Someone wrote a very thorough piece on Woman Ep 4 in the comments section. I was writing a response that became longer and longer and I though, screw it, I'll just write my response as a follow up post as there's so much to say about episode 4.
To me, the kids had their great crying scene at the end of episode one. Sakamoto Yuji blew his crying kids wad on that one. Not saying the kids can't cry for the rest of the series but not to set it up in a premeditated and too obvious way like the story with the dog. It feel like redundant crying. Still better than Beatiful Rain, the Transformers of crying porn.
I have to give Shiori some doubt with her acting cause maybe she was following the director's vision plus the shaky cam thing. One could think Natalie Portman was a bad actress just based on Star Wars. As Antspace pointed it was Shiori slowly collapsing and it was only in the end that she took of her mask. My gut feeling is Nikaido Fumi is not up to the task but I hope she blows me away in the remaining series.
I don't really feel anything for Shiori's character. I feel for her mother though. Mother torn between loyalties to two daughters. Ok, she's not really torn but it at least gives an interesting conflict after the Oguri Shun is a chikan got put down. Ep 4 killed my vision of a powerful scene where Shiori shouts at Koharu, "Your husband molested me!" It might still happen and if it did, Shiori will be the biggest villain ever in jdoramas and I will personally go to Japan and do unspeakable things to her.
I still don't know what she is. Anon1 thinks she's a failure at being a pitiful villain.She's not exactly Futaba's brother in Soredemo Ikite Yuku. I love that character. It was such a powerful depiction of an irredeemable character and it made me pity him without changing what he is or making excuses. I just don't pity nor care about Shiori which is a bad sign.
Antspace, wrong diagnosis would be awesome although I doubt this would turn into a medical malpractice dorama. Speaking of of masks, let's see where the doctor's wooden and slightly creepy persona takes us.
Where does Woman go from here? Assuming its 10 episodes, we got another 6 of Koharu is dying and someone needs to take care of her kids. Not a fan of that but I hope Sakamoto Yuji can make it interesting. Koharu is probably going to end up in hospital in episode 9 so before that she has to find out her step-sister is a chikan entrapment specialist.
Is the conundrum of this dorama going to be 'I hate my mom and my step-sister who killed my husband but someone's got to take care of my kids'? Not exactly filling me with as much excitement as 'my husband molested my sister, got beat up and pushed to his death by a mob and now I need to ask her and my mom to take care of my kids'.
Anon2, going from Oguri Shun is a chikan to him commiting suicide for a person who's happily married with two kids is kind of a hard sell. If he were depressed and had been unemployed for a long time and knows that he won't be able to get a job with a chikan records then it would make more sense. I just want this to be a classic jdorama so bad.
Wait, I just realised something. This father of 2 who loves the dangerous sport of mountain climbing never thought to buy life insurance for his family?