Netflix Series Review
Watching “The Family” — a Japanese Drama on Netflix
Great drama series set in 1960’s Kobe starring Takuya Kimura, Kyōka Suzuki and Kinya Kitaōji
Netflix has recently been adding a bunch of Japanese TV shows, most of them produced by TBS (Tokyo Broadcast System). Some date back to the 1990’s while other favorites like Tokyo Swindlers and Extremely Inappropriate are brand new.
My wife and I were particularly thrilled to find The Family (華麗なる一族 Karei-naru Ichizoku) available to watch now outside of Japan.
This 10-episode drama from 2007 stars Takuya Kimura, Kyōka Suzuki, and Kinya Kitaōji. It’s based on the well-known 1973 novel of the same name by Toyoko Yamasaki (山崎豊子). The novel was previously adapted into a movie and television series in 1974. There’s a newer TV series released in 2021.
The story follows the Manpyo family as the father, Daisuke, attempts to build Hanshin Bank into one of the top banks in the country while his son, Teppei, works to turn Hanshin Steel into a leading steel manufacturer. The story is set in Kobe, Japan in 1967.
This story is amazingly personal to my wife and I. Not only is she from Kobe, where I’ve also lived on and off since 1989, but we met while we were both working at Kobe Steel. A TV show about a steel company in Kobe? We couldn’t miss that.
In fact, my wife had previously read the novel. I was tempted to read it, but it’s never been translated into English, and the 3 volume novel was more than I wanted to bite off reading slowly in Japanese. But a TV show, with subtitles? The Family went right to the top of the queue.
The novel goes into considerable depth about the steel-making process. The TV series glosses over most of that. But the plot of the story revolves around Teppei Manpyo’s desire to build a blast furnace at Hanshin Steel.
There are 2 ways to make steel: you can either melt down scrap steel in an electric arc furnace, or you can make new steel from iron ore and coke in a blast furnace. Only Teikoku Steel (the real-world Nippon Steel that’s currently trying to acquire US Steel) had blast furnaces. Hanshin Steel had to make their steel by buying up scrap or convincing Teikoku Steel to sell intermediate pig iron to their competitor.
Teppei wanted to build his own blast furnace and produce higher grade steel than Teikoku. If that sounds like a plot that only a former steel company engineer could love, don’t worry. Because the true story of the show is the battle between father and son.
As president of Hanshin Bank, the main source of funding for the family’s steel company, the father ostensibly supports his son’s vision of turning Hanshin Steel into a world-class manufacturer. But…the father suspects Teppei is not really his son. A paternity test in the first episode consists of clapping at a pond to see if a giant koi fish will come.
The father, a serious schemer, is struggling with a government-organized consolidation of the banking industry. As a small, regional bank in Osaka and Kobe (Hanshin 阪神 is short for the Osaka/Kobe area), they’re likely to get swallowed by one of the big national banks. So the father comes up with a complicated plan to take over one of the bigger banks. His scheme requires marrying off his daughters to government ministers, bribing government officials, backstabbing anyone who gets in his way, and most importantly, engineering the bankruptcy of Hanshin Steel.
What emerges is a cat-and-mouse game between father and son as Teppei continues to find ways to overcome obstacles erected secretly by his father. The 10 episodes follow the machinations of the father that lead to the downfall of this complicated family.
The father’s bedroom has 3 beds for himself, his wife, and his mistress so the wife and mistress can have alternating nights with him.
The grandfather, who passed away earlier, had a number of mistresses, too, and a daughter from one is a further family complication. I won’t give away the biggest surprise around which most of the story revolves but it involves the grandfather.
After working at Kobe Steel, watching a drama about a steel company in Kobe (though actually based on the bankruptcy of Sanyo Special Steel in Himeji) was a treat. But you don’t need to have worked at a steel manufacturer to enjoy this drama.
It was also fun to see the views of 1960’s downtown Kobe. I was a little disappointed that those were shot in Taipei and don’t look like the real Kobe. Similarly, wide scenes overlooking the city from the family’s home were filmed in Shizuoka with Mt. Fuji erased from the background. But that is a minor nit that those who haven’t lived in Kobe won’t care about.
Despite it being a TV show, the production is gorgeous. It feels more like a movie than a typical Japanese TV drama. The English subtitles are good enough to follow the story easily.
Overall, this is a great series. If you enjoy Japanese dramas, I highly recommend it.
And if you enjoy Takuya Kimura and Kyōka Suzuki who play Teppei and Aiko — the father’s mistress — don’t miss them together again as partners instead of rivals in the 2019 series La Grande Maison Tokyo about Michelin-starred French restaurants in Tokyo which also recently became available on Netflix.
Learn the dialect and culture of the Osaka/Kobe/Kyoto region featured in The Family in my language guide Colloquial Kansai Japanese.
