Uzukawamura Jiken jdorama review

Uzukawamura Jiken is WOWOW's attempt at a suspense thriller set in a remote village in Nagano. Matsuda Ryuhei is a doctor who's wife has disappeared and he has come to her home village of Uzukawamura with his doctor in search of her.

This show reminds me of one jdorama series which is Trick. The staple story of the series is always some remote village with a funny religious ceremony and superstition and Abe Hiroshi and Nakama Yukie will uncover how the magic trick is performed.

Uzukawamura Jiken is very similar except its a pretty serious show and non of the humour. Its more the psychological suspense of murders happening in a village that is has no power and is cut of civilisation because of a landslide. There is also village politics with the powerful Yahagi family and the young people who do not like the Yahagis.

While Uzukawamura Jiken has a stellar cast with Renbutsu Misako and Masato Ibu, the series was not suspenseful for me because I kept thinking about Trick and how this seems like a higher budget Trick episode but I think the directing needed to be more raw and movielike. I think it wasn't real enough to sell the scariness of the story and just seemed weird. Its like someone made a serious version of one of my favourite comedy jdoramas but doesn't do it different enough that it seems like a unfunny version of the original show. 

I applaud WOWOW for trying something besides their usual corruption jdoramas and it would have cost a lot to bring so many people to some remote village to shoot this show but all that effort ended up creating a forgettable jdorama. I think people who have not watch Trick might enjoy Uzukawamura Jiken and though I watched the whole thing, at no point was I excited about what was going to happen next. Meh from me.