Takeshi Kitano

Kitano has decided that the whole Yakuza experience is nothing more than the human equivalent of the most deadly King of the Hill game you’ve ever seen. From the lowest members of a Yakuza family, who are the button men or soldiers (the drivers don’t count), to the very top of the mountain where the Chairman holds forth – we see nothing but a supreme battle for power. Loyalties are constantly shifting. Your sworn brother today is your executioner tomorrow. And someone else will take care of him on the next day.

We start with a summit of one family. There’s a long line of limos and black-suited chauffeurs. We hear that Murase family has been doing a bit of drug business and that the Chairman isn’t pleased. So he instructs the Ikemoto family to set up an office on the Murase turf and begin to annoy and bother them.

An Ikemoto guy runs up a huge tab in a Murase night club in one night (600,000 Yen). He then claims he doesn’t have the money on him. The Murase’s demand payment but then are embarrassed when they send a couple of low level guys out to collect and find out that the guy was with the Ikemotos. An apology is necessary as well as the money being returned. But this meeting gets out of control fast, and the Murase lieutenant gets beaten up, and loses enough face that he’s required to cut off his pinky.

Remarkably and easily, that was the first violent episode of the film and it was also the softest scene of any that were violent in the whole film. From there, the Chairman manipulates everyone, including Kitano who plays Otomo who is an enforcer but a low-level one.

Kitano looks like he could play a heavy in any country despite his Japanese appearance. His face looks like a boxing glove. He’s going to kill a number of people in this film, including Murase who he shoots in a sauna, and the only time he smiles is when he’s laughing in the face of an opponent just after calling him an asshole.

So slowly, the body count rises. Soon it’s not slowly. Not only does the body count rise, but the frequency increases exponentially as well. We have plotting then killing, and each time, the plotting takes less time in order to devote more time to the execution.

At least in The Sopranos, there were family moments, like when Tony Soprano strangled a guy in between visiting Bates College and Bowdoin College with his daughter; and ostensibly, wives and children were supposed to be excluded from the assassinations. In Outrage, there’s not one role that works out positively for a woman. But that’s not all. The Ambassador from Ghana is set up as a patsy with a murdered girl. Before you know it, the Yakuza has decided to make the Ghanaian Embassy into a gambling casino. And they do.

When the Ambassador complains about his cut – and threatens to go to the police, they remind him with an ominous warning – You do know that you are dealing with the Yakuza, right?

But what happens is that the killing becomes the only leitmotif of the film. There’s no end to it. You’d think that these nitwits would catch on – that they’re being used. That eventually even the executioners will be executed. Takashi Kitano has delivered a film that is so nihilistic, and so bleak, that these power struggles become pointless. As you watch, you know well in advance about who the next victim will be. The only question is the ‘how’.

‘Why’ no longer is a part of the equation. You can substitute next for ‘when’. So the film loses it’s impact as well as you lose interest. Kitano does deliver a few striking shots. The only character in the film who smiles is the police detective who collects his weekly envelope of Yen.

It is a bleak world for these Yakuza. Upward mobility exists only up to the point when it stops because you just took a bullet between your eyes. As for we folks who choose to watch this film, I think I can say that this is not one of Kitano’s best efforts. But despite that you simply can’t look away.

Yui is cast as Wakaba Ayukawa, and she’s good at everything she does – she graduated at the top of her class, she’s multi-lingual, and she has what is takes to become an ace lawyer. Only her first assignment is to baby-sit her boss’s five year old daughter, who is five going on 30, or so it seems.

Wakaba is driven because as child she grew up in rather desperate circumstances – her father was in debt from gambling to the Yakuza loan-sharks.

Little Wakaba got them out from under this by studying and then filing a motion and getting a decree for Voluntary Bankruptcy. That set her on her path of wanting to be lawyer and for seeing anything that she took on to its finish. In her own personal lexicon, there was no such thing as not finishing anything to the best of her ability.

