A Slow-burn Love Story Between A Western Writer And A Samurai Daughter
ばけばけ or The Ghost Writer's Wife is the fictionized biography of Lafcadio Hearn (called Lefcada Heavin here) and Koizumi Setsuko (called Matsuno Toki or Otoki here). Hearn was born in Greece and raised in boarding schools in Ireland. He moved to America at 19 and became a successful journalist and reporter in Cincinnati and New Orleans before further roving the world to write travelogues at 37. Setsuko was the daughter of a samurai family who were at bit of a loss at what to do after the feudal structure in Japan was eliminated by the Meiji Restoration. This series begins shortly after Hearn landed in Japan at age 40 and took a job as an English teacher at a middle school in Matsue.
Hearn was clearly a bit of an eccentric even by the standards of his time and place. He had damaged his left eye when playing ball at age 16 and completely lost the sight in that eye, and had always been myopic to begin with. Hearn was pretty distant from his immediate family and so was a bit rootless. Heavin is presented as a kind of an ur weeb: he is utterly taken with Japanese culture and fascinated by its traditions, customs and folklore. Heavin is played by Tommy Bastow who had previously appeared in 2024's Shogun.
We get quite a bit more of Otoki's backstory in this series. Her grandfather had been a retainer of the local Daimyo in Matsue, and he is committed to the old ways of the samurai. But the family's income was eliminated after the Meiji restoration, and an important part of the plot of the series is how inept her father is after the transition to the new constitution and economic structure under the Meiji emperor. Otoki is played by Takaishi Akari, and about 5 weeks into the series I was like, "Who is this actor, and what else has she done?" I do recommend her strikingly different but equally great performance as a teenaged assassin in the Baby Assassin franchise (3 movies and a television series to date). Takaishi has a very readable face, IMO, and much of the charm of this series is that it is very easy to guess (or project onto) what Otoki is thinking in her silent reaction shots.
Takaishi won best actress and Bastow won best supporting actor for their performances in ばけばけ at the Television Drama Academy awards in March.
The focus of this series is more on Otoki but we do get a bit of Heavin/Hearn's backstory along the way. I was very happy when the series spent two episodes on Heavin's prior marriage to a previously enslaved woman, Martha (Mattie Foley IRL) from when he had been a reporter in Cincinnati. I had expected the series to completely hide that part of Hearn's past, and I must give the production huge kudos for casting the black American actress Misha Brooks - I am no expert in what Ohio accents would have been in mid-1870s Ohio, but Brooks' modern midwestern accent is perfect for the part, and her performance is notably good in this brief tangent for the series. Notably less good is how the writer chose to end those episodes which I shall rant about as an as a slightly spoilery option at the end of this review.
The writing and the direction in this series are well above the average for asadoras as well. One of the key directorial choices throughout the series is to get a bit closer to natural lighting throughout. Thus, the relatively frequent night scenes are often lit by candle light, and the production sometimes leans a bit hard into the darkness. Everything is pretty much discernable, but you might wish to watch this on a larger screen at night to get the full experience and enjoyment of this series.
By any standards this series is not a quick romance, but it is a delightful and beautiful one. The two do not meet and instantly fall in love, and the process of their getting from here to there is quite lovely. Otoki has an unusual (for her time and place) interest in ghost stories from well before she ever met Heavin, and Heavin discovers a mutual interest in them through her recounting of them to him. As writer Heavin is initially just looking for a source for stories he can incorporate in to his books being printed and sold overseas, but ultimately has his life is changed and unexpectedly fulfilled by this interesting and unique woman from a distant culture. ばけばけ nails that process of bonding, and the series is heartwarming and moving throughout. It is well worth the time investment for the watch.
Beyond here lieth spoilers for two episodes (out of 125) in the middle of the series:
Look. I understand the writer's challenge of trying to present and wrap up Hearn's relationship to his first wife in 30 minutes of television. Hearn did indeed get fired from his newspaper when his editors learned that he was married to a previously enslaved woman. But what the series did not have time to explain was that Hearn then just started working for the competing paper in town and the circulation went up at that other paper because of his writing to the point that the previous paper tried to hire him back. In real life, Hearn and Mattie were married for a few years, and tried to reconcile several times but ultimately drifted apart permanently, and then Hearn moved to New Orleans. Part of what came between them was undoubtedly the racism of the time - mixed-race marriages were not legally acknowledged in Ohio until a few years after Hearn and Mattie parted ways, and one can only imagine the pressures the two experienced while they were together. It is indeed difficult to tell that story in a brief aside in this series.
