Bunshin ep 4 and how good is Nagasawa Masami?

Finally! The first episode was intriguing. Second episode was about Futaba who I didn't give a crap about cause I just wanted to see where the story was going and it was more about Nagasawa Masami trying to show she can act as two different characters. The third episode just reinforces what the audience already knows and finally episode 4 has some high tension scenes and the great revelation that had my jaw dropping.

Antspace made a very interesting comment; ' I think Nagasawa Masami does better at light comedy roles. She seems to be unable to act unhappy : ) (like in Last Friends or this one)'.

Clearly this is true. Could someone like Mitsushima Hikari have done a better job and made the two characters interesting? Is the fact that episodes 2 to 3 very slow due to the writing or Masami not being up to task to play a troubled young woman who was never loved by her mother?

I have always considered Masami to be a good actress. Sekachu. Touch. Dragon Zakura. Nada Sou Sou. Sono toki wa kare ni yoroshiku. Gold. Probably my favourite Masami performance was from Nada Sou Sou where she played the cute sister from the inaka. Yet, has there been any movie or dorama where I thought Masami really nailed it? She can do the girl next door and act cute but there hasn't really been a show where I thought she really carried it or made it a lot better than it should have been.

It doesn't mean that Masami can't act. One can never confuse her acting with some overpushed 'actress' like Horikita Maki or someone who can only act baka kawaii like Fukada Kyoko. Actually I just looked at my review of Last Friends ep 1-5 and I had written;

'I think she's good but my gripe is that she's not been in a really good dorama/movie or showed that she can carry one. The best thing I've seen her in is Nada Sou Sou and that movie was carried by Satoshi Tsumabuki who should have been in Proposal Daisakusen. My point is, she hasn't shown that she can elevate mediocre shows into good shows like Hirosue Ryoko or Matsushima Nanako.'

I had forgotten all about that show cause I couldn't stand it and somehow did not remember how disappointed I was with her acting in Last Friends.  I think looking at her body of work, she's not that good of a dramatic actress. Her acting just lacks the weight to pull the audience deep into her character's emotional maelstrom. She's done her share of serious stuff but a lot of it is sad love story where she doesn't need to stretch her acting skills.

Actually the one actress I would have preferred to see tackle Bushin would be Fukuda Saki. Its been too long since she impressed me in LIFE and Daisuki!! and she was good in IS but she's mostly been doing fluff doramas.