by Andrea Grunert

Television is not so much the poor parent of the silver screen but more often equal to cinematic productions. This includes the Japanese series One Day: It´s A Wonderful Christmas Ado (One Day: Seiya no kara sawagi). The eleven episodes lasting 54 minutes each were first aired from October to December 2023 by Fuji TV. One of its directors is Masayuki Suzuki, known for the two Hero films (2007 and 2015). In addition, Toshiyuki Mitsuhashi and Ryosuke Yanagisawa were credited with directing a number of episodes. Now available on Rakuten Viki, the series’ cast unites many renowned actors: Kazunari Ninomiya, Takao Ōsawa, Miki Nakatani, Kōichi Satō and Yōsuke Eguchi.

Three characters – three stories
The action spans twenty-four hours, starting at midnight on the night before Christmas Eve (1) and takes place in the city of Yokohama. The main protagonists are a young man who has lost his memory (Ninomya) and is chased by both the Yakuza and the police, a chef de cuisine (Ōsawa) who owns the restaurant where he works and a television reporter (Nakatani). The series follows their individual stories on this day that is fateful for all three of them, with their paths repeatedly crossing as the plot unfolds. Adding to this story are the experiences of several supporting characters, which not only enrich the series with a number of human portraits but also repeatedly lead to surprising twists in the narrative. These include Kikuzo, the restaurant’s maître d’ (Hideo Kurihara) and Tsuyumi, the sommelier (Yuki Sakurai); Sako (Riko Fukumoto), the chef’s daughter; Mitsutani (Yōsuke Eguchi) who works in the organized crime division of the Metropolitan Police in Tokyo; the police officers Karumiya (Wakana Matsumoto) and Yamada (Hideji Imai) and the investigator Yahata (Anne Nakamura) who has been assigned to keep tabs on Mitsutani. Another recurring character is a mysterious elderly man (Kōichi Satō) who is looking for his runaway dog. This subplot runs through the entire series until, in the end, the identity of the man is revealed. Along the way, the actions of the nameless individual trigger new plot developments often leading to positive changes.
“Time” is a main topic of which the clock in the opening credits of each episode is a constant reminder. The three main characters are engaged in a race against time. Within the twenty-four hours in which the story unfolds, they must carry out their various plans. The restaurant has to open at its usual time and the menu must be ready by then. At the port of Yokohama, a drug shipment from Mexico is scheduled to arrive at a specific time – something the police is determined to prevent. The man without memory must try to recover his past before then, in order not to fall victim to his pursuers. The television reporter seeks to establish the facts surrounding the amnesiac young man and secure a major story. The question is how the protagonists will use the limited time available to them to achieve their goals.
Indications of time are provided through on-screen displays of the current hour. The action starts on the night of 23 to 24 December on a public square in Yokohama where a young man wakes up next to a corpse. Remembering nothing – not even his own name – he is forced to ask himself whether it was him who shot the victim with the pistol he finds in his possession. He then receives a phone call from an unknown caller who addresses him as Seiji and advices him to run. While fleeing, Seiji ends up in chef Tokio Tachiaoi’s restaurant. At this time of night, only the chef is still in the kitchen. As Seiji runs through the restaurant and its kitchen, jumping across various tables, he is pursued by Tokio who, far less agile than the fugitive, knocks over a large pot. The contents – a sauce – spill across the floor. For the chef, this is a catastrophe, because the demi-glace sauce is a secret recipe for which his restaurant, Aoitai, specialized in western cuisine, is famous. Guests come solely for this dish, which has been passed down through generations, a tradition Tokio proudly continues. However, it is now too late to serve the famous sauce on Christmas Eve, as its preparation takes several days.
In this early sequence, two of the three main characters meet for the first time. The third main character is introduced a little later. Kikyo works as a journalist for a local television station. She is eager to report on the murder story, but the director of the station is more interested in entertainment than in news reporting. Instead of conducting in-depth research, Kikyo is asked to participate in a Christmas show. Nevertheless, she does not give up and continues investigating the murder case in which the young man suffering from amnesia seems to be involved. Her research will guide her to Tokio’s restaurant where the chef has recovered the firearm the man known as Seiji has lost.
Another link between the “restaurant” and the “television station” stories is created through Tokio’s daughter Sako, a young adult, who is an apprentice at the television station and supports Kikyo. The juxtaposition of various narrative strands – both main and secondary plots – creates a highly fragmented structure and, as a result, moments of tension. For example, the story of Seiji, whose real name is Yuta Amagi, is developed gradually in this way, with his true identity only being revealed later in the narrative. Seiji/Yuta is constantly on the run. His story is driven by movement, changing locations and chase sequences. The nameless elderly man is also crossing the city – even if in a slower pace – in search of his dog Flan (2), thereby finding his way both to the television studio and to Tokio’s restaurant. Other characters, too, are not confined to a single location. In one scene, all three main characters and several supporting characters converge in a stadium where Tokio’s daughter, kidnapped by the Yakuza, is held hostage. At times, the characters find themselves in the same place without being aware of one another – such as when Tokio and Kikyo witness an accident, involving Mitsutani, who is struck by a car while crossing a street. Flan also occasionally appears in the frame, only to disappear again shortly afterward.
“Disappearance“ is another important theme of the series. Tokio still mourns his wife, who died while giving birth to Sako. The sommelier’s partner disappeared several years ago, a loss from which she still suffers. When the dog’s owner finally meets the woman who told him about having seen Flan, the dog has already run off again. In the conservation the elderly man then has with the young woman disappearance becomes the central topic. The woman herself is also in the process of disappearing from the life of someone she once loved, as she intends to divorce her husband. It turns out that she is the wife of the maître d’ of the Aoitai. This and numerous other examples show that each character is more than mere background decoration, but possess an individual story of its own which contributes to the narrative.

