Kanna-San! (Ms. Kanna!) – Japanese Drama Review

I spent the afternoon and evening binge-watching this drama yesterday.  It is a 2017 Japanese drama starring Jun Kaname, who is the reason why I watched this fairly unknown dorama, and Naomi Watanabe, who has been dubbed as Japan’s Beyonce.  With Naomi’s fairly large frame, it was hard to imagine her being a Beyonce but as soon as she moves and do her thing, you can see her aura and personality more than makes up for her being fat. (I know that is far from being politically correct but I have to call and say it for what it is – sorry).

Anyway, Naomi Watanebe played Kanna Suzuki who was married to Jun’s character, Rei Suzuki.  They have a really adorable son, Reon,  played by a very able child actor, Eito Kawahara.

They lived a happy, fun life until Reon’s 4th birthday,

Rei failed to celebrate the party because he came home late and without the promised Mr Penguin slushy machine present.

Rei did not seem that bothered having missed the birthday and went immediately into his mancave to do more work.  Kanna understood as she is used to her workaholic husband.  She ended up having a solo karaoke in the living room.  With all the racket she was making, her husband put on his headphones.

As he checked his text messages, he did not notice that his wife was behind him and can read all the exchanged text with his mistress.  Kanna found out that the husband was not late for the party because of work but he was with his mistress.  She was infuriated to know that he kissed her after he had been kissing his mistress.

Rei said that he is lovesick.  He can’t control it.  She kicked her husband out of the bedroom and told him to be gone before she wakes up.  And he was.

After a a few days, the husband came to visit with his mother.  The mother-in-law, though not the typical Oriental monstrous one in dramas, was still annoying.  Anyway, Kanna was ready to forgive her husband but he said he was actually serious about his mistress.  He wanted to be with her.

Kanna took it all in.  She is not one to be depressed for long. She gave her husband a divorce.

Restarted her life as a single parent.  She has a vivacity that is contagious.

I know this kind of vivacity.  Because when I was in college, I had a schoolmate called Gemma.  She was tall for a Filipina 🙂 and had a sexy body.  But her face is not so good and bordering on the hideous.  She had inflamed pimples all the time and acne scars which turned really dark, her nose is flat and wide.  But she had a piercing and bright eyes which mirrored her personality.  She was always laughing, that kind that is contagious, and she was a good raconteur.  She tells the best and funny jokes and stories.  We used to congregate around her.  She was the queen bee.  Her popularity reached mega-stratosphere in our school when her boyfriend, who was so gorgeous came to pick her up in his car.  At that time we had never seen  a young person owning his own car.  🙂 🙂 🙂

I digress, anyway over time Kanna made a life of her own with her son, she was circumspect with her husband and his girlfriend, so much so that her husband felt a glimmer of something for her again and the girlfriend noticed this too.   They ended up breaking up.  Rei decided to go back to Kanna but at this point, she had started a relationship with a world-renown fashion designer, Nick Namba.

It would have been happily ever after for Kanna with Nick; he was perfect, he has sown all his wild oats, so to speak, and really ready and aching to settle down and be a family but little Reon won’t take to him.  Kanna and Nick separated.

Kanna then went to  Rei, who bought her a mansion as an atonement for his abandonment.  She said she would be with him again in their new mansion (apartment) but Rei just met up with a fashion model childhood friend.  He said to Kanna that he was not ready yet.  So they are both back to square one.

To buy the mansion, Rei barrowed money from his company, he had to really work hard to finish a website that would clear his debts.  He was so happy at last and went to Kanna and asked her to marry again.  She said No.  She doesn’t want marriage.  They could live together.

Unfortunately, the company, the website he was working on, went bankrupt.  Rei was in debt for 50M yen,  He lost his company and can’t pay the 10M Y loan.

At this point Kanna is at her lowest ebb too having just lost  her job.  But Kanna is optimistic and resourceful.  She work as a construction worker, hefting materials in the site.

Kanna found out Rei’s predicament.  She said that they had to sell the mansion to clear more of the debts.

And they remarried and downsized into a little apartment, both working and seemed happy to be together.

It is a very engaging story but there is not much chemistry really between the actors, probably that is why it was easy to overlook that emotive subject of infidelity!  Kanna and Nick have more chemistry.  That back hug was sexy.