Kazoku (2006)

I've always been a huge fan of Slice of life so that's only natural this drama grabbed my attention.The title itself was enough to convince me to start it as soon as I have time, not to mention Takenouchi Yutaka's presence and the family theme , I knew this was for me just by looking at the synopsis. Furthermore We hardly see in dramaland a father taking care of a child by himself and what he has to go through without a wife's help.

Certainly this drama came right on time, exactly when I felt so sad, it warmed my heart because it gives hope to people, it tells them they can do anything as long as they have faith.
You know why I loved this drama ? This is simple : because it brought me many emotions and only Slice of Life can do that to me and that's also why I always give them the highest rating, they never disappoint at least the ones I pick, I talked about emotions, we can not watch this drama and feel nothing this is impossible unless of being insensitive. And OMG the music was perfectly fitting for the emotional scenes , it played with my emotions, ah those Japanese are so good!

Kazoku is very different from the other dramas, this one focuses more on a father trying to raise a child as I said before, and us, as citizens we are preconceived to think that only the mother takes care of the children and that she's the one who has to take care of the house, but we have to get out of our heads that the chores are not limited to her, a father can also work outside and lend a hand, right? And that's precisely what Ryohei wants to prove, not only to him but to his wife, his son and friends. So Why not let him do his role ? And to me he was shining as a father, he was doing his best in raising Yuto : preparing him bentos every morning, taking him to Kindergarten,playing outside even goin' to the restaurant. Everyone around him witnessed all the efforts he put for his child and that was so beautiful. This drama shows us what a father-son bond should be and I felt it. Of course, only by himself with the long days he has at work he could not be 24 hours a day with his son, so one Man "Saeki Shinji" and this man is the Man, the nicest one ever, the one who will never resent others no matter bad things people could have done to him; the one who will always stay true to himself and help the ones in need. My point here is to say that Shinji was next to Ryohei and was willing to stay with his son when he was not able to come to the kindergarten and pick him up. He did it with great pleasure and not asking something in exchange, this is the kind of man he is and unfortunately there are not enough like him in this vast wolrd T_T .
I see Shin-chan ( I'm sorry I think that Yuto influenced me because I love calling him that way too) as a Wise man because all what he says is for others good, even if others disagree with him, he will only tell these things in order to help them, he never intends to harm people around him. He said so many beautiful words that deeply touched my heart, I think I'll keep them in mind for a long long time. I'll have so many things to say about this Oji San, he is one of the most generous character I've ever seen up until now but I think that I said enough. If you want to know what I felt about him just go watch the drama and you will only have admiration for him because he is a man of honor.

Spoiler Alert ///////// Now it's time to talk about the kid, I laughed when I discovered that the best friend he was talking about to his father was none other than Shin chan a 61 years old man, an Oji san.ahah !
Yuto is one true awesome cute kid, he is so smart and always able to see that something is wrong with his parents, this poor little thing always felt guilty when his parents were having an argument I felt bad for him.
And what suprised me the most about Yuto is that he only asks the right questions, as if he sensed when something went wrong between his parents.

I have mixed feelings about Satomi (Yuto's mother), because I could not understand why she absolutely wanted to get a divorce, it's not as if her husband was a jobless man who leaved them behind, he did not work that much because he loved it. to me he did all that to ensure them financial support. Maybe he should have shown them a father's presence and have activities with them, on that I agree and yes he did not do his part as a father and husband at the beginning. I litterally cried when I heard about the apple tree story, that was so touching and we could see in Ryohei's eyes that he was so sorry for not being able to be with them and pick apples like he promised to his wife.
What pissed me off the most, is that she was the only one who did not wanted to see that he really made efforts to become the father he was not before and said he could not change, she was totally wrong, ah I'm kind of crazy sometimes so I was in front of my screen yelling at her. \\\\\\\\\ End of spoiler

To sum up in one sentence, this drama is full of reflexions about life, it will bring tears to the most emotionals because everything in this drama is meaningful :p

REWATCH VALUE is a full 10 because I know that everytime I feel sad this one will give me courage.

Oh and I can recommend 'Woman" & "Tonbi" with the same theme, they also deal with a single parent trying to raise children to the best of their abilities and they are also true masterpiece (of course that's only my opinion).

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