I’m not in the mood to recap anything long, intense, sad or kind of arduous and each of the dramas I am behind on (^^”) fall into at least one of those categories and I do want to recap something~
So, I decided to recap this little Japanese drama in the hopes that it will be fun and interesting!
We open with a murder (this is off to a fun start!). A man finds a teddy bear, and pretty much immediately after, gets pushed off the path onto the one below.
3 months later we see someone in a bear suit, however, the children and even adults in the area are going towards the other ‘character’ present. Bear-san gets asked to take a picture and when they leave, Bear-san takes their head off to become our leading lady: Yamase Kazuko (Morikawa Aoi).
Angered that it was her ex-boyfriend who asked for the picture to be taken and the fact that he’s found a new women so quickly, Kazuko takes her anger out on the other ‘character’. Her boss rushes out and gets between them and fires her.
On the way home, Kazuko goes into a little shop and has a staredown with the teddy we have previously seen. She asks for a go and gets the gun (I think this is like a carnival stall but in shop form?).
Of course she wins it, as we see her throwing it up in the air and catching it while lying on her bed. Kazuko asks the teddy if it won’t abandon her. She then starts to have a conversation, squeaking her voice to be the teddy. Through this conversation she makes herself feel better about having lost her boyfriend to someone else.
Her mother walks into the room while she is doing this, when Kazuko notices she flings the teddy across the room (it screamed! How did they not hear it?). Her mother is not impressed, and further so when Kazuko does not have the housekeeping money she owes. Kazuko pretends that she hasn’t been fired and that she is the most popular bear at the company. She promises her mother she will pay her tomorrow.
Kazuko’s mother tells her to stop endangering her future and become a chef, like her uncle. She tells her not to talk to teddies and leaves the room (not before throwing the teddy in the air!). Kazuko apologises to the teddy, but is shocked when it starts talking to her!
The teddy asks if she can hear him, but when she puts her face close to his, she laughs and says she must be ill! Kazuko then goes to bed whilst hugging the teddy.
In the morning, Kazuko falls out of bed and is taken by surprise when she looks in the mirror. Where she is holding the teddy, the mirror shows her holding an older middle aged man (Aikawa Sho). He says good morning. Kazuko yells, sets the teddy down and runs out of the room.
She comes back later with her mother, both carrying brooms (she is wearing a bowl and her mother is wearing a cooking dish! haha!). They charge into the room, but no one is there. Her mother says Kazuko must have been dreaming, and we see that when her mother picks the teddy up she only sees the teddy’s reflection in the mirror.
On her way out, she hands Kazuko the flyer about cooking and reminds her that she promised to pay her today.
Sitting on her bed, Kazuko is shocked to see the man in the mirror again. She throws the teddy and slowly picks him up (at the teddy’s request). He tells Kazuko that it seems the only one who can see him is her.
Kazuko is further shocked (and disgusted) when he says he didn’t think people her age kissed teddy bears anymore. Next scene is Kazuko running outside with the intention of throwing him into the rubbish truck. However, the teddy cries for her to stop and he explains that he is a ghost inhabiting the teddy.
We then see her throwing salt at the teddy, to give him an exorcism! (HA!). The teddy tells her to stop and just help her with his unfinished business so he can move on to ‘nirvana’.
Her mother then comes out and sees her throwing salt and arguing with the teddy. She tells her they are going to the hospital and runs back into the house to get ready.
Kazuko uses the mirror on the lamppost to talk to the man, who introduces himself as Amano Yasuo. He tells her that he will pay her if she helps him find someone (where did he get the cigarette from?!). Kazuko doesn’t see how a ghost can hire and pay her. Yasuo reveals that when he was alive he hid some savings.
Her mother comes out and tells her to hurry to get ready. Kazuko tells Yasuo that if he is lying, she will throw him away!
The place where the supposed 500,000 ¥ (I’m going to assume this amount is the actual Yen amount and hasn’t been converted, but I may be wrong) is the 4th floor of a rather rundown building in not so great a neighbourhood. The 4th floor is a cram school where Yassan (how he wants to be called) used to work.
Yassan tells her that from now on, she needs to do everything he says, ‘word for word’, otherwise he won’t tell her where the money is. Kazuko agrees and knocks on one of the doors.