Action and social criticism
The various encounters often lead to new complications. During the second chance encounter between Seiji/Yuta and Tokio, which this time takes place in the streets of Yokohama, the young fugitive runs into Tokio on his bicycle and causes him to fall. As a result of the collision, both men drop their smartphones which they accidentally exchange. Suddenly the Yakuza, who have caught the man whom they knew as Seiji, become aware of the restaurant, ignoring that the messages on their prisoner’s phone are not actually addressed to him. However, what could have given rise to violent action, takes a surprisingly different dramatic resolution.
Each of the three stories centred on the three main characters has its own distinct style. The ones involving Seiji/Yuta are dark and mysterious, as they are shaped by violence. Many scenes take place in the Adonis Club run by the young Yakuza boss Mizuki Fuehana (Taishi Nakagawa). The gloomy interiors are bathed in bluish light. In addition to scenes of physical violence – fights and torture scenes – chase sequences provide spectacular action. The Yakuza/police episode addresses a subject that appears again and again in Japanese series set in the world of law and politics: corruption at the highest levels of the police force or in the government. Series such as 99.9 – Criminal Lawyer (99.9 – Keiji senmon bengoshi, 2016, 2018 and 2021), Ichikei’s Crow – The Criminal Court Judges (Ichikei no karasu, 2021) and The Journalist (Shinbun kisha, 2022) revolve around this issue (3).
Social criticism might not be the main topic of One Day: It’s Wonderful Christmas Ado. Yet it is also part of the narrative set in the context of television. The director of the private television station for which Kikyo and Sako work is determined to reduce the broadcast time for news programmes. Instead he puts the focus on entertainment, a decision revealed by the rather dull show to be aired at Christmas Eve. It is suggested that pressure is made upon him to change his station’s policy and to prioritise entertainment. Moreover, he is forced to abandon reporting on the murder case, a situation which gives a hint to the interconnections between media, policy and crime. How sensationalist media function is also shown when the news present Seiji/Yuta as the prime suspect in the murder case without having any proof of his guilt. The working environment within the television station points to the rigid hierarchy of Japanese companies and – by extension – of Japanese society as a whole. If the director rejects a project, subordinates are expected to comply without objection. In contrast to her male colleagues, including the editor-in-chief, Kikyo remains unimpressed by the director’s threats. She does not only pursue her investigation into the murder case but manages to alter the programming to provide information about it. She intends to land a major journalistic scoop to advance her career – something that is particularly difficult for a woman in the male dominated media industry. At the same time, she is driven by the desire to uncover the truth, as she becomes increasingly convinced of Seiji’s innocence.

