Another Child Abduction Drama…With A Twist! “Yukai ni Hi”

Child kidnapping seem to be ALL the rage in J-dramas lately, with the stellar Keiko Kitagawa “Anata wo Ubatta Sono Hi kara” (Since the Day I Took You Away) recently wrapping up, and now we have Yukai No Hi (The Day of the Kidnapping)!

Masamune Shinjo (Takumi Saito) is a man who has a young daughter in need of a serious and expensive surgery to save her life, and without funds or a future, plots with his estranged wife Shiori (Yumi Adachi) to kidnap the Hospital Director’s daughter and hold her for ransom to get the money for the operation.

While very passionate about his daughter, Masamune is admittedly not very bright, and it is up to his wife to orchestrate the entire kidnaping via phone instruction. She finds the Director’s home, maps out the getaway routes, and guides Shinjo through the dark night streets to the house, where they expect the girl to be asleep and easy for stealing away.

Though nervous, things seem to be going according to plan, however just as Masamune arrives at the house, a dazed girl steps out on front of his car and he narrowly avoids hitting her. She slumps down to the ground, and when he goes to check on her, he finds that it is the girl he was meant to kidnap!

Confused about why she would appear outside of the house in the middle of the night, he nonetheless accepts it as a bit of luck on his side, and he takes the unconscious child and spirits her away to his hideout just as they’d originally planned!

The next morning when she awakens, Masamune considers tying her up until he realizes that she has amnesia and cannot remember what has happened or even who she is! Seizing the chance, Masamune tells her he is her FATHER, and that this is her home!

He hopes she will buy this lie, but this is no ordinary girl. Her name is Rin Nanase (Yuno Nagao) and she is nothing short of a genius! Possessing a hyper-intelligent brain, she immediately pieces together that something is wrong about the situation, but until her mind can clear, is content with “playing along” with the ruse.

In the meantime, Masamune has been calling and calling the house to give the parents his demands, but they never pick up. Eventually , a confused Masamune goes back to the house to see what the holdup is…and is STUNNED to find that both the Director and his wife have been MURDERED! WHAAA!!!

Masamune has NO IDEA how to deal with this turn of events- he now has no parents to blackmail for ransom and is stuck with a kidnapped child! He calls Shiori in a panic, but they msut sit tight til they can get more information about what is going on! In the meantime, he must continue his charade as Father to young Rin!

Police Detective Tsukasa Sunouchi (Yosuke Eguchi) is assigned to the murder case, and they quickly realize that Rin is missing and possibly kidnapped. But the mystery grows when, searching the house, they discover a secret laboratory in the basement where it looks like strange experiments have been going on! Who IS this family, and what has been going on here?

Looking over the security cameras, the cops get their first look at the hapless Masamune picking Rin up off the ground and taking her away, and he immediately becomes their number one suspect for not only the abduction...but for the DOUBLE HOMICIDE as well!

Msasamune is forced to go on the run with his fake daughter in tow as an all points bulletin is put out for him, and if that weren’t bad enough, a sinister organization led by the mysterious  Yukiko Mizuhara (Yuki Uchida) is ALSO after the young girl, and they’ll stop and NOTHING to get her!

It’s time for Masamune to come clean about who he really is to the young Rin, and once they realize it’s them against everyone else, have to team up to stay one step ahead of the enemy’s clutches! And with Masamune’s energy and passion and Rin’s amazing intellect, they may get out of this yet!

Oh man, this is an exciting and FUN one- Yukai no Hi is full of twists and turns and I breezed through the first four episodes in one crack! We are now up to episode 7 and things are really ratcheting up!

Takumi Saito and Yuno Nagao are great as the sham Father and Daughter, this could be the set-up for a Disney style ongoing series with the way they keep getting in and out of sticky situations! As you may remember, Yuno played the younger version of Sakura Ando in the excellent “Brush Up Life” and she continues her streak of charming kid-friendly shenanigans! 

