The NHK Taiga drama " UNBOUND " (General TV, Sunday 8:00 pm and others), starring actor Ryusei Yokohama , will start on January 5th. In the first episode, "Arigatayama no Kangarasu", a "smartphone" appears, and viewers are surprised and call it "innovative".
" UNBOUND" is the 64th taiga drama, depicting the life of Tsutaya Juzaburo(or "Tsutajyu" for short), who is said to have built the foundations of Japan's media industry and pop culture. The script was written by Yoshiko Morishita, known for "Drama 10 'Ooku'" which was broadcast on NHK two years ago and became a big hit.
In the first episode, the drama's narrator, Kurosuke Inari, played by Ayase Haruka, disguised herself as an Edo period courtesan and used her smartphone to give an easy-to-understand explanation of Yoshiwara, the setting of the drama.
On social media, comments were posted one after another about this production, such as "It's too innovative to see a smartphone in a historical drama," "Bringing a smartphone to a historical drama is innovative lol," "Explanation using a smartphone, innovative," and "Inari appears and uses a smartphone skillfully, what an innovative beginning."
In the first episode, a year and a half after the Great Fire of Meiwa, Tsutaju, also known as Tsutaya Juzaburo(Yokohama), was working at a teahouse and running a book rental business.
One day, when he visits Matsubaya, his childhood friend and courtesan, Hananoi (Fuka Koshiba), entrusts him with a delivery for Asagao (Reika Aiki). However, when Tsutaju visits Futagoya on Jonengashi Riverbank, he finds Asagao looking extremely emaciated.
Tsutaju is troubled by the terrible conditions faced by the prostitutes at the Kashimise, a suburb of Yoshiwara. Meanwhile, an arson attack occurs in Yoshiwara, causing chaos... and so the story unfolds.
The episode also directly depicted the "reality of Yoshiwara" in which the prostitutes who lost their lives, including Asagao, were stripped of everything they were wearing and left naked, leaving viewers in awe, with comments such as "The way the dead courtesans were treated is too horrifying," "Even down to this...so real...," "Oh my, a scene like this in a taiga drama," "Wow, they're going all the way to this...what incredible resolve," and "No, they're really going for it."
