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| Death By Wine Glass: Kuriyama Chiaki in Himitsu Chouhouin Erika |
As one may have deduced by the dramas I gush about here, I’m more into the unusual or lighthearted dramas than the romantic or heavy handed ones, so when the delightfully fun Nazotoki wa Dinner No Ato De came to a close, I needed an equally fun and spritely drama to fill its’ spot, and it looks like the spirited crime drama Himitsu Chouhouin Erika is the show of choice!Starring Kuriyama Chiaki as the titular heroine Erika, the drama tells the tale of a former government secret agent who has moved on and become a part of a father and his young son’s family. Her former bosses, however, still have need of her services, so when she isn’t cleaning house, cooking dinner or picking up the kids from school, she’s out canvassing crime scenes and duking it out with the bad guys, righting the wrongs for the people of Tokyo!
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| Secret Agent Erika |
Each episode begins with Erika going about her motherly duties looking as dorky as all-get-out, worrying about the various things that plague housewives like wrinkles and PTA meetings while taking her son to school, a slightly mousey and insecure looking woman…
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| as mild-mannered Mother and Wife |
Soon enough, however, she gets a call from the agency, and we are introduced to the nature of this week’s crime. She learns the basic schematics of the case, and then we are treated to Erika in her latest elaborate disguise for the day as she prepares to infiltrate the criminal’s base of operations, whether it be posing as a hot young socialite, a working OL, or (my personal favorites here) a cute and bubbly nurse or a sexy Hostess:
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| Above and below: Undercover as a Nurse |
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| Posing as a Hot Hostess |
After some top-notch spywork by Erika and her fellow agents, the crime is exposed and the perpertrators revealed, and we move on to the final stage of the show: Erika goes to confront the villain of the piece, and this time she’s shed costumes of any kind, and what we see is the cool and lethal agent she really is! And of course, no bad guy worth his salt would give up without a fight, so we get to see her secret agent skillz in action!
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| Fightin' Tactics with Agent Erika |
Epilogue: Peace is restored once more, and we leave the show with Erika happily enjoying life with her innocent family, never once suspecting that those nights when she’s out having coffee with fellow housewives is actually spent kicking the butt of the underworld!
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| Alls Well That Ends Well: Home Sweet Home |
I’ve been trying to nail down just what it is about this drama that I love so much, and I think it ultimately comes down to the basic formula of the show where we get to see Kuriyama go through three different outfit and personality “changes” for each respective act. So cool to see her go from shy housewife to smart investigator, and ultimately the deadly and icy agent, Chiaki Kuriyama rocks the house!
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| Innocent Mom |
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| Hard Edged Agent |
BTW: One thing I've noticed about the fight/action sequences in Himistu Chouhouin Erika is that while the choreography is slow-moving and haphazardly edited, they've VERY inventive and imaginative, what with Erika's almost MacGuyver-ish talent of using whatever objects are around (wine glass, swiffer duster or even a telephone) and turning them into deadly weapons! CHO OMOSHIROII!
