If she were alive today, novelist and teleplay writer Kuniko Mukoda, who died in a plane crash in Taiwan in 1981, would be 80 years old. Her birthday is being commemorated this week with a revival of one of her most beloved family stories, "Haha no Okurimono" (Mother's Gift; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.).
Akiko (Yuki Shimizu) and Masaaki (Yuichi Nakamaru) are engaged to be married, and on the eve of their wedding Akiko's mother, Nobue (Hisako Manda), shows up to Masaaki's disbelief and Akiko's discomfort. Years ago, after Akiko's father died, Nobue ran off with a married man and Akiko hasn't seen her since. She told Masaaki that her mother was dead.
Masaaki's mother, Fumiko (Keiko Takeshita), is a single woman who worked hard to raise her son by herself, and she feels it is only right to invite Nobue for dinner, but Akiko is opposed to the invitation. But, another unexpected guest shows up to dinner, a certain Mr. Takeda (Koji Ishizaka), who turns out to be Fumiko's longtime boyfriend whom no one was even aware of. Anyone with a reasonably good memory might recall Beat Takeshi's pre-millennial variety show "Koko ga Hen da yo" (Now this is strange), where foreigners discussed in a very lively fashion the peculiarities of the Japanese people.
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