Titles:
Japanese: 問題のあるレストラン or Mondai No Aru Restaurant
English: A Restaurant With Many Problems
Broadcast Year: 2015
Subtitled Episodes Available at: Kissasian
Spoiler-free Synopsis:
Tanaka Tamako is working at the headquarters of a large restaurant corporation happily preparing the launch of new restaurant as the prototype for a new chain when she learns that one of her friends from high school, Fujimura Satsuki, had been subjected to blatant sexual harassment by the president of the corporation and a room full of the entirely male corporate leadership. Tamako exits the corporation in a blaze of glory, dousing most of Satsuki's harassers with buckets of ice water. She then recruits a bunch of misfits including the president's abandoned daughter to start a largely al fresco restaurant on the top of a building across the street from the restaurant she had been preparing and where her ex-boyfriend is now the chef. The group struggles to open the restaurant and bring it to profitability while dealing with the competition from the corporation and the personal aftereffects of the institutional sexism of the corporation.
Crimes and Misdemeanors:
Blatant Sexual Harassment, Subtle Sexual Harassment, Institutional Sexual Harassment, Stalking, Physical Assault, Parental Kidnapping, Attempted Murder
Awards: Best Supporting Actress
Cast:
Maki Yoko plays the protagonist, Tanaka Tamako, but this series is very much a large ensemble piece. She also plays one of the four principal roles in The Best Divorce.
Takahaka Mitsuki plays the victim of internalized sexual oppression Kawana Airi for which she won the Best Supporting Actress award. She has not appeared in any other of Sakamoto's series.
YOU, the first host of Terrace House, plays Karasumori Nanami a hanger-on who has a surprising background.
Matsuoka Mayu plays the restaurant's otaku chef and was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress. She has not appeared in another of Sakamoto's series but was in the asadora Amachan as one of the idols.
Nikaido Fumi plays Nitta Fumi, the Tohai graduate who cannot find another job. She also played the step sister in Woman.
Yashuda Ken plays the gay transvestite dessert chef Oshimazuki Haiji. He has not appeared in any other of Sakamoto's series.
Kazama Shunsuke plays the supportive fiancee of Fujimura Satsuki. He also played the psychopath in Soredemo, Ikite Yuku.
Beyond Here There Be Spoilers:
Yeah, it's the first Sakamoto series I ever watched, and now I have to argue that it's better than Mother despite its receiving far fewer accolades. Like Mother this series has been remade in another country - China, in this case. Like Mother it is a highly feminist work here examining all aspects of workplace sexual harassment. Unlike Mother, however, it is a comedy, and that is probably the biggest factor which made me fall in love with this series to the point that I would want to seek out the rest of Sakamoto's recent work to place in context via this series of blog entries.
I love these characters, and I get an impulse to revisit them occasionally. Part of that bonding comes from the structure of the show in that most of the crew of Bistro Fou are given at least one episode where their story comes to the foreground where we see their particular encounter with sexism and how they heal and grow beyond it. Almost all of these women are not conforming to their culture's expectations for their gender, and they are constantly being beaten back for not doing so. And the few characters who do conform are also punished for doing so. It is not hard to write a show to say that sexism is bad, but this show excels at particularizing the myriad of ways sexism is bad.
Tanaka, Satsuki and Kyoko are friends who had been in their high school kendo club together. Both Tanaka and Satsuki's stories form the through-lines for the series, but Kyoko's story is the center for the second episode. She has married and had a son, but her husband has left her because she has not lived up to the impossible standards of wifely duties that his mother had set. Kyoko had to cook and clean and care for both her son and his mother, and her ex-husband constantly berates her not being good at any of those tasks. Her self-esteem is low, and she is almost convinced that she deserves to lose her son, but the restaurant teaches her that she already can cook and that she deserves so much more from her ex.
Mayu is probably my favorite character though likely the most implausible. We see her transform from an introverted otaku who literally refuses to talk to anyone into a bright young women who can share her gifts and the things she enjoys. Her story is probably the most extreme of the group, but all I can say is that I bought it and was moved. She discovers that her and her mother's abandonment by her father has resulted in her becoming an amazing chef and that those skills are broadly appreciated by the staff and the customers.
Fumi is an ambitious young business women whose ambitions are constantly stifled by institutional sexism. She has no desire to get married, but, nevertheless, she is never allowed to advance because the assumption is that she will. She wants nothing more than to make strong business cases and grow her career, but she is literally laughed out of the room. Bistro Fou values her for who she is and accepts the fact that she will always be looking for a role which will challenge her.
Mitsuki stays at the sexist corporation longer than any of the rest. She embraces being the girl that the company wants her to be even if that means being groped but otherwise ignored. However, she attracts a stalker, and her refusal of his advances turns violent and she finds refuge and healing with the rest of misfits at Bistro Fou.
Haiji is a stereotype and comic relief, and, yet, somehow the character works in this piece. He is a gay transvestite who, nevertheless, does not feel misgendered. His character is given maybe half an episode where we see that his brother, who is his one remaining blood relation, fully accepts Haiji as he is. The fact that he wears women's clothing is never played for laughs, but while his performance is pretty broad he is consistently respected by the rest of the crew at Bistro Fou as a multidimensional human being like all the rest.
The resolution of Satsuki's story line forms the final episodes of the series, and it where YOU as Nanami is allowed to shine. The blatant sexual harassment of Satsuki ultimately brings down the corporation and Mayu's father. But it's not a victory that brings anyone any joy. Instead, everyone is left worse off for its having happened. Bistro Fou must close as well because its existence was always quixotic, and one single spoon is enough to tip its precarious balance. The final scene, however, is a button that says that this marvelous, happy family that formed Bistro Fou will, nevertheless, keep fighting the good fight.
Mother does a masterful job at tearing you apart, but Mondai No Aru Restaurant succeeds at the harder task of putting you back together. And that's why Mondai No Aru Restaurant tops the list of Sakamoto's series for me. I want to be with these people and experience their healings and their laughter all over again.
No comments:
Post a Comment