November 17, 2014
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Massan Plot Summary - Week 8
#43 Massan gets a telegram saying he needs to get back to Hiroshima pronto because his father is dying. Massan and Ellie scrape together all the money they can borrow and jump on the next train. I hope their Landlord can be patient for a bit more. Massan and Ellie arrive in Hiroshima and run down the street to Massan's home screaming out, "Father! Father!" They get home and find dad is fine instead of dead, and Massan hugs him so hard that his back goes out and is Dad confined to bed. I tellya, these folks are not skillful huggers. Massan is angry that his mother lied, but mother considers turnabout as fair play for Massan not telling the family that he is out of a job. There is work to be done at the family brewery, and since it is Massan's fault that Dad is incapacitated, Massan will have to stick around and help out until Dad recovers. Ellie pipes up that she can use chopsticks now (oh, puleeeeuz!) and will be glad to help around the house. Fine, but since MIL does not recognize the marriage, if Ellie insists on staying, she can work as a servant. Servants do not eat with the family. Massan's sisters are amazed at how well Ellie manages in the kitchen, but MIL says that Ellie's Osaka style cooking will never do in Hiroshima, and pities poor Massan for having to put up with such an inedible menu. Thus begins round two of the MIL vs. DIL battle.
#44 Massan helps out in the family brewery with some experimental fermentation, but the assistant and old friend Toshio tells him that a person who has left home because of his tainted by Western ways cannot hope to make decent sake. Working with the fellows at the brewery revives Massan's memories of making sake and he feels encouraged. He wants to stay on in Hiroshima a bit longer, blissfully unaware that his family is being nasty to his wife. Idiot. Next morning MIL wakes Ellie the "maid" and tells her to get up and get to work. She is the last one into the kitchen, so perhaps she did sleep in a bit long. MIL and sister Chikako tell Ellie how a house should be kept. Tatami should be swept parallel to the weave of the mats, and you don't step on the edges! Wring out that rag! Tote that barge! Lift that bale! This is all very useful knowledge if Ellie can tolerate the unkind way in which it is communicated. Increasing the volume of a hysterical explanation does not necessarily make it more comprehensible. Chikako also unkindly tells Ellie that both she and Massan are living a mistaken dream, Ellie of becoming Japanese and Massan of making whiskey. They should both give up before they hurt each other too much. Chikako brings in a bundle containing a whole bunch of tabi socks that are in need of mending just so Ellie doesn't run out of things to entertain herself with.
In the real world, Rita was actually treated very kindly by Masataka's family. His mother initially objected to Rita at first, but she gave her approval when Masataka's boss said Rita was a nice girl. Is it really nice to portray this family in such a bad light? Massan is a story, but it is not Masataka's and Rita's story at all!
#45 Massan is still helping out at the family brewery and not enjoying it much. Nasty Toshio is actually quite the expert at sake, and Massan suggests that he come over to the "whiskey side." Toshio is not interested. Ellie is at work mending the pile of tabi socks, haunted by Chikako's words that she and Massan are living a mistaken dream. But Ellie knows Chikako is wrong. MIL calls Massan in for a conference and asks a logical question about what he is going to do with his life now that he quit the Sumiyoshi Brewery. Ellie is nothing but a witch who brings him nothing but bad luck. Massan gets mad and tells MIL that she is the witchy one. Dad is about recovered from his bad back, but is faking agony so that Massan feels obligated to stay on. Later, Chikako catches Ellie in the kitchen tasting leftover miso soup and asks her what she's doing. (I'm adding laxative and arsenic... ) No, actually she's checking the taste in hopes of being able to learn the recipe. If she really wants to know that badly Chikako says she will fill her in and Ellie dutifully takes notes. Ellie perseveres in her work as housemaid and MIL declares her stubborn. Ellie hears the song that the workers sing as they make the sake (Ode to Fermentation), and Chikako says that it is nothing special. Ellie says, no, it is the sound of sake being born, just like her baby that will be born soon. MIL listens to the conversation from the next room and is touched but remains unmoved. I have a question... We have never seen Chikako's husband included in the cast of characters anywhere, nor have we seen Massan's older brother. Where are these folks?
