Bhavna

Glorifies Objectification, Violence, and Mistreatment of Women

Episode 1:
There are many problematic things about this show. A mess of a family with 4 kids, mother recently passed away, a dad who can barely function, where the oldest sister who tries being the surrogate mom and does her best to take care of everything. Then comes Mita the housekeeper from nowhere. She is an amazing housekeeper and is somehow emotionless through all the BS this family puts her through. She cleans the house to perfection and cooks amazing meals, but when the older sister told her to burn all of their late mother’s memorabilia, the older brother got angry and started punching Mita, a grown woman. A few minutes later, the family changes their mood and settles down to a happy birthday together and demanding things of her - while no one apologized to her for that physical abuse- that oldest son treated her like a punching bag that he could just beat up whenever he wanted, and when their mood was happy again in a few minutes, they ask her to do everything like a genie- cook for us, get birthday candles, a card, the cake- but they beat her up right before that. A a stunning condoning of the abuse and objectification of women. A wife is seen as nothing but a glorified housekeeper, so much so that a professional housekeeper like Mita is abused like a punching bag and then taken advantage of while she has a bloodied lip from being punched by a man! And yet she is emotionless and continues doing all their chores. What a horrible message this show sends- that women are worthless and can be treated in such a way. At the end of the first episode, the husband reveals that the mother committed suicide. As a psychological study, I can almost guarantee that the way this family treats Mita is the same way they treated the late mother/wife. Simply exploited, taken for granted, and used up for getting things done for their selfish needs, and then thrown away like a dirty dish rag. Only after the mother died, the family keeps talking about her because they can’t function without her. But while she was alive, the husband was having an affair, and Kii the annoying little girl told her mother that she should die just for asking her eat tomatoes.

Episode 2:
Despite all that Mita did for them - cooks, cleans, etc, all the family can do is complain about her behind her back saying “isn’t she strange? She never smiles etc.” while eating the breakfast she prepared. A thankless, entitled family. It’s revealed that the dad/husband was having an affair- despite all that the mother would have done for the 4 kids and as a wife, submissive housekeeper, cook, bangmaid, etc, dude had an office affair and had handed his late wife divorce papers, driving her to suicide. Even after her death, he continues to hit on the office mistress. Urara, the late mother’s younger sister is portrayed as an incompetent single bimbo, the woman at the office is a mistress, the wife/mother is invisible and driven to suicide, and Mita is seen as genie/robot/punching bag. The director seems to be seriously misogynistic and views women as 2d cartoon characters. Then the father decides to fire her for his own selfish motives. Mita says a wise thing: “humans are weak creatures. If they see someone weak the will bully then, and if they see someone strong, they run.” Then the younger son who asked Mita to beat up a bully, then tells her to “take responsibility for what she’s done,” instead of taking responsibility for what he asked her to do, and then tells her to do something even worse, to kill the bully. Then the late mother’s dad decides everything is Mita’s fault and said “Why do you keep such a woman as your housekeeper? Fire her immediately!” After all she’s done. Ah what a tired bunch of chauvinists. Last scene of episode 2, the dad asks Mita to burn the revealing letter from his late wife that says “if you leave me I will kill myself” because he’s a coward and doesn’t want his kids to know the truth. Mita deserves better.

Episode 3:
Yui the oldest daughter finds out about the dad’s affair and how he was the cause of their mother’s suicide and death. When she confronts him about it, the dad actually tries to slap her because women are only meant to be hit according to the director. Then as the father is found out by the kids and they leave the house, he explains to Mita, “I never wanted to get married, but their mother got pregnant with Yui..” as if it has nothing to do with him. For some reason Urara acts like she couldn’t care less about her sister’s death, even after her brother-in-law tells her the truth- she just acts like a giddy schoolgirl with a crush. How inhuman. The family projects their own failings onto Mita, including the dad saying she doesn’t have a heart when he is the one who screwed up his family. Even after the kids leave and the truth is in the open, the dad guy tries to hit on the affair lady at the office because he needs an escape. Women especially Mita are treated as sacrificial objects to use and drain for selfish purposes.

