, the whole tabloid scandal was just way over the top. Hopefully this drama only gets better as I finish it this week. Goal is to complete it before New Years 🙂

I have high hopes, don't let me down.