#46 Massan is still grudgingly working in the family brewery, and remembers the sumo match with his father where he was challenged to make the best whiskey in the world. Ellie is still slaving away and is wondering where they are headed. Toshio tells Massan that he is too old to be joblessly mooching off his parents and to get real about life, because he is never going to make whiskey and even if he does no one will drink it. Ellie is wiping down the stairs and kicks the bucket. MIL is not impressed by the mess and asks Ellie what her own mother would say if she were to see Ellie's pitiful state. (Um, who is helping to create the pitiful state?) Her husband has no job and she is slaving away as nothing but a maid. MIL tells Ellie to go back to her mother, and E says no way. E, you are so stubborn, what kind of a dumb woman raised you? Did she wear army shoes or what? Is her belly button an outie? (Japanese version of your mother wears army shoes.) Massan begins to doubt his dreams. He has no job, no money and no progress. Ellie tells him that his dream is just taking a nap for awhile and that he should stick with it. Ellie produces a great batch of soup and runs to tell Chikako, but Chikako is too busy having labor pains. Forget the soup, everybody boil water! Ellie's father was a doctor so Ellie knows how to deliver children. There was no Lamaze in those days, so St. Ellie tells Chikako to breath in time to the Ode to Fermentation being sung by the workers. Massan arrives with a midwife riding piggyback, and after some pushing it's a boy. Chicako's two older kids and husband appear on the screen for the first time. We don't even get a good look at the husband's face. I wonder what he does for a living. He sure does not get paid much for a 10 second appearance.
#47 Ellie does the morning sweep in front of the house and greets the neighbors, but everyone just turns away and hurries off. Toshio is happy that the kid was born to the rhythm of the Ode to Fermentation. The whole family is gathered at Chikako's bedside rejoicing over the new addition to the family. Massan looks worried as Ellie holds the baby. Later, Chikako talks to Massan and tells him that it would really be better for everyone for him to stay in Hiroshima where he would have work. (Ellie is eavesdropping through the paper door - make sure that your shadow is not visible!) MIL is worried about him, and with good cause. Chikako can see that Ellie is a good person and is really trying very hard, and sincerely wants her to be happy, too. If they had a child, then it might make it easier for MIL to accept them. Massan remembers the discrimination that he experienced in Scotland, and would not want that for his child, so he feels uncertain about the future. Children can't choose their parents. They are just born into this world and have to deal with obstacles that their parents created. Later, Dad asks Toshio how Massan is doing in the brewery. Toshio is under the impression that Massan will eventually take over the family business, but Dad informs Toshio that this is not the case. Dad has not given up on Massan's dream of whiskey. Later that night, Ellie and Massan each come to their own important decisions.
#48 Massan tells his mother of his decision to stay in Hiroshima. His mother looks happy and his father is annoyed. Who said he was gonna make whiskey? You dragged Ellie all the way from Scotland for nothing? Dad tells him to stop whining. and MIL says if he stays that it will be without Ellie. Dad tells him that when he can't think of what to do in his head he should move his body. MIL asks Ellie if she likes children. (Why?) Massan goes and works up a sweat stirring the sake mix, sees the fermentation and is moved to tears. Don't drip in the sake, Massan. He washes his face to hide the tears - typical Japanese emotion hiding behavior. He remembers that he really wants to work up a sweat making whiskey, and feels ashamed that he is so far from his goal. He would be ashamed in front of any kid he would have. Later Ellie tells him before coming to Japan she had no idea of what the Japanese people would think of her. Since coming to Japan she has realized how few foreigners that are. She has been called silly, stared at, made fun of and has been unable to find gainful employment, but none of this matters because love conquers all. Massan, make whiskey! (The sun shines in brightly through the open door.) Next scene: MIL is lecturing the couple against going back to Osaka. She doesn't remember raising Massan to be this kind of a stupid son and sending him abroad was a mistake. (DH and I laughed at this TYPICAL MIL talk. Where have we heard this before?) She pays Ellie for her work as a maid and tells Ellie to dump her idiot son and use the money for a return ticket to Scotland and to her own mother. MIL orders them both out of the house. Ellie and Massan return to Osaka holding hands and singing the Ode to Fermentation. Back at home the family is having breakfast. MIL, how's the miso soup? It tastes normal. Ellie made it. Oh, I thought it tasted strange.
