Let's Get Divorced
離婚しようよ
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
A politician and an actress secretly want out of their photogenic marriage, but both have lovers and both need the image.
Taishi Shoji, a third-generation politician who inherited his late father's seat in Ehime, and Yui Kurosawa, voted the actress the nation would most like to marry, have been married for five years and are known as the perfect couple. At home they barely speak, except when they go live on social media together. His affair with a television announcer, Sakurako, came out a year ago; Yui's popularity soared for forgiving him, and his sank. At a festival in Ehime he says, let's get divorced, and she says she was thinking the same. But his mother, Mineko, needs the marriage for his career, Yui's mother lives on money from his family, and Yui's sponsors are paying for the image.
They press on, each with a lawyer: his, Kaoru Inden, and hers, Henry K. Ishihara, who turn out to be old lovers. Yui falls for Kyoji Kano, a louche self-styled artist she bumped into by chance, who kisses her and tells her he is impotent; Taishi goes on seeing Sakurako. Then a snap election is called, and Go Soda, a star of the opposition, stands against Taishi in Ehime to break the hereditary seat, so Yui, filming a special of the show that made her famous, has to campaign beside the husband she is divorcing. She finds she is pregnant, by Taishi, from their night at the festival. When Sakurako leaks proof that Taishi visited her the night before, Yui in fury exposes her own affair, and the couple kneel side by side at a press conference.
The campaign changes them. Taishi starts listening to the people of Ehime and argues properly for a virus research institute; he and Kyoji, of all people, take to each other; he and Yui laugh together and wonder why they are splitting up. On election night Soda's party takes power and Taishi loses by about a hundred votes. Before dawn, unsettled, they file the divorce papers anyway.
Four months later Yui gives birth to a son, Yoji. Three years on she has won an acting prize in Berlin, and Kyoji has become a blogger chasing elections round the country. Soda, caught taking money over the sale of the virus institute, resigns and ends up selling bread from a van with his wife. Taishi wins the by-election, looks after Yoji four days a week, and speaks up in the Diet for support for parents. He hints at remarriage; Yui tells him they work better unmarried.
Starring
Tori Matsuzakaas Taishi Shoji
A pampered third-generation politician with a weakness for women, who wants out of his showcase marriage.
Taishi Shoji’s story
Taishi holds his father's old seat in Ehime, and his affair with the announcer Sakurako has made him less popular than the wife who forgave him. At a festival he tells Yui they should divorce, and she agrees. Still seeing Sakurako, he is stunned when Yui says she loves another man. Routed by Soda in a public debate, he campaigns with Yui and starts listening to the people of Ehime and argues properly for a virus research institute. At their press conference he kneels beside Yui, weeping that he no longer knows why they are divorcing. He loses by about a hundred votes, and they file the papers anyway. Three years on he is back in the Diet, raising Yoji four days a week and speaking up for parents; he hints at remarriage, and Yui says no.
Riisa Nakaas Yui Kurosawa
Taishi's wife, a beloved actress whose image is worth a fortune to her sponsors, who wants a divorce as much as he does.
Yui Kurosawa’s story
Yui forgave Taishi's affair in public and her popularity soared; at home they barely speak. At the festival she agrees they should divorce, though her mother lives on his family's money. She falls for Kyoji, an artist who kisses her and tells her he is impotent. Filming a special of the show that made her famous, she campaigns beside the husband she is divorcing, and finds she is pregnant by him. When Sakurako leaks proof that Taishi saw her the night before the festival, Yui exposes her own affair in fury and kneels beside him before the cameras. Campaigning, they start laughing together, but after his defeat they file the papers before dawn. She has their son, Yoji, wins an acting prize in Berlin, and tells Taishi they work better unmarried.
Ryo Nishikidoas Kyoji Kano
A louche self-styled artist and pachinko player who draws Yui into an affair and ends up hooked on elections.
Kyoji Kano’s story
Kyoji bumps into Yui without knowing who she is, walks the city with her, and later kisses her and tells her he is impotent. In his studio he prices a piece that stands for his feelings at all her free time; one rainy day he sends her away, then buys a phone just to call and apologise. He moves to Ehime, into an old farmhouse, to be near her, and at a public debate he needles Soda from the floor. When Yui tells him she is pregnant, he says that any child of hers is his too. He invites Taishi to his studio, and the two men unexpectedly take to each other. Three years later Kyoji is a pachinko player and election blogger, chasing polls around the country.
Koji Yamamotoas Go Soda
A charismatic opposition figure who runs against Taishi in Ehime, vowing to end hereditary politics.
Yuka Itayaas Kaoru Inden
Taishi's divorce lawyer, who takes the philandering politician in hand and once loved Yui's lawyer.
Arata Furutaas Henry K. Ishihara
Yui's lawyer, a dubious-looking operator who is excellent at his job.
Why it matters
Written by Kankuro Kudo and Shizuka Oishi, and titled after Takuro Yoshida's song Let's Get Married, this comedy treats a marriage as a brand. A politician needs a wife for the voters, an actress needs a husband for the sponsors, and their mothers need the money and the family name. The series is sharp about hereditary seats in Japanese politics, about the public apology as ritual, the couple kneeling before the cameras, and about how a scandal can make one spouse more popular and the other less. Under the jokes, it is a story about two people who only learn to like each other once they stop performing the marriage, and who find a family can outlast it. The ending declines to reunite them: they raise their son together, and stay divorced.