Mother and Lover

[Excerpt from Televiews, October 21, 2004, Wm. Penn]: With the dearth of competition, the Fuji network's Mother & Lover (Tuesdays, 10 p.m.) could end up being one of the season's better romantic comedies.

The sensitive Shingo (Kenji Sakaguchi) is a very macho mama's boy, and his mother (Keiko Matsuzaka), while filled with nostalgia for the past, is not particularly controlling.

Shingo, who studies acting, supports himself by pulling tourists around town in a rickshaw. This is how he has met 30-year-old Hitomi (Ryoko Shinohara). Viewers are supposed to believe he can trot about all day without collapsing from exhaust fumes or being run down by a taxi or a two-ton truck.

Fate has somehow thrown passenger and puller together and her heart goes all atwitter just looking at him. But it is not long before she learns why he has been left behind on the boyfriend market shelf.

Episode 1 ended with the clueless Shingo protesting: What's wrong with loving one's mother? She is about to tell him, but then her heart goes all aflutter again. In Episode 2, they discovered Hitomi and Mom share the same birthday.

Not outstanding but in its own quiet way, Mother & Lover is far more satisfying than Last Christmas. Two stars

STARRING: Sakaguchi Kenji, Matsuzaka Keiko, Shinohara Ryoko
THEME:  
TV NETWORK: FUJI TV
DURATION: October through December 2004
REVIEWS:  

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