Bara no Jujika (Cross of Roses)

[Submitted by Sergio Mendoza]: Hiroshi Mikami returns as the tragic hero. This time he plays a frustrated middle-aged man who looks for another woman to have his child because all his wife does is fight with his mother. But the woman in question isn't about loving men unless they were born of her, so the two lovers will have to face antagonistic pressure from themselves as well as from their families and friends to be able to love each other and the little son they eventually have. Yuriko Ishida plays the wife, Yuki Amami the other woman. Also appearances by Aiko Sato and Masanobu Katsumura, as well as Tetsuji Tamayama's dorama debut.

[FUJI TV SYNOPSIS]: Togo is 37, married, has no kids and lives with his mother. He is a television commercial director and has won numerous awards for his works. What he most wants to do is make commercials that people will long remember. It is the commercials that he personally doesn't like though, that gain the most recognition. He's even complained to one of the younger guys that he works with about his boss getting on his back for trying to put too much artistic creativity into his commercials. His boss wants him to simply make commercials the way the clients ask for.
Togo's wife Sumiko, who is not even pregnant, receives baby presents on just about a daily basis from her mother-in-law. She tries to play the "good daughter-in-law" by politely accepting the gifts. Her mother-in-law seems to be mentally punishing Sumiko for not giving her a grandchild, but it appears that Sumiko really does not want to get pregnant.

Not being able to have children, and work not going the way he wants starts eating at Togo. It is just at this time that his life takes a big turn...One day when he is supposed to meet a model that his friend wants to introduce him to; he mistakenly takes a woman by the name of Akira for the model. After getting to know her, Akira tells him "I don't want a relationship or to get married. I just want you to help me to have a child," and things begin to heat up from there.

Akira, who works at a foreign-affiliated computer manufacturer, is your typical career woman. Her parents divorced when she was young, and she lives with her mother and younger sister Masami. Because of a traumatic experience that she had when she was young, she has lost all faith in men.

Before meeting Akira, Togo was about to give up on have a bigger family. So the more he meets Akira, the more he seriously starts considering her offer. The plan they come up with is after Akira has the baby, they won't ever see each other again. But after the baby is born, both Togo and Akira start having a change of heart.
Sumiko later finds out about Togo's secret. And just when Togo has made up his mind to leave her for Akira, Sumiko starts striking back. Both their friends and families wind up getting involved, and before you know it Akira and Togo begin slipping apart.
Who should Togo really be with?

What has possessed Akira to go this far just to have a child?

How will Sumiko get revenge?

This is an all new kind of melodrama about a man that wants children, but can't have them with his wife; and a single-woman that wants to have a child of her own. It is also about what children mean to both sexes.

STARRING: Mikami Hiroshi, Amami Yuki, Ishida Yuriko, Sato Aiko, Katsumura Masanobu, Tamayama Tetsuji, Nekoze Tsubaki, Goda Masashi, Nakao Mie, Nagauchi Minako, Tanaka Hekikai
THEME SONG: "Cry" by Faith Hill
NETWORK: FUJI TV
DURATION: October through December 2002
REVIEWS:

[By Sergio Mendoza]: An alternate take on the theme of adultery, in this case when the affair is to have kids instead of to avoid them. Mikami maintains his reputation as the king of dark doramas and he and Amami make a great star-crossed couple. The ending is slightly makeshift and bittersweet, perhaps because it was competing with the bigger-name Mayonaka no Ame when it was aired, but it doesn't take away from the whole theme. Highly recommended! 4.5/5 stars.