Mistresses (Japan)
ミストレス〜女たちの秘密〜
Storyline
The whole story, ending included.
Four women friends and the secrets — affairs, a female lover, a patient — that each keeps from the others.
Four women friends meet from time to time to talk, and each is keeping something back. Kaori Shibasaki, a doctor with her own clinic, was the mistress of a married architect, Koichiro Kido, who has taken his own life. His son, Takashi, an architecture student in Kyoto, suspects she was his father's lover. She denies it; he pursues her, and she gives in. Tomomi Noguchi has raised her daughter alone and worked in a bakery since her husband, Toshiya, went missing in an accident while posted abroad. Saeko Harada, who works for a cosmetics company, wants a child with her husband, Satoshi, and they keep clashing over it. Juri Mizushima, a fitness trainer, treats love as a game and keeps getting her fiancé's surname wrong.
The secrets grow. Saeko sleeps with a younger colleague, Sakaguchi. When she finds she is pregnant Satoshi is overjoyed, and she tells her friends the child is not his. Tomomi is plagued by silent calls, and then by Miki, a young woman with a little boy, who says she was Toshiya's lover and demands a share of his insurance. Yasuoka, a translator of picture books and a single father, courts Tomomi, and she is shaken to learn he never divorced. Then Toshiya turns out to be alive. Juri falls in love for the first time, with Rei Sudo, a lesbian stylist, and they meet in secret. Kaori tells Takashi that she was his father's lover, and that she was involved in his death.
In the last episode Takashi's mother accuses Kaori of assisting a suicide; the police question her and strangers attack her online. Kaori tells Takashi that his father asked her to help him die, and that in the end she could not bring herself to do it. He says he believes her. She tells him she still loves him; he says goodbye, and they slowly let go of each other's hands. She closes her clinic and leaves to travel. Tomomi says goodbye to Toshiya and walks away hand in hand with Yasuoka, a single mother again and short of money. Saeko, taken to hospital, hands Satoshi divorce papers, and he tells her he cannot give her up; Sakaguchi asks for a transfer to Osaka. When Rei tells Juri she loves her, Juri says she cannot go on like this and walks away, and her friends throw a party for her first broken heart.
Starring
Kyoko Hasegawaas Kaori Shibasaki
A doctor whose married lover has taken his own life, and who falls for his son.
Kaori Shibasaki’s story
When Takashi, an architecture student, comes asking whether Kaori was his late father's lover, she denies it; he keeps coming back, and she gives in to him. At last she tells him the truth: she was Koichiro's lover, and involved in his death. In the last episode Takashi's mother accuses her of assisting a suicide, the police question her and strangers attack her online. At their final meeting she tells Takashi that his father asked her to help him die and that, in the end, she could not; he says he believes her. She tells him she still loves him, and they slowly let go of each other's hands. She burns her keepsakes in the garden, closes her clinic and leaves to travel.
Miki Mizunoas Tomomi Noguchi
A bakery worker raising her daughter alone since her husband went missing in an accident abroad.
Tomomi Noguchi’s story
Silent calls begin to plague Tomomi, and then Miki, a young woman with a little boy, claims to have been Toshiya's lover and demands a share of his insurance. Yasuoka, a translator of picture books and a single father, courts her, and she is shaken to learn he never divorced. Then Toshiya, missing and presumed dead, turns out to be alive. In the last episode Yasuoka tells her that if they are to have a future she must put the past behind her. She calls Toshiya out, says goodbye to him, and walks away hand in hand with Yasuoka, a single mother again and short of money.
Hyunrias Saeko Harada
A cosmetics-company high-flyer who, trying for a baby with her husband, sleeps with a younger colleague and becomes pregnant.
Saeko Harada’s story
When Saeko finds she is pregnant, Satoshi is overjoyed, and she tells her friends the child is not his but her younger colleague Sakaguchi's. Satoshi learns the truth and hands her divorce papers. Sakaguchi says she could marry him instead; she tells him he is too good for her. Taken to hospital with pains, and ready to have the baby on her own, she signs the papers and hands them to Satoshi, who tells her he cannot give her up. Sakaguchi asks for a transfer to Osaka, and Saeko and Satoshi start again.
Aya Omasaas Juri Mizushima
A fitness trainer who treats love as a game until she falls for a woman.
Juri Mizushima’s story
Juri cannot even get her fiancé's surname right, calling Sogabe 'Sokabe'. Then, for the first time, she falls in love, with Rei, a stylist, and they meet in secret. When Saeko's husband tells her she treats love as a game, it wounds her. Rei asks to see her and Juri pleads that she is too busy; when her fiancé asks what Rei has that he lacks, she answers, everything. Meeting Rei at last, and told that Rei loves her, Juri cries that it hurts because she loves her too, and that she cannot go on like this, and she ends it. Her friends throw a party for her first broken heart.
Yosuke Suginoas Takashi Kido
An architecture student who suspects Kaori was his dead father's lover, and falls for her himself.
Mariko Shinodaas Rei Sudo
A lesbian stylist, the first person Juri truly loves.
Why it matters
Mistresses, NHK's remake of the BBC series, gathers four women's secrets around the themes it was made to explore: what it means to live, and what happiness is. It is frank that the women do things they cannot defend, an affair with a married man and then with his son, a child by another man, a love kept hidden, and it lets the consequences arrive. It also gives room to what lies behind the adultery: the pressure to have a child, a woman left to raise one alone when her husband vanishes, a first love between two women, and, at its centre, a doctor accused of helping a man end his life. It does not decide for its heroines which of their choices was right. What stays open is whether a secret kept for love is a kindness or a betrayal.