kanshu

Baseball star Akira Kurishima seems to have it all - a 300-million Yen contract with the Pirates, a large appartment in a fancy skyscarper, wife and son, and the reputation to be the "man who creates miracles"...

However, Akira Kurishima doesn't live up to his image. He's an arrogant person who thinks mainly of himself. None of his team mates like him, he doesn't care if his team wins or loses as long a she can make a home run, his fan mail ends up unread in the garbage, he throws out money faster than he can earn it, and on top of it he cheats on his wife and he badly neglects his son.

On the other side, there's the boy Sho, who loves Baseball and is a huge fan of Kirishima. He and his older sister, teacher Mizuki, live with their aunt and uncle in Momonoki, a run-down shopping district somewhere in the outskirts of Tokyo.
Sho's playing for a mini-league team called "Momonoki Jaguars". They never won a single game, but play with enthusiasm. When their trainer dies of old age, Sho writes several letters to Kirishima to become their trainer...

Meanwhile, Kirishima gets caught in the act by his wife when he cheats on her at his son's birthday. She angrily chases him through the hotel room. By accident, Kirishima steps on a piece of soap and falls down hard, injuring his shoulder so badly that he's told to give up playing baseball. But that's not the end of it - his wife divorces him, his son refuses to ever see him again, and on top of it Kirishima's contract with the Pirates doesn't get renewed. Due to his selfish behaviour in the past and his reputation as a troublemaker, no other team will hire him, either.
Worse comes to worse when Kirishima learns that his ex-wife got all his financial assets and debt collectors from a club in Roppongi beat him up.

In this dire situation, Kirishima receives the letter by Mizuki, offering him 500.000 Yen to train the Jaguars. He takes the money to pay off his debts, rudely telling Mizuki that the money was his fee for just showing up. But when he learns that his appartment got sold, he accepts the position of a trainer. Still, Kirishima hasn't hit rock bottom yet...

Opinion: This drama is marked by an exellent performance of Takashi Sorimachi and the rest of the cast members. The characters are believable and the plot is aided by a lot of subtle details in the settings and the body language.
Especially the interaction between Kirishima and his manager are worth watching; the scenes are well played by Sorimachi and Yajima.
Wonderful Life keeps a good balance between humor and drama. It focusses on how circumstances chan change people, and that sometimes life is unfair and just sucks... but that it doesn't mean we can just give up.