Now that HPriest has finished subbing, its time to talk Samayou Yaiba. I finished it with Japanese subs last month so my memory of the show is not as strong but it is a jdorama that is not easily forgotten. First thing I want to say is Samayou Yaiba is one of the best shows this year and is a must watch with the caveat that it is a very dark and disturbing show that will make you feel much anger and sadness.
Second is that I watched the movie straight after and it is nowhere as good the jdorama. The presentation and story is different and WOWOW have turned a so-so movie into a jdorama masterpiece. Don't bother watching the movie.
Samayou Yaiba starts of like a revenge fantasy story with the audience asking for blood and the perpertrator being a person with no redeemable qualities. Samayou Yaiba becomes this meditation about the cost of revenge and loss when Takenouchi Yutaka meets Ishida Yuriko who also has suffered loss.
I have been watching Takenouchi Yutaka for so many years since Beach Boys and this is his best work. Its the meatiest role I have seen him in and he knows how to play the father having played one of the cops in the movie.
I have only two problems with the jdorama and the first is the police showing the taxi driver father the video of his daughter. Seriously does not make sense and it is in the movie as well, if I remember correctly. Sure you want the father to identify his daughter but to expose the father to something so horrible? It just does not make sense. My second complaint is that the police do a pretty horrible job of surrounding the killer.
In the movie the father does not get the rifle until the end and he basically suicided by cop with an unloaded rifle and ultimately wanted to put the fear of god into the perpetrator. I didn't like that twist and much prefer the jdorama one of the boss being the person who passing on information to Nagamine.
I love that scene at the end when Ishida Yuriko asks what sort of crime would the police officer who shot Nagamine be liable for and she asks when is it right or wrong for a human being to kill another? Must watch.
1 comment:
First, I think the director did a fantastic job, capturing private moments of characters that reflected their mental states.
What I didn't like was the script / screenwriting. I feel if the director were given more creative latitude, this show would've turned out better.
For example, in ep 6, I loved the moment Jun Kunimura spots Takenouchi with rife in Tokyo. Just the look on his face said so much. I wish the writer found a different way to disclose his identity as an informant without being so blatant at the end.
In ep 3 17:00 after Takenouchi is dropped off, I love the way Hirotaro Honda looks at him in the rearview mirror. I really thought he knew at that point. Yet, his subsequent interaction with police contradicted this.
It was a constant tug or war between director vs writers about how much to reveal through directing vs dialog. I wonder if the pandemic exacerbated channel of creative communications between them.
Excellent show nonetheless.. Yuriko Ishida <3
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