“I merely want to live like a lightning” — Kanden, by Kenshi Yonezu
Link to trailer: https://youtu.be/jMomusLUy4c
Produced by the original creative team of a hit TV drama “Unnatural”, with top-tier casting, the Japanese television drama academy award-winning TV series MIU404 created a huge stir in a foreign country, China, as soon as it was released on Bilibili, the largest video sharing platform in China. The crime investigating comedy brings us a summer brimming with deep sensations, positive energy, and the tantalizing aroma of melon bread.
Different from other single-unit TV dramas of its category, MIU404 adds to its appeal with intertwined interpersonal relationships and pieces of evidence pointing towards a larger picture uncovered gradually as each single seemingly trivial event unfolds. Instead of focusing on a mind-bending trial of solving a grand scheme, the subjects of investigations in this tv drama are largely day-to-day crimes engaging ordinary people. Behind these events is humanity undergoing the toil of moral dilemmas of all kinds, through portraying which, the TV drama celebrates the survival and salvation of ordinary individuals. Although trivial, and day-to-day as the events seem, each of them sharply points to a social issue in dire need of addressing: the lack of policies regarding guide of criminals who have done serving their sentence towards rehabilitation, the hostile living situation of “working-studying international students”, the tremendous obstacle faced by females on the way of striving for independence in an established patriarchal society, the neglection of breaches in the justice system regarding underage crime, etc.
China, as a neighboring country developing from similar roots, shares tons of similar social conventions with Japan, leading to social issues alike. For example, both China and Japan share a long history of extreme patriarchy.
The fourth episode discussing “feminine independence” received overwhelmingly positive feedback in China: many reported shed tears while felt empowered watching the desperate female victim of the criminal underworld burning up the last minutes of her life striving towards salvation for her suffering kind. In addition to the themes of “feminine independence” and “feminine power get-together”, the tv drama furthers the discussion on femininity with successful construction of an innovative female character trope: that of Yuzuru Kikyo.
Through the eyes of two officers, we observe the shattered “Japanese dream” once firmly upheld by the “working-studying international students” who are heavily in debt under astronomical expense for intermediaries. When observing, the Chinese audience reflects back to workers on the streamlines in factories sprung by the uprising megacities, who are working overtime, receiving minimum payment, manufacturing products they can’t afford.