Episode 5-6:
The older brother treats Mita like a blowup doll by asking her to have sex with him. Then he asked her to destroy the neighbor’s house. Then the oldest daughter Yui decides she wants to die because her high school fling is a player, and tells Mita to kill her. When Mita obliges, she acts like she’s so shocked and as if she is a victim of Mita. This ridiculous family can’t even take responsibility for their actions when they give Mita explicit orders- Yui tells Mita to kill her and not to stop even if she says “stop”.. Just so she can blame her? Then she acts as if Mita is evil and it’s a horror movie with Yui trying to get away from her, when she’s the one who gave the orders. Nonsense! Then Yui points the knife at Mita trying to kill her. What do Mita ever do that this selfish, sinful family tries to exploit her in every way possible and then kill her? Poor Mita.

Episode 7:
Mita makes adress for Kii, the youngest kid. When she’s done the kid grabs it and says “Sugoi!” No one ever thanks Mita for her work or apologizes for their vile behavior towards her. Then Kii invites her dad to her school play where she’s playing Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz.. and the dad’s like “I don’t know, I’ve never been to any of the kids’ school events… but how do I prove to the kids that I love them? Is saying the words I love you enough?” I don’t know genius, maybe show it through action by attending the school play and spending time with them? Then the dad gets in a fight with a coworker and starts punching him for dumping his ex-mistress and then gets himself fired. Then he goes to Mita and asks her, “You can do anything right? Can you put me back in my company? Can you rewind time?” Do they really think she’s a genie that came out of a lamp? Then in typical selfish dad fashion, he asked Mita to somehow get the play recital cancelled for his own selfish reasons since he didn’t want to go or face his kids. However there was a touching moment in this episode where the kids out on the Wizard of Oz play in front of their dad at home (because Kii was kicked out of the play at school since their dad tried to get it cancelled by telling Mita and she made a bomb threat to the kindergarten lol), and the dad was so moved by the performance that he starts pouring out his feelings of regret about their mother and how much she loved him and how loving she was and how he wants to love them. Well he never said he loved her back but he is filled with regret and apologizes to his kids to let him back into the family. Then he goes up to his ex-mistress to say I still love you, please married me and and take over as my wife/bang-maid but you must take care of my 4 kids! Ha what a sly man. She leaves.

Episode 8:
Nagiko’s dad is in the hospital because he got punched telling off some kids. He sees Mita (who is ordered by Yui to impersonate her late mother and talk to him and persuade him to forgive the dad). When he sees Mita’s face, without hesitation the grown old man punches Mita in the face. Even after getting punched, Mita calmly explains to him that he’s living in fear and can’t express his thoughts properly and that’s why he resorts to violence (just like the director). Then he yells at her “Shut up! What could a housekeeper know?” He’s basically a caveman looking for an outlet for violence. But somehow the show tries to convince the audience that his violence is an expression of his love. Weeks later he manages to croak out an apology to Mita- Because Mita is still like a clear, calm lake, everyone projects all sorts of nonsense onto her. First the oldest son Kakeru punches her in the fist episode, then asks her to strip and “do it” with him, then he convinces the other kids that she is a reincarnation of their late mother. They all believe it. And Mita’s like “I’m not your mother.” And they’re all so nosy about her personal life that it gets annoying. Like leave her alone. One day the family invites her to sit down and eat with them and gives her this moon cake thing to eat. She had refused it in the past but this time she takes it and eats a bite. One bite of the moon cake has the effect of 10 alcoholic drinks because Mita spills her life story. Dad died, mom and step brother are narcissists, husband and son died in a fire at the hands of the brother and she was convinced by her mother that her smile made people unhappy- how upside down and weird. It’s interesting because this same actress plays Sakurako in Yamato Nadeshiko, a “perfect woman” flight attendant character who always wears a plastic smile on her face.

