A Private Banker, Banker For Money….

Can always count on Toshiaki Karasawa for an enthusiastic performance, so I was looking forward to his new drama PRIVATE BANKER, and at 2 episodes in, is as engaging as hoped!

Karasawa is Koichi Anno a self-professed Private Banker who, for the right amount of money, will step in and protect clients from losing their money due to mismanagement, shady back dealings, and flat out swindlers!

We meet a woman named Kumiko Iida (Honami Suzuki) who has just lost a huge fortune on a bad investment and is on the verge of ending it all- until Anno shows up, and declares there may be more to this case than mere bad investing….

With his trusty assistant Mikoshiba (Shohei Uesugi), Anno researches the case history and the sinister motives behind the culprits, sifting slowly over the facts, getting to know the players involved, and then using the extensive banking knowledge he has to get the optimum results!

Finally, with all the facts before them, the true motives behind the conmen is revealed, and togetehr, they decide on a plan of attack that can bring her back her investment… But when she sees him seemingly working both sides, Iida has to wonder- is this Anno truly a knight in shining armor …or does he have his own personal agenda behind helping her? Only by going through with the case and standing up for herself will Kumiko get back what is rightfully hers!

For good or bad, wherever Anno goes, he produces results!

A fun and entertaining drama with lots of familiar faces from the classic era of J-Dramas, especially Honami Suzuki who is winning brand new fans due to the NETFLIX airing of the classic 1991 TOKYO LOVE STORY!

With classics like GOOD LUCK, ODORU DAISOUSASEN, LONG VACATION and Tokyo Love Story, we may be seeing a whole new renaissance of J-drama popularity- it would be wonderful, and HEY, isn't it TIME?!

The Return of Hanasaki Mai!!

The first episode of the brand spanking new reboot of the popular “Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai” series just aired this past week and after watching it, I think I can safely say that the show is in good hands and promises to be yet another fun ride!
In this new 2024 edition, Mio Imada takes the role of the titular Mai Hanasaki originally played by Anne Watanabe. As they are two totally different styles of actresses, I was curious to see what kind of ‘take” Mio Imada was going to use for the role. Anne played the character as an outspoken and unstoppable powerhouse, but with Mio’s more slight and demure stature, I wasn’t sure she could convey the same feeling.

I had actually predicted that she would tackle the role of Mai Hanasaki more along the lines of her character of Maririn in “Waru”, a spunky, spritely girl who just HAS to interfere and interject when she sees wrongdoing. Quite a different take, but it WORKS!
In fact, I really enjoyed this first episode and watching Mio make the role her own…Truthfully, it doesn’t really feel to me like “Hanasaki Mai ga Damattenai” per se, more like a similar show with the same situations: “Woman working for the Inspection Branch of a Bank goes with her partner to investigate clerical errors and deviations, and when confronted with cover-ups and shady dealings, cannot help but speak her mind!”

Mio Imada as Mai Hanasaki

Hanasaki can't help voicing her opinions to her superior (Chiaki Kuriyama) even when it comes to arguments...

...and is surprised when she find herself suddenly TRANSFERRED the very next day!

Is it a promotion? A DEmotion? She doesn't know until she starts her new job and is paired with an old colleague Ken Soma (Koji Yamamoto)...

...and find they have been personally selected to become a part of  the Bank's Inspection Division!

Wide-eyed and naive, Hanasaki is eager to put her best step forward...

...But she will find that the bull-headedness of the people they are set to audit makes her job almost impossible and RIGHT AWAY she finds herself fighting the urge to CALL THESE people OUT!

Keeping calm for the time being, we KNOW there will be a tipping point where it will ALL come out!

Along with the character of Mai Hanasaki and Ken Soma, we also have new characters like Heihachi Kimoto (Jun Kaname) and Reiko Shosenkyo (Rinko Kikuchi) who are already being set- up as the final boss baddies of the series...

Though they have replaced Takaya Kamikawa, the actor DOES appear in the series, this time as Mai’s Uncle Ken, running an restaurant where Mai lives and vents her frustrations out to him each evening!

Quite fun to see her complaining about Ken Soma’s eccentricities to her uncle only to have him say “That doesn't sound bad at all!” You have to laugh because of COURSE he would be OK with it as HE played the character HIMSELF not so long ago! LOLOL

This drama seems like it will be a good time! In my mind, it’s like watching a sequel to Waru, only this time Mio Imada is more serious- Gotta love the way that Mio’s version of Mai Hanasaki madly dashes out of the room when she has to get to the bottom of things, JUST like her character of Maririn did!

Mio Imada of course looks absolutely scrumptious as Hanasaki Mai, and she and Koji Yamamoto work well together- I loved all the scenes of the two of them putting their heads together and delving deep into the cases. When they’re serious it’s when the show is at its best!

