Just finished watching Karei Naru Ichizoku (TBS, 2007) and ended up having puffy and reddish eyes from crying my heart out.  I had sensed a sad ending for the idealistic Teppei Manpyou, (Kimura Takuya) who at 36 years gave up his life in order to save the Manpyou family from further demoralization and destruction.  I cried because Teppei’s passion and ideal to pursue his dream of making Japan globally competitve through steel against all odds was very inspiring and I couldn’t believe he wouldn’t live to see it through.   His being able to defy all the odds was possible because of the support of his friends, family and staff whom he had valued and cherished and this I intended to emulate.  He actually didn’t give up his dream–he had thought that his death would pave the way for the others to pursue his dream, which did come true.  He gave up his life because he saw himself as the cause of  all his family’s dysfunctionality; that he would never really gain his father’s love despite all his achievements because of the deep seated hatred of his father for him for reasons not of his own doing.  “If I have not been born, then how would things have been?”, he asked.  However, in the end, we find that the hate relationship between Teppei and his father Daisuke should never have existed, that teh basis for the hatred an unintended mistake.  Daisuke thought that Teppei was not his true son and this was proven by Teppei’s blood type; only to find out from Teppei’s death certificate that Teppei;s bloodtype was erroneously listed as another because of the confusion during the war(?)  (wasn’t Teppei born in 1932?)which was the time the blood type was taken as I understood.

Again, Takuya Kimura gave an outstanding performance; in fact he won an award for his acting in this drama series.  Also, this drama was a TBS 50th anniversary special so it had this “cinematic” effect on it–spectacular scenes (love the snowstorm and snowcap mountain scenes and the view of the steel factory), cinematic music by Hattori Takayuki with the Philharmonic Orchestra and chorale.  I thought Daisuke (played by Kitaoji Kinya) gave out the most superb performance of a father that you would “love” to “hate.”  Again, Takuya had such expressive eyes here.  When he was mulling over what his father said about how he would  have been another person having an “ordinary” family had Teppei not been born, I thought his iris had a bluish grey tint and then later, “sparkling brown.” Just noticed Takuya was a little thin here but still retained his boyish charm.  Great drama, although a bit heavy for Takuya fans who are used to a Takuya doing “feel good” roles.  But then again, Takuya is such a verstile actor that one looks forward to him doing offbeat roles from time to time.

Got this synopsis from a website that sells DVD of this drama: