Kyoko Saito: "Nukarumi no Shokutaku" drama, episode three of nine recap

 

 Air Dates: October 21st until December 16, 2023 on TV Asahi, Saturdays at 11:30 pm

Episodes are 24 minutes in length, subs were done by ArPsanSubs

Main Cast: Not too large of a cast as it appears there will only be six major characters. Of course the main one is Kyoko who is my reason for viewing this drama. Wrote most of the below up after watching the first two episodes, will keep updating this section as we go along. This is a nine episode series so will have three batches of three recaps.

 Kyoko Saito as Mia Neijiki.... Young woman of about 24 in age who works at the smallish Super Suzuran market. Until the third episode that is as Mia quit due to her feelings about her manager Natsuo's family. Mia lives with her mother who constantly puts her down but she puts up with it, Mia has zero confidence in herself. The father died eight yeas ago and he too was so strict with his daughter, she's seen no happiness in her life. Until recently as Mia has started an affair with her store manager who is twenty years older, she thinks the world of him and why? His name is Natsuo who is married but his wife is suffering from a mental condition so eventually wanted to break it off with Mia. Who would hear nothing of it and has plans to 'cure' the wife thinking it'll reunite her with Natsuo!? There is another in this ordeal who is the manager's son Haruki who has fallen head over heels for her.... Mia too has feelings for this high school senior.

 Hisashi Yoshizawa as Natsuo Nasukawa.... Did give a lot of info about him above. He's the manager of the Super Suzuran store and is twenty yeas older than Mia. When Natsuo's wife became sick he began an affair with Mia but when the series began it hadn't been going on for too long. When his wife Fumiko's condition became worse Natsuo wanted to end things with Mia as he had to do all of the chores at home which he actually hadn't been doing as it was a pig sty at his apartment! The next character is his eighteen year old son Haruki who is a senior in high school.

Kaito Sakurai as Haruki Nasukawa.... Son of the above man and while skipping school one day had met Mia at the back of his father's store. Haruki has become so smitten with her and the feeling may be mutual but he does have someone who worships him in an eerie way. Her name is Chifuyu and is Natsuo's classmate at school, she's had a crush on him for many years. However Chifuyu has spread rumors around school about the condition of Haruki's mother and how the two once had sex after he pushed himself onto Chifuyu! Which was an out and out lie but she hasn't taken it back and now Haruki has become an outcast at school and is often truant, he is an excellent runner and is on the track team.

Naho Toda as Fumiko Nasugawa.... Through two episodes we haven't met her yet so need to wait until adding in a screenshot, talked about her in Natsuo's bio and will update this part soon. Did see Fumiko in this third episode but will wait until the next recap to add in a screenshot, she's not looking too well. 

Nanoka Hara as Chifuyu Ozaki.... We met her in the second episode and she wants to be with Haruki so desperately, the pair are classmates. The pair have been friends for a while but he wants to end that, Chifuyu comes off as such a sweet young woman but is anything but that! She's spread rumors about the condition of Haruki's mother and has even hinted that he raped her which was such a massive lie.

Mariko Tsutsui as Miyuki Neijiki.... The second screenshot is of Mia's father who died eight years ago, on occasion we will be seeing him in a flashback scene. Miyuki is Mia's mother and she constantly berates her only daughter, this is not a likable mother! The pair do live together and Miyuki often throws in snide remarks such as 'why would any man want you as a wife'!

 

 Not as much seemed to take place in this episode though in a way a lot did happen in a 'quiet way' if that makes sense. We did meet Natsuo's wife Fumiko in this show and will add in a screenshot of her in the next recap, watched the preview for episode four and she'll have more screen time. Wrote this up on December 28th but don't think it was published until January 1st. After this will view the fourth episode, the recap for that and the two shows following that one will be published in about four days. Then just one more trio of recaps after that and let's get to what took place.

