In the tradition of “Parasite” comes the dramatic drama “Hiru~Leech” where fugitives and people on the run find unsuspecting people with no family or friends and a strict adherence to their job schedule, and simply move into their homes when they are at work, making themselves at home until the homeowner is set to come home and then they leave.
As our story opens, a young girl has come home from a hard day at work, Little does she know, but she has a “hiru” living in her home….a hiru who has JUST been murdered and left for her to discover!!!
The police arrive (Go Riju, Manami Konishi,Kotaro Tanaka) and question the shaken girl, and when they see it fits the profile of a few other cases, they realize they may have a serial killer on their hands.
Yuki Shinomiya (Eiji Akaso) is a bitter young man who has had a rough life with a father in prison. He works the late nights doing janitorial work at a company, and has just come home from another dead end night.
When he arrives at the apartment, there is a sombre girl standing at the top of the stairs (Ai Yoshikawa). Shinomiya ignores her and attempts to walk past her, but she grabs his arm. She seems ready to tell him something, but in the end, releases his hand and flees, leaving a confused Yuki standing there.
He is in for a further shock, however when he enters his apartment…and there is a disheveled man laying on the floor…with a KNIFE stabbed into his stomach!!!
Later at the hospital, Yuki is grilled by the cops about his relation to the injured man, but he insists he doesn’t know him and was there when he got home.
Just the the injured man awakens. They all go inside to talk to him, and are stunned when the man points at Yuki and says, “That’s the man who stabbed me!!!”
Yuki calls him a liar, but isn’t prepared when the man claims that HE is Yuki Shinomiya, and he even has an I.D. to prove it!!! The cops wrestle with Yuki and tell him that he’d better come down to the Police Station for questioning. Yuki has no IDEA why the vagabond is accusing HIM of stabbing him or why he’s pretending to BE him, but knows if he wants to find out, he needs to get away NOW!
Bursting out of the room, Yuki eludes the cops and hides til it is safe enough to return home. But when he gets there, the apartment is swarming with cops. How did this happen to him!!!
Just then, the same girl who crosses paths with him earlier that day approaches him again. She tells him that she knows what’s happening to him and offers a safe place to rest.
Following this mysterious girl, Yuki assumes she is taking him to her apartment. But once getting there, the girl reveals that she is in fact a Hiru, living in the apartment when the real owner is at work! She tells him that the man who was stabbed was a Hiru…living in YUKI’S apartment!!!
Meanwhile the cops are turning over Yuki’s place and have learned from the girl who found the dead body in her apartment earlier that she felt someone was living with her. Seeing the same thing here, they now know that these “Hirus” are being targeted.
Back at the apartment, Yuki is still trying to wrap his head around the fact that that they are in some stranger's apartment, when the mystery woman reveals the biggest secret YET- that SHE was the one who stabbed the man in his room!!!
“You..YOU’RE the reason I’m in this mess!!!” he yells at her. She can only apologize, saying it was not her intention for him to get involved.the girl tries to appease Yuki by offering the key to the place. “I’m sorry this happened to you- you can stay here”, she says, but he quips that she can’t even give him something she owns.
Just then, the doorbell rings and there is someone at the door!!! Yuki doesn’t have a CLUE as to what’s going on, and if he should even trust this girl, but knows his life will never be the same again!!!
Holy COW was this a THRILLING first episode!!! Been awhile since an episode ended with a cliffhanger where I was screaming at the screen “Nooo!!!! Not yet!!"
I can’t believe a drama this dense and packed with information is being aired in 25 minute increments- the story is WAY too BIG to tell at such a small, piddling pace!!!
(Though I see they’re already labeling the show as “Season1” so maybe they’re already planning a much LONGER story…!) I'll be here!!!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
