[J-ENT] Televiews / Just when you think there’s no hope, TV offers up intrigue and talent

July 19, 2008 by Dennis Amith

In a recent televiews column by Wm. Penn for the Daily Yomiuri, Penn wrote, “Four cheers for the talented actresses of Yottsu no Uso (Thursdays, 9 p.m., TV Asahi). It’s the suspenseful tale of four lies, four women around 40 who went to high school together but really don’t know each other at all, and a Foreign Ministry official with secrets of his own.”

“Studious Neri (Reiko Takashima) is now a rather lonely surgeon. Bored Makiko (Shinobu Terashima), stuck in an unsatisfying arranged marriage, was the class representative and still feels in charge of the group. Makiko’s daughter attends her old alma mater as does the daughter of Shifumi (Hiromi Nagasaku), who spent most of her youth reading novels before she married Kono (Toru Nakamura), the Foreign Ministry employee. Unsuited to the diplomatic life, she divorced him and is raising their daughter alone.”

“The fourth woman is Minami (Michiko Hada), who lives with her husband and daughter in Vancouver. She loved Kono in high school, but this did not stop Shifumi from stealing him away back then.”