Holiday Love
ホリデイラブ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A nail artist learns her husband is having an affair with a married clerk at the branch where he is posted, and the fallout consumes both families.
Azu Takamori runs a nail salon from her home and is raising her small daughter, Nanaka. Her husband, Junpei, works for a big construction company and is posted away during the week, so she sees him only at weekends. One day a stranger, Wataru Izutsu, comes to tell her that her husband is having an affair, and soon afterwards Junpei comes home beaten: Wataru had walked in on him with his wife, Rina, a part-time clerk at Junpei's posting, and hit him. Junpei admits that he met Rina at a friend's wedding and could not stop. Azu throws him out.
Rina, married with two children to a possessive husband, will not let Junpei go. A new client at the salon installs an app on Azu's phone, and through it Azu meets a charming young businessman who calls himself Kuroi. She goes with him as far as a hotel room, then stops herself and leaves. But a hidden camera has photographed them in bed, and the pictures reach Junpei, Azu's clients and the mothers at Nanaka's nursery, where the girl is frozen out. Azu's old friend Ryoma finds that Kuroi is an impostor, Takumi Shiga, Rina's former boyfriend, whom she had blackmailed into seducing Azu.
Junpei, transferred to the Tokyo head office, tries to end the affair, but Rina returns to work at the company and rumours spread. Azu takes a job at a nail salon and asks Junpei to come home. Wataru, left caring for the children, begins to see his own part in what went wrong. He returns the compensation Junpei paid him and asks Rina to come back; she refuses, and when she tries to take the children, they choose their father.
After Nanaka's nursery graduation, Rina approaches the girl and calls herself her future mother. Then she comes to Azu and explains: once, in a family restaurant, when a fire alarm went off and her son froze, Junpei carried the boy out, and she decided she had married the wrong man. Junpei tells her he will never be with her, not even in another life. Rina goes to the lobby of his company's head office and announces the affair to everyone there, breaks away from the security guards and runs into the road, where she is hit by a car; all the story reveals is that she survives. Junpei leaves the company, and the Takamoris sell their house to start again from nothing, together.
Starring
Riisa Nakaas Azu Takamori
A mother who runs a nail salon from home and fights to rebuild her marriage after her husband's affair.
Azu Takamori’s story
Azu raises her daughter, Nanaka, between clients while her husband works away all week. A stranger, Wataru, tells her Junpei is sleeping with his wife, and she throws Junpei out. Through an app a client put on her phone she meets a man calling himself Kuroi, goes as far as a hotel room, stops herself and leaves; hidden-camera pictures of her reach Junpei, her clients and the nursery mothers, and Nanaka is frozen out. She closes her salon, takes a job at another, tells Rina to stay out of her life and asks Junpei to come home. When Rina approaches Nanaka and then Azu herself, Azu asks where Junpei's happiness is in Rina's plan. After Junpei leaves his company they sell the house to start again from nothing; she is working too, she says, and they will get through anything.
Takashi Tsukamotoas Junpei Takamori
Azu's husband, a construction-company employee working away from home, whose affair with Rina sets everything off.
Junpei Takamori’s story
Junpei meets Rina at a friend's wedding and, posted away from home, cannot stop seeing her. Her husband, Wataru, catches them and hits him; Junpei comes home beaten, confesses, and Azu throws him out. When Rina leaves her husband and turns up at his company quarters he wavers, and the office starts to talk. Due back at head office in Tokyo, he tries to end it. Home the day before Nanaka's graduation, he finds Azu's letter in a farewell bouquet from Rina, weeps, and is taken back. When Rina comes to Azu, he walks past Rina to his wife and tells her he will never be with her, not even in another life. After Rina denounces him in his company's lobby and is hit by a car, he resigns, and they sell the house to start again.
Marika Matsumotoas Rina Izutsu
A married mother of two and a part-time clerk at Junpei's posting, who cannot let him go and schemes to split his family.
Rina Izutsu’s story
Rina has two children and a possessive husband, Wataru, and is sure that Junpei is the man she should have married. Found out, she will not let go: she blackmails a former boyfriend, Takumi Shiga, into seducing Azu as Kuroi and spreads the hidden-camera pictures. Thrown out by Wataru, she turns up at Junpei's quarters and goes back to work at his company. When Wataru asks her home she rages at him, and her son chooses his father. She tells Azu she knew she had married the wrong man the day Junpei carried her frozen son out of a restaurant when a fire alarm went off. Junpei tells her never, not even in another life. She denounces him in his company's lobby, breaks from the guards and runs into the road, where a car hits her. She survives.
Tomoya Nakamuraas Wataru Izutsu
Rina's possessive husband, who exposes the affair and slowly comes to see his own share in the damage.
Yuki Yamadaas Takumi Shiga, posing as Kuroi
Rina's former boyfriend, who poses as a young businessman called Kuroi to seduce Azu on Rina's orders.
Yuta Hiraokaas Ryoma Haruta
Azu's close friend, who stands by her and uncovers who the man calling himself Kuroi really is.
Why it matters
Holiday Love is built like a thriller about an affair, but the issue under it is how unevenly the fallout lands. Junpei cheats and is taken back. Azu goes to a hotel room, stops herself and leaves, and a hidden-camera photograph of her is sent to her clients and to the mothers at her daughter's nursery, where the child is frozen out. The series sees how fast a wife is shamed and how slowly a husband is, and how easily a private image becomes a weapon. Its rival wife is played for horror, and Marika Matsumoto's performance as Rina dominated social media while the series aired; yet what she screams in the lobby, that she lost everything while he carried on as if nothing had happened, is not simply wrong. The ending rescues the marriage and leaves open the question of what the rescue cost, and who paid.