December 8, 2014
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Massan Plot Summary - Week 11
#61 Ellie is pregnant, and Massan thanks all of the gods, buddhas and ancestors for the blessed event to come. His tear ducts seem to have loosened up for this installment. Ellie has not written home once since coming to Japan, and determines to write a letter and tell her mother how happy she is with Massan. Things are going well at the brewery in Yamasaki. Toshio and the brewery staff all make themselves useful by providing dumb slapstick humor with a lot of exaggerated facial expressions, yelling and falling down. Next scene is Massan and Ellie holding hands on their way to the Only Restaurant, where they are acting silly enough to make the regular gang wonder what is going on. An idiotically happy Massan arrives home with Ellie, and who should be on their doorstep but Kamoi and his oldest son Eiichiro. He is a student majoring in watching movies and frequenting cafes. Kamoi thinks it would be a grand idea if Eiichiro could be a live-in apprentice to Massan. He could learn both a trade and English.
#62 Kamoi's eldest son Eiichiro is now a live-in apprentice to Massan. Massan thinks that Ellie does not need an extra project, but Ellie insists that it is all right. Eiichiro is not interested in interaction and states that he won't bother them and they should not bother him. He will do his own cooking and laundry. He doesn't need to learn any English from Ellie because he already knows it all. I must admit, the fellow is good. He says that his father Kamoi is very strict and feudalistic, whereas he would rather be free and enjoy liberalism. Eiichiro seems to know his way around a kitchen, as he used to help his mother who passed on ten or so years ago. The neighbors are surprised by Eiichiro's appearance on the scene and think that he is quite the handsome fellow. They are all curious about why Ellie and Massan are idiotically happy. They come in for tea, and Ellie tells them that she will let them know when things are farther along and then runs out for a barf. Now everyone knows what that means, and the cat is out of the bag. Shift the scene to the Yamasaki brewery. Massan finds Eiichiro sitting between the pot stills diligently reading books. He has no interest in inheriting the brewery and dislikes his father Kamoi for running his life. He is disappointed that Massan can be so conservative and feudalistic even after spending two years outside of Japan.
#63 Kamoi's oldest son Eiichiro is supposed to be working as an apprentice, but is showing active disinterest in the brewery. He knows it all already, and recites to Massan the entire process for making whiskey. Massan says there is more to know than what one reads in a book, but Eiichiro just walks out. Later at home Massan wonders why Eiichiro dislikes his father. Eiichiro really misses his mother who died ten years ago. Cut to Kamoi's office where he is looking at a family picture wondering where he went wrong. Katherine and the gang organize a surprise "omedeta" party for Ellie and Massan at the Only Restaurant, where they are toasted and given presents for the baby that is coming. (Ellie is not even showing yet, so this is all way too early - no common sense in this scenario.) Yep, yesterday's cookie toss spilled the beans big time. Everyone says that now the folks in Hiroshima will finally accept the marriage. They decide names for the baby, and wonder who it will look like. If it looks like Ellie it will need a foreign name. What color hair and skin will the baby have? What country will it belong to? Eiichiro is shocked at both the pregnancy and the stupid, cruel questions and takes the whole gathering to task. He tells Ellie to remember the unpleasantries that she has experienced, and that she can expect the same for her child. Everyone should not be so quick to gloss over the problems that are sure to come. Ellie praises him for being able to say what he thinks so clearly and thanks him for truly understanding the situation. Eiichiro breaks into sobs over who knows what. I am sure that we will find out tomorrow. Talk about a wet blanket!
#64 After Eiichiro sobs his way through the baby party, he tells Ellie that his father Kamoi only cared about work, and never came to visit his mother when she was dying in the hospital. He doesn't remember their ever having a meal together. Massan tells Eiichiro to give him some help making a cradle for the baby and some male bonding occurs.
#65 Kamoi comes over to collect Eiichiro. If Ellie is pregnant, she doesn't need an extra person to take care of. Eiichiro says that he is tired of Kamoi running his life and retreats to his upstairs room. Kamoi again wonders where he went wrong and leaves downhearted. Ellie thinks about what she should write home to her mother in Scotland. Later at dinnertime, Ellie and Massan call Eiichiro to come down and eat, but there is no answer, so Ellie has the bright idea of carrying everyone's meal upstairs in a long skirt. If Eiichiro will not come down, Massan and Ellie and the dinner can go up. The next sound we hear is Ellie and the dishes falling down the stairs, and she looses the baby. Why does the scenario writer have to blow up party balloons merely for the purpose of sticking pins in them? Stuff like this was the reason that I quit watching Oshin.
#66 I didn't watch today because I don't need this kind of story first thing in the morning. Both Massan and Eiichiro blame themselves for Ellie falling down the stairs and loosing the baby. Katherine arrives with lunch and tries to cheer Ellie up by telling her that she can always try again for another child. The doctor takes Massan aside and tells him that besides being anemic, Ellie is probably not able to bear a child and had she tried she might have died in childbirth, so maybe what happened is a blessing in disguise. Massan started out this week thanking the gods, but now is lamenting to them why he and Ellie have been fated to remain childless.
