Mitsu no Aji
I've currently finished the 2011 J-drama called Mitsu no Aji (A Taste of Honey). It's a drama about forbidden love between a niece (Eikura Nana) and her uncle (ARATA). It becomes a love triangle in the beginning of the series as the uncle's fiancee/wife (Kanno Miho) uses threats to try and scare away the niece, because she saw through to the niece's love affections for her uncle. Wifey, the main antagonist, is torn to jealousy towards the niece, our main protagonist, and plays lots of mind games and threats on both her and her husband after he breaks it off with her. The drama starts out pretty slowly, due to the fact that it shows a lot of flashbacks. This is one of those dramas that sets up a story from past to present, beginning with a series of unfortunate events in 2003 that finally leap into the present day world of 2011 (when this drama had aired). It makes this transition in the middle of the 5th episode. Overall, the drama captivated its viewers enough to receive an average of 9.9 for the 11 episodes. Once you get past the slow intro, the drama seems promising. In my personal opinion of this drama, however, it ends downright sad and disappointing.
These are my negative criticisms for being unsatisfied with Mitsu no Aji:
- Uncle is not blood related; was adopted into the family as the father's younger, much younger, brother.
- Seemingly terrible acting by two out of the three main actors
- As depicted in this drama, Japanese society shuns members of their society for being honest and don't care whether or not something is right or wrong and call it being "professional"
- Cutting off ties with your loved ones
just because they are in a forbidden love
- The too realistic plot of the drama that pretty much gave the message, "you will be unfortunate for the rest of your lives if you two are together," and took it head on without any miracles or grand surprises to try and throw off the viewer's predictions.
Before I start, I just want to say that these are overlapping things that I've noticed in the drama, and are not in any order.
Family Registry Over Blood Relation:
In the beginning, we are told that the uncle was adopted into the family and became a younger, much younger, brother to the father of the main protagonist girl. However, as the series progresses, this is never brought up again. If this had been brought up, it
would've saved miss niece and mr. uncle from being the targets of "incest, dirty, perverse, taboo, and forbidden love" accusations. In fact, the drama's plot could have taken a huge turn of events if
only the Japanese society (as portrayed in this drama) did
not shun people for exactly: just being honest. Instead, the drama gave off a message along the lines of
have dignity in yourself and don't reveal anything that makes others think you're making up excuses. Seriously now, by the end of the 10th episode and throughout the 11th episode, the couple moved all over the prefectures of Japan just trying to find jobs and have a peaceful life. In every town they stayed at, they would have to leave a few days later because the gossip and news of them being a niece and uncle in love had spread like wildfire throughout gossip magazines. Ridiculously enough, they were unwanted help to the locals (even though the two were top notch surgeon doctors). There was just something wrong with this society. Going back to the point, if the two had
only been honest enough to say that they weren't even blood related, maybe, just maybe, society and those around them, would have accepted them and their so-called "forbidden love." I believe they were just too ignorant of their own situation, and believed what everyone else told them, instead of looking at what was even more logical than logic. This is to say, that unless Japanese society just downright doesn't care about whether you're related to someone by blood or not, and that the only proof they have is of you being in their family registry, that it would be incest to them. In that case, this is a really sad society (as portrayed in this drama).
Society's Treatment & Plot:
Now, I wouldn't know if this is true or not about the Japanese society, however, I believe this drama was too predictable because it was following a sort of conventionally conventional storyline.
It was bound to happen, and everyone saw it coming, kind of ending. It wasn't one of those,
"I said it'd happen, but it didn't." They wanted you to think that the couple
won, though, when the uncle's wife (ep. 10) says, "I lost my final gamble to them." The way I saw it, however, wasn't a happy ending because they had to give up
everything, downright, everything to be together. There was a line wifey said, "You guys will live an unfortunate future together." Well, unsurprisingly, it became,
"I said it'd happen, and it did." The
plot boringly followed what was said in the script without even trying to fight against it. I mean, just because the couple moved around Japan, didn't mean that they tried their best to win against all the odds of their "unfortunate fate." There were so many other options they could have taken to
"live happily". But there was also one other thing that held them back from reaching
"happiness." They selfishly and stupidly, followed their sad fates down the corridor, and followed a faith in God to the end. They were good people, too good to be corrupt. All they did was born into the world, found and became relatives (under the family registry), and fall in love with each others
wonderful qualities. I mean if I were to be practical, the two could have, 1.) gotten plastic surgery, 2.) moved to the US, 3.) get the hell married and have a kid b/c it wouldn't be considered "incest" anyways, or 4.) reminded all their friends and family that they were not exactly
related.