Posted by zdorama @zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

The High Flying "House of Ninjas"

Just started watching the new NETFLIX series "House of Ninjas" and so far, it is a real HOOT!!! The Story: The last descendants of an old and legendary Ninja Clan, the TAWARAS, have been living normal lives among the commoners after the death of one of their family during a mission causes them to abandon their darker pasts and "go straight". But they have found that it is harder than it seems!

Father Souichi (Yosuke Eguchi) is the one trying his hardest to go legit, running the sake brewery that has been passed down through the generations as a front for their covert activites. But with dwindling sales and an aversion from getting "government" help, he is clearly struggling. And it doesn't help that at home, no one seems to respect his decision!

Mom Yoko (Tae Kimura) is a bit more lenient on slipping into her old ways and spends her free time shoplifting minor items form the supermarket for kicks. But when a real mission comes up, she eagerly accepts, careful not to let hubby know!

As well, young daughter Nagi (Aju Makita)  has never truly abandoned her ninja roots and has kept up her skills, keeping fit and training every night, stealing precious artifacts from the Museum of Art for the pure challenge of it all!

The one who is the hardest hit by the death of the family member is son Haru (Kento Kaku), as the one killed was his older brother Gaku (Kengo Kora), and Haru feels personally responsible for his death. 

He has been haunted by nightmares of that fateful night and has spend the last few years keeping to himself, working nights as a vending machine stocker, avoiding others.

But this changes when he happens across a pretty girl who frequents the late-night joint where he gets his meals. She is extremely pretty and Haru wuld love to ask her out. But he dares not. If it is up to him, nothing will happen... but unbelievably, they hit it off and it is the girl herself who asks HIM out on a date! Haru is thrilled but he will find there is more to this girl than meets the eye.

Her name is Karen Ito (Riho Yoshioka), and she is an intrepid journalist for a conspiracy-type magazine. At the moment she is investigating a horrific incident on a cruise ship where every passenger aboard was poisoned and killed, and part of the reason she asks him out is to accompany her on some of her investigating!

Despite being warned by others to avoid this problematic girl who sticks her nose where it doesn't belong, he of course grabs any opportunity to be with her. And before he knows it, Haru soon finds himself helping and protecting this girl as the unseen enemies try to silence her and her informants!

By some coincidence, this terroristic attack is also being followed by a secret agency called the BNM- the Bureau of Ninja Management whose job it is to facilitate operations and keep track of all agents. They have asked Souichi for his help in looking into the attacks, but the stern father flatly refuses to go back to ninja-like business.

But there is a darker fate being planned for the fate of Japan when it is revealed that the first attack on the cruise ship is just the beginning and that the cult responsible for it GENTENKAI, led by the enigmatic leader Tsujioka (Takayuki Yamada), has even BIGGER catastrophes planned and even MORE deaths!

And with  Gentekai's wicked agents all about working undercover, it may soon be too much for even the level headed Souichiro to ignore and the time may come for the legendary TAWARA Ninja Clan to live once more!

I'm only about 3 episodes into the series, but must say how BLOWN AWAY I am at House of Ninja's production and execution-intriguing characters and compelling story and oh my GOSH the ACTION scenes- more than your usual twist and tumble tussles (though there is some of that), the choreography of the fighting is creative and innovative along the style of John Wick, with the battlers using what EVER objects they can get their hands on to inflict damage upon their assailants!

And then there's Riho Yoshioka.  OH MY, you all already know how much I ADORE this girl, and House of Ninjas makes the MOST of her- she easily captivates her scenes whenever she steps into them and you realize how charismatic she can be!

Really, her role here as Karen Ito is so cool and compelling that I'm finding myself falling back head over heels in love with her and am on the verge of yet another  "Crush of The Day" post about her! But as I've already recently done one (for her turn as the time tripping girl in "Toki wo Kakeruna Koibitotachi"), this time I'll try to constrain myself and leave the gushing here!

PS: Ooh, and if that wasn't enough, they ALSO pay a visit to the good old reliable "Love Distance" Apartment Complex, a deja-vu scene I haven't seen in awhile!

I'm telling ya, this drama really has it all!!!!