Jukunen Rikon (Senior Divorce)

[Excerpt from Channel Views, Japan Times, October 17, 2005]: A slightly more serious exploration of marital problems is offered on "Jukunen Rikon (Senior Divorce)" (TV Asahi, Thursday, 9 p.m.). Kotaro (Te-tsuya Watari) and Yoko (Keiko Matsuzaka) have been married for more than 30 years, and on the day Kotaro retires from his company Yoko announces that she wants a divorce.

[Excerpt from Televiews, Daily Yomiuri, Wm. Penn, October 20, 2005]:Kotaro, who has put all his energy into his work for the past three decades, is totally unprepared. In episode two, Yoko moves into a separate room in their home and plans to stay there until she finds her own apartment. She tells Kotaro that while she remains in the house she will not do any housework. The couple's two grown daughters are upset and try to think of ways of stopping the divorce. The couple's son-in-law comes up with the idea that if the other daughter marries her fiancee, then the wedding will force Kotaro and Yoko to stay together -- at least for the time being. Meanwhile, Kotaro is having a lot of problems with housework.

Another lightly publicized but potentially watchable new series is Jukunen Rikon (Thursdays, 9 p.m., TV Asahi Network). Tetsuya Watari and Keiko Matsuzaka are excellent as the Toyoharas, a couple who have lived together for over 30 years but don't really know each other at all.

Watari plays an engineer who has spent his whole career building bridges all over Japan but has neglected to build any strong links with his own wife and three grown children.

He spends his last work day checking into English lessons and foreign travel plans for his wife and himself and buys her a ring as a symbol of their new life ahead. He hasn't asked her if she wants any of this and hasn't a clue what awaits him at the family retirement party back home, where his wife has already told the children she wants a divorce.

The party unexpectedly begins with Toyohara giving his son, who is seeing an older woman, a lecture on what marriage is all about. His wife can't bear listening to this, considering he has never much cared to ask her opinion about anything and addresses her as "omae." She declares her wish for a divorce even before they have nibbled the party food. Dad obviously cares for his family, but long ago lost the ability to communicate with them.

The first episode ends with him sending the little celebratory feast crashing to the floor in a moment of dazed anger and frustration as his imagined new world turns into a real-world nightmare. The reality that similar scenarios are now playing out more and more often in real-world Japan may make this one a quiet hit. At least two stars.

STARRING: Watari Te-tsuya, Matsuzaka Keiko
NETWORK: TV ASAHI
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DURATION: October through December 2005