At the end of the 1980s, there was a popular Japanese love drama called "Tokyo Love Story", the original japanese drama was a manga, the manga author was a female manga artist Shibamon, many of Shibamon's manga works have been adapted into TV series, most of which depict love.
After entering the 1990s, the Japanese economy began to decline, and the divorce rate began to increase, becoming the second largest divorce rate after the United States, with 158,000 people divorcing in 1990, and the love of celebrities such as Mika Nakajima, Takashi Kashiwara, Ryoko Hiromi, and Ai Fukuhara ended in divorce.
In response to the confusion caused by divorce, cartoonist Chai Menwen interviewed many people who experienced it personally and used them as references for his later works.
In 1994, female cartoonist Shiba Mun-wen serialized an emotional comic strip with the emotional crisis of a 35-year-old middle-aged couple as the main line in the elementary school comic magazine "Big Comic", a seemingly harmonious couple, but the husband cheated on his wife behind his back, and the wife found out and talked to an old classmate and finally ... Both are heading for the end of marriage – divorce.
In the manga, Chai Mun wrote about his impressions of creating Age35:
"Why do men have affairs? I started this comic with this purpose in mind, and I have met many intellectual, cultured, and righteous gentlemen in my life, but they still have affairs in addition to their wives.
If it's a rogue, irresponsible scumbag who has an affair, I can understand it, but when I see gentle, honest, and family-loving upright men having affairs, I can't help but question them – why?
Of course, every man who has an affair has his own model, and Shimada is just one of them, but those who have an affair have one thing in common, they ignore the jealous power of their wives like an endless abyss...
After the childhood of ignorance and the trauma of adolescence, we enter the age of adulthood full of lies, and it is adults, and not only men, who use lies to escape injury.
In front of the child, to pretend that I have never done that file, a look of morality, is my mother's biggest lie.
Therefore, adults have no position to blame anyone, however, at the age of 35, there are endless possibilities, and when you find that you are on a fork in the road and want to start again, the possibilities are quite abundant, I think this is 35 years old. My answers are all in this comic. ”
The story of "Age" begins with an ordinary office worker who can no longer be ordinary...
Hideshi Shimada, 35 years old, the head of Fuzi Food Company, wife Zhu Mei 35 years old, the two were colleagues of the same company, met and fell in love, fell in love for 1 year and married, Jumei resigned as a housewife, gave birth to a pair of twin brothers and sisters, Shimada loves family and work, good nature.
At a family dinner, his wife Zhu Mei cared about her husband Yingzhi and asked him to pay attention to rest, because in the past six months, he had worked overtime until late at night to come home, and he was worried about his health.
In fact, since Shimada started half a year ago, he and the young and beautiful female secretary of the company, Terui Misa, began to date. As the saying goes, women chase men in the layer of yarn, the first time is Meisha's initiative, and every time the two go to the hotel to open a room, it is Meisha to check out.
Meisha is 25 years old, young and beautiful, and her figure is wow.
Shimada private meeting Meisha at night, but after returning home, worried, after a date, Meisha made it clear that the two people are just a relationship in bed, if Shimada falls in love with himself, then he will break up immediately, this sentence is like a sledgehammer, smashed on Shimada's chest, and Meisha dated for half a year, feeling that he has really fallen in love with the beautiful Miss Meisha.
Yuko and Jumei are newcomers to the company in the same period, and Jumei, after meeting her husband Daping, the two quickly married, but have not had children, recently returned home every day for a while, the husband is just staring at the computer, the husband and wife almost do not speak anything, in the face of such a boring and boring life, Yuko often complains about divorce.
Yuko said that the situation between herself and her husband is actually the same as divorce, she is 35 years old, and she wants to start again, which is the last chance.
Compared with Yuko and his wife, their family is really much happier, Shimada secretly decided to return to the family, and Meisha gradually estranged, the two almost did not contact for three weeks, suddenly one day in the elevator, Meisha met Shimada, quietly said that she is pregnant, and to give birth to this child.
