Mothers in Love
恋する母たち
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Three mothers in their forties, whose sons attend the same elite boys' high school, and the loves they are not supposed to have.
Three mothers in their forties have sons at the same elite boys' high school, and each marriage is failing in its own way. Anne Ishiwatari has raised her son, Ken, alone since her husband, Shingo, vanished eleven years ago with another man's wife. That man, Takumi Saiki, a magazine writer, tells her he has seen someone like Shingo on the island of Yoron. There she finds Shingo living with another woman, his memory lost after a fall from a cliff. She divorces him on the island; the same day Saiki tells her he loves her, and they marry. Ken, learning who Saiki is, turns away from her.
Yuko Hayashi runs an advertising section at a food company. Her husband, Shigeo, a failed novelist, keeps house, and their clever son, Daisuke, has shut himself away; Shigeo married her knowing Daisuke was another man's child. She begins an affair with Go Akasaka, a young subordinate, and ends it when Shigeo finds out. Mari Kanbara lives high in a tower block with her husband, Shigeki, an elite lawyer who is sleeping with his assistant. At a charity event Marutaro, a rakugo storyteller divorced three times, falls for her and will not give up. When Shigeki's dismissed lover leaks a scandal, he is suspended from practice, and Mari's comfortable life collapses into a job at a lunch-box shop, then a shopping-channel spot lost when viewers learn whose wife she is. She becomes pregnant, unable to know whether the father is Shigeki or Marutaro, and has a son.
In the final episode Anne and Saiki, who have lost a pregnancy and never learned to read each other, drift apart; he calls her tiresome, and they divorce. Mari asks Shigeki for a divorce once he has passed the accountancy exam; he refuses, and as she leaves for her parents' home in Hokkaido with the two youngest children, Marutaro is waiting at the airport. Her eldest son persuades his father to let her go, and she marries Marutaro and asks for her shopping-channel work back. Yuko is made a director, and divorces Shigeo on good terms after he and Daisuke move to Yoron, where his novel about their son becomes a hit. Akasaka, about to marry a colleague, runs from his wedding and comes to her; she offers to live with him, but not to marry. By 2022 Ken is at university and living with his mother again, and Anne, who could not make a marriage with Saiki work, goes to work at the architecture practice he is starting, as his partner in business if not in marriage.
Starring
Yoshino Kimuraas Anne Ishiwatari
A single mother whose husband vanished eleven years ago with another man's wife, and who falls for that man.
Anne Ishiwatari’s story
When Saiki tells Anne he has seen someone like Shingo on Yoron, she flies there and finds her husband living with another woman, his memory gone after a fall. She divorces him on the island, and the same day Saiki says he loves her; they marry, and her son, Ken, learning who Saiki is, turns away from her and goes to live with his grandmother. Anne loses the baby she conceives with Saiki. Through the pandemic they misread each other until he calls her tiresome, and when Shingo tells her that her perfection once stifled him too, she decides on a second divorce. By 2022 Ken is at university and living with her again, and Anne, who holds property qualifications, asks Saiki for work; she joins the practice he is starting as his business partner.
Yo Yoshidaas Yuko Hayashi
An advertising manager at a food company, married to a novelist who keeps house, who has an affair with a young subordinate.
Yuko Hayashi’s story
At home Shigeo keeps house and writes; he married Yuko knowing he was not the father of her son, Daisuke, who has now shut himself away. She wears glasses because Shigeo once said her looks would lead her into an affair. Her young subordinate, Akasaka, pursues her boldly and she gives in, until Shigeo finds out and she ends it. She takes a post as sales manager at the Chiba branch, living apart while Shigeo and Daisuke move to Yoron, where his novel about their son becomes a hit, and they divorce on good terms, with Yuko keeping custody. Akasaka, about to marry a colleague, runs from his wedding still in his tuxedo and comes to her door; she will not marry him, she says, but they can live together. By 2022 she is on the board.
Riisa Nakaas Mari Kanbara
A wealthy lawyer's wife in a tower block, courted by a rakugo storyteller as her husband's career collapses.
Mari Kanbara’s story
Mari's husband, Shigeki, an elite lawyer, is sleeping with a junior at his firm, and at first she cannot stand Marutaro, who falls for her at a charity event. When a scandal gets him suspended, her life falls apart: she is fired from a lunch-box shop, then dropped from a shopping channel once viewers learn whose wife she is. On the night of Anne's wedding she sleeps with Shigeki; the next day she goes to Marutaro, so that she can raise any child as his. She has a son. Once Shigeki has passed the accountancy exam she asks for a divorce; he refuses, and as she leaves for Hokkaido with the two youngest, Marutaro is waiting at the airport. Her eldest son talks his father round. She marries Marutaro and asks for her shopping-channel work back.
Kotaro Koizumias Takumi Saiki
The ex-husband of the woman Anne's husband ran off with, who seeks Anne out and marries her.
Sadao Abeas Konjakutei Marutaro
A popular rakugo storyteller, divorced three times, who falls for Mari at first sight.
Hayato Isomuraas Go Akasaka
Yuko's talented young subordinate, who pursues her and at last runs from his own wedding to her.
Why it matters
Mothers in Love, adapted from Fumi Saimon's manga, looks at the affairs of three mothers in their forties with more curiosity than blame. Saimon has said that the uproar over celebrity affairs made her wonder how many people want one and hold back, and that she wanted the story to let them breathe out. Each woman's choice is set against the marriage it breaks from: a husband who disappeared, a husband who keeps house while she earns, a husband who cheated first and fell furthest. The drama remembers that these women are also mothers, and their sons notice, judge and sometimes help. It ends with no single model of a good life: a second divorce and a working partnership, a marriage to the lover, a woman who will live with a younger man but not marry him. It leaves open whether desire in the middle of life is a crisis or simply part of it.