There is a new star in the universe of "Like Ashura". From the first NHK TV series in 1979, to the movie by Yoshimitsu Morita in 2003, and the stage play the following year, this year Netflix blew up a big balloon in one go and filmed it into a large volume of 7 episodes.

"Like Ashura" poster

In different parallel universes, the key nodes set by the first-generation screenwriter Kuniko Mukaida are always played out again and again. Even though I know what will happen, I still spent seven hours rewatching it. Because this women's drama is worth watching.

Sisters are good subjects for storytelling. Although they have led completely different lives, the eldest sister and the youngest sister are almost two generations apart, but they are still willing to use their parents' old house as a stage, crowded together, chattering, bickering with each other and supporting each other. There are two scenes where the four sisters spend the night in the old house. They put on their mother's old waistcoat, feeling uneasy, and diligently play the roles of "daughter" and "sister". Tired, in the dim light, half asleep and half awake, they reveal a little bit of their feelings.

Stills from "Like Ashura"

It is hard to imagine that from a small wooden house like a toy box, there walked out four different daughters of the Takezawa family. The eldest sister Tsuniko (played by Miyazawa Rie), the second sister Makiko (played by Ono Machiko), the third sister Takiko (played by Aoi Yu), and the youngest sister Sakiko (played by Hirose Rei), if they were not born sisters, they would not even be friends. The competition and jealousy in childhood were diluted when the four of them appeared together for the first time. Everyone gathered at Makiko's house at the invitation of Takiko "there is something to talk about." It turned out that Takiko ran into her 70-year-old father cheating on a middle-aged woman and hired a detective to investigate. One person couldn't eat this melon, so she invited all the sisters to discuss it together.

In Japan at that time, cheating was no longer a "sin" that was intolerable by heaven. Takiko was indignant, but the sisters just laughed it off. When the drama encountered the big mountain of death halfway through filming, a passage from Natsume Soseki was thoughtfully displayed on the screen. The general meaning was: except for life and death, everything else is comedy (——from "Yu Meiren"). For the adult sisters, their father's (Kunimura Hayabusa) cheating was just an episode that needed to be hidden from their mother (Matsuzaka Keiko). After everyone found out, they were surprised, confused, and of course there was a feeling of blaming their father, but they all thought there was no need to do anything. Just like most of these things in life, just let it pass by.

What's interesting about this story is that, in the era in which it happened, although traditional values were declining, they had not completely collapsed. Have these old and moldy ideas really disappeared? The sense of ethics and the endless struggle between family members until death are at least alive in our memories. Who can say that the self-proclaimed modern and chic way of doing things can completely cut off ties with the past?

Screenshot of "Like Ashura"

The four sisters each have their own colorful lives. However, once something happens, they immediately enter a fighting state, rushing to their parents' house in a startle, running to each other's house, pulling and tugging, and their vitality is extremely strong. The Yoshimitsu Morita version of Tsunako and Makiko fighting for (giving up) eel rice, and the tug-of-war between Tsunako and her lover over the sliding door are really exciting. In Hirokazu Koreeda's work, there are fewer such sparks flying, and it becomes the long-term and steady flow that he is good at. The question of "Mom's rough heels" has been softened from the original rough "It is said that women who have no sex life will have rough heels" to "because of the hard life during wartime."

Perhaps aware of the weakening of vitality and the tendency of civilization to progress, Hirokazu Koreeda added the trait of "a woman who enjoys eating" to Mizuki. Several times, in silence, Mizuki puffed up her cheeks and chewed hard, looking like she was enjoying the food. Turning her head to look at the mirror, her face froze and showed a look of disgust. In the first episode, everyone watched the Ningyo Joruri Bunraku together, and the doll's face suddenly cracked, with a hideous expression, just like Mizuki in the mirror, they were all the incarnation of Ashura.

Stills from "Like Ashura"

Maki is the center of the story because she lives a stable and happy life that is most recognized by society. She has a husband, a son and a daughter, and is enduring a marriage situation similar to her mother's. Her husband (played by Masahiro Motoki) cannot die because "the mortgage has not been paid off." She cannot tell her husband about his cheating, because if she does, she will lose. But the relationship between the couple is not cold. Her husband, who likes to act as the head of the family (because her sister Tsunako lost her husband), is always willing to take on the responsibility of the family, and Maki is proud of this.

This couple, who never talk about big things but talk endlessly about small things, have finally woven a fine and deep network over the years that is enough to withstand the various shocks of life.

After dividing the belongings of her late mother, one day Juanzi put on a kimono. Her husband asked, "Is this your mother's dress?" Juanzi was startled and lowered her head to smell it: "Why, does it smell musty?"

As an Oriental, this kind of conversation is so familiar. The couple is just chatting, and the audience can smell the camphor in the cupboard and the damp and cool musty smell in the old wooden house. Then they will have such confidence on their behalf: such a couple will never get divorced no matter what.

Although the title of the play "Like Ashura" explains it clearly: women appear to be kind, righteous, polite, wise and trustworthy, but actually speak ill of others behind their backs, the story of Kuniko Mukaida is actually very warm and not scary at all.

Although the paper can change its face, it also knits sweaters. Counting the stitches carefully, in the pursuit of desire and endless patience, if there is indeed some emptiness and anger, it will soon be obliterated by the events that follow one after another like stitches.

Hirokazu Koreeda's parallel universe is the brightest of all universes. He made the eldest sister Tsunako gentle, removed the moments of cruelty and emptiness, and made her more sweetly attached to the cheating object (played by Uchino Masahiro). Hirose Suzu's younger sister Sakiko is like a bright violet. Purple is her color, and few people are more suitable for wearing purple than her. From early spring to before the first heavy snow, Sakiko's porcelain-white face blooms with a thousand expressions.

Aoi Yu plays Takiko, a nervous old-fashioned character who is out of breath, but her relaxed facial lines and playful eyes make her character's behavior more relaxed.

Stills from "Like Ashura"

The longer length made the director feel the need to firm up the characters' intentions and fill in some areas of hesitation. The ambiguities in the original version were all marked with a more modern attitude: live according to your own wishes and forget what you should forget. Dad's mistress, Tsunako's lover, Makiko's cheating husband, Sakiko's husband who became a vegetable, none of them can be abandoned.

"It's too lonely to live alone for decades." This is what my mother warned me when she was alive. It's painful to silently endure my father's cheating, but it's not so bad to live with the one I love for the rest of my life. Feelings are not black and white, and you should have the freedom to not give up. It's hard for a person to know his own feelings, let alone others.

Just like that, everyone has a few secrets. Whether Tsuna committed suicide by turning on the gas or it was an accident, there is no need to tell it. As long as you keep the secret in your heart, there will be many more meals and reunions waiting for you.

This may not be the most positive attitude towards life, but it is a plausible one.

Stills from "Like Ashura"

I still have to criticize here. Although he continued Mukaida Kuniko's idea of giving priority to what everyone is eating before writing each scene, Koreeda Hirokazu filmed many meals, but none of them made people feel unappetizing. Except for Maki who was chewing his food angrily, everyone else's eating was indifferent, whether it was sukiyaki or sushi, they were all more concerned than the food in front of them.

Such meals can hardly sustain a person through a life full of thorns and desires.