Age-inappropriate romance, on screen or off, stirs up passionate reactions. Cougars — an American term for middle-aged women who actively seek out younger lovers — find both supporters (who see them as adventurous and sexy) and slammers (who deride them as deluded and shameless). I like a saying of my mother's: What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Or meat for the cougar.
In Japan, where new acquaintances often exchange ages soon after their name cards, age gaps yawn wider than elsewhere, especially in show business. Media stories about celebrity couples inevitably comment, often with a tut-tut or a nudge-nudge, on any age difference considered out of the ordinary, such as the woman being older than the man, period.
The central couple in Shusuke Kaneko's new drama "Bakamono (literal translation: "Fools") meet when the guy, Hide (Hiroki Narimiya), is 19 and the girl, Gakuko (Yuki Uchida), is 27. This gap is hardly scandalous, even in Japan, but is usually meaningful anywhere. Hide, a college student living with his parents in Takasaki, Gunma Prefecture, is a virgin; Gakuko, who works at a supermarket where Hide finds a part-time job, is sensual and worldly wise, but also down to earth and easygoing. She takes him to bed with an indulgent, appraising smile; he falls for her hard and fast.