Emi Takei stars as Motoko Haraguchi, a young woman working two jobs: as a capable temp teller for a major banking institution during the day, and as a sultry bar hostess at a fancy Ginza club at nights. The reason she is stretching herself thin is because she is trying to pay off a huge debt which she inherited from her mother, who( herself inherited it from her husband and his gambling losses). Subsequently Motoko has developed a skewed view of wealth: she believes her parents have “lost” to money, and intends to do anything she can to “win” over it.
Her plans get set off track when she and a fellow temp are made to take the fall for a privileged employee’s mistake, and when the higher ups show no sympathy for what they've subjected them to, it’s here that Motoko uses her knowledge of the bank’s inner workings and shady dealings to extort a handsome 180 Million dollar transaction out of them.
Once she has covered her tracks and made them sign off from ever pursuing her, she moves to her next step: She uses the money as capital for her vision: to start her own hostess club CARNET and work her way up the chain.
As a hostess, Haraguchi entertains a wide plethora of clients, including a couple of crooked millionaires in Narabayashi (Eiji Okuda) and Hashida (Masanobu Takashima).
With her knowledge of their shady bank accounts hiding secret assets and their free chatter of their unscrupulous deals during their visits to the bar, Haraguchi remembers them all and jots every piece of info down in her titular “Black Leather Notebook”, biding her time and waits until the moment is right to reveal the damning evidence she has collected against them!
Not all her clients are as selfish as the others ,and one client she admires is a sensible political candidate named Tomio Yasujima (Yosuke Eguchi, teaming up with Emi once again after their 2012 drama Iki mo Dekinai Natsu) who somehow connects with Motoko on a deeper level than her usual customers, and over time, the two become the only ones they can truly be themselves around.
And Motoko could really use a friend! For the further she works up the chain of successes, the more enemies she makes, including her once caring and doting sempai Iwamura (Maya Miki), the Bar Mama where she learned her craft...
..as well as her old fellow bank teller Namiko Yamada, whom, when she joins Haraguchi and becomes a hostess like her, turns on her and becomes her direct competition!
BTW, I just LOVED the transformation of Yamada from the mousey bank teller to one of the most sexily oozing creatures EVER, Holy Hannah, I forgot how SMOULDERING Riisa Naka could be!
Add in pretty Risa Naito as Sumie and you've got a show just teeming with babes!
I gotta say, though... this is one PREPOSTEROUS drama…the coincidental things that happen, the ways Haraguchi gets her information, and the way the crimes are executed are so ludicrous that you have to laugh in spite of yourself…
I know that this drama is a remake of an earlier 2004 drama starring Ryoko Yonuekura, and perhaps Ryoko in the role of Haraguchi Motoko might have been more convincing as the steely eyed woman set on taking over the Ginza district, but Emi (love her as I do) just doesn’t have the charisma to make me believe she wields any power over the crooked people she’s blackmailing millions of dollars out of.
And speaking of those blackmailed “victims” this is another thing I really hate about these kind of shows, where, after Motoko has extracted her revenge on them, they turn around and accuse HER of being the evil one, even though they were the ones who “cast the first stone”, as it were.
To see bank manager Murai (Kenichi Takito) wailing to Haraguchi of how her blackmailing “ruined him” and how she must pay, all I can think is, “Dude, you laughed as you fired her for someone else's mistake, remember?” (BTW, kind of a twist watching Takito flailing so pathetically under Takei since it was the exact opposite in their last drama “Kizoku Tantei” where EMI was the underdog and Takito played the smooth detective assistant)...
Still, I cannot deny the absolute RUSH I had watching this…Ridiculous premise or not, the characters are all so intriguing to watch and the capers so fantastic that I am just glued to the edge of my seat!
Normally I am the kind of person who tries to pace his drama viewing, but with Kurokawa no Techou, I just couldn’t stop myself from barreling on…at the end of each episode I just HAD to know what happened NEXT!
And so here we are a episode 7 and now I have to play the nail-biting waiting game along with everyone else! Just GOTTA see where this INSANE drama goes!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