This surprised Shimada a lot, so he visited Meisha and persuaded Meisha to dispel the idea of having a child, having a child is not a pet, to raise, accompany, take care of, do not abandon, children without a father will be happy? Meisha turned a deaf ear and was stubborn.
Back at home, Yuko came to visit the door, made a big fuss, her husband Daping had an affair, crying that he had encountered a crisis in life, Shimada was depressed, so he did not reply angrily, but it was just an affair, worth what a fuss, this sentence caused the vigilance of his wife Zhu Mei.
Shimada knows that he is wrong, and he distinguishes that he has no time and no money, will any girls post it upside down? (He was really right)
Shimada drew up a breakup agreement, stating that after breaking up with Meisha, the other party must not interfere with his and his wife's private life, and wanted to sign for Meisha, but when he saw Meisha who was pregnant and about to give birth to a baby immersed in excitement, he could not open his mouth, and the two had a entanglement again, and when they walked out of the hotel, they happened to be seen by Jumei's girlfriend Yuko.
Yuko found Jumei to inform, who knew that Jumei was full of confidence in her marriage with Shimada, thinking that her husband must not have cheated, it was Yuko's delusion, Jumei said a lot about her and Shimada's 13-year marriage to run each other's persistence and patience, and finally, Jumei said that if Shimada really cheated, of course, she would choose to divorce and would not continue this marriage.
Jumei went out to relax, came to an art museum, met her college classmate Naruse, at this time Naruse is an artist, full of artistic atmosphere, and the average office worker is completely different, Naruse divorced, because too busy with work and snubbed his wife, the two finally came to the step of divorce, but Jumei did not know, in fact, Naruse's divorce is related to herself.
The attentive Naruse discovers some of the losses in Jumei's heart.
Meisha, whose belly is getting bigger day by day, caused ridicule from colleagues around him, Shimada looked in his eyes and hurt in his heart, he thought that he and Meisha were just playing, but he did not expect to be deeply involved in this step, in order to compensate, he took a check for 10 million yen to visit Meisha, did not expect to be rejected by Meisha, Meisha wanted to raise the child with her own strength.
Yuko, who discovered Shimada's secret, successively asked Shimada and Misha for a showdown, asking about their attitude and what they were planning, and Shimada subconsciously lied, saying that he would break up with Misha, in fact, he could not leave Misha.
And Misha made it clear that she would not be a third party to destroy other people's families, and after giving birth to Shimada's child, she would become a single mother and leave Shimada.
Yuko's own life is also a pot of porridge, husband Daping has an affair outside, has developed to the point of cohabitation with each other, divorce should be on the agenda sooner or later, Shimada went to see Daping, and also met Daping's good friend Xiaomeng, Xiaomeng is 18 years old, or an ignorant child, eating snacks and playing games all day, the two are known in phone dating, and Xiaoping with Xiaomeng is more like a father who takes care of his daughter.
Jumei finally knows that there is someone outside Shimada, and Shimada is constantly lying, asking for his wife's forgiveness, and will say that he really has no relationship with Meisha, and after being found to have exposed the horse's feet, he changed his mouth and said that he only had a date with Meisha, and Meisha's child must not be his own.
In Jumei's view, Shimada at this time has completely changed into another stranger wearing a mask.
However, Jumei compromises, she forgives Shimada's infidelity, and once again believes that her husband has broken off relations with Meisha, but this is not the case.
Daping, who lives with an 18-year-old girl, is not peaceful, Xiaomeng found a better financial lord, ran away from home, Daping did not wait for Xiaomeng to return for 3 weeks, only to understand that the other party really will not come back, but he did not want to compromise and slipped home, he lied to Yuko that he and Xiaomeng had nothing, just simply lived together.
Shimada asks Daihei why he said that? Is it true that nothing happened?
Daping replied, of course not, 30-year-old middle-aged man and 18-year-old miaoling woman living together, how can nothing happen, but if you admit it, you will lose, even if it happened, you will never admit it.
