Friday, January 29, 2016

Haretsu Episodes 4-7

Damn, I did not see that ending coming. Lol. It really saved the show. Haretsu is similar to Godan and Lady Joker in that its a thriller with lots of social commentary and questions running throughout the story. Sometimes, things are spelled out too much (some monologues are too long) but generally its very fun and its the first show I've seen to look at the big picture issue of the aging population of Japan.

I like that Haretsu looks at the issue of the aging population being a burden on the country by debating the value of life and the struggle against death. The story looks at it from various perspectives like the survivor from the Tokyo bombings and children of bedridden parents. I love how the writer manages to weave elements of the debate into the story. There are no easy answers to the questions that Haretsu raises but all I need is a deep examination of the issues, which is what I got from Haretsu.

Unfortunately, I can't give Haretsu a must watch because some of the thriller bits are not as exciting but I do highly recommend it because the script is very intelligent and does everything else very well. My hats off to NHK. If you're looking for a Lady Joker like show that's pretty good, Haretsu is the show for you.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Have you seen "Love That Makes You Cry<" the new drama written by Yuji Sakamoto. I saw the first episode, and it looks promising...

Antspace said...

I had to cry at the first ep (the scene with the urn) : P
I love Kora Kengo in this. He's probably one of the most underrated actors around. Emoto Akira is really good in this as well. Hell, I even enjoyed Arimura's acting. Very promising indeed.

Akiramike said...

I'm still catching up on my backlog looking for anything else from 2015 that is worth watching.

Anonymous said...

Sounds really interesting, and I love many of the actors in the casti. Too bad no one has subbed it in English. Also, I've just watched some of Nakadai Tatsuya's films from the 60s, and I was just thinking that the young Nakadai reminded me of Kenichi Takito, big scary eyes and all. Maybe they should have had Shiina Kippei and Takito switch roles, so that Nakadai could play Takito's dad or something.