Ryoko Yonekura—known from Super Doctor and negotiator dramas—played the eerie housekeeper Nobuko on TV Asahi's Mar 2 (Sun) 55th-anniversary special "The Housekeeper Saw It!" (TV Asahi), hiding her beauty under a bob wig, black-rim glasses, and freckle makeup.
"The Housekeeper Saw It" belongs to Etsuko Ichihara. How did viewers compare? Even disguised, Yonekura's figure couldn't be hidden. Those who strongly recall Ichihara's housekeeper may have thought Yonekura's eight-head proportions felt less like "a housekeeper."
The original is Seicho Matsumoto's novel "Hot Air." Housekeeper Nobuko Kawano of Shibuya's Kyoei Housekeepers' Association visits households one after another, delighting in uncovering each family's misfortune—first serialized in a weekly magazine in 1963.
It was quickly dramatized: Mar 1966 on Kansai TV / Fuji TV (FNS) "Matsumoto Series" (21:00–21:30), Nobuko played by Yumiko Mochizuki.
Next, Feb 1979 "Matsumoto Women's Series: Hot Air" on TBS "Toshiba Sunday Theater" (21:00–21:55)—Nobuko by Mitsuko Mori, producer Fukuko Ishii.
From the 1983 version, Ichihara starred.
"Matsumoto's Hot Air: The Housekeeper Saw It! The Couple's Secret 'Burned'" aired July 1983 on TV Asahi "Saturday Wide Theater" (21:00–22:51), rating 27.7% (Video Research, Kanto). Success led to the Ichihara series "The Housekeeper Saw It!"—26 works through 2008. Ichihara's version differs from Matsumoto: the "Ohsawa Housekeeper Agency" housekeeper is "Akiko Ishizaki."
Yonekura's "Housekeeper" first appeared in 2012: "20 Years After Matsumoto's Death Special: Hot Air" (Dec 2012, TV Asahi 55th anniversary night two), 18.6% (Video Research, Kanto). Director Hideyuki Matsuda, long Yonekura's partner. Mar 2's special shared the director—a sequel.
By the way, Yonekura's Mar 2 "The Housekeeper Saw It!" includes scenes filmed at Palaceside Building. Today's blog photos are all from that shoot. We don't ask detailed settings when lending locations, but we awaited the Mar 2 broadcast—and Palaceside's rooftop stood in for a department store roof. Housekeeper Sawako Nobuko (name changed from prior work) is dispatched for 2 million yen a month to the Uehara family running a cosmetic surgery clinic—scenes with 20-year-old daughter Akemi, played by Kii Nakano. See it?