This review may contain spoilers
My Favorite Actors switched bodies!
I’ve loved Haruka Ayase and Takahashi Issey in their separate dramas and now I see the two doing a soul swap which I found intriguing.
Mochizuki’s soul is trapped inside Hidaka’s body, and Takahashi does an amazing job basically acting as a woman, but not a stereotypical ditsy valley girl- a highly intelligent detective, but with an authenticity, innocence, and vulnerability about her- he captures it beautifully. She is struggling not only in a man’s body but one that is being investigated for serial murders, along with the identity of being a highly prized and strong leader as CEO of a company- Hidaka’s identity basically acts as Mochizuki’s shadow- shining with qualities that she struggles to embody in her original female body - the lone female body among a sea of male dominated entitled police detective characters. And Mochizuki is Hidaka’s shadow with her sense of justice and innocence and naïveté. After the switch, Takahashi brings out that sweet, innocent vulnerable soul so beautifully trapped within his own body. Seemingly a body that neither of them want..
On the other side, Hidaka’s self confident scheming soul is now in Mochizuki’s female body, and he’s enjoying adorning her body in makeup, jewelry, and nice clothes to play up her attractiveness, manipulating with calculated smiles and coyness playing the game to get what she what she wants out of her colleagues around her.
It’s seems that Hidaka is much more “successful” in Mochizuki’s body harboring the male narcissistic psychopathic archetype in a female body, than the other way around. It makes sense since it is a patriarchal world that basically rewards the Hidaka type of masculine soul regardless of the body, and deems Mochizuki’s feminine soul with her honesty, innocence, sense of justice and ideals as weak and naive. Therefore Mochizuki operating in Hidaka’s body struggles a lot more and wishes for the switch back (to the point where he has to explain it away as memory loss to his company employees), whereas Hidaka as Mochizuki’s body is fine where he is and is not particularly attached to his old body or life- he gets to “thrive” and play his Machiavellian game in any body he wants and get ahead while Mochizuki’s earnest soul struggles. A very interesting exploration of these archetypes.
After living as Hidaka San for a while, Mochizuki has develops empathy for Hidaka and his brother- the brother being the bad guy and all, where Hidaka covers up for him. Even after having several opportunities to arrest him, where her former self would have salivated at the opportunity, she hesitates multiple times and her sense of justice traverses a grey area. It shows that even in murder, when one walks in the shoes of another only then they can possibly understand what another goes through. When they switch back to their own bodies in the 8th or 9th episode, there is a new understanding between the two of them, and a new closeness and chemistry shows between them. Hidaka now back in his body feels a strong sense to protect Mochizuki and even tries to sacrifice himself to protect her by giving a false confession to the murders. The last couple of episodes explore the grey area and blurred lines between empathy, compassion, justice, and morality.
Regarding the music, why do they so freely use Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 as the title music? When it comes on at the beginning during the intro, it just gives Judge Judy vibes. Uh no… What on earth???
The last bit when they meet on the bridge after everything’s over and say their goodbyes, but turn around and Mochizuki asks about his job as the full moon is rising.. I wonder what that’s about…? Cliffhanger?
Mochizuki’s soul is trapped inside Hidaka’s body, and Takahashi does an amazing job basically acting as a woman, but not a stereotypical ditsy valley girl- a highly intelligent detective, but with an authenticity, innocence, and vulnerability about her- he captures it beautifully. She is struggling not only in a man’s body but one that is being investigated for serial murders, along with the identity of being a highly prized and strong leader as CEO of a company- Hidaka’s identity basically acts as Mochizuki’s shadow- shining with qualities that she struggles to embody in her original female body - the lone female body among a sea of male dominated entitled police detective characters. And Mochizuki is Hidaka’s shadow with her sense of justice and innocence and naïveté. After the switch, Takahashi brings out that sweet, innocent vulnerable soul so beautifully trapped within his own body. Seemingly a body that neither of them want..
On the other side, Hidaka’s self confident scheming soul is now in Mochizuki’s female body, and he’s enjoying adorning her body in makeup, jewelry, and nice clothes to play up her attractiveness, manipulating with calculated smiles and coyness playing the game to get what she what she wants out of her colleagues around her.
It’s seems that Hidaka is much more “successful” in Mochizuki’s body harboring the male narcissistic psychopathic archetype in a female body, than the other way around. It makes sense since it is a patriarchal world that basically rewards the Hidaka type of masculine soul regardless of the body, and deems Mochizuki’s feminine soul with her honesty, innocence, sense of justice and ideals as weak and naive. Therefore Mochizuki operating in Hidaka’s body struggles a lot more and wishes for the switch back (to the point where he has to explain it away as memory loss to his company employees), whereas Hidaka as Mochizuki’s body is fine where he is and is not particularly attached to his old body or life- he gets to “thrive” and play his Machiavellian game in any body he wants and get ahead while Mochizuki’s earnest soul struggles. A very interesting exploration of these archetypes.
After living as Hidaka San for a while, Mochizuki has develops empathy for Hidaka and his brother- the brother being the bad guy and all, where Hidaka covers up for him. Even after having several opportunities to arrest him, where her former self would have salivated at the opportunity, she hesitates multiple times and her sense of justice traverses a grey area. It shows that even in murder, when one walks in the shoes of another only then they can possibly understand what another goes through. When they switch back to their own bodies in the 8th or 9th episode, there is a new understanding between the two of them, and a new closeness and chemistry shows between them. Hidaka now back in his body feels a strong sense to protect Mochizuki and even tries to sacrifice himself to protect her by giving a false confession to the murders. The last couple of episodes explore the grey area and blurred lines between empathy, compassion, justice, and morality.
Regarding the music, why do they so freely use Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 as the title music? When it comes on at the beginning during the intro, it just gives Judge Judy vibes. Uh no… What on earth???
The last bit when they meet on the bridge after everything’s over and say their goodbyes, but turn around and Mochizuki asks about his job as the full moon is rising.. I wonder what that’s about…? Cliffhanger?
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