Saturday 4 February 2012

Currently watching: Seinaru Kaibutsutachi

This is a medical drama that's not really about medicine. It's set in a hospital, and certain medical things happen, but the main story is about a surrogate pregnancy. This is illegal is Japan, and so the whole pregnancy must be kept a secret.










 
Nakatani Miki plays the role of a head nurse at a hospital and is coldly beautiful, like diamonds cast across ice. Her performance demands that you watch her when she's on screen. She is a paragon of elegance, but also demonstrates a seething energy just under the surface. When she asks the potential child-bearer to be a surrogate mother, she leans in a little to closely and breathes a little too hard, indicating a certain delight in manipulating people.











Hasegawa Hiroki (Suzuki Sensei) is the husband, who seems to find the situation distasteful. When his wife expresses excitement at the impending birth, even though she isn't carrying the child, he doesn't hide his disdain. Okada Masaki is the eager new surgeon at a fairly average hospital who unwittingly gets on with his job while all this goes on around him. Add to this a flirty nurse with money troubles and a patient who knows more about the staff than he should, and the stage is set for some twisty turny plots.











Three episodes in, and the situation is delicately poised. It's a game of power. Since everyone involved can ruin the whole plan, everyone seems to want it to be run the way they want. And bear in mind that the series began with a scene at the hospital where a mystery woman dies in childbirth, before the story went back a year to explain the events leading up to that evening.

While I can guess who the mystery woman is, I'm interested to see how the story gets to that point, and the consequences that follow.

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