Sometimes, the perfect dish is cooked by just the right person for the right occasion and the right eater.
This is the dish that is Netflix’s original Japanese drama “The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House,” a nine-episode series that is part-“Midnight Diner,” part-“Memoirs of a Geisha” and part-slice-of-life manga but in live action. Once graduating from junior high school, 16-year-old lifelong friends Kiyo and Sumire decide not to go to college and instead leave their faraway town of Aomori to become geiko in modern-Kyoto (geiko are Kyoto’s version of the world-famous traditional Japanese hostess geisha, who are exclusive to Tokyo).
Upon arriving in Kyoto, the friends join a house as a maiko (geiko apprentices) but soon, the graceful, beautiful Sumire is being recognized and trained to become one of the greatest geikos ever—but Kiyo, clumsy, short and shy—is in danger of being sent home. But it turns out Kiyo is a gifted, instinctive cook, who is able to provide all of the culinary needs of the Maiko House, and she is offered—and happily accepts—the titular position of makanai.
Training
Viewers will then follow Sumire’s training as an apprentice and Kiyo’s daily tasks and witness if their divergent paths will get in the way of their friendship. From the very beginning, “Makanai” has an impeccable pedigree. It is based on the award-winning “Maiko-San Chi No Makanai-San” by Aiko Koyama, which is notably still running in Weekly Shonen Sunday and has sold over 2.7 million copies.
Then there is the genius showrunner/head writer/director, Hirokazu Kore-eda, who will be handling his very first Netflix project after winning the prestigious Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his excellent film “Shoplifters” in 2018, the first Japanese director in 21 years to do this. Kore-eda actually had three directors handling individual episodes. Admitting it is always a challenge, Kore-eda says this is already his third to adapt a manga for live-action.
“I try to retain as much as I can and not lose respect for the story,” he tells reporters via Zoom through a translator. “I cannot trace everything that happens in the manga so I incorporate in my research how people who have really lived these lives, and I discovered there were yakatas (geiko houses) which run bars next to their properties and through that arrangement, they get to interact with people and I found that to be very interesting.”
Maiko House
There is an element in “Makanai,” for example, that does not appear in the manga at all. The Maiko House mother has a snarky daughter who just observes everything and Kore-eda intends her to be the audience viewing everything from the outside. But Kore-eda readily admits it was the food that drew him to the source material:
“From the very beginning, I had decided to hire the food stylist Nami Iijima and prepare and cook all the food that would be introduced on the show. Not only would Iijima’s food be aesthetically pleasing but also scrumptious because that was very important for the show. From a story’s perspective, Kiyo doesn’t talk too much, but she does her talking through her cooking.”
And that cooking is one of the show’s two unique emphases: the makanai and the geiko in Kiyo and Sumire, respectively.In the cooking, Kiyo cooks all the meals in the Maiko House, but she also needs to know what to cook for whom and when, and this is something the character has a natural instinct for, bolstered by recipes from her grandmother.
Kiyo is the breakout character of the manga and the show because of her warmth, her enthusiasm for food and, yes, the dishes she creates. Kiyo is also played by the standout actress on the show, the immensely cute Nana Mori.
Language of cooking
Though only 21, Mori is already a show biz favorite, appearing in numerous films and winning the Japan Academy Award for Best New Actor. She certainly can easily pass for a teenager, and one good at cooking. Lively and open, she reminds one specifically of the winsome performance of the young Fuka Koshiba as Kiki in the 2014 live-action adaptation of Studio Ghibli’s “Kiki’s Delivery Service.”
Answering a question from Super, Mori talks about the most challenging part of her role, learning how to cook with Iijima, even practicing at home:
“Obviously, cooking was a major part of this character and I imagined that people would look closely at my hands while I’m cooking. Also, Mr. Kore-eda mentioned Kiyo basically speaks through her cooking, and the reason that Kiyo is such a beloved character in the manga and on the show is because of her cooking and her nature so I tried to find out why people find her so appealing and why they are so drawn to her.”
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Her tempura is the favorite recipe she picked from the show. Mori says she studied Kiyo closely in the manga, noting that even though she’s a very ordinary girl, she is pure. She had to draw on her own experience so she would be believable.
“I studied the manga and looked at her facial expressions in each frame. Those were the things I worked on to give humanity.”
Dance training
Beautiful is really the only way to describe Natsuki Deguchi, the actress playing Sumire, also 21. Unlike Mori, she is a relative newcomer, having appeared in just a few roles, but she fits her character in to a tee in that she is an actual professional model and cover girl. Like Mori as well, she can play younger, but has the uncanny ability to transform into the promised older Sumire when when she is shown in various stages of geiko regalia. It is Deguchi who had to take up the mantle of maiko seriously, with the dance training.
“I originally did not know much about maiko and Kyoto but during the experience of working on this, I had learned a lot about maiko and Kyoto,” she says. “It’s a beautiful place. I learned about the lifestyle, and not just about the rich, glamorous world. I think viewers will find it very interesting.”
Hers is a stiller, but also subtler performance than Mori’s. Kyoto is also a character in itself, as, even though the series is set in the present, the costumes, backgrounds and traditions calls back to the rich, ancient Japanese culture. The other maikos are also an enjoyable handful when they’re not working.
A hilarious highlight is a zombie play they somehow wind up performing. Deguchi looks up very much to popular actress Ai Hasimoto (fantastic as the quirky, demanding top geiko Momokoto whom Sumire is apprenticed).
Two girls and a show
“She treats Sumire as a little sister even if she is just her apprentice. Ms. Hashimoto is so good, so graceful.” Momoko represents, in a good way, the other end of the sisterhood, the ephemeral future for Sumire, just as Kiyo represents the past constant. Mori says that she and Deguchi became really close on set, and this is indeed self-evident.
“We auditioned and we were in the same group, so from the very beginning, we were together,” she says. “So, this is a story about our characters’ growth but also a story of our growth as actors.” Considering the manga is still running, Mori and Deguchi are both hoping to be able to reprise the characters. It is clear what the winning show is about for Kore-ada: “This is a story about two girls and this is their show.”Seconds, anyone?
Netflix’s “The Makanai” will begin streaming on Jan. 12.
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