Keigo Higashino's "A Death In Tokyo~The Wings Of The Kirin"

Continuing on with my new hobby of reading the Keigo Higashino novel and then watching the film/TV adaptation, I recently re-watched the 2012 movie "Kirin No Tsubasa~ The Wings of The Kirin" after reading the 2022 English translated domestic release "A Death in Tokyo".

As I had mentioned before, though I really enjoyed Abe's crime drama SHINZANMONO, I had no IDEA that The Wings Of The Kirin was a Movie featuring the characters from it when I originally watched it- I simply thought Hiroshi Abe, Junpei Mizubata, etc, were playing stereotypical crime drama roles that I've seen them play a hundred times before! You would have thought the characters NAMES would have tipped me off, but honestly, I didn't remember what any of them were! LOL

This was a crime drama that I originally grabbed mostly because I mistakenly thought it was a Yui Aragaki Movie. Aragaki IS in the movie, but she was more part of an (admittedly stellar) ensemble cast than a starring role, not that it mattered because I was captivated throughout the movie anyway! If there's one thing that's been proven, when times are tough and things seem hopeless, Hiroshi Abe is THE MAN when it comes to cracking the cases and bringing the guilty to justice!

  Kirin No Tsubasa follows the mystery of a Factory Owner who is found dying on a bridge in front of a huge Gryphon statue. At first no one knows where he came from or who the assailant might be, but soon a suspicious young lad is discovered hiding in some nearby bushes with the murdered man's briefcase in his possession! 

Mizobata Junpei and Abe Hiroshi

Miura Takahiro

Aragaki Yui

The cops give chase, but before they can get any information out of him, he is struck by an oncoming vehicle and  later dies from the injuries. Despite the evidence, the suspect's girlfriend (Aragaki) firmly believes him innocent, and as the force begin digging deeper into the people connected to the case, they find more and more secrets and lies, til they've stumbled upon another crime buried beneath the surface!

Kuroki Meisa and Abe Hiroshi

Nakai Kiichi

Matsuzaka Tori

Mizobata Junpei, Taketomi Seika

Tanaka Rena

Mizobata Junpei, Matsushige Yutaka

Aragaki Yui

Mizobata and Abe

Tanaka Rena  and Aragaki Yui

QUITE fun to both read the book and novel together for a whole new experience! Strangely, even though I watched the movie first, it had been so long since I'd seen it, that I didn't picture ANY of the movie stars as their novel counterparts, except for, perhaps, Hiroshi Abe himself!

Still found it fun to match the actors and actresses faces with the roles, and, as mentioned before, the visual medium DOES have one advantage of SHOWING you all the breathtaking scenery and locations, something that you can only do in your mind when reading the ebook, additionally, music score does a lot to convey feeling and mood.

Whichever you choose, both have  fine tale to tell!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Samayou Yaiba 終わり

 Just finished the extremely dark  “Samayou Yaiba” the story of a grieving father who takes matters into his own hands to seek revenge when his teenage daughter is brutally drugged, raped and murdered, and though I initially worried about the tack the writers might take (i.e. focusing on the murderer delinquents’ side of things, painting them in a sympathetic light), in the end it came down to a moralistic judgment of the Father returning murder with murder rather than leaving it to the authorities to sort out. And with a full cast of characters falling to one side or the other of the argument, it resulted in a rich, thought provoking drama a tragedy that left you with lots to think about.

The cast, as I mentioned before is excellent. Both Yutaka Takenouchi as the grieving father, and Yuriko Ishida as a bystander caught between doing what the law says and following what her heart wants.  Very little dialog, most passages expressed with looks and head nods, but very powerful.

As well, Kanji Furutachi and Takahiro Miura were great as the detectives tasked with tracking down both the teen delinquents and the revenge-seeking father. Been seeing so many drama with incompetent detectives lately, was good to see one where the men on the case were thoughtful, methodical and full of empathy for the victims.

But the character that really stood out for me and stole the show was Kumi Takiuchi as the intrepid journalist reporter Odagiri- From the get go she was larger than life, at first appearing as a nuisance to the cops and meddlesome to the victims, she seemed to be the only one not afraid to stepping right into the case, stirring things up and exposing those involved, all recorded with delight at the prospect of the big story she’s going to get! 