 That last recap ended off with Mia putting flyers in the mailbox of her manager/lover Natsuo's mailbox in the hopes his wife would read them. They were all promoting fake services but Mia desperately wanted to talk with the wife Fumiko as it's her that is keeping Mia away from her husband Natsuo!!!! For a week Mia did that and received no calls, wonder if they were thrown away by the son Haruki or Fumiko just didn't read them? **** Near the end it was revealed Fumiko did skim through them but took no action. But also wonder what would have happened if she did call Mia, would she have said she was having an affair with her husband?! Also at the end of that previous episode Mia had seen Haruki, Natsuo's son, check the mailbox and she wondered was he his son? But in this show the subject never went any further but it appears in the next show all the secrets will be exposed!

 At the Super Suzuran market Natsuo had taken the day off for a meeting at the head office. In his absence Mia had checked his desk and will say she is becoming much creepier by the minute! In the desk Mia found an old photo of Natsuo with his family, that's above and the wife Fumiko is an attractive lady. But not so much these days as she has some mental condition and looks twenty years older. Later that same day we saw Fumiko for the first time and so didn't Mia as she was leaving a clinic with her husband Natsuo. Right then Mia began to feel a bit guilty about the affair, so much she ended up quitting her position at the Super Suzuran store and did it without telling Natsuo. For now Mia is just staying at home and hasn't told her cruel mother Miyuki about quitting but Mia soon will have plans on helping Natsuo's family, that will be explained a bit later.

 Sure you read the first two recaps so you also know that like his father Haruki has fallen head over heels for Mia though the pair never met up in this episode. We did see a flashback scene that Haruki had of how he came to know his long time friend Chifuyu. She's had a crush on him for at least five years though Haruki has never really cared about her, it's only because their parents were friends did Haruki even talk with Chifuyu. Once in junior high school Chifuyu had baked some Valentine's chocolates for Haruki which he thought were yummy.... until be discovered a long string in it which almost choked him to death! So since then Haruki has been very leery about Chifuyu and who can blame him, she has a crush on him yet every act of Chifuyu's is a hurtful one towards Haruki and why?

 Back to Mia who was feeling bad about not talking to her manager/lover Natsuo before she quit. But he took the first step into them reuniting and said the pair should meet up which she agreed to but not at a love hotel! Those are the lovers above and while we all knew how infatuated Mia has been with Natsuo never realized until then how he has many of the same feelings, he wants the affair to continue. So doesn't Mia but she kept that to herself, she told Natsuo what about his family(?) but seemed at the time Mia meant more to him than his wife or son! Mia could tell how badly hurt Natsuo was and it's time for her to put Plan B into action. 

 Seeing as how episodes are only 23 minutes in length the recaps will be much shorter than your average drama as this is the final bit but quite a bit did take place in the final 6-7 minutes. Mia knew what clinic Natsuo's wife Fumiko was attending and hung around there in the hope of meeting her. Which did happen and Mia posed as a survey taker for the prefect Health Department, would Fumiko fill out a survey form? That she did and the reason for that was Mia wanted to learn as much info about Fumiko as possible to put her plan into motion, that plan won't be revealed until the next show. Mia can act so sweet and nice which she had done to Fumiko but as you can see when she left Mia was sneering a bit as everything she told the woman was a lie though those lies are a part of Mia's scheme.

 Bit later on Mia did meet up again with her lover/ex-manager Natsuo though didn't say one word about meeting his wife but did say she was doing some volunteer work with the health department! That was no meeting just to chat as the pair did have a tryst in Natsuo's car, no love hotel for a change? After that mini rendezvous Natsuo told Mia she had left some things in her locker at the store, let's go there now to pick them up. Natsuo went into the store alone with Mia waiting in his car, who should have been outside the store at the time but Haruki who once again had skipped school. He saw Mia alone in the front seat and wondered if he should approach her but before he could decide that his father appeared and entered the car, Haruki stood hidden away and thought to himself.... 'Is my father having an affair with the woman I love?'!!!! With that semi cliffhanger this episode came to it's conclusion and so doesn't this recap, so far through three shows it's been a solid watch but wish the creepiness would increase a bit. Below are a few more screenshots of what took place and will be back in about four days with the next trio of recaps.