"Imadoki no Wakai Mon wa" drama, episode five recap

 

 Air Dates: April 9th to May 28, 2022 on WOWOW, Saturdays at 10:30 pm

Subs were done by Deedlitmurata at DA, episodes are 25+ minutes in length

Also can be known by the title Young People Nowadays....

Main Cast: Wrote much of this up after only viewing the first show, some characters we didn't get to meet or know too well so will be updating this as time goes on.

Takashi Sorimachi as Hajime Ishizawa.... Chief of the Sales Department A at Mitsuhashi Shouji Trading company. He's a man close to fifty who is a bit quiet at the office yet the employees there dread Ishizawa and go out of their way to avoid him..... save for the rookie worker Ayumi! Ishizawa doesn't understand the younger generation so well which is a reason he's too quiet even though he's the chief of sales. Ishizawa has been with the company for almost 25 years and he also started out as a regular office worker. Ishizawa is also divorced and the rumor was it happened because he had an affair with a temp worker.

Haruka Fukuhara  as Ayumi Mugita.... Has only been at the company for a month and wonder why she's there? Ayumi went to college for Humanities and said she's very bad at numbers which she's proved over and over which in the beginning infuriated her senpai Funaki. But Ayumi never stops trying and the chief Ishizawa for some reason has grown quite fond of her.

Kaito Nakamura as Shun Funaki.... Works a bit closely with Ayumi at the office and at first was always upset with her performance until Ishizawa set him straight. Funaki's problem is that he's a perfectionist and expects others to be too, will his ways come back to haunt him?

Takashi Fujii as Ryoji Ebisu.... Chief of Sales Department B who had been trained by Ishizawa twenty years ago. He's a very strict man to work for and most employees dislike him though Ebisu does try to help everyone hut has a hard time communicating.

Masato Hagiwara as Hiroshi Kazama.... Is still at the company but unsure what his current position is, he's been Ishizawa's best friend for many years.

Ayame Misaki as Sanako Inukai.... Female worker at the office who oversees the work of Ayumi and Funaki.

Atsushi Shinohara as Hideki Kora..... Older male worker at the trading company who refuses to ever work overtime.

Ami Tomite as Hitomi Mugita.... Ayumi's older sister who also lives in Tokyo but the pair seem to have grown up far from the city.

Karen Otomo as The Mysterious Woman.... That's what she's called as she may never have a name? This woman is in her early twenties and Ayumi was wondering is she having an affair with her boss? The answer to that is no as we learned in the fourth episode her name is Mii-chan and is the daughter of Ishizawa.

On the right is Funaki but the more important person is Ishizawa on the left, that saying "Jeez, young people these days...." is one he utters quite often in an episode. In this episode alone took four screenshots of him uttering that soon to be famous line!

 Links to the previous recaps:

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

 Really zipping through this series, granted it helps when an episode is just 25+ minutes in length but what that mainly means is there's no filler and the action moves right along. A key reason I'm enjoying this drama so much is that the story is believable, no sci-fi or fantasy, etc. save for one scene in the next show. If you work in an office and I have for some years now then it's easy to relate to what's going on. Hope to have these final four recaps viewed and written up by Tuesday.... and for a change did!!!!

 For the most part the characters of Ayumi and Ishizawa have dominated the screen time to date which makes sense as they're the two leads. But in this and the next episode we finally see more of two characters and it does help a series when the rest of the cast play important roles. Knew nothing about the character of Sanako until the final eight minutes of this show, she also is a ley figure in the sixth episode but haven't viewed any show past that yet. We're going to be starting off with the story of Kora who is a regular trader and close to forty in age, after you read his tale the question is will we be seeing him again?

 Always have to include some screenshots of Ishizawa saying his famous line(!) though he's not that much older than Kora who is on the left. In that top screenshot Funaki is berating Kora for messing up some documents plus not getting them done in time, if there's one thing Kora won't do is work any overtime. But he just may be the most efficient worker in the Mitsuhashi sales department and Kora can do more in one day than most can in a week! However his work has slipped drastically over the last few weeks and a client even cancelled their contract as you can see above. That man is Kazama who we still haven't seen much of yet but he has a story that ends off the next recap. Very little escapes the eye of the office chief Ishizawa and he's been noticing how tired Kora has been lately, even Ayumi made a comment about that above. Kora insisted everything was oki doki and everyone has bad days or stretches but that had never happened before with him.

