Yet another drama night.

Hmmmm, I don't think I cried or squealed NEARLY as much this Saturday night, but I still want to ramble about what I watched anyways. ^_^

Oshin Special - The Kanto earthquake devastated all their property, so Oshin and her husband Ryuzo go and live with Ryuzo's parents and sisters. His mother seems really unhappy with her at first, and treats her harshly, more like a servant than the wife of her son. Later on, everyone finds out that both Oshin and Ryuzo's sister Atsuko are pregnant. The mother starts raving about some superstition where, if two babies are born in the same house, one of them will die. So she demands that Ryuzo tell Oshin to leave the house and go back to her own mother's home to have her child. Ryuzo strongly refuses, though, and his father berates her for putting her faith in a superstition.

The day comes when both Oshin and Atsuko are expected to give birth. The mother's still giving Oshin a hard time, making her work in the rice fields even though her child is close to due. Atsuko ends up going into labor first, so everyone pays more attention to her than to Oshin, even Ryuzo. The labor is difficult, and his mother starts to panic, begging Ryuzo to hurry and fetch the doctor in town. Since he knows she will blame Oshin if his sister loses the baby, he agrees to go for Oshin's sake. Unfortunately, as he's doing so, Oshin herself goes into labor and no one knows about it. She's in a great deal of pain, and starts crying out for her mom (who's far away, but she's scared and wants her mother near *sniffle*) and for Ryuzo, but no one hears her.

In the end, Atsuko gives birth to a healthy baby daughter. Oshin, on the other hand, isn't so lucky. Sometime during the night she faints outside while calling out for her husband. Ryuzo finally finds her face down in the mud, and he frantically calls for the doctor, who's still in the house. He's able to save Oshin's life, but her baby daughter is stillborn. Was it the superstition come true, or coincidence? We'll never know... but Oshin (who's normally quite strong-willed) becomes depressed and despondent as a result. She refuses to acknowledge at first that her daughter, whom she wanted to name Ai (love), was dead. Then it's discovered that Atsuko doesn't have enough milk in her breasts to feed her baby. Her mother begs Ryuzo once again, this time to ask Oshin to feed the baby with the milk she would have given Ai. Ryuzo is furious at first, thinking it would be cruel to Oshin after she'd just lost her baby. But then Ryuzo's other sister points out that breastfeeding a child -- even if it's not hers -- might snap Oshin out of her depression.

Luckily it works out. Oshin gives Atsuko's baby daughter her milk, and as she's watching her feed, she realizes that this child was brought into the world in place of Ai. So she wants to do her best to make sure she grows up strong and healthy, even if she's not her daughter. It was weird... I've never been one to care much about having children, but I started crying during this scene for some reason. I guess there's something about carrying life in your womb for nine months only to lose it as soon as it's born. Not to mention the fact that this life was created from the union of you and your spouse... like a living symbol of your love. I guess that sounds kinda corny, but that's how I see it.

Churasan - This episode was bizarre. I was expecting that we'd see Eri struggle through four years of nursing school in the span of several months of episodes. Instead, those four years were condensed into the space of one episode! Oh well! At least that meant that I didn't have to miss the Ippukan residents after all, 'cause Eri moves right back there as soon as she graduates (yay!) from nursing school. After that, we get to watch her struggle as she starts out on her new nursing job. Of course, she just *happens* to start working at the same hospital where Fumiya is now a young doctor, having passed his own exams as well.

Poor Eri-chan, she can be much too optimistic sometimes. She comes to realize a truth that I'm sure many people find out as soon as they leave college -- the fact that no matter how well you might have done in school, it doesn't prepare you for work in the real world. Nursing is a lot harder than Eri thought it'd be from studying from books and in controlled environments. So she goes through the first few days exhausted and discouraged -- until a chance meeting with Fumiya at the end of her shift. They had some coffee from the vending machine together (ooh? mini-date?) and he told her that he was going through a similar feeling of discouragement as a new doctor. And he said that they should be proud of their respective professions because it takes a great deal of experience to be truly adept at what they do. After all, they are dealing with human lives on a daily basis!

Unfortunately, that doctor girl that Fumiya's hung around with the past few years now interrupted their chat. She seems jealous of Eri, but she still calls Fumiya by his last name, so they can't possibly be a couple! Right? I wonder if Eri picked up on that. Sheesh, I hope they both figure out soon that they're still in love with each other after all this time... *shakes fist in frustration*

Toshiie to Matsu -- This episode mostly dealt with the issues Maeda Toshiie and his wife Matsu were having in deciding who their eldest daughter, Ko, should marry. Lord Nobunaga wanted Ko to be married into the Tokugawa family, but Matsu was strongly opposed to this, since samurai under Tokugawa Ieyasu killed her father in front of her eyes when she was a young girl. In addition, Ko was actually in love with another man, a distant Maeda relative. Toshiie was adamant about following his lord's orders at first, until he heard a rumor that people thought he was selling Ko to the Tokugawa out of greed. Ieyasu was supposedly planning to grant Noto province to Toshiie in honor of their new alliance, formed by the bond of marriage. Well, in this particular show, Toshiie's been portrayed as a very honest, compassionate man who cares more about morals than money -- so upon hearing of these rumors, he refused to heed Nobunaga's wish to marry Ko into to the Tokugawa. Nobunaga was vexed, but didn't put a stop to things when Ko ended up marrying the man she loved instead. A particularly beneficial result of that marriage was that it united Toshiie's part of the Maeda family with the rest of the Maeda in Owari, their home province.

I know... it sounds all dry and historical, but really, it's a lot more interesting than it seems. ^_^ I do have to admit to thinking that the last historical drama, Hojo Tokimune, was much more accessible even to people unfamiliar with feudal Japanese history.

Obsessiveness by Dark Siren Sally @ 06/30/02, 03:22 AM