Nevertheless, choosing to present the reason that Heavin and Martha broke up is because Martha attacked her boss with a razor is shockingly racist. The whole scene is maybe 3 minutes in a 9,375 minute drama, and so I cannot condemn the whole series for that one scene, but there has to have been a way to write a permanent ending for Heavin and Martha's relationship without making Martha a violent, razor wielding criminal.
Hearn was clearly a bit of an eccentric even by the standards of his time and place. He had damaged his left eye when playing ball at age 16 and completely lost the sight in that eye, and had always been myopic to begin with. Hearn was pretty distant from his immediate family and so was a bit rootless. Heavin is presented as a kind of an ur weeb: he is utterly taken with Japanese culture and fascinated by its traditions, customs and folklore. Heavin is played by Tommy Bastow who had previously appeared in 2024's Shogun.
We get quite a bit more of Otoki's backstory in this series. Her grandfather had been a retainer of the local Daimyo in Matsue, and he is committed to the old ways of the samurai. But the family's income was eliminated after the Meiji restoration, and an important part of the plot of the series is how inept her father is after the transition to the new constitution and economic structure under the Meiji emperor. Otoki is played by Takaishi Akari, and about 5 weeks into the series I was like, "Who is this actor, and what else has she done?" I do recommend her strikingly different but equally great performance as a teenaged assassin in the Baby Assassin franchise (3 movies and a television series to date). Takaishi has a very readable face, IMO, and much of the charm of this series is that it is very easy to guess (or project onto) what Otoki is thinking in her silent reaction shots.
Takaishi won best actress and Bastow won best supporting actor for their performances in ばけばけ at the Television Drama Academy awards in March.
The focus of this series is more on Otoki but we do get a bit of Heavin/Hearn's backstory along the way. I was very happy when the series spent two episodes on Heavin's prior marriage to a previously enslaved woman, Martha (Mattie Foley IRL) from when he had been a reporter in Cincinnati. I had expected the series to completely hide that part of Hearn's past, and I must give the production huge kudos for casting the black American actress Misha Brooks - I am no expert in what Ohio accents would have been in mid-1870s Ohio, but Brooks' modern midwestern accent is perfect for the part, and her performance is notably good in this brief tangent for the series. Notably less good is how the writer chose to end those episodes which I shall rant about as an as a slightly spoilery option at the end of this review.
The writing and the direction in this series are well above the average for asadoras as well. One of the key directorial choices throughout the series is to get a bit closer to natural lighting throughout. Thus, the relatively frequent night scenes are often lit by candle light, and the production sometimes leans a bit hard into the darkness. Everything is pretty much discernable, but you might wish to watch this on a larger screen at night to get the full experience and enjoyment of this series.
By any standards this series is not a quick romance, but it is a delightful and beautiful one. The two do not meet and instantly fall in love, and the process of their getting from here to there is quite lovely. Otoki has an unusual (for her time and place) interest in ghost stories from well before she ever met Heavin, and Heavin discovers a mutual interest in them through her recounting of them to him. As writer Heavin is initially just looking for a source for stories he can incorporate in to his books being printed and sold overseas, but ultimately has his life is changed and unexpectedly fulfilled by this interesting and unique woman from a distant culture. ばけばけ nails that process of bonding, and the series is heartwarming and moving throughout. It is well worth the time investment for the watch.
Beyond here lieth spoilers for two episodes (out of 125) in the middle of the series:
Look. I understand the writer's challenge of trying to present and wrap up Hearn's relationship to his first wife in 30 minutes of television. Hearn did indeed get fired from his newspaper when his editors learned that he was married to a previously enslaved woman. But what the series did not have time to explain was that Hearn then just started working for the competing paper in town and the circulation went up at that other paper because of his writing to the point that the previous paper tried to hire him back. In real life, Hearn and Mattie were married for a few years, and tried to reconcile several times but ultimately drifted apart permanently, and then Hearn moved to New Orleans. Part of what came between them was undoubtedly the racism of the time - mixed-race marriages were not legally acknowledged in Ohio until a few years after Hearn and Mattie parted ways, and one can only imagine the pressures the two experienced while they were together. It is indeed difficult to tell that story in a brief aside in this series.
Nevertheless, choosing to present the reason that Heavin and Martha broke up is because Martha attacked her boss with a razor is shockingly racist. The whole scene is maybe 3 minutes in a 9,375 minute drama, and so I cannot condemn the whole series for that one scene, but there has to have been a way to write a permanent ending for Heavin and Martha's relationship without making Martha a violent, razor wielding criminal.
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