Trust Netflix to make absolutely no fuss whatsoever about Asura, which could be the best drama it has put out in years. The lack of fanfare for the series, quietly released in early January, is genuinely baffling. It comes from the Japanese director Hirokazu Kore-eda, who previously made the gorgeous The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House for the streamer and was nominated for an Oscar for his majestic 2018 film Shoplifters, which also won the Palme d’Or. You would think those credentials might have earned this a bit of a push. Instead, we must rely on word of mouth, so here it is: this is a fantastic television series, and it would be criminal to let it pass you by.
Asura is an adaptation of a novel by Kuniko Mukôda, which was turned into a popular Japanese TV series in 1979. In Kore-eda’s reimagining, the four Takezawa sisters represent a different vision and version of womanhood and femininity during this period. Takiko (Yû Aoi) is a civil servant, working in a library, who is as buttoned up as her youngest sister Sakiko (Suzu Hirose) – a waitress with a deadbeat boxer for a boyfriend – is flamboyant. They are frequently at each other’s throats in some of the show’s funniest scenes. Oldest sister Tsunako (Rie Miyazawa) is widowed with an adult son, and arranges flowers for a local restaurant, while Makiko (Machiko Ono) is a housewife, the mother of two teenage children, and the centre of these women’s firm bond.