Episode 9
Mita quits after tell her story, and Urara shows up everyday to take her place. Again the director shows his misogyny by Urara’s extreme characterization as a single woman who is a disaster of a human being. She basically can’t do anything right and everything she touches turns into a disaster. While it might seem like harmless fun or comedy, mocking or attacking a single woman as basically good for nothing is not cute. She inserts herself into their house to help with cooking and ruins their kitchen with her incompetence, and leaves without cleaning up. Then Mita starts working for the next door neighbor who is a petty, evil woman with a husband and son. When she finds out about the affair she orders Mita to kill her husband, herself, and her son on her son’s birthday. Then she blames it on Mita, calls her crazy and dangerous, and tells Mita to kill herself. Poor Mita who is barely hanging on by a thread starts pouring gasoline on herself. The cowardly family runs away after ordering Mita to kill them and then turning it on herself. Then the kids from next door burst through the door somehow and hold the lit candle that Mita is about to light on her gaslit self. They’re all holding the candle and fighting but none of the kids have the sense to just blow it out. Instead Kakeru, Yui, and Mita are all holding this candle light fighting over it and someone could just blow it out and the fight would be over. But brains are not part of this scene. Then the other two kids come and hold the candle too, and Kii the little girl tries to be cute and sings a song at the most inappropriate time. It’s not cute but annoying. Then the family calls the police on Mita and tries to get her arrested. Then the dad from the original family says “I’m angry at you Mita you put my kids in danger! If you’re sorry then take responsibility and work for our family!” Uh what? Those kids barged into the neighbors’ house on their own and put themselves in danger and refuse to take responsibility for themselves and instead the dad pushed the blame and responsibility all onto Mita and orders her to be a slave for their family as if she owes them something since they cannot function without her housekeeping. What selfish people. So anyway Mita comes back to the original family and it confirms my suspicions about the mother/wife role in the family- Mita has essentially filled the late mother’s role in the family by cooking, cleaning, taking care of the kids’ needs and errands, but remains emotionally detached. It tells me that a mother/wife is nothing but a glorified bangmaid. And since Mita has lost her husband and son, she has convinced herself that she must never smile and become a robot housekeeper obeying the ridiculous orders of others but never having a will of her own- again a very chauvinistic misogynistic view of women. Then Urara randomly admits that she likes her brother in law- she never once showed sadness over her sister’s death nor anger over the fact that the husband had an affair that led to her sister’s suicide. Instead she only selfishly cares about her little crush on her brother in law.

Episode 10:
The family starts putting motherly demands on Mita- Yui the oldest girl asks Mita to teach her how to cook, Kakeru the oldest son gets sick and needs her to be a nurse, the next brother needs help with his homework, and Kii needs Mita to clean her ears. They all make demands of Mita, making it a “work order” so she has no choice or will of her own. They take advantage of her to tend to their needs but it’s disturbing that Mita has no will or needs or desires of her own. It’s as if to say, if you’re a woman and you don’t have a husband or kid (or lost them) then you’re basically as good as dead. Mita doesn’t smile and walks around like the walking dead. This is the fate of any woman that doesn’t have her identity defined through motherhood and being a wife. The dad tells Mita how he wants to start living for the present and the future and not get stuck in the past. The third kid gives a nice speech about how he should have appreciated his mother mother and thanked her. In a sense the lesson is even if one isn’t there or you didn’t get affection from someone, you can always pass it on to someone else who needs it. Then Kii asks to help Mita in the kitchen and in her usual annoying fashion she knocks over a burning pot and ruins all the food and gets herself burned and Mita has to deal with that along with the ruined food. It’s a thankless job that only a sacrificial lamb with a death wish would take. Then the crazy lady next door says that her husband who cheated on her kicked her out because she had ordered Mita to burn down their house, and tries to frame it as “it was just a joke and you always make people unhappy! Go away!” Must be the same voice of Mita’s narcissistic mother. Then Urara comes out and tells her brother in law that’s she’s in love with him. Does it get any weirder than this? Yes! Meanwhile the 4 kids ask Mita to be their mother and Kii finds a stone to represent Mita to put in her family stone box. So basically good housekeeper can be “upgraded” to a mother because essentially that’s what a mother is right? A glorified housekeeper/bangmaid.

The music? Mita’s “theme” is creepy horror music as if she’s some character from the Adam’s Family. She’s just a women who’s and mourning the loss of her family- but she’s framed as a scary or dangerous.

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