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

She Was Steamin’: Yuno Ohara in “Ase To Sekken”

 Oh MY, we had been talking before in my "Mayonaka Ni Hello" post about actress (and former Dream5 member) Yuno Ohara’s more cheese-cakey charms, but I had no IDEA how curvy she actually was until her latest comedy/drama “Ase to Sekken” where she comes out swinging and lets it ALL hang out!!! 

Our story opens with a young OL hiding away in a bathroom stall,  furiously spraying herself with fragrance to cover up the aroma of her sweat. She is Asako Yaeshima (Ohara in a particularly bawdy role) and because of her overactive sweat glands, has grown up paranoid about her smell and is constantly trying to cover herself up with soaps and perfumes.

In fact, because of her paranoia, she is lovingly obsessed with soaps, and, as an employee of her favorite brand Lilia Drop, she is in heaven for the one thing in her life she treasures- bathing in the scent of her favorite soaps and indulging in its fragrances…

By chance a young man from developing named Kotaro Natori (Kanta Sato) comes across her and is instantly ENCHANTED with Asako's sscent, shamelessly leaning in for a good sniff before she draws back in a panic!

He tells her she has a wonderful, unique scent and wants to study it further-

He then proposes the VERY bizarre request of smelling her scent every day for his research (LOL,Whaaa!) Asako flatly refuses, but Natori is insistent! He hounds her every day to ask again and again, determined to have her as his test subject!

Eventually he corners her and explains who he is and what his intentions are, He is a developer for the company's various products and in fact is the developer who made her favorite soap! And as the developer of the soaps Asako loves so much, she meekly gives in. 

From that day on, Asako becomes Natori's test subject and he makes time every day to find her and give her a good sniffing! (AHAHA) And as time goes on, Asako becomes more and more comfortable to the idea of being sniffed and eventually begins CRAVING the physical attention!

And as the work partnership between scientist and subject blurs between professionalism and passion, we know EXACTLY where this relationship is GOING!

This had GOT to be one of the most OUTLANDISH setups in j-drama romcom history...and perhaps one of its NAUGHTIEST! Such a silly story cannot be taken seriously,but as a showcase for Yuno Ohara and her fans, it's a MUST SEE!!!

Another wacky drama situation that, like "Tsuma, Shogakusei ni Naru", is based on a whimsical manga series which gets way more racy and problematic when brought to live action!

Somehow these things seem way more innocent in comics....