"Shotengai no Pianist" drama: Episode eight 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 eighth episode

Previous recaps:

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

Episode five .... Episode six .... Episode seven

 Another solid episode but the best part of it was meeting the guest star and sadly it seems it'll be her only appearance in this series. Her name is Ayane Kinoshita who I've heard of slightly but knew nothing of her. She is one cute young woman who will be turning 23 in three months, Ayane graduated from college back in March and she's someone I'd love to do posts for. No major roles but has appeared as a guest star in many dramas, has been in a fair amount of films, has had some radio shows and does quite a bit of modeling work but not the gravure kind. Don't know if it'll be possible but am going to try doing some posts for her, you''ll see her kawainess in so many screenshots.

**** Just the one recap for today and will explain why at the end of the recap.

 That top screenshot is from the end of the seventh episode. Ren was telling Midori how his father had left him and his mother ten years ago but was was supposed to return this year. Not 100% positive but have a strong feeling the series will end off with his father making a return. In this show we were introduced to our sixth composer of the series, this is the first woman and don't think there's been all that many in history. Tekla was a Polish composer who didn't lead a long life, she died at the age of 32 in 1861. She's most known for her composition "Maidens Prayer" which will be the main song featured in this episode, there's a screenshot of her above.

 As mentioned making a guest appearance in this show was Ayane Kinoshita, she's above in the third and fifth screenshots plus will have many more coming up. She plays the character of Mayumi and while we had never seen her this woman was mentioned in the fifth episode, the reason why will be revealed later on. For weeks Mayumi had been passing by the Kajiwara Music Store, she would hang about outside for a minute peering in and then disappear. Midori, who runs the store for her father, had been noticing Mayumi and one Saturday trapped her outside the store. Saturdays is the day when Ren often plays the street piano in the store, as time has gone on more and more of the locals pop in to listen to his superb playing. 

 So with Midori shoving her inside Mayumi entered the music store for the first time. She had a request for a song for Ren to play, of course it was "Maiden Prayer" and legend has it Tekla wrote it about the Virgin Mary. Ren has only returned to playing the piano for about two months now after taking ten years off. But he can still remember the music to every song and played Mayumi's request perfectly. She stuck around and to the surprise of Ren and Midori they have heard of Mayumi, they didn't know her name until now. In the fourth and fifth episodes there was a guest appearance for a street pianist named Yuki, she's now gone off to London to play there which is kind of odd.  

 But before she departed Japan Yuki had been so down on herself and was thinking of quitting the piano. That third screenshot above is from the fifth episode and Mayumi had written such an uplifting comment on Yuki's video channel. That changed Yuki's attitude on playing and perhaps saved her life, Ren knew all about that as he was the one who noticed Maymi's comment first. So the trio had a nice chat for a while though Ren did notice that Mayumi wasn't in high spirits. That she admitted when she was walked home by Ren, Mayumi had been quite down for a while and listening to the music of Yuki had perked her up a bit. But not enough and later that evening Ren called Midori who had also noticed that Mayumi didn't appear to be all that happy, the pair have planned a private party for her the next weekend at the music store.

 The small party was a success and of course Ren delighted everyone with his playing, he had that offer to go back to music school in the third episode and wonder if he should have accepted? During this get together Mayumi admitted she wasn't that good at the piano but came to love classical music while in college. The unhappy part of her life was then revealed and after graduating Mayumi had taken a job working in an office. But to her that was hell as the other employees picked on her quite a bit and made her feel worthless, it got so bad Mayumi ended up quitting. However that wasn't her lowest point as Mayumi did confess she had serious thoughts about ending her life and that made Ren a bit irate. He pointed out all of Mayumi's strengths and how she ended up helping Yuki out, Ren was sincere with his words and Mayumi did leave in better spirits.

 A few days later Mayumi returned to the Kajiwara Music Store with a basket of fresh, home baked rolls for Ren and Midori. Mayumi told the pair her parents were bakers in Hokkaido, she's made the decision to return there to also become a baker. Her wish is to open her own shop but not with just baked goods but also music so once again there was a happy ending to an episode though none of them have been all that sappy. **** But there was still a minute to go in the show and the woman in the top two screenshots below paid a visit to the music store. In the final seconds she told Midori... 'It's my piano and I want it back!'. So that was an unexpected event and because of that will only have this one recap for today. Viewed the next episode which dealt with this woman trying to obtain the street piano and it really was hers at one time. So it appears it will be a two episode story and try to keep those together so will have the recaps for the ninth and tenth shows in about a week.