 Later on that day after Kora had left Ishizawa found a flyer next to the copy machine and that's the second screenshot above. Seems Kora has been spending all of his free time writing up a screenplay for a contest and the prizes are some very good ones for an aspiring writer. So that's why Kora has been so beaten down as of late and Ishizawa finally brought him to his special meeting room... which is the roof of the building! Kora did admit that screenplay has been the cause of his work suffering and he had been getting very little sleep in order to finish the script which is now done. Ishizawa didn't order his very efficient employee to do this or that but did say sooner or later he has to decide which is more important. Well, that decision was an easy one for a few days later Kora received a call at the office, the screenplay for his story "Someday With You" won the grand prize! So that decision was kind of a shocking one to me and the rest of the office as Kora handed in his resignation, he's going to be a full time writer and on the day he left Kora was brought out to a drinking session by Ishizawa.

 As we saw in the second episode Kora cannot handle his alcohol, for this occasion he just had two drinks and bid farewell to his now ex-comrades. Kora did mention perhaps a good idea for a story would be of his adventures working under Ishizawa, will we ever see this man again? Unlike Kora Ayumi can handle her alcohol, seems like she can drink anyone under the table! So for a while she, Ishizawa and Kazama sat around talking about whatever, mainly about what their dreams are or were. Kazama also can't handle drinking that well as he was sloshed early but that didn't stop him from guzzling down more beer, that seems to be Ayumi's fave choice of the spirits. Kazama's dream for so many years was to open his own office in downtown Tokyo, he'd be the owner/president while he would appoint his oldest fiend Ishizawa to be the main director. Kazama is getting up there in age so it doesn't appear his dream will ever come true. Ayumi also chipped in her dream which growing up was to be a manga artist or a mangaka, have no clue if she's good or not at drawing. The chief told a story of growing up poor and Ayumi thought his dream was to escape that kind of life, but as you can see above Ishizawa was joking and was referring to the wrestler Gouda.

 Ayumi didn't say it but think she has the impression that rags to riches story was Ishizawa's true bio, I think that way too. The night ended as the trio still had to work the next day and Kamaza was sent home in a drunken stupor in a cab. So we learned a bit about Kora but he's gone now, what about the other character who finally got some decent screen time? That's Sanako and until now had no idea what her role was at the Mitushashi sales office. She is a trader like everyone else but also supervises Ayumi and Funaki. Sanako has always been such an efficient worker but for the past month she's really been in hyper drive and as you can see below that hard work has paid off! For the first time ever Sanako was the monthly MVP at the company and while many would bask in the glory for a few days Sanako actually was working harder. Like some others in the office she has more work as she took over many of Kora's accounts.

 

 Everyone has their limits on what they can do, Sanako hit that stage and hoped the rest of the office wouldn't notice that her work began to slip. Sanako is often a very stern person though has a pleasant demeanor about her but she began to smile even more as of late and to act nicer to everyone. That was so they may not notice her recent mistakes but there's not much Ishizawa misses at the office though at first he didn't say anything about Sanako's performance. However she was brought into the VP's office where he slightly berated her for the sloppy work she did on a project and that other company may pull their account! That's when Ishizawa decided it was time for him to jump into action and Sanako was brought to his special.... rooftop office!

 Ishizawa is such a fair boss and wonder why so many at the company are frightened of him. He didn't put down Sanako at all and really just wondered what's been up with her as of late? She confessed that morning one of her parents was admitted to a hospital and had been very sick for a while. Sanako wasn't close to her parents but still worried about them and that has played a part in her work performance dipping. Ishizawa understood completely and ordered Sanako to take some time off to visit her parent, don't worry as he'll make sure the work is done. That is a bit of a problem with Sanako as she doesn't trust others to help her on a project, she reluctantly agreed to take some time off which brings us to the end of this recap. Sanako will also have some decent screen time in the next recap which is the next post.

