It is a 2023 Japanese TV series. It stars Nana Mori, Natsuki Deguchi, Aju Makita with others. Hirokazu Kore-eda served as Director, writer & show runner. The Makanai is his first time directing a Netflix production.
The show is based on the manga Kiyo In Kyoto by Aiko Koyama. The nine episodes follow the story of best friends Kiyo & Sumire as they move from their hometown in Northern Aomori to Kyoto’s Gion district to live in a all female house of geiko & maiko with dreams of becoming geiko themselves.
Sumire is nailed as a talent but Kiyo is deemed unfit to become a maiko. She soon finds her unexpected calling as their live-in cook.
Arthur Golden’s ‘Memoirs of a Geisha’ & it’s film adaptation have been criticised for conflating geisha culture as a form of ‘highly styled prostitution’. Popularity of the film led to a surge of tourists in the geisha districts of Kyoto. Alssso instances of harasment of geisha in public.
Kore-eda believes that the series might dispel some inaccurate beliefs by Memoirs, such as maiko being sold by parents. But Kiyo’s work in “Makanai” the in-house cook & helper, is also unrealistic, there are no teenage makanai.
We enjoy the show for the friendship of the two friends & the dishes by Kiyo. The soft, serena texture to the series is warming. After the episode is done, we wish for more.
Initially I had thought of it as a cookery show & had been postponing it. But once I started I couldn’t get enough of it.
Beautiful.
Asian Entertainment 