(TV) ママは昔パパだった

[Sakunyuusha]

"Long ago, Mama was Papa" is a six-episode television drama airing in Japan as we speak. The first two raw episodes were uploaded tonight to D-Addicts by one of their forum administrators. I am over halfway through the first of these episodes and I gotta say, this is a touching in-your-face drama if you sympathize with transgendered people.

Seven years ago, "Hitomi" divorced her wife of several years and underwent sex reassignment surgery. All her life, she had felt like she was trapped inside the wrong body. She had even tried to end her life once after she witnessed her wife's joy in breastfeeding their child, tormented by the fact that she would never be able to experience this wonder for herself. But no more: from this day forward, Hitomi was a whole new woman.

Hitomi's mother disowns her, while Hitomi's father tries to maintain tremulous alliances with his own wife and his son (now reborn as a daughter). Hitomi's wife files for divorce. The courts grant the couple their divorce, and Hitomi's ex-wife abandons the children, seeking a fresh start in life.

Fast forward to the present day. The boys' biological mother has regretted her decision to abandon them and, after seven long years of torment, has finally decided to petition for legal custody (or joint custody) of her boys. This presents a problem for Hitomi: the elder son, Shun, while roughly age 9 or 10, has only very faint memories of his real mother; and the younger son, Ryu, roughly age 7 or 6, has no memories of his real mother. Both boys have been raised to consider Hitomi as their mother. And they do. And now the boys' real mother is about to bring down the house.

Catching up to where I am in the episode right now, Shun is kicked off of his Little League team because several of the other boys' parents have filed complaints to the coach demanding that Shun be removed from the team -- not because of a problem they have with him, but because of the problem they have with his so-called "mother." Hitomi begs them to reconsider but the fathers are disgusted by him/her, the mothers are disgusted as well, and the coach's hands are tied -- not that he was all that likely to be very sympathetic in the first place.

Here, the home audience witnesses what could be the first occurrence or what could be the newest in a long history of occurrences where Hitomi's decision to have sex reassignment surgery has impacted not only her own life but also that of her two precious sons. The gravity of this brings her to tears, and she crumples down onto the pitcher's mound, sobbing.

*unpause*

If you're interested, I'd suggest checking it out. There are no subs yet, but I feel like I can understand 75% or so of the base dialogue and 25-50% of the technical dialogue (like when they talk about sex reassignment or legal custody stuff). I'd benefit from having subs, but then again, it's kind of fun challenging myself to watch this raw and try to hone my listening skills. If you speak Japanese fluently, what are you waiting for? Check it out! And if you don't speak a lick of Japanese, you could always show interest in this series on the D-Addicts webforum. If you don't, nobody is likely to pick this up, I fear: it's a very niche show for a very niche audience.

 

[Rollyco]

If you're interested in transgender issues, I would recommend picking up / downloading the manga 放浪息子 ("Hourou Musuko"). It follows the life of a 5th grade boy and the growing realization of him (and those around him) that he's actually a girl inside. The writing, characterizations, and pacing are all superb. Volume 1:

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=65PXXC0X

 

[Sakunyuusha]

Just finished Episode 2. Man, this story is really good but really sad!

[hide]Towards the end of the first episode, Shun seems to be having a lot of inner turmoil over the full-blown realization of something he's long suspected -- that "Mama" was once upon a time "Papa," a man, and that his real mama is Ueno Makiko, a woman who works at the cosmetics department at a local shopping center. Either around then or at the beginning of the second episode, he runs away from home and shows up unannounced on Makiko's doorstep.

Makiko is of course enthralled to have one of her boys come home to her so easily, and she by no means caves to Hitomi's demands to give Shun back. Meanwhile, Ryo (the younger brother) is himself torn between his own feelings about Mama being a man and how much he loves his mama. One thing Ryo does know is: he doesn't want to go to Makiko's. Hitomi may be a man, but she's also Ryo's one and only mama.

There's a subplot introduced halfway through. Hitomi is feeling really depressed, but to her surprise one of her old acquaintances shows up while she's at work -- and he's gotten a sex change, too! He ... err, she is radiant: beautiful, happy, and wearing an engagement ring to boot! Speak of the devil, there's Mari's fiancé now! And ... fuuuuuuuuuck. D: The shit hits the fan: he tells Mari the wedding's off because his parents won't approve of it. He says he loves Mari but that he doesn't want to drive a wedge between himself and his parents (if I heard it correctly), blah blah blah, the wedding's off, what a tool.

Hitomi heads on over to Makiko's place and tells Shun that she'll let him choose where he wants to live from now on: no pressure. Hitomi points out that not only can Makiko afford a better home (and we had seen them discussing this earlier in the episode, too) but that if Shun lives with Makiko, he can legally change his name to Ueno Shun, legally change his mother to Ueno Makiko, and play Little League once again. Shun chooses to live with Makiko. Hitomi is heartbroken.

Hitomi gets even more depressed as Ryo becomes more sullen, more withdrawn. She doesn't know though, and neither do we yet know, that Ryo's got a lot on his mind.

