Miki is a 14-year-old girl. She soon fall in love with her male classmate who is 15 year old. They get closer to each other, and end up having sexual relationship. Soon, Miki finds out she's pregnant. This TV serie portrays the battle of a 14-year-old girl against judgemental society, and her choice to keep the baby.
Name of the series : 14 Sai No Haha (14-year-old mother)
Country : Japan
Year : 2006
Number of episodes : 11
Length of the episodes : 54 minutes
Genre : Drama
Producers/Directors : Toya Sato, Sakuma Noriyoshi, Yumiko Inoue
Main actors : Mirai Shida (Miki Ichinose), Miura Haruma (Satoshi Kirino, Miki's boyfriend) , Misako Tanaka (Miki's mother) , Katsuhisa Namase (Miki's father)
My Opinion : I think this TV serie is very touching and inspirational, because Miki wants to keep the baby, despite losing her friends at school, and everyone judging her because she's too young to raise a kid. Only her family and boyfriend support her choice. (Not at the start, but later in the series, they do). This TV serie made me change my opinion about teenage mothers, I now think that those very young mothers are really brave to make the choice to keep their baby, despite the judgemental society. This series is very beautiful, The main actress, who was 13-14 when she acted in that series (so the same age as her character) is really amazing at acting! The way she plays 'motherly instinct" and the need to protect her own baby like if she was really pregnant for real, is well-done. Not over-exagerated. Her acting is very realistic.
At first, her character is kind of immature, like an ordinary middle-school girl, then when she gets pregnant, she becomes more mentally mature, responsible, and very strong and brave in her battle against judgemental and cruel society. The actress plays the emotions really well, and this TV series is touching, inspirational, educational, and a life lesson. Also, yes, there is lot of movies and TV series about teenage motherhood, but in Japan it is quite taboo still, so this series might appear plain in Western world but it's very unique in Japan. Also what's different about this series is that the topic is treated very emotionally and in a beautiful way. We can only feel empathy towards Miki, even if we disapprove her choice to keep the baby. I love these kind of series that have a serious topic, it's a change from all of those series with "lighter" topics such as cheesy love stories etc... This TV serie is different, and amazing! This beautiful story made me cry. I totally recommand you to watch it! ^^
Thank you very much for sharing. Sounds like an interesting and rather touching story. It reminds me of a televised series that used to air in the place I lived at when I was a child. The series was titled `Oshin' and it followed the life of the titular character Shin Tanokura (田倉しん) since she was 8 years old to the time when she is around 50 years old. It is a relatively long series with 297 fifteen-minute episodes, but I would also suggest watching it. Some of the topics it deals with, such as perseverance in the face of adversity, are too important to ignore.
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Thank you very much for sharing. Sounds like an interesting and rather touching story. It reminds me of a televised series that used to air in the place I lived at when I was a child. The series was titled `Oshin' and it followed the life of the titular character Shin Tanokura (田倉しん) since she was 8 years old to the time when she is around 50 years old. It is a relatively long series with 297 fifteen-minute episodes, but I would also suggest watching it. Some of the topics it deals with, such as perseverance in the face of adversity, are too important to ignore.
ReplyDeleteCheers.