Asian Drama

Ayamecho Complex is a public housing complex that was built in the suburbs of Tokyo in the 1970s. Back then, it was a lively place and a desirable address for people. But now the number of residents have declined and both the building and people have steadily aged. One day, 62-year-old Terauchi Seiji and his 6-year-old granddaughter Honoka move to Ayamecho Complex. Terauchi tells residents curious to know why he has relocated here now, that he adopted Honoka after his son and daughter-in-law died in a fire a year ago. He believes it will be good for her to live in the place where he spent a happy childhood. Terauchi’s elderly father Hitoshi also lives with him. The arrival of the family of three stirs the stagnant air of the complex. Terauchi immediately visits housewife Sakurai Eriko and her husband Takashi who live next to him, to give his greetings and enthusiastically declares, “We’re starting a new chapter of our lives in this “dream new town” from today”. He politely goes around to every unit in the complex and even proactively shows up at a gathering of the residents association where he seeks interactions within the place. However, it does not work out as intended with an unmotivated chairman, Kaneda Teppei, and residents who show no regard for rules and greetings. Terauchi gets into action in an attempt to steer Ayamecho Complex back to the good old times for the sake of his granddaughter. However, is he a savior who will save the public housing complex? Or is he a devil?

Tokuzo Akiyama is a young man from a rural area who is married with a child along the way. One day, he eats a delicious breaded cutlet which inspires him to strive to become a chef, specializing in Parisian cuisine. He travels to Tokyo, then Paris, France to learn the culinary arts. Despite facing discrimination and prejudice, he becomes a chef at the Hotel Ritz in Paris. At the age of 26, he becomes the Emperor of Japan’s personal chef.

Natsuko lives her dream as a copy writer for an advertising company in Tokyo. But when she hits a slump in her career, she returns to her family's sake brewery in the countryside. There she discovers her older brother has been hunting down a phantom rice called tatsunishiki, believing it to be ideal for creating a new sake. He finds the rice seeds he needs to begin his new sake, but right after Natsuko returns to Tokyo with her spirits renewed, he passes away suddenly. Despite new success at her job, she decides to quit and return home to continue her brother's dream. What begins is a several years long journey, first to cultivate the notoriously difficult to grow tatsunishiki, and then to perfect the brewing process of her new sake.