There is another sad thing that I want to mention. If the character had been honest enough to speak up about her circumstances, she would have probably still been shunned by society. Another factor stands and that's when people "talk back." The excuse that people in the drama probably would have said to the forbidden couple was to be "professional" about their situation and not make up "excuses" or in my definition, a clarification on accusations and gossip. The Japanese society may not be conservative in fashion, due to a wide range of different fashion genres, but it certainly seemed to have kept a Victorian era type of culture in the way the many characters think in this drama. It was as if you had to self-restrain yourself from speaking honestly and keep your personal expressions to yourself. Outside of this drama, however, I'm sure that something like the plot of this drama would not have happened in real life. This plot was too, how should I say it? Realistic perhaps..?
Family's Treatment:
Miss protagonist's parents/ Uncle's brother and sister-in-law. The family pretty much abandoned the couple, their loved ones, and threatened that they would be cut off from the family unless they broke up with each other. What kind of logic is this? In such a tough situation as facing the world as forbidden lovers, their family should have been helping them. But instead, this was one of those times, where it's not an open-minded family doing all they can to help their kids. For example, a more worse situation like from the J-drama IS that talked about intersexual people, or transgender people, is a far more scary thing to deal with in society if you're alone. Family members for those characters that were IS, however, were very supportive of their kids and eventually were accepted more by others around them. For Mitsu no Aji, however, it was a really closed-minded reaction by the family. I think they should be blaming themselves for not having the confidence to stand up against gossiping magazines and probably very angry neighbors in their hometown showering them with hatred. I think the protagonist's parents were pretty underdeveloped characters as well. They seemed supportive and outgoing throughout the series, until they found out about the love between their daughter and brother/brother-in-law from a magazine. They completely ditched the couple afterwards. A few days later, the couple finds out that their mom/sister-in-law has a brain tumor and needs surgery, her father wouldn't let his daughter see her own mother at the hospital, and gave her one condition: "Break up and then you can see your mother." Yeah, she stood there silent and her father knew her answer, so he walked away. Honestly, what kind of family does this after being so inconceivably loving and caring? Niece's parents really created more burden for the couple's troubles by not accepting their own family members. The parents wanted the couple to break up in order for them to save themselves from being hurt by society. However, I think that was just an excuse because they felt as if their kids were going to hell or something for being being in love. Calling it "dirty, vile, perverse." This would have been the perfect time to remind their own parents that they weren't
blood related. It's just a piece of paper gaiz...
Acting:
Now this was before I finished the series, but I started realizing another negative critique around the 7th episode and onto the end. Uh, like for one thing, how these people can't act! Eikura Nana is a familiar name in the acting industry. However, even though she was given the role of a slow, unsocial, and naive girl, her acting didn't seem to shine. She showed the same facial expression for every worry the character had. And she looked like a completely different character whenever she was required to laugh. When she smiled, though, it was still always the same smile. I don't know what it is, but I don't see her as the character. For example, she'd be mopey and serious, but when she had her laugh scenes, they seemed too "real," and completely something her character was incapable of doing, and should not have portrayed in such a "real" way. It would've been better for the role to have used a controlled facial expression of a laugh or something. Besides her acting, I downright disliked her character in general. Sure anyone would like a good girl like her, but I had an issue with how, as previous explained, she was not an honest girl. She pretty much told white-lies to her first love, aka uncle, her boyfriend/ex (Mizobata Junpei) which eventually turns him into a yandere, and to whomever it concerned, didn't speak up when it was needed. This character is straight out pathetic in personality. Whenever she was caught in a confrontational accusation or argument, she just faced the other direction and put on her "worried face" like a mask. She never talked about her personal feelings, and has never
honestly opened up to the guys around her.
Honesty being a keyword in this drama. As her boyfriend/ ex stated, "you've tricked me for the past 8 years!" Yeah, that had to be said and I was so glad he spoke the truth. However, miss protagonist turned her back on him and put on her "worried face" mask back on after his line. She is a really pathetic character that was not given the proper growth in character development. I think, Eikura Nana shouldn't be cast as mopey characters, but instead stick to smiley and more confident characters. My boyfriend who was a huge fanboy of her, kinda put it more harshly by saying that she was better as supporting cast instead of main cast. (Yeah we both watched Mei-chan no Shitsuji live action as well, and sadly, she starred as the mopey one).
Another person that I believe didn't act so well in this drama was the male protagonist of the show, ARATA. I haven't seen his other roles before, so I'm going to talk about his performance in this series. I'm going to be blunt: he has no facial expressions for this character. Yeah, is there anything else to say about this? Well, his upper facial expression doesn't change and stays the same throughout the series. After his character comes back from the US and dons a new hairstyle, he was nicer to look at. Still, he could improve on his facial expressions, and not just his speech.
