Mondai Bukken: Problem Property!

Rio Uchida and Takaya Kamikawa in Mondai Bukken

A young woman realtor in sales suddenly put in charge of problem housing, a young man obsessed with psychic phenomena, and a mysterious man with decidedly dog-like capabilities. Put them all together and you've got  “Mondai Bukken-“Problem Property”! Our story:

Emiko Wakamiya (Rio Uchida) is a young woman working for Oshima Real Estate who gets transferred to a small subdivision of the business called the Sales Exception Office, located not in the building but in a luxurious mansion in town!

There Emiko meets the young head of the department Masahiro Oshima (Ryubi Miyase) and his trusty dog Inuta.  A sudden transfer, she has no idea what this department does...or what they have in store for her!

She soon learns through the intermediary Katayama (Chikara Honda) that Emiko’s new job will be checking out troubled properties that the company owns, and thanks for Oshima’s geeky obsession with the macabre, the problems ALL seem to be of a ghostly and supernatural kind!

The first job she is given is to check up on a property which has had FIVE suicides within it and is considered “CURSED! "Cursed????! EEEK!" thinks Emiko!

As a real "scaredy cat” which she attributes to some kind of childhood trauma, Emiko totally balks at this new job prospect, but she is reminded that she was a mediocre worker in the company before, and if she expects to keep her job, she must apply herself here and get results!

Nervous and unsure of herself, Emiko finally sums up her courage and makes her way down to the cursed apartment. She doesn’t have a clue how to start this case, but she is met at the apartment by a strange, dashing man who seems to have a grip on the situation and a gift for sniffing out the facts!

? ? ? ? ? ? 

The name’s name is Kotaro Inugashima (Takaya Kamikawa), and he informs Emiko that he has been sent by the company to assist her, and has been briefed on the situation of the cursed property...and immediately takes control of the investigation!

Besides the very dog-like name, this “Inugashima” has many attributes that remind Emiko of a dog as well- heightened sense of both hearing and smell and able to run at high speeds, all of which help with the investigation but keep Emiko flustered throughout!

Together they work through the clues: the witnesses, the possible suspects who might set up such a scene ,etc, etc, and they even have the help of former police detective Jiro Arimura  (Kento Hamano) to help them on the case! 

By the episode's end, the crackerjack team has uncovered the truth about the supernatural goings-on at the supposedly cursed apartment, and the case is considered closed!  The tenants are free to resume their residence there, relieved of any ghostly apparitions or doomsday curses!

Back at the office the next day, Emiko gushes that she really couldn’t have done it without the help of Inugashima-and is SHOCKED to find that no one has heard of this person and that no one at the company has sent any agent to help her! 

EHHHH??? This leaves Emiko to wonder just WHO that Inugashima IS…and is it just her imagination, or does Oshima’s dog look strangely reminiscent of Inugashima himself….? 

It can’t be! Or...CAN it? 

LOLOL!

As you all know I love Rio Uchida and her role as the addled Emiko Wakamiya charms throughout and it's a kind of fun set-up, so we’ll see where this one goes!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Memory Woman: Haru is Back in "EYE SEE"

Taking a note from the acclaimed crime series MEMORY MAN by David Baldacci (featuring a detective named Amos Decker possessing a photographic memory of every image he sees which helps him in his cases), we have the new FujiTV drama "EYE SEE: Shunkan Kioku Sosa Hiiragi Han", starring HARU as a homicide detective named Hizuki who takes virtual “snapshots” of what she sees with her eyes during her investigations and stores them into her mind for later retrieval. 

Hizuki Hiiragi is a competent and successful detective heading her own investigative unit in the Koganei Police Force, however due to a trauma in her life, she is cold and seemingly unfeeling to the others around her, earning her the nickname of “Ice Queen” among her station and  subordinates. 

But there is no doubt that she gets results, and her team under her is a group of like-minded and hard-working agents as well, including Kenjiro Tsuchiya (Koji Yamamoto)...

Shogo Homura (Shintaro Morimoto)

Keisuke Kisara (Yuki Kura) ...OK maybe THIS guy isn't so hard working, LOL!

 ...and a brand new member to the team,Ritsu Mizue (Haru Kashiwagi).

 Together they all pitch in the close the cases! A very interesting premise to the usual detective dramas, and I’m looking forward to seeing more, however the first episode was almost immediately bogged down with Hizuki’s back story and suspicious and corrupt higher-ups in the police force. I really would like to see less of this kind of stuff and more focus on good cases.

 We'll see where this one goes! 

PS: FujiTV was promoting this drama under the English name "Frame of Mind" which I guess sounds more palatable to the western audience, however, after watching the first episode , I realize how clever the title of "アイシー " is for the show. The katakana can be read three ways : 

ONE: "Eye See", Hizuki uses her eyes to capture and study the scene- 

TWO "I See!", where she puts the facts together in her head and finally "gets it"- 

and THREE, "ICY", as she is known as the Ice Queen, and in fact, the opening credits are all covered in frost!

 Though I’ll always love Haru's role as Mika Higa in BORDER (and its offshoots) best, I must say I really dig this new role of Hizuki for her-just love watching her in action!

Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com

Your Monthly Keiko For February 2025

 February is for Valentine's day and here we have Keiko draped in the hottest of reds just for the occasion!

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?!