Oshin

What is keeping me up at night?

Answer: Oshin
In the early 80's there was a wildly popular Japanese TV drama series called Oshin. Come to think of it, that was the first wave of Japanese drama, and Oshin was easily the most tear jerking and riveting. And it even inspired a Taiwanese adaptation.

The drama details the life, actually more the Struggles of a Japanese woman named Oshin, from a little girl to a white-haired old lady, in the early part of 20th century Japan. Oshin came from a poor family and she had to work really really hard all her life and be very strong and enduring in the face of all her unending difficulties (bullying, deprivation, hunger, natural disasters, really, she was the original Survivor). Of course she triumphs at the end, owning a chain of supermarkets ( I think) and growing old gracefully, surrounded by a loving family. I never managed to catch every episode, they showed it just as I left for my studies in London. I followed it up to the point where the old lady of the household, where Oshin was working as a maid, became her benefactress and made sure she had an education.

Now 20 years later, Ch 9 (channel u if you are not a cable subscriber), is showing it weeknights at the unfriendly hour of 1.30 am in the morning. And I have been hooked on it all over again.

Where are we now? A few episodes ago, Oshin seemed to be doing well in Tokyo, i.e. not poor, with caring husband, beautiful little boy, good friends... when of course the great Tokyo earthquake have to strike, forcing the family to flee to her husband's ancestral home in the village. There she endures living under the same roof as her tyrannical mother-in-law (MIL), who despises her and bullies her endlessly. So there is Oshin, heavily pregnant and perpetually hungry, being forced to toil in the rice fields, while her husband's sister who is also pregnant, gets to enjoy good food and plenty of rest.

Her MIL also believed in the superstition that two pregnant women cannot live in the same house, and so drives Oshin away to an abandoned shack elsewhere. Yeah I know, what the hell, #@%&**^@, really! Anyway,.......her sister-in-law goes into a protracted and difficult labour and her MIL was putting all the blame on Oshin. So Oshin's husband ran all night in the heavy rain (no half measures here, extreme melodrama all round) to fetch the doctor. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to everyone, Oshin had also gone into labour, but she had no one to turn to for help. So she crawled out of her shack and fainted face down in the mud. Seriously! That was last night's ending - Her husband discovering her unconscious.........what will happen next? Tune in at 12.45am tonight (Thursday and Friday night screenings are slightly early).

It is very addictive viewing, the disasters in Oshin life unfolds so surely and inexorably it is like watching a 10 car pile-up in slow motion, you can't look away. So I am going to watch it till things get better for her, just don't know when. Dear reader, if you know, or have already seen the whole drama, please feel free to let me know all the spoilers, the suspense is slowly and surely killing me.