The third episode of the Fuji TV drama series "Ramune Monkey" (Wednesdays at 10pm), starring Takashi Sorimachi, Nao Omori, and Kenjiro Tsuda, aired on January 28th. A line spoken by Misa Miyashita, also known as "Matilda," played by Aso Kiryu, struck a chord with viewers.
◇The following contains spoilers
Yuta Yoshii (Sorimachi), Hajime Fujimaki (Omori), and Kikuhara Kisuke (Tsuda) were fascinated with filmmaking during their junior high school days. When filming scenes involving drinking alcohol, they drank water instead. However, their physical education teacher, Eto (Kunihiro Suda), warned them that the drinking scenes were "problematic for a film made by junior high school students."
Matilda, the film club advisor, told Hajime to persuade Eto. When Hajime was reluctant, Matilda replied, "Then you don't have to make it. If something like this makes you sick of it, then you're not going to make it anyway. Creating something means being criticized and critiqued. Those who can't help but create despite that become creators. Do you want to be the one giving the critique? Or the one being criticized?"
On social media, people were talking about Matilda's words, saying things like, "Matilda's words really hit home," "Matilda has a lot of great quotes. I never had a teacher say things like that when I was in middle school," "Matilda's teacher's words are so accurate and resonate so directly with children," and "I could feel the thoughts of (screenwriter) Furusawa Ryota in Matilda's words."
The original story and screenplay for the drama was written by Ryota Furusawa. It is a "youth-recovering human comedy" that depicts the reunion and rebirth of two middle-aged men who were both passionate about making kung fu movies when they were in junior high school in 1988, but now feel like their lives have reached a dead end, thinking "this isn't how it was supposed to be."
