Kyoko Saito: "Nukarumi no Shokutaku" drama, episode four 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. The setting has never been mentioned but the location is a smallish city.

 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....  That's Fumiko below on the left, her mental condition has been improving thanks to Mia and in real life Naho really is a very attractive woman. She's been married to Natsuo for twenty years and it's her problems that have prevented him and Mia from continuing their affair!

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'!

Previous recaps: 

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

 

 Will have another trio of recaps for today and the eeriness did increase a bit in this episode. Now have the links above to the previous episodes, would help to understand the story much better if you did read them and none of the posts were all that long. The last episode ended off with a bit of a cliffhanger but it really didn't continue on into this show, some references were made of what took place though very little. Not much else to add in so let's get to this fourth episode.

 That semi 'cliffhanger' that ended the last episode was of Haruki seeing his father Natsuo in a car with his dream woman Mia.... and the pair were smooching! This show didn't open up with that scene but later on Haruki, in the second to last screenshot, did make a sly comment to his father about seeing another woman which of course Natsuo denied. We didn't see Haruki much at all until the very end, the same goes for his wanna-be girlfriend Chifuyu who is right above. She is one deranged high school student who loves Haruki to no end, he's never returned those feelings. He had said there's someone else who he has an intense crush on and Chifuyu was going through the class roster trying to figure out who, it was her only scene of the show. **** Did say things were getting a bit more creepy in this episode, check out the third to last screenshot. It's of Mia daydreaming and you can see how she hopes her future turns out!!!!

 But that future will only happen if her ex-manager/lover's Natsuo's wife can improve from her unknown mental ailment. In episode two Mia had put flyers in the family's mailbox hoping the wife Fumiko would contact her which didn't happen. So near the end of the third episode Mia posed as an employee from the prefect Health Department and approached Fumiko outside of her clinic, that's the top screenshot. Mia gave her another flyer and said if she ever needed help or anyone to talk to call Mia up, everything Mia said about help at the time was a lie. A few days later the unexpected took place as Fumiko did send Mia an e-mail and said she was struggling, Mia had also added in she worked with a support group. There were a few other messages sent between the two and before long, as Mia says to herself above, Natsuo's wife is now depending upon her more than her husband! But if Mia was to be of 'help' she really did need to know what she was talking about so began to spend her days at the library studying up on mental illnesses, her cruel mother still doesn't know Mia quit her job at the market.

 A few more days passed by with Mia and Fumiko growing a bit closer by sending e-mails and Mia always knew what helpful advice to tell Fumiko. Then in a surprise for the first time Fumiko called her on the phone, her toilet is backed up and can she help? Fumiko didn't want to call a plumber as their apartment looked like the city dump as you can see in the second screenshot above. Mia arrived and it wasn't a difficult task to unclog the toilet which she did quickly, now she's Fumiko's savior! After that day their relationship grew so much closer as Mia would visit her on most days. Have to add in that Fumiko was always alone as her husband Natsuo was at work and her son Haruki at school though knowing him he was probably truant. Mia is a klutz when it comes to cooking but to give thanks Fumiko gave her some crash courses in the kitchen, the pair made a yummy bread gratin dish which Fumiko even gave to Natsuo for dinner. 

 At this point Natsuo still had no clue that Mia has been visiting his apartment most days to help out Fumiko, neither does Haruki but soon that will change. What has changed immensely is Fumiko and being with Mia has helped her out much more than visiting that clinic. As a matter of fact compare the second and fifth screenshots above as Fumiko is becoming more responsible and the apartment is no longer an extension of the city garbage dump! Natsuo had been under the impression that the clinic doctors have been helping Fumiko out, he's soon to learn the truth. With his wife doing so much better Natsuo has more free time and contacted Mia who he truly had been missing, he said perhaps it's time to begin their love affair again and of course he didn't have to ask Mia twice!!!!

 Don't think the pair have visited a love hotel again but mainly met a few times for lunch or just to talk. When Natsuo talked about how much Fumiko has improved Mia finally confessed and said it was her who was helping Fumiko out! Naturally that stunned Natsuo but Mia quickly added in she had been working hard with her support group which was a huge lie. In the last show Mia had told him after quitting the market she had begun to study as a counselor and joined a support group for more training. So to Natsuo Mia is once again his 'savior' and what an expert therapist she's become almost overnight! It is true helping Fumiko out is part of Mia's 'grand scheme' but she really has made such a difference in the woman's life, every change has been a positive one. So to repay Mia Fumiko invited her over that Sunday for dinner, how can Mia be with Fumiko and Natsuo in the same room?!

 Not to worry was Natsuo's answer and perhaps this dinner will work to their advantage. That Sunday Mia arrived a bit early to help Fumiko with dinner, Natsuo wasn't there yet but when he came home there were the two women he loved making his meal!!!! It was kind of an odd scene and soon Natsuo did tell his wife Mia had once worked at his market but quit to study counseling, Fumiko bought the story. We're down to the final minute and there's one more person who will be at dinner, that's the son Haruki! Needless to say he was stunned when he saw Mia in his family's apartment and Mia confessed she knew Haruki slightly from the store. So what an uncomfortable scene it was to end this show and sure it will continue on into the next episode. Fumiko is thinking her life is getting better by the second, Haruki was too dazed to say anything, Natsuo is happy Mia is back in his life and had been petting her leg with his during the dinner and of course Mia was content that her scheme was working out successfully. That may have been the best show to date, the next post has the recap for the fifth episode which I haven't viewed yet.