"Imadoki no Wakai Mon wa" drama, episode six recap

 

 Air Dates: April 9th to May 28, 2022 on WOWOW, Saturdays at 10:30 pm

Subs were done by Deedlitmurata at DA, episodes are 25+ minutes in length

Also can be known by the title Young People Nowadays....

Main Cast: Wrote much of this up after only viewing the first show, some characters we didn't get to meet or know too well so will be updating this as time goes on.

Takashi Sorimachi as Hajime Ishizawa.... Chief of the Sales Department A at Mitsuhashi Shouji Trading company. He's a man close to fifty who is a bit quiet at the office yet the employees there dread Ishizawa and go out of their way to avoid him..... save for the rookie worker Ayumi! Ishizawa doesn't understand the younger generation so well which is a reason he's too quiet even though he's the chief of sales. Ishizawa has been with the company for almost 25 years and he also started out as a regular office worker. Ishizawa is also divorced and the rumor was it happened because he had an affair with a temp worker.

Haruka Fukuhara  as Ayumi Mugita.... Has only been at the company for a month and wonder why she's there? Ayumi went to college for Humanities and said she's very bad at numbers which she's proved over and over which in the beginning infuriated her senpai Funaki. But Ayumi never stops trying and the chief Ishizawa for some reason has grown quite fond of her.

Kaito Nakamura as Shun Funaki.... Works a bit closely with Ayumi at the office and at first was always upset with her performance until Ishizawa set him straight. Funaki's problem is that he's a perfectionist and expects others to be too, will his ways come back to haunt him?

Takashi Fujii as Ryoji Ebisu.... Chief of Sales Department B who had been trained by Ishizawa twenty years ago. He's a very strict man to work for and most employees dislike him though Ebisu does try to help everyone hut has a hard time communicating.

Masato Hagiwara as Hiroshi Kazama.... Is still at the company but unsure what his current position is, he's been Ishizawa's best friend for many years.

Ayame Misaki as Sanako Inukai.... Female worker at the office who oversees the work of Ayumi and Funaki.

Atsushi Shinohara as Hideki Kora..... Older male worker at the trading company who refuses to ever work overtime.

Ami Tomite as Hitomi Mugita.... Ayumi's older sister who also lives in Tokyo but the pair seem to have grown up far from the city.

Karen Otomo as The Mysterious Woman.... That's what she's called as she may never have a name? This woman is in her early twenties and Ayumi was wondering is she having an affair with her boss? The answer to that is no as we learned in the fourth episode her name is Mii-chan and is the daughter of Ishizawa.

On the right is Funaki but the more important person is Ishizawa on the left, that saying "Jeez, young people these days...." is one he utters quite often in an episode. In this episode alone took four screenshots of him uttering that soon to be famous line!

 Links to the previous recaps:

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

 

 To date these have been stand alone stories for the episodes but Sanako's forced leave to care for her parents continues on from the last show. She had one heavy case load and as her chief Ishizawa found out it's not so easy to fill Sanako's shoes. He himself took on a project for Nishishiba Electric and drafted Ayumi to help him out with the account. By now Ayumi has probably been at the Mitsuhashi company for close to three months but she still has a lot to learn and even the things she does know seems to take her much longer to do compared to others at the office. So on this project Ayumi pulled yet another all-nighter and Ishizawa had a strong feeling this would happen but at least tis time around Ayumi completed a project and to Ishizawa's surprise it actually looked perfect. However working late so many nights has caught up with Ayumi who was practically sleeping on her feet, Ayumi knew she needed some sort of pep break to revive her and tried dashing off to wherever but in her haste slammed hard into Ishizawa sending both flying to the ground!

