Mother (Season 1)

Mother (2010) is a Japanese drama series — watch online on iFILM. An elementary school teacher named Nao discovers that one of her pupils, a small girl named Rena, is being abused at home. Then Nao does something no teacher is supposed to do.

She takes the child and disappears. No call to the authorities — a split-second decision that becomes a months-long fugitive journey from Hokkaido to Tokyo. The series stars Yasuko Matsuyuki as Nao and a then-seven-year-old Mana Ashida as Rena; Ashida's work here launched what became one of Japan's most recognised child-acting careers. Director Makoto Naganuma keeps the tone measured and exact throughout — no easy scenes and no cheap emotional shortcuts.

An adaptation of a 2008 Norwegian series, Mother translates so completely into its Japanese setting that it reads as a wholly original story about how far a stranger's love can reach. Stream Mother online on iFILM.