Power of The Press: Yuganda Hamon

 
Masahiko Sawamura (Ryuhei Matsuda) is a news journalist working for a newpaper which has enough power to influence people and make things happen. But at the moment, he is a mere reporter who is going through a slump.

He is given a scoop by his immediate superior Nakajima (Masa Katsumura) about a hit and run murder that happened a few months back. It seems the car that hit and killed the man may have been driven by his own wife! Their chief journalist Kirino (Michitaka Tsutsumi) tells Sawamura there’s no need to verify the details as it’s been checked out, so Sawamura goes to confront the widow.

When he gets there he is met by the widow, Atsuko Morimoto (Fuka Koshiba) who is still shaken by the events and doesn’t want to talk to anyone. But when sawamura tells her he’s trying to solve the case, she reluctantly agrees to see him.

She meets him a a cafe and tells him the details of the day, pouring her heart out as she cries tears of frustration. 

But then Sawamura reveals that he is there to accuse her instead of help her, showing her a photo and asking if this isn’t HER behind the wheel of the car who killed her husband.

This devastates the woman and she leaves in tears. Her silence only furthers to prove to Sawamura that she must be guilty, and though he feels bad for her, this scoop is too huge to pass up.  The next day amid bigger political news, the story of how Atsuko Morimoto was driving the car and hit and killed her husband hits the streets. 

The media runs with it, attracting the attention of Kunio Mitazono (Kenichi Matsuyama), a colleague of Sawamura’s  running an online newspaper, who, sensing foul play,  tells Sawamura to dig deeper into the story.

When he talks to the original investigators on the scene, he is shocked to find the proof of the widow’s guilt  fabricated. This destroys Sawamura, who can’t get the hurt look of the widow out of his mind. Realizing his error, he tries in vain to make things right, first by confronting his superiors and then trying to make contact with the widow....

This may be more than a simple mistake as there are sinister things swelling within the ranks of the journalists’ and their former superiors. Was the fabrication part of an elaborate misdirection? Was he used as a fall guy? There are so many questions unanswered. And when one of the old team suddenly commits suicide, it opens a whole can of suspicions and dark secrets…

This is an older drama from 2019 which has just been picked up! So far seems like just another one of these scandal newspaper dramas which seem to be fairly popular nowadays, but with great leads in Ryuhei Matsuda and Kenichi Matsuyama and an amazing performance by Fuka Koshiba as the grieving widow (ther first real serious role I’ve seen from her), this is already a cut above and I’ll certainly be tuning in to see what happens next!