In the last recap said one of the positives about this drama is that it's been so believable and has been a regular life show many of us can relate to. That is save for a scene which was this one for a very odd event happened after Ayumi crashed into her chief Ishizawa.... somehow the spirits of their bodies transferred into the other person! So Ayumi now has the body of Ishizawa though it's still her own brain and vice versa! Who knows how something like that could occur but for now the pair said to just live out the day pretending to be each other and at least both learned what the other has to go through each day. Especially Ishizawa who never knew the mundane tasks Ayumi had to complete each day though it was somewhat humorous when he was laughing reading her mangas. Least Ishizawa had done that kind of work before so he didn't have any problems during the day doing those tasks. Same can't be said for Ayumi as her boss as so many employees at Mitsuhashi looked towards Ishizawa for answers plus he seemed to have so many daily meetings. Sanako's time off didn't last more than a few hours as she made a return and she did bail out Ayumi as Ishizawa at one of those meetings.

 By the end of the work day this 'transformation' ceased as the pair's spirits reverted back to their own bodies. But there was one more event before that happened and it had to do with Ayumi meeting up again with a man named Takenaka who we met in the third show. He's an old timer who still believes that business deals should be made while drinking heavily at a bar/restaurant. Ayumi was uncomfortable with those kinds of situations and at the time Ishizawa told her not to attend those drinking sessions if it made her feel that way. Takenaka made a return and once again wanted to settle the details of his project with another night of drinking, unknown to him he was talking to Ishizawa at the time! This man Takenaka was put in his place by Ishizawa as didn't Takenaka know that activities such as that are considered harassment these days?! That term when someone brings a person(s) out to do deals drinking booze is called Corporate Entertainment. Takenaka didn't know what to say and wondered why was a vey young woman berating such an older man(?), of course it wasn't Ayumi spewing out those words and never did learn what the outcome of the deal was,

 So mentioned that Sanako's leave of absence was brief as she returned the afternoon of that eerie body switching of Ayumi and Ishizawa. The following day things were back to normal or were they? Seems over the past few months Sanako has developed a crush on her underling Funaki, we learned in this show she's his and Ayumi's supervisor. Not much escapes the eye of Ishizawa but Sanako's feelings towards Funaki did, that is until Sanako asked her chief what to get Funaki for his upcoming birthday? Hearing that news stunned Ishizawa but he can keep things hidden well and at first had no clue what kind of gift to give Funaki. He's considered to be a 'clean freak' and is also very anal about what he eats. But Ishizawa knows he has a sweet tooth so he asked his daughter Mii-chan what would be a nice present. She suggested some expensive organic chocolate which Ishizawa told Sanako about, of course it was his idea! So Sanako did take her chief's advice on the chocolate but was a bit too shy to give Funaki the whole box of them. She ended up giving one piece to many at the office and saved Funaki's for last as a birthday gift, that was the last we heard of Sanako's crush in this episode.

 Every episode is cut up into three 8-9 minute scenes or stories, two were discussed and the last scene had to deal with Kazama though he wasn't in it. We've still only seen Kazama here and there over the course of this show, he began at Mitsuhashi the same time Ishizawa did and seems Kazama's current position may be a higher one. The situation is that a woman in his department named Yamashita is accusing Kazama of touching her improperly and making lewd comments. The Personnel Department of Mistsuhashi is conducting an investigation and they brought in everyone from Ishizawa's sales department to give their views and info on Kazama. And most put the man in such a bright light, he may do things an odd way but Kazama cares so much for all of his employees. So though many in Kazama's unit may feel uncomfortable at times around him none really had a bad thing to say about the man save for that one woman Yamashita and there's a reason for that.

 Funaki's testimony was the icebreaker as far as this accusation went, did the Personnel Department know much about Yamashita? They didn't and it seems that this woman has had a crush on Kazama for so long but he's refused her advances as he's happily married, to a woman he proposed to on the street!!!! Plus Funaki has heard stories that Yamashita had been calling Kazama's house and leaving threatening messages to his wife. So with that testimony and what others had to say about Kazama as a person it looks like this case was dropped. After writing the above paragraph viewed the seventh show and there was no mention of this harassment case. So this show ended on a good note as though Kazama can be a bit irritating at times he seems like a decent man. He'll get a lot of screen time in the next show which has to do with the an important event him and Ishizawa went through sixteen years ago and that's the next post.