Zainin no Uso

I gave up on this last year cause it was difficult to watch with so much legal jargon. Gave it another and managed to make it through though I'm going to do a slow rewatch.

Ito Hideaki gives his best performance I've seen as the 'evil lawyer'. Evil meaning will do anything to win which is apparently only evil if you are working for a big corporation like he is. At the beginning of the show, he manages to get this guy off for rape and murder and the parents of the victim confront him. Some stupid reporter asks him, "As a lawyers, don't you have a sense of justice?"

Good thing he replies by asking the reporter, "Do you think that every defendant who pleads innocent is guilty? What's the purpose of having lawyers then? The job of the police and prosecutors is to prove his guilt and my job is to prove his innocence and we have arrived at today's verdict."

I'm thinking, yes! Fuck this evil lawyer bullcrap. Is it the defence lawyers fault that the prosecution has a weak case? Why not cry to the prosecutors and say, "You freaking suck at your job!"

Takito Kenichi is, for the first time (that I can remember) not playing the creepy guy. He's the poor, good guy defender of justice yasui bengoshi and he plays an important role in the story and not in the black and white way. I really like his character.

Kimura Yoshino is Ito Hideaki's childhood friend now doctor. They grew up in an orphanage along with her brother.

Kimura Yoshino's brother who knows something about Ito Hideaki's past.

The casting, acting and directing is typical WOWOW good. The domacles sword hanging over Zainin no Uso is whether the script would make it a simple black and white story like many jdoramas are wont to do or have shades of grey.

The good news is, Ito Hideaki's evil lawyer is an interesting character because of his past. The bad news I really hated the karmic ending of episode 4. However, it does set up a good last episode between Hideaki and the cheap lawyer.

Yasui bengoshi is my favourite character because he does not go around brandishing words like justice and shouting at the 'villain' that he is wrong. The more he finds out about Hideaki's past, the more he understands why Hideaki sees the world as it is. The best thing was the revelation that Yasui bengoshi was supposed to defend the killer in the beginning of the show but he chickened out. If he had been braver and realised that defending people you knew were guilty is also an important part of justice, then the tragedy of episode 4 might have been avoided.

The only other thing I hate is this guy in the middle left. By the jdorama gods, why does he have to mumble all the freaking time? Its so hard to understand him!!! Arrrgrhhhh.

There's no performance here that's so outstanding as to deserve a Hamsapsukebe acting award but it deserves to either replace Black President or Kazokugari in the top five shows of 2014. Bravo to WOWOW and Zainin no Uso definitely deserves to get subbed. Must watch.