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Okashi no Ie, a story that reminds me over my late grandmother, my old wooden village house and the all time favorite 'aiskrim malaysia'.
Literally translated as Candy House, Okashi no Ie is written by Yuya Ishii and Yuichi Toyone and it tells a story of Taro (Odagiri Joe) who chooses to run his grandma's old candy store although the store barely brings a few profits for both of them. Throughout the plot, you will be meeting his grandmother Akiko (Kaoru Yachigusa) and his fellow friends who always come and gather at the backyard of his house. Then, Taro reunited with his childhood friend Reiko (Ono Machiko), who happened to come over the store and exchanging greeting. Reiko currently lived as a single mother with her son Haruma (Rento Oyama). The drama slowly depicts their everyday life while reminiscing their childhood, finding their dreams and searching for what is truly important in their life.
The story can be quite slow and suddenly things happened out of nowhere. But that's just how I felt when I watch it at the beginning. As I indulged myself more in the characters, I can see bits of myself in their personality traits. Sometimes I am as timid as Kaneda (Tomoya Maeno) who seems to have a lot of doubt over his own capabilities, a few poetic thinking as Saegusa ( Ryo Katsuji) also as someone who prefer to live in his comfortable zone like Taro. It makes me understand them a bit better. Especially for Taro, who I think is a considerate person toward the people around him although there are times when he vented his anger carelessly. Most of the time, there will be people who will point out his ill behavior, giving their views on certain issues they face and I think that was pretty realistic.
One episode only run for about 23 minutes including the credit at the end. I like all of the episodes, it somehow acts like a lesson since each of them offer a different content and things for you to ponder upon. It makes me miss my childhood moments, i think the title of the drama itself gives us a hint about the story.
A 'candy house'.
Doesn't that make you go though your memory lane for a while. It did for me as I calmly went through the episodes. A recall when I often went to uncle Alias house after school to buy an ice cream is truly a happiness. I was about eight at that time. Also the moment when my sister and I walked from our house to buy 'ais kacang' (shaved ice with beans) at a nearby stall ran by a gray haired uncle with his old shaving ice machine. A couple of times the memory can be very detailed like how I can remember the taste of sweet syrup and corn when we ate the 'ais kacang'. The fact that the drama makes me remember all sort of nostalgia about my childhood is weird but in a good way.
Acting wise, it is pretty rare for me to say something from Odagiri Joe is bad. And such a coincidence that I write yet another work of Yuya Ishii. I would say all of them execute the characters very well. They make me laugh at their silly behaviour, in tears when something sad happen and smile when a heartwarming scene appear. Mii-chan the cat carry out her role pretty amazing too lol. Kaoru Yachigusa acting as the grandma is touching and every movement she made, her tone of her voice, lines of words she uttered are very warm indeed.
A simple setting is enough to make my heart moved from the messages it trying to convey. Some of it includes the candy store, the backyard - a place where they spend time eating candies and talking, the tatami when they eat their dinner and the playground.
Several of my favorite episodes will be when they met their ex-schoolmates, Takeda Masahi, also when they talked about Wakabayashi Kiyomi and the angel episode. Lol. The ending is a memorable one too. I don't need a grand setting and plot to make me say that a story is good. As long as it reached me, I think that was already beautiful. Okashi no Ie definitely left an interesting impression on me. It took me a while to finally watched this drama considering it being aired back in 2015 but I am still so grateful for it. I wil be very happy if more people could appreciate it as much as I am. I hope this will reach you, and maybe convince you enough to pick it up :)
Overall: 4/5
Story: 4/5
Acting: 5/5
Directing: 4/5
Re-watch value: 4/5
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