"Itoshii Uso: Yasashii Yami" drama, episode three recap

 

 Air Dates: January 14th until March 18, 2022 on TV-Asahi, Friday nights at 11:15 pm

Episodes are 48 minutes in length, subs were done by Blitz Subs, their motto is doing subs quickly and thus far have lived up to that!

Main Cast: Wrote much of this bio info up after viewing the first episode and will update as we go along. The first six characters are all 29 in age and attended Yamanashi Junior High School. In the first episode they attended their 14th(?) reunion since graduating and all were friends back then.... or were they? A main underlying theme is the fact all of the six main characters are living their lives as a Lie and are hiding some deep secret from their school days....

Haru as Mio Imai.... The drama seems to revolve around Mio who is a very timid person but has been well liked save for two of the main characters. Her dream was to be a manga artist and she works at the Enami Manga Studio editing stories and books. Three years ago Mio did have her first manga but none since then as that book wasn't too successful. She has an enemy at her office named Rie who appears to have stolen some of Mio's stories. Back in school she also had a severe crush on the next person.

Kento Hayashi as Shuichi Amemiya.... Is the president of a small IT company in Tokyo and he seems to be doing very well. Back in school Amemiya was adored by many of his female classmates and that's continued to the present day, it seems secretly he's also had a crush on Mio which he hasn't revealed yet. 

Yuika Motokariya as Reiko Honda.... Mio's best friend back in school and like the above two characters has moved to Tokyo while the next three still reside in Yamanashi. Reiko has been very successful as she works as an attorney but is hiding a secret/lie from Mio that happened when they were in junior high but aren't all six hiding some deep secrets?

Junpei Mizobata as Ryo Fukazawa.... Seems to be the most level headed of the six 'friends' and think he's Mio's mystery fan. Ryo has remained in Yamanashi to work at his family's winery which he will eventually take over, like the others he has a mysterious secret from the past.

Yua Shinkawa as Nanae Iwasaki.... The class 'Princess' but what a cruel and eerie person she was in the first episode.... it was her only appearance before her death! Of all the main characters Nanae's life is the biggest of lies as she has given such a false image of herself on social media but those lies were beginning to crumble around her, especially when she began to stalk Mio! She's was still living in Yamanashi and worked as an OL, none of her dreams worked out.

Tomoka Kurokawa as Yumi Nose.... Final of the six who attended school in Yamanashi and the only person to have gotten married. Yumi is just a housewife with no children and her husband Tadashi is such a strict man, perhaps even a violent person too. However she kept the misery of her marriage hidden until the third show where she met her death....

This picture is from their junior high school reunion that took place early in episode one.

 Rest of the cast who will play a major part in the action.

 Sayuri Matsumura as Rie Okazaki.... She needs no introduction to Nogi fans! Rie works at the same Manga company as Mio and has made life so uncomfortable for her. Rie has stolen at least one of her stories and constantly blames her in front of others for her own mistakes.

Satoshi Tokushige as Tadashi Nose..... Yumi's overbearing and violent(?) husband, a director for the Yamanashi Police.

Mari Nishio as Hiroko Enami.... Owner of the manga company Mio and Rie work at. She's been noticing more and more on how badly Rie has been treating Mio but for now has kept quiet about it though is trying to diffuse this potential time bomb.

Previous recaps, would definitely help to skim through them as so much has happened.

Episode one .... Episode two

 It really would help to at least read some of the last recap even though it was done less then two weeks ago. So many things have already happened in this show and have to admit I needed to skim through episode two's recap. So the main focus in the last show was the death of Nanae and it's a shame Yua's character was killed so early but we do see her in flashbacks. Was her death an accident or did someone push her off a bridge in the woods of Yamanashi? The hunt for the truth was still going on during this show but it did take a backseat to a new development and that will continue on for at least one more show. Don't want to reveal the name until the end but in a huge spoiler yet another of the main cast died at the conclusion of this third episode. That death left me puzzled to an extent so about halfway through this will be taking a break to view the fourth show to answer a few of my questions, let's finally get to this third episode.