There is something else that I want to bring light upon: Kanno Miho and Mizobata Junpei's acting.
Kanno Miho has brilliant acting. For her role, she had to be the femme fatale, and she donned both evil smiles and realizational sad expressions often. Her character seems to be the most ranged in expressions because she felt jealousy, pain, regret, satisfaction, and confidence all throughout the series, as well as showcasing different sides of her character that included being mystique, a liar, a bitch, and a role model. She gave off many faces and she did well to deliver. Kanno's character had an aura of mystery around her because there is a very brief mention about her past. I would have been delighted to find out more about this character. Sigh, if only the drama had gone into detail with this character and why she was the bitch that she became. Of course, speculation of this arises from her lonely childhood of having both parents being very busy doctors. It becomes understandable by the brief mentioning, that her loneliness brainwashed this woman to be very independent and assertive towards her goals and lover. She was infused with jealousy whenever her husband (ARATA) simply had chats his own niece (Eikura Nana).
Mizobata Junpei's acting, is, I believe, showing growth. He usually takes up serious character roles, or laid back ones. In this series, he played a responsible, optimistic, and kind character. Distrust for his girlfriend (aka. niece) due to her dishonest, white-lies, becomes the downfall of their relationship. And what drives him insanely mad is the unrequited feelings of love missy never returned to him. Nor did she feel regret or pain in breaking up with him, and he was right there watching her expressions. Yeah, not even trying to explain her position or defend herself against his accusations. He took a huge blow in his heart and finally blew up, yandere style, in the latter episodes -
"I've been tricked by you for the past 8 years!" Mizobata Junpei's character took on a huge dramatic transition and I think it's something new to him. I've seen some of his past roles, and this was the first time I had seen him acting this way. At first I couldn't tell if it was good or bad, but I'm going to say that he at least attempted this acting change (with bulging eyes and all) for his role, and that will really help him become a more diverse actor in his career.
Conclusion:
It seems that someone tried making a breakout drama with an interesting theme (yes, I believe taboo themes are always a hit and should be discussed), however, failed to open it up and also failed to make it accepted. Dramas have the power to do such things, like open up difficult topics to its society, aiming towards change in some way. I think Mitsu no Aji failed to deliver a positive message that could help people like the characters of this show be accepted into society. It also failed to deliver a positive message on how to accept people that are in similar forbidden-love situations. It's as if the producers/story writers did not want to sell a peaceful and accepting message, and just wanted to create attention with the hype of the subject. However, it shouldn't be shunned so harshly as it was portrayed in the drama. I understand that there will be some people out there that don't accept such incest ways, whether it's love between a brother and sister, or any relatives. (Keeping in mind that this drama is even less to the point when being portrayed by relatives that were
not related by blood). But as portrayed in this drama, it was just full of over the top gossip and accusations with no clearly given replies, or any at all. To clarify, I really disliked the plot line of this story. Sure, the drama is fiction. The drama was written harshly in order to attract ratings due to the fact that it is only a fictional story, that something like this is so unconventional that it could never happen so widespread like in the story. But my reasoning is, therefore, the producers or scriptwriters for the series should have turned the events in the opposite direction and gave the main protagonists a different and more accepted-by-society-(or at least by loved ones; oh c'mon gaiz... gaiz?)-ending.
It was like looking down at a board game - you could see everything all at once.
I'm an unsatisfied viewer because I'm generally all for meaningful, lesson-taught, happy endings. I would have favored some sort of miracle or understanding by society to change the ending. As the ending stands, the "lesson taught" is to never find yourself in a forbidden love or you'll end up like these guys~ Yeahh, that's not exactly the lesson I was searching for.. Even though the couple remained together in the end, the overall process of their defamation to be together, made it a generally sad ending in the end. They lost a home, their family, their friends, and their career credentials that they've spent over 10 years studying to obtain. All they had left in the end were each other, and their surgeon skills that put them to good use helping injured people in a war forsaken, third world country where doctors of any kind were much needed. I guess you could say that they made the right choice to go and help soldiers and civilians who need it the most, those that reside in war zones. However, could this drama have been implying that the only way the protagonists would be forgiven for such a
taboo, considered a sin, was to go through such dangerous, uncomfortable, and harsh measures of repenting? Side by side, they sleep sitting against a wall.. This seemingly harmless drama ended up becoming really extreme. Especially when none of their family or friends talked about them ever again... let alone heard from them ever again... So let me ask, did you find yourself saying, "aww, how sweet~" to the ending?
We lost everything, but at least we still have each other...
...Right?
