Episode 5 of 'Until the T-shirt Dries', Yu Aoi's acting ability, 'Ichinoya' nori-bento, and Instagram Stories and Reels

I watched Episode 5 of 'Until the T-shirt Dries', titled 'If It Doesn't Bother Anyone', just after midnight when it was released on Netflix. If you haven't watched it yet, beware of spoilers.

The cliffhanger from the end of the previous episode turned out to be a bit of a red herring. Meanwhile, Episode 5 begins with a staff member from the children's home, who learned of the death of Azusa (played by Kaho), visiting Tatsuo's house. It's been almost a year since the accident. The relationship between Tatsuo (played by Ayumu Nakajima) and Sakiko (played by Yu Aoi) continues to be good. And from this episode on, that distance between them begins to close.

Perhaps it's because the main axis of the story is 'romance' (is it?). It's an inevitable development for the two left behind (Tatsuo and Sakiko) to become intimate in this situation, but personally, it feels exquisitely rushed. It could be that Tatsuo's demeanor is detached and his emotions are hard to read, but I feel that rather than falling in love with Sakiko, Tatsuo is drawn to her because of the loneliness of losing his wife. Usually, relationships between men and women that start with the motive of relieving loneliness don't end up going very well.

The scene where Sakiko buys a stepladder to retrieve items stored in her walk-in closet. This is a symbolic expression of Sakiko needing a partner. Although he hasn't returned, her husband Mitsuru is apparently still alive. Perhaps because of that, unlike Tatsuo, Sakiko has accepted 'living alone for now' and has been living that way. The stepladder episode felt like a shift in Sakiko's feelings, suggesting, 'It might be tough to do this alone soon'.

Also, the scene where Tatsuo talks to the phantom of his wife, Azusa, in his room for the umpteenth time. Tatsuo tears up, saying, 'I wanted to live with you, Azusa!', but the phantom Azusa replies, 'Yeah. But it can't be helped. You can't choose because I'm not here anymore.' 'Azusa, that's not quite the right way to put it, but... take care.' When Tatsuo says this and turns around, Azusa has vanished.

Since the phantom Azusa is something created in Tatsuo's mind, what appears to be Azusa's dialogue is nothing more than Tatsuo's own inner voice. In other words, what Azusa is saying is nothing other than the words Tatsuo wants to hear. And from the words 'take care', it seems Tatsuo has moved on from his deceased wife. In the next scene, Tatsuo sends a LINE message to Sakiko, invites her over to eat the Napolitan he made, and makes a certain proposal. He asks if it would be out of the question for her and her son to move in with him in his house (Sakiko refuses, surprised, while spilling parmesan cheese everywhere).

By the way, the highlight of this fifth episode is the scene where Sakiko talks to Mitsuru (Kenichi Matsuyama) on the phone at the coffee shop 'Hikoki'. It's almost entirely a monologue, and you can fully enjoy the acting ability of actress Yu Aoi.

Yu Aoi has played so many roles until now. So, what I've seen is only a small fraction, but what is impressive and what I remember well is Kimiko in 'Hula Girls', directed by Sang-il Lee, and the role of the Chinese restaurant clerk in the table tennis comedy 'Mixed Doubles', starring Yui Aragaki and Eita. The acting in the latter, in particular, is the best.

Furthermore, according to an interview with the person who provided table tennis technical guidance in the movie, Yu Aoi apparently had 'the best table tennis sense among the cast'.

'Mixed Doubles' is a lively movie that also features Ryoko Hirosue, Keisuke Seto, Mei Nagano, Yoko Maki, Kotaro Yoshida, Fumiyo Kohinata, and Tsukasa Saito of Trendy Angel, in addition to the leads Yui Aragaki and Eita. It is currently streaming on Amazon Prime.

Now, back to the drama, the cliffhanger at the end of Episode 5 is that Mitsuru suddenly returns while Sakiko and Tatsuo are doing a deep clean of Sakiko's house. She thought the pizza she ordered had arrived, but when she opened the door, it was Mitsuru. This was a development I completely saw coming, but the next episode looks like it will be the one where the three central characters of the story clash.

Lily Franky. His behavior, as if competing with Tatsuo for his relationship with Azusa, is creepy (personally, I find Lily Franky's recent performances as elderly characters generally creepy).
Fumiya Takahashi. He appears to be infatuated with Sakiko and is in a similar position to Lily, but with the scene of the flower offering at the accident site this time, it feels like there might be more to come from him. Regarding him, it has a different flavor if you watch it after seeing 'On the Summer Sand'.

I dragged out 'Until the T-shirt Dries' too much.

By the way, it seems that 'Ichinoya', famous for its delicious nori-bento in Kudanshita, is suspending operations.

The reason given is 'rising costs of raw materials and labor, and the burden of expenses such as store opening costs'.
It seems that FC stores will continue to operate, but the day when you won't be able to eat 'Ichinoya' nori-bento doesn't seem far off. It's sad.

'Ichinoya' was the most delicious bento I've ever eaten while on a shoot. It's expensive for a nori-bento at around 1,500 yen, but it certainly had what it took to make you say, 'Delicious!'. I couldn't forget the memory from the shoot, and I've even gone all the way to Kudanshita to buy it myself. It's a shame.

This has become long, but one more thing.
The other day, I used Instagram Stories for the first time. I put a picture of a cicada lying on my balcony over a track of aiko's 'Kabutomushi'. To be honest, I still don't really understand Instagram, so I'm feeling quite flustered.

Another thing I wanted to try was a slideshow-like effect where multiple photos switch while the music stays the same. But this didn't go well. When the photo switches, the music I chose stops. It seems that in Stories, music corresponds to each individual photo. I tried uploading it but failed, kept deleting it and trying again, and then I got a notification that it was being posted to Facebook simultaneously without me knowing, so I deleted that too; it was a low-key struggle.

When I looked it up, it seems you can do the above by selecting images in Reels and adding music to them. However, you can't really specify things like the duration in much detail.

It seems that Stories are more noticeable than just posting something, since they are announced at the top of the screen. The number of views is slightly higher.

This is probably the absolute basics of Instagram, but it's surprising how much trouble you can have when you've never done it before. It's painful. But feeling painful because you can't do something is just comparing yourself to 'others who are probably doing it,' and if I can think of it as learning new features as if I were the only person in the world, then even if it's clumsy, it can be said to be a certain, joyful step forward.

Right now, I'm in the mood to increase these kinds of things even a little bit.

If you are knowledgeable about Instagram and read the above and think, 'That understanding is wrong!', please let me know.