At the end of the opening credits sequence, Netflix’s The Makanai: Cooking for a Maiko’s House splashes the title on a close-up of a meal. Which meal is varied from episode to episode, depending on what the characters eat in any given episode. However, it’s always some form of home comfort food: Oyakodon or tomato curry or stewed eggplant, usually still bubbling in the pot.
The dishes don’t have to be pretty, nor do they look particularly fancy or original by the standards of your typical food show. But that’s their appeal. They are simple, direct, seemingly modest and irresistibly comfortable – just like the collection itself.
The Makanai: Cooking for Maiko House
Bottom line Cozy and cozy like home cooking.
air date : Thursday, January 12 (Netflix)
Throwing: Nana Mori, Natsuki Exit, Azuma Makita, Keiko Matsuzaka, Ai Hashimoto, Mayu Matsuoka, Takako Tokiwa Showrunner: is Hirokazu Kore-eda
Adapted from Aiko Koyama The manga, The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House centers on a rare adventure. At the beginning of the series, 12 year-old best friends Kiyo (Sunny Senana) and Sumire (Exit Natsuki) travel from their village of Aomari in Kyoto Furusato, intended to train as a maiko (apprentice geisha, or geisha). But it turns out Sumire is a quick learner, impressing her teacher with her natural poise and unflappable determination, while awkward Kiyo finds herself on the verge of being completely eliminated from the program—until she finds a new career— — a makanai (traditional cook) who feeds about half a dozen maikos and two managers who live under the same roof.
Written and directed by Hirokazu Kore-eda with The Makanai making Broker and Shoplifters Some of the same tenderness and compassion that made such films so beloved. (Megumi Tsuno, Hiroshi Okuyama, and Takuma Sato wrote and directed the episodes with Kore-eda; Mami Sunada is also credited as a screenwriter.) Although it’s technically a serial — the nine-episode season unfolds over the course of a year , and ahead of Sumire’s official debut as a full-fledged maiko—its individual chapters offer slice-of-life intimacy. An ongoing narrative is defined not by dramatic turns but by attention to mundane details and listening to the familiar rhythms of everyday life: the small talk between roommates at breakfast, the hasty preparations before a performance, the scrape of shovels on snow.
Of course, to foreigners who may know next to nothing about geisha culture in modern Japan, it’s a daily routine that may not feel particularly familiar to them. And Makanai doesn’t do much in the way of the hand-holding, trusting viewers will be able to absorb the traditions and relationships that define this society without embarrassing exhibition dumps. As a result, it may take audiences a few episodes to find their place amidst the intricate rituals, sprawling supporting cast and poorly translated Japanese terms. (For example, I got the general idea of makanai, but still couldn’t explain it in detail to others.)
But that hardly hurts when Makanai Just in this world, it’s a pleasure to be around these characters. Kiyo and Sumire’s unshakable bond becomes a warm and fuzzy anchor all season long, as the couple giggles over a shared piece of cake or sighs over memories of home. The two are so in sync that their roommates liken them to couples who have been married for years 30. If there doesn’t seem to be a hint of jealousy or impatience between them that seems a bit unbelievable, that’s part of the fantasy projected by The Makanai – the fantasy of one person, perfect friendship.
Gradually, the other maiko, geisha and various friends, clients and helpers around them also become clearer; this is Makanai The humility of humanity, even in relatively minor roles like the bartender pouring after-work cocktails for geishas night after night, has the quality of a whole human being. But Ai Hashimoto stands out as the star geisha Momoko, whose refined public persona belies a sarcastic sense of humor and a strong passion for horror movies. (In one of the season’s most purely fun installments, she begins to incorporate the frenzy into her work with eager, impressionable maikos.) Housewife Azusa (Takako Tokiwa) and she won’t play The fraught relationship between the maiko’s teenage daughter Ryoko (Makita) forms one of The Makanai‘s most bittersweet subplots.
Their arcs, like the others, are projected in subdued, melancholy tones. There is very little conflict and tragedy in The Makanai Be it a screaming contest or an impassioned manifesto. They’re more likely to function in bleary-eyed, barely suppressed sighs, conversations that seem to come out of nowhere, but on a topic that participants are too timid to admit head-on. Again, pleasure is often trivial, but no less touching: Kiyo spends an entire chapter of the 30-ish-minute chapter trying to scrape together tickets for a local A store-bought lottery ticket for a bread machine, almost screaming with delight every time a friend tries to pass one.
The flip side of The Makanai‘s intimacy is a lack of range. Aside from occasional visits with Kiyo and several of Sumire’s loved ones still in Aomari, the series remains firmly focused on the reclusive lives of its reclusive characters. For example, it says little about how the yakata (geisha houses) of Kiyo and Sumire fit into the larger Kyoto community, or how their traditional art form evolved over time.
Mentioning the arguably outdated rules governing the life of a geisha (among other things, mobile phones are not allowed in a maiko’s house, and geishas must retire if they marry), But in this otherwise comfortable life, they are recorded as blips. For all the grueling warnings older geisha pass to younger maikos about this particular mission—and all the attention to small, unexpected challenges, like trying to fall asleep while keeping their intricate traditional hairstyle intact Difficulty – Makanai depicts it pleasingly idealized.
But that’s what makes it such a soothing watch. Real life can be difficult and uncertain, filled with unpleasant shocks or harsh reversals. Makanai does not shy away from these realities entirely, but absorbs them into its simpler, gentler world – a loving soul guided by age-old rituals and led by A sticky rib stew made to nourish the world by a friend in an act of pure, undiluted love.
