The drama starts out showing what looks to be slums in Manila, Philippines. It shows the word "HAPPY LAND" so I immediately go and look this up. The Tondo slums in HappyLand is the worst in the Philippines. How they live is heartbreaking.
You can read about it on these 2 sites I went to.
guardian.com HappyLand
lydiascapes HappyLand
So it start out with someone getting their ass kicked in HappyLand until I assume, he is dead. In the next scene, a worried woman in Tokyo answers her phone. The embassy of Japan in Manila is calling. Her husband walks in and she says she wonders if their passports have expired. The husband takes the phone.
The first body to return to Japan is an old man who was traveling in Palau and died there. You see the body arrive and they open up the temporary coffin to get to the body so they can start working on making him "look handsome" for the family. When they do open the box, it emits an odor that sends the rookie employee outside to vomit. The body is full of toilet paper rolls because it was used to soak up the bodily fluids.
The couple from Japan arrive in Manila and are greeted by someone from the embassy of Japan. The couple is taken to the morgue and are told they need to identify the body. They are warned that because he died from being assaulted, "it won't be pretty". The husband tells his wife to stay and he will go and see. They unzip the body bag and reveal the face. He walks back outside with an expressionless face and he confirms to the embassy official that it is his son. He walks over to his wife and stares straight ahead and says to her "You shouldn't see him" and then walks away.
They flashback to 4 years before with the son putting on his backpack. As he walks out the door, he turns to his mother and says "I'm never coming back here. Bye". The father sits in a chair with that same expressionless face as we see the son walking away.
This is only 11 minutes in and alredy I'm sad. I get the feeling that the father and son had some issues that caused their only son to leave. For whatever reason (they better tell us what happened at Happyland that caused him to get beaten to death) he ran off to the Philippines just to come home in a bodybag 4 years later. That alone breaks my heart.
The employees (one of them is Yuu Shirota) all have these quirky things about them. The rookie employee who is narrating this story, describes the president of the company as a mafia princess. She had a few things to say about all of them lol
Angel Hearse is chosen to bring back the body of Sugihara Yohei, the son killed in Manila. They get word that the body is missing. The father stands looking at the empty slab and says "He can't cause enough problems, huh? Fool!". There was definitely some shit going on between Yohei and his father. So far, his mother has not uttered one word but you can see the pain in her face.
Angel Hearse gets a call from the father and he tells them he doesn't want the body back because he disowned him long ago. "He got what he wanted. So it is what it is. Bye". Yohei's mother needs to say something soon.
The president (Nami) isn't having any of it and she goes to Manila and takes Rinko (rookie employee) with her. Upon their arrival, Nami meets up with the parents at the hotel and tells them she's arranged to meet with some of the Japanese community who knew Yohei and she asks if they would like to have lunch with them. The father declines saying they're "tired". So Nami and Rinko go alone. I'm thinking Yohei may have had some kind of mental illness. There was a scene where it was explained exactly who Yohei was, why he and his father were estranged and why he left Japan.
This is where I stop telling you more so you can go and watch it. I tried my best to give you an idea of the show without giving away too much. Go watch. If I had a star rating of 1 to 10, so far, this would be a solid 9.
No comments:
Post a Comment