| Inochi/Life |
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| NHK TV , 50 episodes (January - December, 1986) |
| Main Cast: Yoshiko Mita: Miki Takahara/Iwata Koji Yakusho: Naohiko Hamaura Mako Ishino:Sachi Takahara/Nakagawa Toru Watanabe: Kuniyuki Nakagawa Shiro Osaka: Seikichi Kudo Harue Akagi: Ine Kudo Masakane Ibu:Gozo Iwata Kin Sugai:Teru Iwata Ken Utsui:Kazunari Sakaguchi Yoko Nogiwa: Miyo Sakaguchi Pinko Izumi: Haru Muranaka |
| Scenario: Sugako Hashida Producer: Yasuo Shibuya Music: Koichi Sakata Video: Soushuhen/Outline version (4 volumes) |
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| Miki and Naohiko at the University of Washington. |
| From the left. Haru, Sachi, and Miki in a freight train.to Aomori. |
| In an interview about 'Inochi' while shooting this TV drama in 1985, Koji Yakusho mentioned his acting plan in portraying the role of Naohiko Hamamura. "One of the difficulties in portraying Naohiko is how to portray his air as a professional naval officer during the wartime, not through his actions but his manner. I also feel like expressing the gloomy aspect of his character. He is a man who decided to recommence his life after trying to commit suicide in despair at Japan's defeat in the war. Every time I perform a role, I feel as if I were such a character. Last year when I played the role of Miyamoto Musashi, I felt as if I had been Musashi even during meal time! Now I'm afraid that I must look like a humorous man since lately I played the role of a very funny character on TV ." |
| The drama,"Inochi" begins on August 18, 1945, three days after the end of the Pacific war. We see a freight train completely jam-packed with passengers heading for Aomori from devastated Tokyo. Among those weary- looking passengers, we see the heroine of this drama: Miki Takahara (20) and also her sister Sachi (16). Then we see another important person coming into view at a certain railway station. When there is apparently no more room for any extra passengers at the railway station, Miki hears a woman shouting to the passengers to let her in because her mother is dying. Miki impulsively extends her hand to help the woman to get on board the train; the woman then introduces herself to Miki and Sachi as Haru Muranaka (20). Miki and Sachi are the daughters of a wealthy landlord living in a village in the Tsugaru area in Aomori prefecture but they have been living in Tokyo since before the war to attend school. A few days after Miki and Sachi have safely come home, a young man wearing a naval officer's uniform, suddenly visits the Takaharas' house with Haru late in the evening. He says that he rescued Haru when she threw herself into the sea. Miki finds, however, that Harufs real intention in coming to Aomori was to see her wartime lover who had returned to his parentsf home in Aomori, in order to tell him that she is expecting his baby; but Harufs lover had refused her, saying that there was no evidence that the baby was actually his. Sobbing, Haru confesses to Miki that she wanted to die in despair since her parents and all her brothers and sisters were killed during the heavy air raid on Tokyo on March 9-10, 1945. A few days later Haru miscarries the baby, but encouraged by Miki and Sachi, and by Takaharafs faithful servants Seikich and Ine, she decides to recommence her life. (From this time onwards, Haru shows great interest in business and succeeds in the apples trade. Using her ingenuity, Haru rapidly climbs the ladder of success to a millionaire as the story proceeds. The friendship between Miki and Haru continues until Haru dies of cancer aged 59.) Meanwhile, Miki visits the young man, named Naohiko Hamamura (22) at his house to show appreciation for his courageous deed in rescuing Haru the other night. While talking with him, Miki is surprised to learn that Naohiko was ,too, trying to commit suicide that night. Naohiko tells Miki that he felt quite at a loss when the war ended, since he had been a naval officer, but that by rescuing Haru's life that night, he thought that he would like to recommence his life. He has now started thinking that he would rather devote the rest of his life to saving peoplefs lives as a doctor. Miki feels moved on learning of Naohiko' decision, and in due course, when her mother Chie dies of stomach cancer,Miki, too, determines to become a physician. In Miki's home village there had been no doctor, and Chie's illness had become worse because she was not able to see a doctor. Miki hopes to become a doctor to work for her villagers, and starts preparing for the entrance examinations to enter a medical school in Tokyo. This is the brief synopsis of the first few of some 50 episodes. The story goes on focusing on Mikifs roughly 40 years of career as a doctor, showing how she struggles on to cope with the rapid changes in Japanese society after the end of the war. |
| Sachi and Miki in an orchard of apple trees. |
| Naohiko tells Miki that he wishes to become a doctor. |
| Koji Yakusho as Naohiko Hamamura |
| Miki and Naohiko happen to meet in Tokyo as students for medical schools, and fall in love. They now can share the same dream of becoming general practitioners for remote areas where there are no doctors. However, when Naohiko goes to the University of Washington in order to learn more advanced medicine, he changes his mind thinking that he would rather work as a specialist for a chest surgery in a big city university hospital. Naohiko tells Miki, who has joined him to become a student a year later, about his change of mind and wishes her to become his wife. Miki declines his proposal, saying that her ambition is still to become a general practitioner in remote areas...... |
| Created on September 9, 2004 |
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