It's not often that I sub random episodes from TV shows (actually, I think this is the first instance of me doing so...?) but I had to make an exception here under very special circumstances.
So, what exactly is this? Let's look at Wikipedia JP...
In 1990, an anthology TV show debuted titled DRAMADAS—this show consisted of separate stories that were split into five 15-minute episodes, with the stories ranging from eroticism & surrealism to violent content.
It seems like one of the show's notable key points is the fact that there were various notable directors & screenwriters who were involved with some of the show's episodes—Wikipedia JP lists a few examples but the only ones I could identify from it were Kiyoshi Kurosawa & Chiaki J. Konaka.
Anyways, DRAMADAS ceased its daily broadcast format in April 1991 and was relaunched as DRAMADOS—shifting from its five 15-minute episode schedule to a single weekly 30-minute episode schedule. Additionally, this new revamped show ditched the genres of its predecessor and instead now focused on "three elements"—Dream (D), Occult (O), and Strange (S), which according to Wikipedia JP was meant to align closely with the worldview of The Twilight Zone.
Unfortunately, neither DRAMADAS nor DRAMADOS have complete home media releases—only select episodes were ever published on both VHS & DVD. A DVD release was put out in 2005 containing the only stories that Kiyoshi Kurosawa directed for both DRAMADAS & DRAMADOS, the latter of which today's release comes from.
What is it about? Honestly, I couldn't really tell you even if my life depended on it, because I found it to be really confusing & I don't even know if you have to be Reddit-levels of smart to understand it. The main gist is that the protagonist—played by Keiji Matsuda (who I just so happened to see recently in the 1989 film Kitchen, lol)—is surrounded by "joy" every day, which he severely despises. He revolts against his father (a fortune-teller) and his own fate, though I'm really not sure if that ever goes anywhere at all, considering how this ends.
Truthfully speaking, I can't say I really liked this. It's not bad, but the first thing I ever watched that was directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa was his Sweet Home movie—this episode honestly felt like an amateur student film with regards to overall quality and it's kinda crazy that he went from directing an influential horror film with lots of effort put into it... to this 🥴.
But regardless of what I think, the only existing fansub of this episode that was online before today's release was an AI + machine-translated version. Nobody deserves to watch anything of that level of quality and I was certain nobody else was going to provide their own translation any time soon, since that's unfortunately the norm with most titles in the live-action JP drama community.
Final note: maybe I might go and sub Kurosawa's DRAMADAS story that was included in the same DVD as Whirlpool of Joy. Not a priority at the moment, though.
Nevertheless, enjoy! This can be found at the usual spot.