There’a a scene where she’ recording a huge, violent confrontation, and she’s concerned but at the same time can’t suppress a smile for the scoop she’s about to get, LOL.

At time courageous and equally cowardly, honest about her research and at the same time concerned about getting good ratings. Seriously, they could make a spin off show with this character, she’s so charismatic and complex!!

In summation, this was one hell of a show. Samayou Yabai ran at a tight 6 episodes, a trend I’ve been noticing more and more. And after seeing how much excess the drama Saiai brought into the show to stretch it to 10 episodes, I’m beginning to think 6 or 7 episodes is a good amount, just enough to tell a lean, focused story without all the “extra” side storylines.

PS: There is a lot of symbolism within the show, some of which I get (like the ketchup spatter foreshadowing blood and the centipede crawling all over the father’s rifle) and some which are vague. Does anyone know the symbolism of the dead cicada when the principle members of the show are converging at the park to the final confrontation? They make sure to focus on it and show when someone steps on it. Been wracking my brain but have no theories. Does anyone know the meaning?

PPS: Just the other night, me and a friend were talking about how Yuriko Ishida had eclipsed her sister Hikari in acting and indeed clout with regard to dramas. In the 90’s the sisters were pretty much equal, but in recent years Yuriko has pulled away as the greater actress of the two. As a huge Hikari fan it was hard to see her star diminished (somewhat), but when you see Yuriko in vehicles like Samayou Yabai, it’s clear why she’s moved up so much. She’s really, really great.

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

June 2023 edit:

adding the Keigo Higashino tag to this post as it is yet ANOTHER awesome novel adaptation of his works!!! Guess I should have guessed since the drama's full name is "Higashino Keigo's Samayou Yabai"

A Murder Mystery in REVERSE

Fujiwara Tatsuya

On a winter day 10 years ago, five friends went out on a trip to the mountains for a vacation: Fuka Kazuhisa (Tatsuya Fujiwara), Kosuke Asami (Yuta Tamamori), Takaki Murai (Takahiro Miura), Yasuo Tanihara (Hayato Ichihara) and Yoshiki Hirosawa (Teppei Koike). There, they were involved in a horrible car accident and Hirosawa ended up dead. In the end it was ruled as an accident, but only the four surviving teenagers know what really happened.

Teppei Koike

Fast forward to present day, and each of the boys is now grown with important jobs and families to take care of. Murai is entering the world of politics, Asami is a school teacher, and Tanihara has an office job and a happy family life with a wife and daughter.

Miura Takahiko as Murai

Tamamori Yuta as Asami

Ichihara Hayato as Tanihara

Even the shy and awkward Fuka has found a girl he is interested in, the sensible Mihoki Ochi (Erika Toda). But suddenly, someone is digging up the past  and bringing up the question for all to face: was it really an accident…or something far more sinister?

Fujiwara Tatsuya as Fuka

Erika Toda as  Mihoko Ochi

Journalist Toshio Ogasawara(Takeda Tetsuya) may know something about it. As the former officer in charge of Hirosawa’s death, he’s always been suspicious of what the boys officially told the police, and when the case was suddenly closed by his higher ups as an accident, his suspicion has only increased, and now, on the anniversary of the incident, he is once again confronting the boys to get to the truth of the matter.

Takeda Tetsuya as Ogasawara

Such  a stellar cast, and besides the awesome aforementioned actors, the show also features cute Mayu Yamaguchi (who played Kimura Takuya's daughter in "I'm Home") as student Fujisaki Riko, and Mugi Kadowaki (the girl playing the dead girlfriend in Okukae Death last year) as Tanihara's wife.

Mayu Yamaguchi

Mugi Kadowaki

 REVERSE is a great, dark murder mystery in the vein of other “children-involved-in-a murder-and-now-grown-up” dramas like Soredemo Ikite Yuku, Gekiryuu-Watashi O Oboetemasuka, Triangle, and Byakuyako (Takeda Tetsuya playing same kind of aged detective that he did here), and as the memories return and the real facts of the crime come up, the show gets more and more compelling!!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com