'Queer Eye: We're in Japan' Special Episode 1 review: The Fab Five help hospice worker Yoko get a taste of happiness
The Fab Five are back, and this season they are expanding their horizons with a trip to Japan. The four-episode special, ‘Queer Eye: We’re in Japan!” sees the makeover team step outside their comfort zone as they navigate the art of helping people learn to love themselves in a culture that is not the Fab Five’s own. Helping them navigate through Japanese culture is Japanese-American model Kiko Mizuhara, who shows the cast around Tokyo while helping the team better understand Japanese contexts.
The first episode, ‘Japanese Holiday’, wastes little time after the team’s landing in Japan learning about the season’s first Hero - a middle-aged hospice worker named Yoko. Yoko is an incredibly giving spirit, who has given up every room in her home to take care of the sick, working so hard to take care of other people she’s dedicated little time to taking care of herself, to the extent of spending most of her days sleeping on the floor. She is the perfect person to start the season off with, as the joy and positivity she radiates is more than a match for the Fab Five’s own. Everyone is so happy spending time together, it’s a strong reminder of one of the reasons people enjoy ‘Queer Eye’ as much as they do.
It’s obvious that the Fab Five have a lot of respect and admiration for this woman, and they are the perfect team to help her get over what Kiki explains is a big deal in Japanese culture - ‘onna wo suteru’, or the idea of “giving up on being a woman.” The pressure in Japan for a woman to look good can get so high that the idea of just abandoning femininity entirely is sometimes the only relief. It’s a complicated idea as while there is that pressure to look good on the one hand, on the other hand is the Japanese stigma against women of Yoko’s age who stick out too much.
Yoko has gone for years not really worrying about her appearance - it takes her a little while to open up to the idea of looking good, but when she does, she immediately cites Audrey Hepburn as her style icon. It leads to one of the most adorable scenes of the episode, as Karamo and her ride a Vespa through the streets in homage to ‘Roman Holiday.’ Karamo is also the one who gets Yoko to open up about the death of her sister - who inspired the hospice - and Yoko’s heartbreaking confession that she would have sacrificed her own life if it would have kept her sister alive. “My life ended there,” she says, before Karamo gets her to open up to the idea of forgiving herself.
One of the other more memorable scenes of the episode was her ‘date’ with food and wine expert Antoni, who teaches her how to make a simple version of a French apple pie. There is obviously a lot of affection between the two, as she explains just what a good baked dish means to her - “a little taste of happiness.”
Yoko is a heart-stealer. Her instant connection with the cast, and the way she embraces the idea of caring for herself once the Fab Five help lay the path, is peak ‘Queer Eye’. It’s impressive how seamlessly the formula of ‘Queer Eye’ fits into Japan. In a quick segment at the end of the show, the cast introduces their Japanese interpreter Lena-Grace Suda. Between her and the show’s editing, the cast overcomes the language barrier with apparent ease - for all intents and purposes, it looks like everyone understands each other just fine.
Yoko now has a place for herself in her home and is making time for herself in between caring for the sick in her community. It’s a small thing, but sometimes just a taste of happiness is all you need.