She enters and it seems the employees are starting to prepare to film an online lesson. Kazuko copies Yassan’s words and says that she is Takai Yayoi’s neice. The three members of staff are introduced and they sit down, apart from, Furuya, the dodgy looking maths teacher. Yassan tells her to say she wants to talk to them about her aunts death, but she says it in a way that implies she doesn’t know her “aunt” is dead (she is not the brightest crayon in the box!).
Yoshizumi (the rather attractive English teacher) explains what happened:
When he is finished Kazuko opens her bag and talks into it, complaining about how sad the story is (HA!). Yoshizumi and Ohashi (the Japanese teacher) look confused.
Kazuko takes Yassan out of her bag, and Furuya asks if it is Riku’s treasured teddy. Kazuko quickly repeats Yassan (even his cough…) by telling him they are matching ones. Yoshizumi shows her a photo on the wall of the staff and Riku, but it doesn’t include Yassan (his actual human self!). He lamely says he was off sick that day, which Kazuko confirms is a lie when Yoshizumi answers her question that no-one was missing from the photo.
Yassan then tells her to ask about the detective who fell at the marina and Ohashi explains that the detective, a.ka. Yassan, was re-investigating the couples “suicide” and he slipped, fell and died (ah so we saw Yassan dying at the beginning). Yassan shouts that he didn’t fall, but was murdered! Shocked, Kazuko repeats him.
Yassan says they should leave for now, because Kazuko is stumbling over her words. To do this, Kazuko starts making the ‘buzzz’ sound for a vibrating phone and uses her hand and actually answers it and runs out of the room (she even held out her hand to the two teachers to show them she was on the phone hahaha this lead is really something! wow).
Once outside, we see a man sat on the stairs above them (who watched them come into the buildings area), but they don’t notice him. Yassan explains that he found new shoes and thought why would a man who was going to commit suicide buy new shoes? Therefore he decided to reinvestigate the case, but while he was at the marina he was pushed. From the looks on the the teachers faces, he thinks that one of them is his murderer.
Next thing we see is Kazuko running down the stairs with every intention of throwing him into the rubbish truck going past. However, she misses. She goes for a second go, but is stopped by Yassan asking if she is going to kill him a second time and then asking if she has seen his handkerchief before.
3 months ago we see a different story taking place at the marina: a.k.a when Kazuko is dumped. The handkerchief which is around Yassan’s teddy neck was used by Kazuko to wipe her tears (and disgustingly, her snot!). She throws it into the air after her ex-boyfriend and it ends up flying into Yassan’s (human) face so he can’t see or defend himself.
Back in the present Yassan says that fate must exist and seeing how she somewhat had a role in his death, she should help him. Then Yassan asks if it feels like they are being watched. Kazuko asks if he is trying to scare her and she laughs, saying it isn’t working.
Yassan tells Kazuko to run as she is probably being targeted now because she said that Yassan was murdered. Kazuko does so and when she hides behind a shop wall,someone runs past.
In the mirror Yassan (human) tells her that she either has to help him solve the case or live in fear of the murderer coming after her. Kazuko has no choice but to help him. A hand grabs her shoulder and she turns around slowly.
Additional Comments:
I’m not really sure about this drama… and seeing as there are only 4 episodes, I don’t know how much character development our leading lady could go through… and she kind of needs some!
I do find her pretty funny to watch, but I don’t see how helpful she can be in solving a murder case at this point. But she has a definite entertainment factor.
Yassan is probably the more interesting of the duo, mainly because he’s a detective. I do like that he is quite fast with his comebacks and has this old man/detective vibe to him. I also really like how the teddy and the actor for Yassan match. I can totally see the actor in the teddy when he talks.
Now, the actual premise for the drama is interesting and I like that she is the only one who can hear him and see Yassan’s human form in mirrors. I think they have done this visually very well. And there has been a good setup to everything, and hopefully 4 episodes is enough to get a satisfying ending *fingers crossed*
Ooh and I wonder if it’s the cute English teacher? It’s never the obviously shady ones!
I’m actually looking forward to how this goes and is it just me or has Yassan (the teddy form) gotten grumpier looking throughout this episode?! haha
Thank you for reading~
DramaRambles 🌸 