Titles:
Japanese: Mother (Like Woman and anone, that's the way it's shown in the title credits.)
English: Mother
Broadcast Year: 2010
Subtitled Episodes Available at: Ondramanice
Spoiler-free Synopsis:
A teacher of a second grade class discovers that one of her students, Rena, is being abused, and when it seems like there is little chance for the Japanese equivalent of Child Protective Services to intervene quickly enough, she tries to fake Rena's death, kidnap the girl and attempt to start a new life with her as her mother. In the process, she finds she needs to turn for help to her own mother and discovers secrets in their past that complicate and explain her impulse to help Rena.
Crimes and Misdemeanors:
Child Abuse, Kidnapping, Blackmail, Attempting to Purchase a Family Register
Awards: Best Drama, Best Newcomer, Best Actress, Best Supporting Actress, Best Director, Best Screen Play
Cast:
Okay.
When I reached the end of episode 11 my overwhelming thought was "Who the hell was that actress?" and "They should give her all the awards." Her name is Ashida Mana, and they gave her all the awards. You know how for most child roles the actor cast is chosen to be older than the part they play for a variety of perfectly normal and understandable reasons? The character Michiki Rena is eight years old. Ashida Mana played that role when she was SIX, and her performance in this series will break your heart (fuck: I'm even tearing up as I write this). It's not (as you might expect) the physical abuse or the maybe implied sexual abuse, it's how the series ends. For the Goddess' sake, just fucking go watch it. (ETA: If you've seen Pacific Rim, then you've already seen her - she played the young version of Mako.)
The protagonist, Nao, is played by Matsuyuki Yasuko, who has not appeared in any other of Sakamoto's series, but won the Best Actress award for this performance.
Tanaka Yuko plays Nao's biological mother. She also plays mothers in Woman and anone, but won the Best Supporting Actress award for this performance.
Ono Machiko plays Rena's abusive mother, Kaho, and also plays the protagonist's wife in The Best Divorce.
Ayano Go plays plays the abusive boyfriend of Rena's mother, and also plays the philandering husband Ryo in The Best Divorce.
Beyond Here There Be Spoilers:
I'm pretty certain that Mother would be most people's pick for Sakamoto's best series. It's been remade in both Korea and Turkey, and the Turkish version was a huge hit there as well. While the performances are undeniably great, it is really Sakamoto's writing which allowed everyone to shine. He writes Rena/Tsugumi as sunny and, most important, smart. She does not know her multiplication tables yet, but she will find a way. Nao is icy, but intelligent as well. Motherhood was never something Nao aspired to, but she finds that she could not be less than the best mother she can be when confronted with Tsugumi's need. (Again, fuck: how many tissues will I need to write about this show?)
It's a series called Mother that features at least five mothers. I'm not sure Sakamoto could or should have given us a deeper look at Rena's biological mother: she does at least a couple of horrible things on screen, but I think we can understand her if not sympathize with her. And so she's pretty much no more than a villain. Contrasting her are the four mothers of Nao's family: Nao's adoptive mother, her biological mother, her pregnant sister and Nao herself. The core of this series is the sacrifices and commitments these women are willing to make for their children. As usual in Sakamoto's oeuvre, there are surprises and touching moments,and in this case they reveal what Sakamoto thinks is the essence of motherhood and that is a willingness to do anything for the sake of their children. I think most people would agree that that is an ideal to aspire towards, and that theme is thoroughly explored in this series.
We root for Nao and the renamed Tsugumi even though we know what Nao is doing is the wrong thing to handle Tsugumi's situation. The devastating part of this series is that we are shown that Nao would be great mother for Tsugumi, but, of course, Nao's actions are wrong, and so it cannot be. The one light in the darkness; however, is that the story does not have to end there, and when Tsugumi is old enough they might be able to reconnect.
The series is an exemplar of feminist writing as well. It is entirely about women's agency to the point that the show immediately passes the Bechdel test and would fail to pass many opposite versions of that test. For instance, there are at least two named male characters, but if I recall correctly none of them ever talk to each other let alone talk about anything other than Rena or Nao. Contrariwise, there may have been a discussion or two about Nao's sister's fiancee, but that's about it for any discussion between women about a man.
Mother is an amazing achievement. While the story is firmly planted in the tropes of melodrama - we have the usual array of dying characters and hospital scenes, abuse, misadventures, and crushing disappointments - the series is grounded in both a realistic portrayal of these people's lives and a thorough thematic exploration of what motherhood means to these women. It is about the bonds that form and just how resilient those bonds can be. But it's also about the joy that those bonds provide as well. Watch this series if only for the joy of Ashida Mana's performance.
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