Unmei no Hito eps 5-10

Unmei no Hito runs into a bit of a problem during the court case. That is problem is that we know the fate Yuminari from the first episode and there are no twists and turns during the court case. Basically what the 3 episodes of the court case boil down to is that Yuminari did not want to expose Miki which would have given him a fighting chance.

Love the subtle anger in Matsu Takako's face in this shot.

They tried to make it about the characters but there isn't much to say despite the good acting. Miki agreeing to lie about Yuminari did not deserve so many episodes because there wasn't much to explore. Its basically Yuminari getting screwed by the government without him having any way to fight back.

However, the last episode is kick-ass. Finally we get to something that I as the audience can care about which are the people of Okinawa who were the ones who got screwed by the Japanese government the most. The last episode is an impactful history lesson on how Okinawa was sacrificed for the army bases and the cost it had on the people there.

Furthermore, Yuminari was actually doing something. I can't care about a protagonist if he isn't doing anything useful *cough* Magma *cough* and merely talks a lot. The awesome last episode is almost good enough to make me forget about the long boring trial.

Unmei no Hito starts of with really good first 5 episodes and really slows down the next four before finally talking about something that really matters for the 1 1/2 hours final episode. Regretfully, this excellent production can't be called must watch because of the nature of the story. They should have cut the court case to just one or two episodes. Doramas should never prolong the inevitable unless there are great moments to mine. Very watchable show with a slow second half before it finishes strong.