Official Website
www.nhk.or.jp/drama/49nichi
Broadcast
Tuesdays, 10.00 – 10.55 p.m. from 15 February 2011
Station
NHK
Story
Two weeks after her adoptive mother, Atsuta Otomi, passed away, Endo Yuriko returns to her family home. She is not visiting because she feels anxious for her father, Ryohei, who has lost his will to live as a result of his wife’s death. She has come back because she has decided to divorce her husband, Hiroyuki. However, when Yuriko returns home, a young lady who calls herself Imoto Sachie walks right into the house. Sachie says she will help in housework and everything else until the 49th day and this seems to have been at Otomi’s request. Furthermore, she tells everyone in the household that it is Otomi’s wish to have a big feast and not a Buddhist memorial service on her 49th day. At first, father and daughter are opposed to the idea, but when they learn of the existence of a recipe which Otomi had left behind, they gradually begin to think they can do it … …
Characters
Wakui Emi as Endo Yuriko
Her birth mother died when she was young and she was lovingly raised by Atsuta Otomi, who became her father’s second wife. It was not that she was on bad terms with Otomi, but that she somehow could not open up to her. And now she regrets it. Yuriko married more than 10 years ago and has continued to undergo fertility treatment. However, she has recently given up on the treatment because the results were not satisfactory. Around that time, she discovered her husband’s extramarital affair. Losing confidence in her way of life, she returns to the family home just after her mother died.
Fubuki Jun as Atsuta Otomi
She had no relatives and led a life of many hardships, but felt happiest when she married her beloved Atsuta Ryohei at the age of 38 and became Yuriko’s mother. Yuriko shortened “Otomi-kaasan” and took to calling her “Okka”. Because of her characteristic cheerfulness, she was like a person who continued to light up the Atsuta household like the sun. She has recently been working as a volunteer at a correctional facility for young girls, and has a good relationship with them. The ‘recipe for life’ which she left behind, saves Ryohei and Yuriko from despair.
Tokunaga Eri as Imoto Sachie
She had no ties with her family and was a girl who repeatedly ran away from home and misbehaved. It was only when she entered the correctional facility where Otomi worked at that she began to realise she could trust adults. She appears at the Atsuta household to try to fulfill Otomi’s request to “take care of her husband until the 49th day if she died, and hand the ‘recipe of life’ to him”. She is sensitive to people’s emotional pain, and becomes something like Otomi to Atsuta Ryohei and Endo Yuriko.
Watabe Gota as Harumi
A Brazilian youth of Japanese descent. He had come to Japan with the dream of getting rich quick, but he was laid off because of the economic downturn and is now unemployed. Imoto Sachie had brought him over to help with the preparations for the 49th day. However, Atsuta Ryohei had seen his friendly smile and immediately hired him to work part-time. He was named Harumi and pampered like a son. He is, for some reason, a disquieting presence to Endo Yuriko. She feels strange when he is around.
Takuma Takayuki as Endo Hiroyuki
Endo Yuriko’s husband. He runs a cram school in Tokyo. He and Yuriko had dated since they were students and they were really on good terms … However, their fertility treatment caused a crack in the relationship before they knew it. He impulsively has an affair with a woman who works in a clerical position at his cram school and is confronted by Yuriko who wants a divorce.
Ito Shiro as Atsuta Ryohei
His life with his only daughter, Endo Yuriko, and the cheerful Otomi was a really happy one. However, he is unable to be unreservedly appreciative. He is the typical obstinate father who chide or complain once he opens his mouth. Otomi’s death on the day he made a fuss about the bento she made and rejected it, is a big shock to him. He is glad for Yuriko’s return at that time and wishes to do something for her, and tries to take action that is out of character for him.
Fueki Yuko as Atsuta Mariko
Endo Yuriko’s birth mother. She became pregnant with Yuriko’s younger brother but miscarried and died not long after that. The image of her looking out at the flowing river in front of the house is imprinted in her father, Atsuta Ryohei’s mind.
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