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[FUJI TV Synopsis]: Deep within Edo Castle was the ooku (the inner palace)--the large expansive living quarters for the wives and concubines of the Tokugawa Shogun. The entrance was under the tightest security, and the corridors were barred to all men except the Shogun himself. It is said that over 1,000 women lived in the ooku to serve the Shogun. For him, life in the ooku was like living in paradise. "Ooku" is the story of the picturesque lives of the women living in the hidden, maze-like inner structure of Edo Castle. Inside, the women wielded their beauty and knowledge: some of them to win the Shogun's love, obtain political power, or to climb the ladder of the ooku hierarchy. Their lives were filled with romance, hatred, anger, envy, tears, and persecution. Of the three-century history of the Tokugawa ooku, this Fuji Television drama focuses on the last several years. It tells the story of the collapse of the Tokugawa Shogunate and the ooku, and also the lives of the women who lived through these times. [Daily Yomiuri, October 13, 2004 for Ooku- First Chapter, Wm. Penn]: The most visually stunning drama in the autumn lineup is O-oku: The First Chapter (Thursdays at 10 p.m. on the Fuji network.) The first O-oku series looked at the lives of the inhabitants of the women's quarters of Edo Castle at the end of the Edo period (1603-1868). This drama, beginning in 1602, concentrates on how this closed world was established. Yuki Matsushita is wonderful in the role of Ofuku, who rises from obscurity to a position of great power in the women's quarters. She begins life as the daughter of a samurai who ended up on the wrong side of internal conflicts and was crucified before his horrified family. Ofuku survives and ends up living out her own horror as the wife of a drunken, womanizing petty official in an obscure location. With the steely spirit of a true samurai woman, she attempts to raise her three sons, the youngest still breastfeeding, and run a household that includes two defiant live-in mistresses. Then one night her husband and the mistresses are entertaining some ronin (masterless samurai) when the visitors decide to tie him up and rob the place. Rushing to protect her children, she is cornered by one of the men. Just as he is about to rape her, she draws his sword and stabs him in an exceptionally realistic and gory way. As she staggers to her feet, she notices one of the mistresses smirking. In a moment of temporary insanity, she lunges at the woman who has done nothing to help her and kills her too. Her frightened husband divorces her and sends her on her way that night. Ofuku somehow makes it to Edo (now Tokyo), where her luck suddenly changes. The Tokugawa shogunate is looking for a woman of good breeding to serve as a wet nurse to the son of the second Tokugawa shogun. The equally talented Reiko Takashima plays the baby's real mother, but Tokugawa rules deny her the right to raise the child. And so she is left to take out her rage and despair on Ofuku in an all-out war behind the ornate screens of the shogunate's harem. Watching them parade about in elegant kimono alone is worth a few moments of your time. The story also has a surprisingly modern ring to it. Replace the ornate kimono with aprons or designer suits and the Edo castle with a modern neighborhood or company, and the concept of women competing with each other in a world where men are often just periphereal powers has a certain timelessness to it that adds to the attraction of this drama. Four stars for this one too. STARRING:
Kanno Miho, Asano Yuko, Ikewaki Chizuru,
Harada Ryuji, Kitamura Ikki, Okada Yoshinori, Washio Machiko, Kimura
Tae, Yamaguchi Kaori, Kubota Maki, Komatsu Miyuki, Katagiri Hanako and
more. /[FIRST CHAPTER]: Matsushita Yuki Reviews Needed Copyright
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