Kita no Kuni Kara: '98 Jidai (1998)

Back on track

It's been quite a journey for me watching this series over the last 10 days, and I still have one last 2-part special left to go. For me, Jidai was by far the best of the specials so far. The original 1981 series blew me away, but the specials that followed disappointed me. They dwelled too much on tragedy, bad decisions, separation, and disappointments.

I mean, poor Goro, the log cabin that he builds himself and with the help of his friends is burned down by his own son, then the old house he moves back into collapses from the snow, and worst of all, he has to sell off all the lumber he bought for his new log cabin to make amends for his son's dishonorable behavior with the poor girl Tamoko. With that kind of record, I was worried about his stone house, but thankfully it's still standing by the end of this special.

What's even worse than the setbacks faced by poor Goro is the cowardly, creepy, disgusting behavior of Jun throughout these specials. Not only does he burn down his father's precious house, but he lies and blames it on his best friend, then he rapes at least 2 of the sweetest, nicest girls you can ever imagine, impregnating one of them and forcing her into a painful abortion and causing his father to be absolutely humiliated in front of his old yakuza nemesis Hirono Shozo. Then he treats his second rape victim like absolute shit, tormenting her for a past mistake in the most hypocritical way, even though he's made way worse mistakes in his past. (Interesting how the plot is making reference to the huge controversy stirred up by the real-life actress Miyazawa Rie's notorious nude photo book, an unexpectedly meta, breaking-the-third-wall gesture in an otherwise very old-fashioned series.)

I'm so thankful that Jun acts like a decent human being for a change through most of Jidai, with the exception of still being too cold and proud towards Shu. Come on man, he should be treating her like a queen and begging her to marry him. But he's at least matured to some extent.

Actually, over the last few specials, his sister Hotaru overtook him in bad behavior. Her idiotic, family-destroying affairs with married men and her coldness towards her dad and refusal to see him are not only sad to witness, but as far as I can tell, have no motivation or explanation whatsoever. Why the hell did she act like this? So I'm really glad that during Jidai, Hotaru comes back to the fold, ends up with the good guy Shokichi (who, unlike Jun and Hotaru, became a better person when he grew up), moves back to Furano, and warms up to her dad and family again.

Also, it's nice to see Yukiko back. She was always one of my favorite characters, even though I feel the story often neglects her. It's a shame about Sota though.

But the anchor throughout this entire epic series is Tanaka Kunie and his amazing acting. The scene at the end of part 1 when Hotaru and Shokichi tell him that they're getting married and Hotaru is pregnant is one that I want to watch again and again. The emotions that wash over Tanaka's face are just incredible. This is a true master class in acting by this veteran actor. What an incredibly moving scene delivered by one of Japan's greatest actors, may he RIP.

I really hope that the last special matches the quality of this one and ends the series on a positive note.

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