Blurred Realities make Excellent Drama
This drama was intense from start to finish. The storyline, cast, music, and production was great. It was hard waiting for the episodes to release each week. So much could happen in each episode and yet it could feel so short. It did leave me wanting more but it was because the performances by both the main and supporting cast were so engaging.The star lead of the film pointed his romantic intensity towards is co-lead and kept pushing the drama on set as his co-lead tries to handle and understand his feelings about his advances. In a stark contrast, the characters they portray in the movie they portray are the exact opposite; with the intensity bubbling over from the seemingly shy co-lead/patient to the lead star/doctor.
The cuts between the story they were filming vs the story of the actors involved were masterfully done. The reality sometimes bends for the audience as sometimes we spent a lot of time engaged with the films story. It serves as an interesting substitute for what traditionally would be a secondary plot on the same storyline.
Additionally, I love that the main characters weren’t sidelined by green tea characters. Other characters were introduced to face push forward issues and insecurities they were facing. I felt it lead to deeper and more engaging character development. Loved it. 10/10.
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Officer, on what grounds do you say that?
In episode 4, a suspect states "Officer, on what grounds do you say that?" when the lead investigator throws out theories about how and why this suspect could have murdered the victim and made it look like an accident. The audience feels this sentiment from beginning up until the last episode where two or three leaping twists are thrown in. If a dramas are supposed to be a thrilling rollercoaster ride this attraction has glaring gaps in the tracks where the speed is supposed to get the audience to the other side despite the huge unsettling leap from track to the next.Episode by episode, I tried to dissect the merits of the drama and I just think the amount and the subject matter of the content they tried to cover in a 20 episode in 15 mins per episode was too much for it to be created in any substantive way. It was a disservice to the actors, the scriptwriter, and director. It is a low budget production but I don't think the locations were poorly done. The uniforms and offices were ok. But the scripts and dialogue were a disservice to the main cast. Some of the best lines and most sound logic came from the witness, victims, and suspects. Only three of the main four investigators were able to spotlight their skills. The lead investigator is somehow supposed to be naive and green but somehow put in enough years that she is supposed to be leader of this new accident squad.
The merits of the casting and writing of this drama actually happen with the accident squad is not on screen. The dramatic narrative surrounding the reveal of the crimes are very compelling. This is especially true of the first crime when the actions of the victim and assailant are revealed. The squad actors never found their chemistry together and played individual characters in the same room. The result is that they in some circumstances looked like comedic parodies of their characters. I think there was a lot of effort made the concessions that were probably made on the script, direction, and time were costly on the final product.
4.5 - the drama never found a consistent tone for the 4 main squad members but the dramatic narratives and performances of the guest stars carried the show into something watchable. The leaps in logic were egregious for the crime/mystery drama. The end was abrupt and had too many twist occurring in the last 15 min episode.
The outro was not great. The musical score was ok for dramatic performances and over the top for scenes with a bit of comedy. I'd give the re-watch value a 0 if I could.
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Reunion from Hell to Purgatory
The drama does the general setup for a dramatic reunion of adult high school classmates at a restaurant in the countryside. After a dramatic start, the drama struggles to find a consistent tone or character development. The story is so preoccupied with the past, the characters regress with it. The very serious subject matter of death and bullying are dealt with in a somewhat juvenile way. Even the complex emotions surrounding years of built up tension in adults are resolved and addressed in an after school special kind of way. The characters seem to end up in some type of real life purgatory where they basically acknowledge faults from their past but stops short of true atonement.The acting was fine for the script. But the story and direction became a bit erratic and couldn’t settle on a tone. The music was okay. I think it was a glaringly low budget production.
5/10
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Locked Room Drama
Went searching for this one in the internet archive after finding out that they have Japanese dramas on their as well. 10 years later, the drama still holds up.As a Procedural / Puzzle Solver drama it has limited focus on character development and focuses on the competency of Kei Enomoto (Satoshi Ohno), a security worker and lock fanatic, Junko Aoto (Erika Toda), a new lawyer who's emotions often propel the plot towards taking cases, and Gou Serizawa (Koichi Sato), the skeptical ambitious senior lawyer who often helps provide comic relief.
While I enjoy crime dramas, I am a sucker for more campy procedural crime dramas. I enjoyed the shows focus on "Locked Room Murders." Just like other procedurals, there are limited time in the episodes, so there are limited suspects. The drama does a good job of keeping the audience engaged on the "how" more than the just the "who." More than just the talent on screen, I also enjoyed the editing and music. The scores are excellent and are also used as identifying cues in multiple ways in each ways. There are dramatic cuts in scenes and music scores to keep the audiences attention. Finally of course there is the outro that includes one of ARASHI's songs (Face Down) each episode.
It was entertaining and mostly light hearted. 9.5/10 - I re-watched it, didn't I?
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