Fence jdorama review

Ladies and gentlemen, Fence is the must watch jdorama of the season and probably of the year. Word of warning, Fence is not the feel good show you want to watch after a hard day's work. Fence covers a lot of heavy subject matters such as rape, racial discrimination, Okinawa politics and glosses over nothing and will linger in your mind long after watching.

In Fence, Matsuoka Mayu is Ki, a former hostess turned writer for magazine Gekkan BOWOW reviewing and rating kyabakuras for a male audience. There is this scene in the beginning of episode 1 where a client tells Ki that to be grateful that only in Japan women can make money from being a hostess and you can see her reaction clearly on her face lol.

Ki's boss sends her to Okinawa because Sakura, a person of mixed race has claimed that she was sexually assaulted by an American soldier. Ki is sent to find out the truth behind the allegation and comes to know Sakura and Okinawa through her investigation.

Kii also has an acquaintance in Okinawa, Isa Kenji or as she calls him I-san (pronounced Ee), a police officer who she slept with once when she was a hostess. Kii uses I-san to get some dirt on the case and it is through him that we learn how the police have doubts about Sakura's case and the politics of policing Okinawa. That it is like having a sovereign nation inside Okinawa where the soldiers committing crimes outside their base can get away with it through various ways. 

It is not all doom and gloom in Fence. We also get to learn a lot about the history of Okinawa and its culture like adults buying Okinawan taco rice tickets for kids and leaving them at the shop. It is called Moai and it sounds something like what we call buying a round in Australia except in this case it is a group of people pooling money for the person most in need. 

I need to say Okinawa looks very beautiful in Fence. Makes me want to hop on a plan right now and go eat Okinawa taco rice. I remember bframe bringing me to an Okinawan restaurant many years ago in Yokkaichi and there was a lot of seafood. The most memorable Okinawan movie is probably Nada Sousou starring Nagasawa Masami.

There's these scene in episode 1 where Sakura goes to the market and she has to prove to this old lady that she is a real Okinawan just because she looks a bit different and Sakura is just so patient because she is so used to it.

The more Kii investigates the rape case the more she find that things are not so black and white in Okinawa. That being a young girl in a small island where everyone knows each other is a bit different and that the military bases bring a whole new dimension to law enforcement.

My favourite scene is this scene between Kii and Sakura in episode 4 where Sakura tells her off for reasons I won't spoil here. That was a bloody good scene because there Sakura finally puts Kii in her place.

Big surprise is Aragaki Yui as a psychiatrist who works with rape survivors and works this helpline for victims of sexual violence. She doesn't do much but she is involved in some intense scenes. It seemed only yesterday she was in My Boss My Hero.

If I have to say something bad about Fence is that sometimes it can get a bit too preachy and it feels like the dorama talking to the audience instead of characters actually talking to each other.

If you can only watch one jdorama this year, make it Fence. WOWOW have done such an amazing job on this. Must watch and giant thank you to GEO9875 for subbing Fence because I might not have watched it otherwise. Forgot the mention the ending song Tsubasa by Awich is killer because I just left it on at the end of every episode.