Shimada's obsession with Meisha is getting more and more serious, and it is becoming more and more difficult to hide from his wife Zhu Mei's private meeting meisha, and it is getting closer and closer to meisha's production, and Shimada discovers the secret that meisha and himself are together: Meisha's lover in college is called Yingzhi, who looks exactly the same as himself, but then dies in a car accident, and Meisha is with herself, just fantasizing about herself as Yingzhi, in order to give birth to a child like Yingzhi.
Shimada asks Misha, don't we have feelings? Are you so ruthless? Misha nodded and cried bitterly.
After giving birth, Misa suddenly disappeared, and Shimada came to Misa's apartment in a daze and saw the letter left for her, saying that although she only used Shimada as a stand-in for Hideyuki at first, she slowly fell in love with the gentle Shimada, but in order not to destroy Shimada's life, she still decided to leave.
What Shimada did not find was that his wife Jumei followed behind him, seeing her husband's betrayal, Jumei was in pain, Shimada said on the spot that he was out of the house, and the house property was left to his wife, but the wife thought that Shimada was going to go to the world of two with the young Misa, and rewarded Shimada with a slap.
Jumei tries to accept Shimada again, but it is not possible, pretending to be indifferent to the two people, there is an invisible rift in the middle, the potter Naruse confesses to the painful Jumei, Jumei is very resistant at first, but then figured it out, looking at Naruse, who has had a crush on him since college, found the feeling of being alive, and Naruse spent the night, agreeing to let the other party wait for him for 4 years, and when the child became an adult, he divorced and was with him.
In the face of the wife who proposed divorce, Shimada could not accept it, and after becoming angry, he proposed to travel with his wife and tried to save it, in the hotel, facing his cold wife Jumei, Shimada finally put it down, said to Jumei, go to the life they like, the two finally agreed to divorce and break up peacefully.
Ohira and Yuko reconcile and have children, as if they were as harmonious as before.
After the divorce, Jumei and Naruse live together, as if they have found themselves again, completely bidding farewell to the life of being alone in an empty house, with a man who loves himself by his side, and a youth from the bottom of his heart.
2 years later, Shimada met Meisha at the airport, Meisha took her son, Shimada told the other party that he was divorced, and when he was about to leave, the four-eyed, enthusiastic Meisha looked at Shimada, tore the booked ticket to pieces, and the two hugged each other tightly...
After creating this comic, Chai Menwen wrote these words on the last page of the comic:
"I've always believed that when people find a mistake, they can start all over again at any time.
Some people say that "35 years old is a turning point in life, the last opportunity to start over." "But I think that whether you are forty, fifty or sixty, if you have the heart, you may start again at any time."
Some people may think that whether a marriage is right or wrong will not be able to draw conclusions until the other half dies, so divorced people are shallow, and it makes sense to be white-headed.
But it wasn't until the other half passed away that he realized, "Ah, our marriage was indeed a mistake." "I think that the living can start over, but the dead have infinite regrets. There is a situation called divorce within the family, that is, couples with different values (world view, three views) must continue to live under the same roof in order to wait for the judgment of time, but do not talk to each other.
Sometimes, break up to make your life happier. Some couples choose to break up, and some choose to break the mirror and reunite. I think that there are as many couples as there are in the world, and it would be my honor if you can provide them with some inspiration when choosing after reading the comic.
After the couple is accompanied for many years, the feeling of love during the new marriage will slowly become friendship, and in the future, the husband will look at his wife like his daughter. Wives treat their husbands like they love their sons, but they can also evolve into the worst "enemies" in the world, and the love of men and women is so complex and difficult.
"Can men and women coexist peacefully?" Maybe I drew this comic just to find answers, thank you to everyone who helped me.
April 1995"
Morality, feelings, and fun have always bound our lives, and if we want to choose any way to go, at least it is also a choice from our hearts - let's hope that everyone can find their own happiness.