Kazokugari or family hunting is a whodunnit show where a bunch of murder suicides have been happening. Children have been killing their parents and then committing suicide afterwards. Endo Kenichi (Shiroi Haru) is the cop investigating the cases and he has an interesting past and a connection with Mizuno Miki's character.
Matsuyuki Yasuko is our main character who works in a child care centre and has a senile dad and a mom that goes to line up at the pachinko every morning. Ito Atsushi is the art teacher who is having a bit of trouble with another fellow teacher played by Yamaguchi Sayaka. All three characters somehow get involved with the murder suicides and with each other.
WHAT I LIKED
+ Matsuyuki Yasuko, Endo Kenichi and Mizuno Miki bring the acting talent.
+ This show is about multiple forms of family hunting and troubled characters.
+ After watching Wakamonotachi 2014 where every stupid act has some oversentimental reason, its nice to see a family show where people just act out of anger, frustration and fear and lash out at others.
+ The relationship between the Matsuyuki Yasuko and her mom. Its complicated, depressing and even melancholy at times.
+ Matsuyuki Yasuko's child care character who does so much to help people with dire problems but her own family problems are driving her and her mom to the brink. I love their fight at the end of ep 3 because its uncomfortable and real.
WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE
- You can cast Ito Atsushi for comedy but he can't bring it when its time to be very serious (see end of ep 7) and I feel they need a good character actor to make his story arc interesting.
- The last few episodes have been very slow because its just presenting the audience with a red herring that no one will bite on, which is the inherent weakness of a whodunnit show.
SUMMARY
Kazokugari does a lot and does most of it pretty good but as a package, its a bit all over the place. Its definitely not as tightly packaged as Petero no Souretsu but its still entertaining enough.Watchable whodunnit show (so far) that tries to be more than average and I respect that. Episodes 1 and 2 have been English subbed and I've retimed the Japanese subs for 3-7.
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ReplyDeletebut I like Ito Atsushi as Sudo Shunsuke it is first reason for decide watch this series. Shunsuke is character decrease dark. I can laugh and cry with Shunsuke and think nobody as Shunsuke better him
ReplyDeleteAny drama that's not a comedy that stars atsushi ito I pass on because he's not a good actor. I don't understand his appeal and how he keeps getting new shows every year. Don't like him in team batista don't like him here. Love Matsuyuki and Miki but I can't seem to get interested in this show. But I guess since you say it's watchable I should stick to it and try watching more.
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