アットホーム・ダッド (At Home Dad) vs 企鹅爸爸 (Daddy At Home)

アットホーム・ダッド Synopsis



Kazuyuki Yamamura works at a major advertising agency, and is the breadwinner of his family, which consists of himself, wife Miki, and daughter Rie. He purchases a house, and is proud of being at the pinnacle of his career.

Kazuyuki's neighbor, Yusuke Sugio, however, leads a completely different life. The breadwinner of his family is his wife Shoko, who runs her own company. Yusuke is a so-called "at-home dad", and because of this, Kazuyuki considers him miserable and helpless.

Suddenly one day, Kazuyuki is forced to quit his company. At the same time, his wife receives a call from her former employer saying he wants her to come back to work. Consequently, Kazuyuki has no other choice but to stay at home while Miki works. Kazuyuki reluctantly starts his new life as a household husband—the last thing he wanted to do. Fuji TV



企鹅爸爸 Synopsis



Liu Bang (Li Nanxing) works for a bank as the senior Vice-President. His wife, Yang Xinbei (Ann Kok), is a full-time housewife who stays at home to look after the household and their daughter. Their daughter, Liu Si’en, is a bright and sensible little girl. Liu Bang has it all in both his career and family life. He is especially glad that he is able to hold his head up high in front of his father-in-law and mother-in-law, proving that they were wrong about him in the past.

His daughter, Si’en, is about to enroll in a primary school. In order to get her into a prestigious primary school, Liu Bang decides to move his family into a condominium within 1km of the chosen school. Ye Zhengkang’s (Chen Hanwei) family thus becomes their next-door neighbour.

Zhengkang is a “house-husband”, in charge of household chores and the care of the two children. His wife, Chen Meihui (Cynthia Koh), is the boss of a beauty salon. She works to bring money to the family. This arrangement brings about many strange looks from others, naturally. But Zhengkang is not affected by this and takes pride in his role.

Liu Bang, like others, does not approve of the arrangement in Zhengkang’s household. He feels that a man’s pride should lie in his career, and that a man who stays at home would not accomplish great things. However, he’d never have expected that he would soon join Zhengkang’s ranks as well.

The economic crisis had a great impact on the financial market. Liu Bang’s bank is affected as well, and needs to retrench a large number of employees. Liu Bang, who had once offended his superior, is one of those targeted of course.

After being retrenched, Liu Bang remains optimistic that he could find a similar job with similar benefits. However, all the companies are cutting costs and none of them wants to employ him at his desired salary. Neither would the egoistic Liu Bang lower himself to consider a lower position with a less attractive salary. This throws the family into financial difficulty.

After being a housewife for several years, Xinbei is suddenly recruited as an assistant editor for a magazine in her ex-colleague’s company. Initially, Liu Bang disapproves of Xinbei going out to work, but due to investments losing money as well as countless bills to be paid, he has no choice but to let her work for the time being, until he finds a suitable job. On the other hand, Xinbei is worried that Liu Bang would not be able to handle the household chores. Liu Bang thinks nothing of it and proclaims confidently that he would have no problems.

On his first day as a “house-husband”, Liu Bang runs into endless problems. Not only does he mess up the chores, he even forgets to fetch Si’en home from the kindergarten. Thankfully, Zhengkang lends him a hand and they manage to resolve everything. Liu Bang is grateful to Zhengkang for his help, and gains a different perspective of him. The two men resolve their past differences and eventually become good friends.

Xinbei is doing very well at work and earns praise from her superior, Wyman. She experiences a sense of self-worth for the first time, and shares her joy with Liu Bang. However, Liu Bang behaves like a wet blanket due to his ego being hurt. Xinbei is disappointed with his response. The couple starts to drift further apart from each other.

On the other hand, Shuyong and Aijuan are abandoned by their other children and come to Liu Bang’s place to seek refuge. To avoid embarrassment, Liu Bang hides the truth about his retrenchment from them, and lies that he is on long vacation. He even gets Xinbei and Si’en to play along and keep up the act with him. Shuyong and Aijuan are temporarily fooled.

Liu Bang is worried that the truth would be revealed somehow. Thus, he tries his best to get his in-laws sent back to Xinbei’s siblings. Shuyong misunderstands that Liu Bang is trying to get rid of them the way his other children did. He gets angry and runs away from home with his wife. They even spend the night sleeping in a park. Aijuan falls sick as a result. Liu Bang and Xinbei are reprimanded by the police for being unfilial. It is only then that Liu Bang admits the truth about his retrenchment.

During his time as a “house-husband”, Liu Bang learns that a relationship with his daughter isn’t built on just buying toys for her. What’s more important is to understand her feelings. Hence, the relationship between father and daughter gets better than before. At the same time, under the influence of Zhengkang, Liu Bang picks up various tips and tricks on being a smart “house-husband” (For example, how to save money in different ways and to put aside what is saved as his personal savings). He gains an understanding of how difficult it is to run a household, and can put himself in Xinbei’s shoes to understand her previous woes as a housewife.

After gradually accepting his role as a “house-husband”, Liu Bang begins to enjoy his new life. However, when he hears people talking behind his back about how he is useless for depending on his wife for money, his ego suffers a beating. On top of that, rumours from others lead him to believe that Xinbei is having an affair with Wyman. This leads to a big fight with Xinbei.

Liu Bang finds out after investigating that he has misunderstood Xinbei. He decides to change his attitude and be a good “house-husband”, who supports his wife hundred percent in her career. However, a rare opportunity comes knocking on the door at this point. An investment company is asking him to manage their operations in China for at least three years. Liu Bang is anxious to share the good news with his family. But when he sees Si’en playing happily with her friend, and how happy Xinbei is when her article nominated for a prize, he hesitates…


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Coincidence or re-adaptation or simply copy and paste?

Btw アットホーム・ダッド was aired in 2004..