Tsumi to Batsu: A Falsified Romance ep 2

I love this dorama despite the fact that I have no empathy for Miroku. He is an interesting character with a messed up view of reality. I'm guessing the book that he is passing of as his was written by his father and that is where he got his motto of murder is justified if its to punish evil. Is what is written in the book his father's thoughts or the inner voice of a character?

Miroku kind of reminds me of Rorschach from Watchmen except I don't think he has seen the kind of things Rorschach has seen in order to form an extreme viewpoint of the world. However, I am interested to see what events made him Miroku this way. The yakuza behind Baba Hikaru's operation tells Miroku to stay away and he is scared shitless and burns all his research material. At least he knows the difference in danger between investigating a prostitution ring and crossing yakuza.

However, Risa shows up at his door seeking his help to escape her predicament. She entraps him with the 'you're a nice guy, not like everyone else' shtick to entrap him and make him feel responsible for her. That's what you get for meddling in other people's business and telling them how to live their lives.

All fear of the yakuza gone, Miroku proceeds with his plan which is very obvious from the end of episode 1. Can't say I'm supporting him cause its not vengeance but then again, Hikaru is a bitch that is easy to hate. I love how the whole sequence from him procuring the weapon to him running to the apartment trying to avoid detection and going through with his plan is almost from a first person perspective. The viewer is right there with Miroku. You can see his sweat, feel the uncertainty in his breath and wonder whether he has the conviction to go through with it.

When Risa appears, there's this long moment of tension where I wondered what she was going to do and how Miroku would react. Would she cry over the best friend, Hikaru and exclaim 'I never wanted this!' or would she be Miroku's partner in crime. Risa starts dragging the body and I'm thinking she's gonna get more blood all over the floor.

Then Risa grabs a knife in order to chop Hikaru's body up. OMG. One aspect of Risa character that I had not considered appeared. Was she really forced into this slavery by Hikaru? Or is she someone with a masochistic side? Looking for someone to hang on and doing anything for that person? Risa knew Hikaru set up her rape and yet she still stuck with her. By killing Hikaru, Miroku was Risa's new master. Except Miroku was neither interested in Risa or taking advantage of the situation. He's just pissed off cause this is not according to plan. You can add super control freak to his list of character traits.

Risa's mom shows at the front door and there's this high tension, silent scene where you knew a phone was going to go off. I was thinking please don't turn this into a dark comedy with the mom getting offed. I love that look of horror and realisation on Risa's mom's face after the phone stops ringing and she slowly closes the door. Awesome acting. Not need for words to express the thought going through her head. Miroku manages to escape with detection. That was another very exciting sequence. You can feel his heart jumping out of his mouth as he calmly walks past an approaching police car.

Anon mentioned in comments that this is based on a manga which is based on the Russian novel crime and punishment. Yes, its good source material but what's important is the execution. If this were a TBS/TV Asahi dorama, it would be very bad. Looks like Furransu is not uploading the rest but at least we got the chinese subbed ones. Sadly, the subs are hardcoded. Beggers can't be choosers. If anyone knows where to get the Japanese softsubs, let me know. Just wanted to write about ep 2 before I start watching ep 3.