 That's Reiko in the bottom screenshot and she's the person who convinced the rest of her friends that Nanae's death was no accident. She could tell by the final photo taken on Nanae's phone as someone else had to be holding it to have taken the photo. That definitely creeped out the other four in the group thinking they may be friends with a killer though none really seemed to be capable of such a deed. Reiko did find much evidence against the suave IT president Amemiya but he had an alibi of answer for everything. So he's kind of in the clear though in my eyes not 100% yet. Yumi still thinks it could be their ex-classmate Nakano and more about this mysterious person during the recap. But as mentioned this investigation by Nanae's friends became the secondary story for a while in this show and it was because of what was taking place in Yumi's household.

 She's married to a man twelve years older than she is, Yumi and her friends are all 29 in age. The husband's name is Tadashi and what a tyrant this man is, actually much worse than that word. Mio had been down in Yamanashi checking on things about Nanae's death when for the first time she visited Yumi's house. Nothing special took place during that visit but after Mio left she realized her scarf had been left behind and returned to the house. And what she viewed upset her so much as Tadashi was really giving his wife the third degree about Mio's visit, did Yumi reveal anything about that fateful day? That fateful day we'll be hearing about more about in the next recap and during that confrontation Tadashi did hurt Yumi's arm badly, Mio was too scared to intervene and stayed hidden away. Soon she crept back to the train station where she called Yumi asking her fiend to bring her the scarf she left. Which happened but the main reason for Mio wanting to see Yumi was to find out what was going on, if the situation was too bad could her friends help Yumi leave her husband? That could prove difficult for Tadashi is a semi psycho who went to the station because Yumi had been gone from the house for all of.... fourteen minutes! He's a much bigger person than Yumi is and she feels there's no chance of escape, for now Mio accepts the situation and headed back to her home in Tokyo.

 At first Mio told everything to her lawyer friend Reiko upon returning to Tokyo who suggested they try calling Yumi once again. They did and that could be the last call for a while as Tadashi answered the phone telling the pair never to call again and soon he just took Yumi's phone away. Besides being a tyrant Tadashi is such a 'clean freak' who has to sterilize every object in the house on a daily basis! Can't understand why Tadashi is like he is, the man comes from a wealthy family and is a director at the Yamanashi police HQ, instead of  tormenting Yumi why doesn't he just leave the marriage? Speaking of that unknown to all was that Yumi had a second cellphone and only used that to call.... her lover! Yes, this very timid woman has been having an affair and that man remains unknown to all. One other note about Tadashi that Reiko discovered is that he had Nanae's case transferred from the prefectural police to the Yamanashi station, soon after he closed the case ruling it an accident.

 So with no way to contact Yumi the group of four had to be ingenious and did come up with a solid plan which did backfire. That's Ryo on the left above, he works for his family's winery and thought if wine was delivered to Yumi's house Mio would have a chance to speak to her frightened friend. However those boxes were taken by the.... bodyguards(!).... of the house, were they for Tadashi because he worked for the police department or did he hire the men to watch over Yumi? Whew, as you can see what an intense state of affairs for Yumi and you can understand why the focus switched from the death of Nanae. So it's back to square one for the four old friends whose main purpose in life has turned to getting Yumi out of that dangerous household but a minor good thing did happen. Mio is a manga artist and in the last show her mate at work Rie had suffered an injury. That was from being pushed in front of a car and the pusher had actually though the woman was Mio! She was assigned to finish a story Rie was working on and didn't have any problem with it as Rie had stolen the story from Mio! But Mio did have her first story in three years appear in a magazine and will she continue the series(?), Rie is still stuck in the hospital and she's also another very creepy character.

