We Married as a Job: (Netflix title in post)
March 2, 2023 11:41 AM - Season 1 (Full Season) - Subscribe
aka The Full-Time Wife Escapist, which is how Netflix lists it. I'm not sure why.
In any case, this Japanese rom-com follows 25-year-old unemployed clinical psychologist Miruki (Yui Aragaki) and 35-year-old computer programmer Tzusaki (Gen Hoshino) as they - for plot reasons that I've decided to accept - decide to get fake-married so that Tzusaki can hire her to be his live-in housekeeper (and just his housekeeper). I was prepared to be skeeved out by this arrangement, but the series takes great pains to show Tzusaki's genuinely honorable intentions and Miruki's agency in entering into and maintaining this deal.
Plus, I was totally charmed by their discovery of the joys of shared domesticity and their mutual adorkable-ness.
There's a lot around Japanese marriages that I'll leave for someone more qualified to unpack, but I think that it's a fairly even-handed depiction of societal pressures on young people in Japan.
On Netflix in Canada
Sidenote: I have read that the two leads actually got married after shooting wrapped. :)
There's a lot around Japanese marriages that I'll leave for someone more qualified to unpack, but I think that it's a fairly even-handed depiction of societal pressures on young people in Japan.
On Netflix in Canada
Sidenote: I have read that the two leads actually got married after shooting wrapped. :)
Oh wow. This is a series from 2016. The "second season" was a special one-off follow up from 2021. It was a pretty big hit at the time (hence the extra episode five years later).
The ending theme, Koi, by Gen Hoshino was also a big hit and there was a whole thing around the dance they do in the closing credits (and also in the music video).
posted by LostInUbe at 2:02 AM on March 3, 2023
The ending theme, Koi, by Gen Hoshino was also a big hit and there was a whole thing around the dance they do in the closing credits (and also in the music video).
posted by LostInUbe at 2:02 AM on March 3, 2023
It just popped up on Netflix.
Other favorite things:
- periodically wanting to slap the two of them, but in a good way, whenever they reach that "Remains of the Day" level of emotional repression and misunderstanding.
- the little sight gags in the background whenever the men are talking in the break room (two men exercising and periodically making hearts with their arms, another employee carefully walking a plant around, etc)
- Kazami gently correcting Tsuzaki's misconceptions about gay men ("Nunata isn't perceptive because he's gay, he's perceptive because he's Nunata"), and how in general he refuses to sabotage Tsuzaki despite having every opportunity to do so (okay, except for that one hug attempt)
posted by Mogur at 4:17 AM on March 3, 2023
Other favorite things:
- periodically wanting to slap the two of them, but in a good way, whenever they reach that "Remains of the Day" level of emotional repression and misunderstanding.
- the little sight gags in the background whenever the men are talking in the break room (two men exercising and periodically making hearts with their arms, another employee carefully walking a plant around, etc)
- Kazami gently correcting Tsuzaki's misconceptions about gay men ("Nunata isn't perceptive because he's gay, he's perceptive because he's Nunata"), and how in general he refuses to sabotage Tsuzaki despite having every opportunity to do so (okay, except for that one hug attempt)
posted by Mogur at 4:17 AM on March 3, 2023
Final thoughts:
1) the product placement was hilarious
2) does a lot of punching *up*, which I admire - against sexist marriage laws, against sexist attitudes towards housewives and women who work, against homophobia, and probably a few others I missed
3) seems to *really* like age-gap relationships, which again I don't feel qualified to unpack
posted by Mogur at 6:08 AM on March 5, 2023
1) the product placement was hilarious
2) does a lot of punching *up*, which I admire - against sexist marriage laws, against sexist attitudes towards housewives and women who work, against homophobia, and probably a few others I missed
3) seems to *really* like age-gap relationships, which again I don't feel qualified to unpack
posted by Mogur at 6:08 AM on March 5, 2023
Oohh I just blew through this so fast as a result of this Fanfare entry! Absolutely delightful! Thank you! Numata clan forever ❤️
posted by Isingthebodyelectric at 4:11 PM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Isingthebodyelectric at 4:11 PM on March 5, 2023 [1 favorite]
True, there's a lot there, but I think the show pushes back against the sexism - the sexist characters either change their ways or else stay ridiculed, and societal pressures are clearly identified as oppressive. Vide when Tsuzaki shuts his father down when the latter tries to lecture him about the husband being "the pillar of the house".
posted by Mogur at 3:27 AM on March 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
posted by Mogur at 3:27 AM on March 9, 2023 [1 favorite]
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posted by Mogur at 2:05 PM on March 2, 2023 [3 favorites]