Masaharu Fukuyama stars as Hiroshi Kataoka, a company man who has been promoted as Bank Manager for one of the company’s extended branches. He is excited about the news until he learns from his higher up Yokoyama (Hiroshi Mikami) that the branch he will be running is slated for CLOSURE, and that his only job at his new bank will be to make sure it fails.
Come to find out that the Bank had a merger with another bank awhile ago for its assets, but now they are working behind the scenes to liquidate all the branches that were part of the other company’s. Only with his complete cooperation will Kataoka be promised a job when his branch closes, otherwise he can be expected to be laid off like the others.
This is a problem for Kataoka’s “go get ’em” attitude. He can’t simply stand by and watch the bank he is in charge of go under without a fight, but with direct orders for corporate to not do anything “unnecessary” his hands are seemingly tied.
He isn’t greeted very warmly at his new branch. Everyone is suspicious of him, especially manager Mayama (Teruyuki Kagawa), who seems to know that Kataoka is here only to orchestrate their demise as ordered by the uppers, and perhaps that is what he intended to do at first.
But when Kataoka sees how hard the younger members of his new team are working, and how important the small town bank is to its customers, ever so slightly he begins bending the rules to help the bank achieve its goals.
This causes a stir within the upper management and Yokoyama and Kataoka butt heads until they reach an ultimatum: If the bank can successfully hit the (outrageous) goal of 10 Billion in profit by the mid-term, he will allow the bank to continue. But with corporate doing everything in their power to see him fail and the stand 0ffishness of his employees, Kataoka will have quite a job on his hands if he is to make the goal!
After watching the first episdoe, i have to say that so far the show seems like a weaker copy of the infinitely superior "Harassment Game" which followed a similar storyline, and somehow Fukuyama's portrayal of Kataoka is...Odd? Very spazzy and hyper but sputtery and confused as well. Very hard to get behind, but we'll see how the story develops.
A bonus is babealicious Anne Nakamura as Kataoka's secretary Mieko Kida and the lovely Akiko Yagi as Kataoka's wife Kaori.-they'll help me get through this drama....
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
