As a huge fan of both Keiko Kitagawa and Riho Yoshioka, I've been quivering with anticipation ever since first hearing about their joint drama Rakujitsu waaaay back in June, and HALLELUJAH, it's finally begun airing and just this weekend I got to check out the FIRST episode!! Billed as a 'Psychological Murder Mystery", this first episode (of four parts) did not disappoint!
The plot:
Keiko stars as Kaori Hasebe, an up and coming Director who has had a bit of beginner's success with her first film which was heralded and praised, winning her many awards. But in the back of her mind, there was always another story she wanted to tell if she had the chance. Unlike her first venture, however, this movie's topic is dark and depressing, one that her backers aren't enthusiastic about producing and even warn her that her second film has to be a crowd pleaser or she may become a one hit wonder.
With disappointment in her voice, Ohata tells Kai that if she doesn't improve, she may even have to be let go!
With her job and future seemingly on the line, Mahiro gets a phone call from Hasebe about a potential project. She has to wonder why a popular director like Hasebe should be seeking out a third rate writer like her, but agrees to meet.
Through conversation, Mahiro learns that Hasebe chose her not because of her skills per se, but because she hails from the same hometown as her. And it is this town of Sasazuka that the dark story she wants to tell took place.
Hasebe asks Kai if she remembers a case some 15 years prior where a teenage girl named Sara Tateishi (Shiori Kubo) was murdered by her reclusive shut in older brother Rikito (Ryoma Takeuchi). After stabbing his sister with a knife multiple times, the brother then set the house on fire which killed his parents as well.
Mahiro confesses not knowing about the murder and is taken aback when she learns that it is this crime that Hasebe wants to make a movie of, shining a light on the real people behind the story and the circumstances of what made the incident happen.
Hasebe then reveals her true motivation for getting the movie made- it seems when she was a very young child, Kaori was abused and frequently locked out of the house on the cold balcony of her family's apartment. Shivering and lonely, she found solace with the child living next door, who silently befriended her by touch under the balcony divider. She believed this child that saw her through her rough times was Sara Tateishi, the same girl who would later be murdered by her brother years later.
Who was this girl and what circumstances led to her death? These are questions Kaori wants to discover and document in film. Kaori asks Mahiro is she would write the screenplay for such a picture, one which would reveal the truth behind the murders and answer the questions always on her mind, but Mahiro declines, not wanting to chart such territory.
It's only some days later when Mahiro is at her mother's third year wake that she is convinced by a relative named Masataka (Mitsuomi Takahashi) to take the offer more seriously...and to start things off, he introduces her to a woman who says she knows the REAL Saya Tateishi.
Upon talking to this woman (Moe Tanaka) who was classmates with Saya, Mahiro learns that, far from being a saintly and kind-hearted girl, the real Saya was a cruel and cunning manipulator who enjoyed seeing others suffer.
When this discovery is related to Kaori, the young director is flabbergasted. She is even MORE confused about what what really happened back then, and begins to wonder...could the child that befriended her under the divider be the family's OTHER child...the accused murderer Rikito?
She is even more determined to make her film, and this time, Mahiro is fully on board and accepts Hasebe's offer to write the screenplay chronicling the case.
Together the two will traverse into the past, interviewing every possible person connected with the original case, and through it, new facts and secret cover-ups will all be revealed til the picture they get is one completely different from the one they thought they knew!
So far Rakujitsu (The Setting Sun) is an interesting drama with a solid cast which included not only Kitagawa and Yoshioka, but Ryoma Takeuchi, straight from "Roppongi Class" a suspense drama that was one of my big faves of the past season!
My only worry is that this drama will fall into the 'fetch quest" style of mystery, (with the characters just going from one informant who sends them to another, then they think they've found the bad guy, then it's a red herring, etc...) I'd rather have a show delving into the Kitagawa and Yoshioka characters, backstories of which they've hinted at and of which I'd love to hear more!
PS: As usual with these WOWOW dramas, the entire drama is soaked in this icky green/blue tint, but with how dour the whole story is, I guess it matches!
