"Shotengai no Pianist" drama: Episode seven of thirteen recap

 

 Air Dates: October 3rd to December 26, 2022  Monday nights at 10:30 pm on BS Shochiku

Thirteen 25 minute episodes, subs once again done by GEO9875 at DA

Also known as Pianist in the Shopping District

Main Cast: Usually have to update this section often but don't think that's going to happen in this series. Most of the action will be taking place at the Kajiwara Music Store which is in the shopping district in an unnamed small city.

Kiita Komagine as Ren Sawamoto.... Young man about 22 or so in age who works as an electrician. He still lives with his mother and about ten years ago his father disappeared, how and why will probably be revealed later on in the series. Ren is so talented at the piano but ten years ago stopped playing, when his father left? It seems so as the family piano was sold at that time and it appears Ren has found it at the Kajiwara music store, will finding it spark his interest to start playing again?

 Mio Yuki as Modori Kajiwara.... About twenty in age and works at her father's music store, she seems to run the place. Midori isn't all that talented as far as music goes but has a dream to be a painter and wants to attend an art school. No one seems to recognize her talent except for Ren, the pair never met until the first episode.

 Hiroto Yoshimitsu as Yosuke Kajiwara.... Midori's father and seems to be nice man, also a big fan of music and thinks that his daughter doesn't have much talent at painting!

An Hasegawa as Moe Kato.... Daughter of the next woman and is ten years old. Moe loves the piano but has to sneak into the Kajiwara store to play their street piano as her mother hates the the instrument and would rather see her daughter studying 100% of the time. Moe is a beginner but does show a lot of talent and her favorite piece is "Fur Elise" by Beethoven. 

Maki Kubota as Masae Kato.... Moe's mother who as explained hates the piano and owns a clothing shop near the music store, she says the piano is way too loud which I think is a lie.

 Naho Toda as Sakiko Sawamoto.... Ren's mother and to date don't know much about her but seems she's been secretly communicating with Ren's father all these years.

Short promo video for this seventh episode

Previous recaps:

Episode one .... Episode two .... Episode three .... Episode four 

Episode five .... Episode six

 Almost always do a pair of recaps in a row for a series but this will be the only for this drama today. Couple reasons for that, one is that there's an odd number of episodes so after this one will have three pairs of two recaps for the remainder of the series. The other reason is that this is the second half of a two part story and didn't want to wait another week before posting this. May be wise to skim through the previous recap to see where we're at but will mention some things that took place in the last show. Each story focuses on an older composer and one of their famous compositions, for this story it's the English composer Edward Elgar who has been the only one to date who lived in the 20th century. The tune that will be mentioned of him often is "Salut d'Amour".

 In the sixth episode for the first time ever the Furosawa family had visited the Kajiwara Music Store, the father Koji had never known it was there. With him was his teenage son Taichi along with his wife Kaori, she's been in a wheelchair for two years after suffering some sort of attack at home. Luckily Taichi had found his mother in the nick of time and to this day blames his father for her condition as Koji has admitted he was a bit of a workaholic. Doesn't appear as though Kaori can do much of anything such as speak or move her hands but can make some facial expressions, she did in the last episode when her husband played a brief version of "Salut d'Amour".

 The couple's 25th wedding anniversary is fast approaching and Koji wanted to have some sort of event at the music store for Kaori. At their wedding the pair had done a duet of "Salut d'Amour" at the piano and Koji wants to play it for their anniversary. Against that plan was Taichi who asked the store not to let his father hold a party for his mother, that ended the last episode. When this show began Koji had received a call while at the shop that his wife had fainted at home and was in the hospital. She's okay but Koji feels so helpless at not being able to do anything for his wife, but he did have a thought which was that he'll play their favorite song at the shop and have Midori tape everything. Which was what happened and when Kaori viewed the video while still at the hospital it did bring a huge smile to her face.

 Taichi was at the hospital while his mother viewed the video of Koji playing "Salut d'Anour". He saw the smile on his mother's face and realized that he may have been wrong at wanting the mini anniversary party cancelled. So along with his father the pair paid another visit to the Kajiwara Music Store and Taichi asked that the celebration take place, that stunned his father Koji quite a bit. But not Midori and Ren who both had a feeling things would end in a good manner, we didn't see as much of the two leads until the end of the episode. So the anniversary party is back on and before we knew it the day had arrived, there was a small gathering at the store.

That's Koji's wife Kaori right above and she was in her wheelchair while he was playing their favorite song. Up until this point Koji had always played about 2/3's of "Salut d'Amour" and stopped at that point, was it some sort of hang up he had? Ren had noticed that too and no reason was ever explained on why Koji had stopped playing at that point, perhaps his wife had played most of the final bits of the piece? There was a slight pause by Koji when he did hit that point in the composition but he carried on and was able to play the song until it's end. As you can see above Kaori has such a smile on her face and the only time she has any expressions is hearing her husband play their favorite song.

 In a bit of an uplifting moment when Koji finished the song Kaori out her finger on a key and pressed it. That was the first time she had shown any movements with her hands and is it a sign that she may recover? To that Ren had whispered 'The piano works miracles'. We may never know if Kaori will revert back to her old self as the odds are good the Furusawa family probably won't make another appearance but you never know, a happy ending to their story but there's still three minutes to go in this episode. Had been wondering what ever happened to Midori's mother as no info of her had been mentioned, that is until the end of this show.

 Midori had put a photo of her mother on a shelf so she could view the playing of Koji. After the party Ren had asked about the photo, Midori admitted it was one of her mother who died fifteen years ago when she was six in age. Such as the case for Koji and Kaori this would have been the 25th anniversary of her parents being married, what a shame a celebration couldn't be held for her parents too. Midori's father Yosuke had secretly overheard their conversation and wonder if an idea formed in his head? That is of there being a very belated anniversary party and one where Ren will amaze everyone with his playing again. That brought us to the end of this episode and have no clue whether an event such as that will take place but wouldn't be surprised if it does. So that ends this recap and to date this has been one very enjoyable series, will be back with the next pair of recaps in two weeks.