 That's Mio above reading her ninth grade diary which she had dug up in the first episode at the group's class reunion, they had buried a time capsule in 2007. You can see how the name Nakano was once again mentioned and in the Summer of 2007 his house had burned down and his two parents perished. After that Nakano left Yamanashi and has never been heard from again but is there some secret Mio or us viewers don't know about the house fire? Have a feeling there is and though none of the five friends have claimed to know anything about Nakano Amemiya let slip that he lost the man's phone number but was able to retract that comment quickly. That comment slipped out while the group was having another meeting on how to get Yumi out of the clutches of Tadashi, perhaps to a shelter or even move in with Mio which may not be too safe. They better hurry as Tadashi's anger is growing by the day, he almost found out about Yumi's affair and even hit her during a phone call from her friends.

 But just before Tadashi hung up the phone Mio thought quickly, after all the call was to possibly save Yumi's life! So off the top of her head Mio said that Sunday there would be a memorial service for Nanae and it's essential that Yumi be in attendance. The last thing Tadashi wanted to do is have Yumi out of his sight but eventually relented but only if he escorted his wife which Mio agreed to. That was all off the top of her head so the she and the group needed to work quickly to get enough guests invited and to set up Ryo's winery for the memorial. The event won't be a ruse as everyone will be there to mourn the death of Nanae but more importantly it could be the final chance for Yumi to escape the clutches of her husband. Reiko had set up a plan for Yumi to give a speech, after it Ryo and Amemiya will keep Tadashi occupied while Mio flees with Yumi through the warehouse in back of the hall. There's no margin of error with the plan but if it works Yumi will be able to escape easily and in a way the plan does work. You wouldn't know it but am taking a break here to view the next episode as I want to be sure about the ending which was easy to understand but there were a few scenarios about a glass of wine.

 That question that I had wasn't really answered in the next episode though that may have been the most intense show to date. While Mio was helping Ryo set up his winery for the memorial there was a brief spark of a romance which was flamed out before it began. It's been easy to tell all along that Ryo has had such a crush on Mio since their school days but to me she's never quite noticed it or hasn't mentioned it. The pair were taking a break and finally Ryo began to tell his crush the true feelings he's had over the years but just couldn't bring himself to a true confession, what an opportunity he blew! Seemed Mio was also waiting to hear some magical words and was a bit disappointed in her friend for not revealing more, doesn't that happen so often in J-dramas? 

 It's now Sunday and the day for Nanae's rushed memorial. Even though this event was created by Mio off the top of her head you'd think something like this would have eventually happened and a large crowd of her older classmates was on hand. Including Yumi who arrived with the overbearing Tadashi, talk about being close as he never took his arm off his wife's shoulder for at last the first half hour they were there. It being Ryo's winery of course the alcohol will be flowing but Tadashi said he drove and couldn't even have one glass of wine. However he was duped by Mio intro having some wine which she said was grape juice, eventually that one turned into a another glass and soon Tadashi's arm slipped off of Yumi's shoulders. That was the chance the group was waiting for, before Tadashi could so anything his wife was whisked away to be informed of the plan. But Yumi had her own plan of escaping from the evil clutches of her husband, she brought a small envelope of poison which she put into a wine glass going to his table, my big question was if the poisoned wine was for Tadashi or was Yumi perhaps going to drink it herself!?!? While giving her speech Yumi noticed she didn't have her glass of wine, Ryo brought a glass from Tadashi's table and guess which one he brought!!

 Yumi gave a brief speech about her deceased friend Nanae, upon it's completion the group's plan went into full gear. Tadashi was blocked off  by Amemiya and Ryo while Mio grabbed Yumi, pushed her into the back warehouse, locked the door and the pair fled to the opposite exit. Outside was a van from the local DV shelter waiting for Yumi but a few yards before arriving at the van she suddenly collapsed and blood began too ooze out of her mouth. This scene takes place in the final half minute or so, naturally Mio is stunned at what's happening to her friend. Yumi knew exactly what was going on and realized she only had a few more seconds to live. With Mio's face close to hers Yumi uttered the words 'It was me who killed Nanae', she spurted out some more blood and that sadly was the end of her life. That also brought this episode to it's conclusion and most of what took place will be explained more in the next recap which is the following post. Does help to view these screenshots, do go over all of the major points but these pics help explain the story a bit better, especially what took place at the memorial.