Too much sake –

July 24, 2020 – Before the story tackles such complexities, the tone is light and jaunty, with Romany-style accordion music playing as we meet 8-year-old Saki Tadoroko (Tamaki Shiratori). You can practically hear the laugh track as Saki and little sister Fumi (Yume Morita) find their dad unconscious on the kitchen floor and matter-of-factly call out, “Mommy, daddy’s dead.” It looks like a well-worn routine when their mother, Saeko (Rie Tomosaka), enters the picture and all three females in the Tadoroko household drag him down the hallway.

Patriarch Toshifumi Tadoroko (Kiyohiko Shibukawa) is an average working Joe with a decent job in a nondescript company. To keep his career on track, he goes out drinking with clients and colleagues. His best office friend is Kinoshita (Kenta Hamano), a nice guy and teetotaler whose spirits slowly sink over the years as it becomes clear that not drinking means not getting promoted.

When not slugging it down after work, Toshifumi’s getting inebriated and chain-smoking at home with his pals or hanging out with them at a bar run by female owner Sachiko (Tamae Ando), who’s more like a drinking buddy than a responsible server of alcohol.

more@Variety