A Masterful Juggling of Story Arcs in "One Day~Seiya no kara Sawagi "

A veritable ALL-STAR cast, headlined by Kazunari Ninomiya, Miki Nakatani and Takao Osawa, the new mystery/Suspense drama ONE DAY: SEIYA NO KARA SAWAGI follows three different people as their paths diverge and intersect after one fateful Christmas Eve where a man is brutally murdered at a popular gathering place in town.

There is local newscaster Kikyu Kurauchi (Nakatani), an intrepid reporter who is determined to investigate and expose the murder case- even as her news program is being threatened with replacement by a cooking show!

There is eccentric Tokio Tachiaoi (Osawa), a restaurant Chef whose Christmas plans are thwarted by a chance encounter with the murder suspect when a huge pot of demiglace gets knocked over during the altercation, throwing the restaurant’s plans and honor up in the air…

…and then there is the mysterious murder suspect himself, Seiji Suguroji (Ninomiya), a seemingly calm and collected man who wakes up in the plaza on the ground next to a dead man and no recollection of what has happened or how he got there!

Along with these three are people like Mansaku Mitsutani (Eguchi Yosuke), a hard-as-nails investigator who knows far more than he reveals- Upon arrival at the scene, he wrests the case away from main investigator Karen Karumiya (Wakana Matsumoto) though he is from an entirely different division…and may have ulterior motives for being there!

Mizuki Fuehana (Taishi Nagakawa) and Yuan Yahata (Anne Nakamura) are two components to the puzzle of whom we cannot be sure of where their alliances are. Both of them contact Suguroji in his attempts to evade the authorities, but are they there to help or hinder?

And finally, there is adorable Sako Tachiaoi (Riko Fukumoto), little sister of chef Tachiaoi and junior reporter for the same station which employs Kurauchi…and is in fact rumoured to replace her!

(Already fell in love with Riko as the irresistible RinRin in Trillion game, and here's yet another great role for her!)

 Other familiar faces we see are those of the likes of Shinya Kote, Yuki Sakurai, Kai Inowaki, Tomomi Maruyama, and even Koichi Sato! All of them are intertwined throughout the story...

From just the first episode, ONE DAY is VERY intriguing and I would LOVE to see how it all ties up! My only worry is: Will this all just come down to Corrupt Police/Politicians like ALL the other crime/suspense dramas end up?

Guess We'll have to watch and see......

PS: I was just marvelling to my friend about how many stars from my "Golden Age" of Jdrama watching are here: Osawa, Nakatani, Eguchi, Sato...all of whom were among my FIRST wave of actors and actresses I knew back in Mid 90's. Who knew they'd still be here headlining shows some 25+ years on!!!

Notes on Strawberry Night

After watching the Strawberry Night SP and then the 10 episode drama,I finally watched the  2013 movie and have completed the series!

As I watched this, I marveled at the character of Reiko Himekawa, whom must be one of the greatest roles I've ever seen Yuko Takeuchi perform. So cool, focused and stone-cold, she reminded me more of hard-boiled characters like Michael Connelly's Harry Bosch or John Sandford's Lucas Davenport- no fancy j-drama gimmicks where the main detective is an oddball with one magical trait which helps him solve cases, just true, old-fashioned detective work, canvassing the crime scenes, interviewing witnesses and suspects, and going over the facts over and over and over again.

There was one scene where Himekawa is interviewing a witness (Takao Osawa) and she is relentless with her skills- with every word the guy says, she is there to question and probe every answer he gives, scribble down every fact he reveals so she can investigate those leads further, and I was like, WOW...this is a real detective working here!!!

And when it comes to standing her ground when faced with the superiors and colleagues who cloud the issue with their single mindedness (or even outright evil intent), Himekawa has NO PROBLEM barking BACK at those who try to silence her!

PS: The more I watch it, the more astounded I am that they'd ever dare to reboot this drama so SOON with an actress which, while I do like her, can't EVER hope to achieve the kind of intensity Yuko Takeuchi brought to the table. Just perfect.

PPS: I was going to name this blog post "Strawberry Night Saga" but I can't even do that since that's what they named the reboot, LOL.

…and while we’re on the subject of Tomoyo Harada…..

Tomoyo Harada Single "Sincere"