Look Out Mulder and Scully! There’s a new dynamic duo in town!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogpsot.com

Motokare no Yuigonjou

 Reiko Kenmochi (Haruka Ayase) is a keen-eyed spitfire of a lawyer who lives by only one credo: “I’ll only do it for the money!”. It’s this brash single-focused drive that gets her through her cases but also ruffles more than a few feathers among her peers, and when we first meet up with her, she’s being reprimanded by her superior for her overbearing behavior and has decided to leave the firm.

So it is that she has time on her hands when a mysterious new case appears before her, starting with the news that an old boyfriend of hers from years ago named Eiji Morikawa (Ikuta Toma) has suddenly died. They had broken up years ago and she had not thought of him since then. But she will soon be learning more about him than she ever knew!

No sooner has she heard the news when she is contacted by a Keitaro Shinoda (Yo Oizumi) about the death of her ex-boyfriend. Reiko doesn’t remember Shinoda but he tells her he was part of the college mystery club that both she and Eiji were in. He informs her that he had been in Eiji’s service as a sort of cook and steward when he suddenly passed away from pneumonia.
The problem, he tells her, has to do with Eiji’s will.

The problem, he tells her, has to do with Eiji’s will. Seems he was heir to a VAST pharmaceutical business  involving millions, millions that everyone wants a part of.  Besides promising things to past schoolmates and teachers, he’s also willed small fortunes to all of his exes, a group Reiko is keenly aware she is part of! But the confounding part of Eiji’s will is the final part…which wills the rest of his inheritance to the person who MURDERED him!

As Eiji passed away due to a cold, calling someone his murderer doesn’t make sense. But Shinoda says that as it was he who took Eiji out fishing in the cold weather which resulted in him getting sick in the first place, perhaps it can be said that he was the one who killed him. Reiko agrees to help Shinoda out as his lawyer when she learns she can get a huge chunk of his windfall, since she will already be there for the ex-girlfriend will-reading.

Crushingly, Reiko will find that unlike some of the other recipients (who get exotic homes and real estate), the only thing she is set to inherit is a dingy lawyer firm run by Eiji’s own lawyer, the kindly Murayama (Takashi Sasano). 

But on the other end of the will, the part about there being a murderer, things are looking more and more diabolical and suspicious, and Reiko is finding reasons to suspect  everyone involved in the will.  First there are Eiji’s  Father (Kenta Satoi) and Aunt (Hisako Manda), who are the ones who will directly benefit the most from his passing.

There is Eiji’s cousin Takumi (Jun Kaname, in another one of his classic arrogant rich boy roles)

 childhood friend/ family pet veterinarian Dojo (Toru Nomaguchi)…

and then there are the ex-girlfriends, whom, beside Reiko, including Asahi Haraguchi (Kanna Moriya) and Yukino Morikawa (Yuko Fueki) and a handful of others….

also the brash and outspoken cousin Sae (Nagisa Sekimizu) whom has had a crush on her cousin Eiji herself and unabashedly loathes seeing ANY of his exes getting ANYTHING in the will!

And last but not least, Eiji’s older brother Tomiharu (also played by Ikuta Toma) who has a multitude of reasons and grudges against his brother.

Reiko and Shinoda are doing everything they can to understand everyone’s motives, when Eiji’s lawyer is poisoned right in front of them!

 It’s now clear to everyone that there is INDEED a killer among them…but who can it be? At the moment they don’t know, but Reiko sees the clues are all there for her to decipher, and if she does things right, there may be a big payday for her after all!

Ahhh, another FANTASTIC role for Ms. Haruka Ayase who can now add the role of Reiko Kenmochi to her collection of Badass Chicks!!! 

She’s so cool, snappily cutting off people, talking back to overbearing bosses, clients and EVEN the POLICE, and when she is in “Eagle-Eye” mode, you see her keen brain taking note of every thing that is being said and done, storing it for the ultimate analysis!!!!

Also a thrill to see uber-pretty Nagisa Sekimizu back! really loved her in the role of Sakiyoshi in “Anonymous” and she’s stealing the scenes here as the seemingly “unrequited love” cousin with a huge chip on her shoulder!

 Motokare no Yuigonjou promises to be a good one!!!

PS:Seeing this scene with Ayase Haruka smiling in an elevator reminded me so much of a similar scene in her early drama "Hotaru No Hikari", the J-drama which has a special place in my heart for not only introducing me to Haruka but for jump-starting my J-drama interest! 

Haruka Ayase now:

...and way back in 2007!

She's matured so much since then but still carries that twinkle in her eye and still remains one of my BIG favorite actresses EVER!