Con the TV series Asuras, Hirokazu Kore-edacult Japanese director debuts on Netflix with a story in 7 episodes on the composite universe of parental affections and the meaning of the family (central theme of his poetics). At the center of the story (taken from the novel of the same name by Mukoda Kuniko) there are four sisters who, in 1970s Tokyo, discover a shocking paternal secret.
Asurasthe plot of the Netflix series
Tokyo, 1979. The young librarian Takiko Takezawa (Yu Aoi) call the sisters Tsunako, Makiko and Sakiko, asking to meet them. Relations with them are not excellent, he hasn’t seen them for a long time but has shocking news to reveal. He found that his father Kotaro (Jun Kunimura) for a long time carries on a relationship with another woman. Not only that: The private investigator (Ryuhei Matsuda) she hired revealed to her that Kotaro and the woman had a babytheir half-brother.
The family reunion doesn’t go as Takiko expected. Makiko (Machiko Ono), the eldest of the sisters, housewife and mother of two children, married to Takao (Masahiro Motoki), he would like to leave his mother in the dark about the secret Fuji (Keiko Matsuzaka).
Sakiko (Suzu Hirose) is annoyed but he scolds Takiko for this revelation. Tsunako (Rie Miyazawa), widow and teacher of Ikebana and flower arrangements, in turn lover of her boss, it is the one in most difficulty in understanding what decision to make.
The female cast of “Asura” (Netflix)
Asurasthe consequences of the truth
The secret revealed has unpredictable consequences not only on the relationships between the four sisters but also explodes in the families of each of them. Thus buried conflicts and emotional difficulties emerge. Makikohousewife who lives for her family, understands that, at her husband’s insistence Takao in not revealing the extramarital affair to his mother-in-law, there is a man who in turn could cheat on her.
Despite clumsy attempts to hide the evidence of the crime and an ever-increasing sense of bewilderment, themother of the four women, Fuji nevertheless discovers the truth. It happens by chance. A toy car found in her husband’s pockets turns her suspicions into certainty. Nothing will be like before.
All of the Takezawas are now aware of the relationship and the existence of their half-brother but, by nature and education, they avoid the topic, thus absorbed by their long-hidden emotional problems. Life goes on anyway between unexpected marriages, accidents, lost and found affections. The father’s betrayal is the detonator for inevitable changesremained suspended by convention, out of fear and generational issues.
The review of the new Netflix series
In the series yes merge two narrative strands: the first unfolds with da tones soap opera, with moments of classic melodrama, among arguments and twists. The second And an analysis depth of the condition of women of the Seventies and, consequently, of the current era. The result is full of color and humanity.
The betrayal of his father Kotaro, a rather ordinary seventy-year-old who divides his time between two relationships, has an impact on the women in his family, not just for emotional issues. The bitter acceptance of the event, which contrasts with the desire for escape and radical change, And the price to pay to maintain one’s role in society. The only possible freedom is actually fictitious: it is the one that must come to terms with conventions. The same attitude is shared by all the protagonists, with the exception of the restless Sakiko.
Kore-Eda manages to talk about emotional turmoil of its splendid protagonists working by subtraction. Letting the looks and actions speak. A serene woman like Fuji, upon finding the infamous toy car, gives in to anger and frustration and throws it against the wall. The hole it leaves, and which remains visible to all, becomes a metaphor for the truth that can no longer be hidden.
Ryuhei Matsuda is the investigator, Yu Aoi is Takako in “Asura” (Netflix)
Likewise, when Makiko discovers Tsunako’s affair with her boss, the sisters’ quarrel shows the eternal conflict between desire and sense of duty. Despite the dramas and the difficulties, the series maintains surprising fun and ironic tones. This gentle and lively humor gives complexity and three-dimensionality to each character.
What does it mean Asuras?
According to the ancient and sacred Vedic texts of Hinduism, Asura is a being endowed with occult power both evil and beneficial. A God and a Demon. The 4 protagonists embody this divinity, an archetype in which good and evil coexist.
But Asura also seems to move the threads of the story. As in Takiko’s love story with the bespectacled and shy private investigator. The bearer of bad news becomes, at the same time, a source of great happiness. To illuminate the series, of pure beauty, the actors take care of it. A perfect and close-knit cast in which Jun Kunimara as Kotaro and Machiko Ono as Makiko shine.
iO Donna © ALL RIGHTS RESERVED