Humour and human tragedy
However, the most complex plot – in terms of narration and human portrayals – is the one taking place in the restaurant in which multiple storylines converge. It is also the most entertaining part, largely because of the humour in it. At its centre is the chef de cuisine in crisis, played by Takao Ōsawa in a slightly hysterical manner, which suits the character perfectly. Ōsawa, displaying continuous proof of his tremendous talent for comedy, plays Tokio as a sympathetic but stubborn character. Frequent close-ups reveal the chef’s inner struggle when he tries to summon his courage to confess the truth – that while pursuing Seiji/Yuta, he was the one who knocked over the pot of sauce. His long monologues, in which he unsolicitedly shares his knowledge of cooking, develop into extremely funny moments. One such moment occurs when he lectures about eggs, holding and contemplating an egg in his hand in a Hamlet-like pose. He does not notice that his employees are bored, yawning or casting desperate glances up at the ceiling.
It is obvious that the chef enjoys being at the centre of attention. His vanity is revealed in a number of situations including one when Kikyo has asked Sako to conduct a video interview at her father’s restaurant. The young woman interviews the sommelier who feels visibly insecure in front of the camera. During the filming, the viewer cannot avoid noticing that Tokio, sitting in the background, is eager to step into the frame at any moment. Again and again, he tries to draw attention to himself trough exaggerated facial expressions and gestures.
Tokio likes to intertwine his stories about food with reflections on human behaviour, for instance when he compares the redness of ketchup to strong emotions. Often choleric and hot-tempered, he is nevertheless empathetic and deeply concerned for his employees and his guests. He also shows genuine courage when, in a series of sequences in which his story once again intersects with Seiji’s, he is held hostage on a bus. Moreover, Tokio is a creative personality and able to detach himself from rigid traditions.
Alongside the many humorous moments, the plot related to the chef also contain moments of great reflection. The viewer learns that Tokio’s wife died giving birth to their daughter on 24 December. The white flowers that can be seen repeatedly in the frame from the second episode onward are the ones Tokio intends to bring to her grave that very day. While Sako hates Christmas Eve because it is the anniversary of her mother’s death, Tokio tells her that it is also a happy day, as her birth has been the dearest wish of the deceased. He states that, despite all the grief he is still struggling with, 24 December is a wonderful day. These moments could easily become overly sentimental, especially since the soft piano music accompanying the dialogue between father and daughter reinforces the sense of mourning. Yet Ōsawa’s naturalistic, highly nuanced performance rescues the scene from excessive melodrama.

Conclusion
While the scenes revolving around Seiji/Yuta are often dark in mood and those set in the television studio are brightly lit, the ones taking place in the restaurant are characterized by warm lighting. The lighting and the colour design of the three main stories precisely reflect the atmosphere that is distinctive to each of them. Tokio’s restaurant, as police officer Yamada suggests, is a magical place. And indeed, it is where some of the characters come together and long-lost individuals reappear. It is a space of self-discovery and creativity. Some of the characters become aware of these qualities there and others find or rediscover love, fittingly with the story’s time frame, the day before Christmas.
Here too, the series skilfully avoids the danger of sentimentality by adding a subtle touch of humour at the conclusion. The delicate balance between comedy and drama is never disrupted. On the contrary, One Day: It’s Wonderful Christmas Ado stands out as a highly successful and thoroughly entertaining blend of comedy and tragedy, suspense and romance.

Notes
(1) There is a prologue constituted of a series of shots set at Christmas Eve 2018, which show the three main protagonists in situations which are only explained in the following episodes. An epilogue consisting on a few sequences shows the three in 2024.

(2) Note the meaning of the dog’s name: Flan refers to a French custard dessert. The name is an indicator to the elderly man’s occupation.

(3) All three series mentioned here are available on Netflix.