It turns out that Ryo plans to find Ueno Makiko -- and he does. She takes him out for ice cream, but much to her surprise, Ryo displays great maturity and wisdom for his age. He doesn't take one bite of the ice cream, and he orders Makiko to give back Shun. He explains that Mama (Hitomi) needs Shun more than him (Ryo). Makiko says that's not possible. Ryo says it's true: Mama's been bawling every single day since Ryo left. Makiko says she can't give Shun back, end of discussion.

End of the episode, Mari is visiting Hitomi when Ryo peers over their balcony and tells Mama to come look, quick! So Hitomi scurries over to the balcony ...

... and sees Shun carrying all of his clothes and stuff. He's coming home.

The episode ends on this happy note, but the sneak peek for Episode 3 looks to be super-dramatic. Hitomi proposes a joint-custody option to Makiko (and there's a scene of all four of them sleeping under the same roof together). But in addition, Hitomi opens her locker at work and there's a bunch of hateful messages in there waiting for her. (At least one of them, in huge-red katakana letters, says オカマ, "okama," or "FAGGOT" if it was American English.)

I've said it once, I'll say it a million times: I'm not gay, I'm not bi, I'm not transgendered ... but my heart really goes out to these folks, and I don't mean in a patronizing "oh I pity them for their sexuality" way but in a sympathizing "oh I pity them for the suffering done unto them by so many hateful, ignorant assholes on this planet."[/hide]

And I love how this show, in both episodes 1 and 2, makes a really strong point about how being a woman born in a man's body is N-O-T the same thing as being a gay man who wants to look like a woman. I've been saying this for years, but it's great to have a TV show putting the message out there on front and center stage.

 

[dfc]

The premise sounds very interesting.

But I can't watch it, as no one's slated to pick it up, and my Japanese comprehension barely goes beyond lolharomoni levels, and certainly not enough to watch a slice-of-life drama with

 

[Sakunyuusha]

Here are some sample videos. TOTAL FILESIZE = ~75 Megs. Very tiny!

Video 1: these are the very first few scenes in Episode 1. They introduce you to Hitomi and her two boys, Shun and Ryo, as well as to the world filled with adversity in which Hitomi lives. If you don't speak Japanese, a very basic play-by-play can be read below:
[hide]Hitomi opens the fridge looking for mayonnaise. None. Brand-new neighbors move in next door and present a moving-in gift. Turns out it has mayonnaise in it, amongst other things. Hooray! Dinner is served. Shun steals some of Ryo's meat and the two boys get into a fight. Hitomi tries to separate them but when she chases after Shun who has stormed off to his room, she gets a door slammed right in her face, cracking her front tooth in half. (OUCH!) Reluctantly, Hitomi agrees with Ryo that she needs to go to the dentist. But she really doesn't want to go.

The reason she doesn't want to go is that official business (medical, legal, etc) is the only time she typically has to deal with people finding out that she used to be a man. This is because she looks like a woman, dresses like a woman, talks like a woman, even has a feminine name ... but her health insurance card* clearly indicates that her gender is that of a dansei, or man -- it clearly reads 男 instead of 女.

The nurse awkwardly argues with Hitomi about the card, insisting it must be some sort of mistake, until finally she gets a clue. She blabs to the dentist and of course the dentist is really weirded out. This upsets Hitomi.

Once her tooth is repaired, the scene ends. Ryo is explaining to you that he doesn't remember it, but he's heard from his brother that a long time ago, Mama used to be very Papa-like. (Paparashii, he says.) Then the narrator for the show starts to talk and she explains the situation with transgendered individuals like Hitomi who are psychologically one gender but are born in the body of the opposite gender, and explains a little bit about the premise of this series.

* I'm an American, so this is what I think of it as. Dunno what it's called in Japan.[/hide]

Video 2: this is the scene from Episode 2 where Hitomi gets an unexpected visit from an old friend of hers -- and one who she is surprised to discover underwent sex reassignment surgery just like she did seven years ago! The scene starts off happy and upbeat but it soon takes a turn for the depressing. You'll see!

Video 3: this is the sad set of scenes in which Hitomi tells Shun he's free to choose which mother he would prefer to live with, and he sullenly chooses to live with his biological mother instead of Hitomi. I'm sure it won't generate tears from people who aren't sympathetic with a transgendered parent, but personally I think this is really tragic for all the parties involved. It sucks for Hitomi because she's losing her son, but it also sucks for Shun, too, because he's stuck between a rock and a hard place: he doesn't want to hurt his mom's feelings, but this is all so new to him and it's pretty fucked up to most people in the first place to even consider that your mother might actually be your father. You can hardly blame the kid for choosing his biological mom, but ... poor Hitomi. :\

Edit:
(1) Pirate Bay's tracker is dead.
(2) TT is dumb and won't host torrent files anymore.
(3) Nyaa is dumb when it comes to making their tracker your #1 priority.
(4) A-O's tracker is down.
(5) A-O no longer allows you to post a hyperlink on another site which links to an attachment here. It allowed it as recently as last week, so it must be a new policy change. Shrug.

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 = let me know when you'll be on if you're interested in getting these sample videos, {Person Who Reads This Message In The Next 96 Hours}, and I'll try to come on within 8 hours of your notification and start seeding you via DHT