But she hadn’t counted on taking a smart-ass five year old girl to pre-school every day. However everything was not all bad. At the law firm every once in a while she got to do a project, or a report, or a translation of a law-brief, and people took notice of her skills. At the pre-school she ran into a single parent Dad whose step-son also attended this school. This was Ryo Nishido as Sota Yamada , a would-be chef.

His story was no picnic either. He married a dancer who came with a son, another precocious 5 year old. But that marriage ended with a divorce after his wife ran off to New York with another guy, leaving Sota with her son. He currently worked as a short-order cook in a little hole-in-the-wall neighborhood restaurant. Sota had formerly worked at the internationally acclaimed, world class restaurant, Paul Bocuse, in Tokyo – but had given that up to raise his step-son.

Anyway, Wakaba and Sota become part of a rotating cooperative of five or six single parents who watch the kids in a group after school each day. There’s lots of friction as well as attraction between Wakaba and Sota. It’s hate at first sight, or is it? Beyond that, Aragaki’s character may be a whiz at law, and she might know what she wants in life, but she’s beyond haughty. You just know that she’s going to find the road to romance, a difficult journey, because she lacks an understanding about how to get on with other people. For her, it has always been a struggle, and she’s overcome every obstacle – but the cost of that is her utter lack of social skills.

Meanwhile, back at the law-firm, Wakaba is working her tail off, as she sets her sights on finding what she calls a AAA+ guy – who in this case is Shindo, a terrific and successful lawyer, a good looking guy, a guy with goals and ambitions, and on top of all that – he is very wealthy.

Poor Sota has none of those qualities or perks – but he is great with kids, and he’s sincere and honest.  There’s your set up – Shindo sets his sights on Wakaba as well. So Wakaba wants a guy like Shindo, or Shindo, she wants to be a successful lawyer, and she envisions herself married to the man of her dreams forever and ever.

Only, she can’t quite get over the bump in the road that turns out to be Sota.

While billed as a romantic comedy – it is quite a bit more than. Wakaba herself undergoes a transformation. It is obvious from the jump that she knows what she wants and she’s going to go after it – and any intrusive feelings about a man without a higher education, without money, and without any future goals (other than being a great Dad) will have to be dealt with.

The supporting cast included a trio of single Dads, a great performance by Hiroko Yakushimaru as Sakuragawa (above left) – the big boss of the law firm, and a sparkling turn by Misako Renbutsu (above right) – who played Soyoko, who was Sakuragawa’s assistant, and a woman who wanted Sota as a boy friend.

There are many bright and comedic moments, and then there are some Yoda-like statements by the two five year old children, who nearly steal the show. But as it turns out they are inspirational kids who one way or another work their magic on Wakaba and Sota. As for the two leads, each week we will watch them learn about work, relationships, and love, in this rewarding, funny, and ultimately heartwarming series. The DVD of this series is scheduled for a January, 2012 release.

The Bull Doctor is a Japanese TV Series about forensic pathology – or the study of why a person or people have died. We have Makiko Esumi (below) in the lead role as Dr Tamami Oodate (Oodate Sensei). She’s just been asked back to the Joto University Hospital to work as a forensic doctor – in short conduct autopsies. The last time I watched Makiko in a role, she played a brilliant surgeon who had the worst luck in finding a guy to be with. That show was called The Love Revolution (produced in 2001 but I saw it just a few years ago. This one is her first appearance in a TV series since 2007. Welcome back. (Okari)

Also on hand is Satomi Ishihara (below). I’ve seen her in a high school baseball TV series called H2 (2005), as a nurse in the TV Series Ns’ Aoi (2006), as an athletic airline stewardess – sorry – cabin attendant/basketball player in The Flying Rabbits film (2008), as a high school teacher in the TV series Puzzle (2008), and one more – as a forensic medical student in the series Voice (2009). This time she’s a homicide detective working with forensic doctors. Go figure.

So what is this one about, besides the overview of forensics?

It seems that Japan needed a distinct overhaul to the laws and regulations surrounding autopsies and forensic studies. This drama goes a long way in that direction because as you will see – autopsies that should be done are often refused by the relatives of the deceased, autopsies that have been done are not always accurate, and more often than you’d think or like – Death Certificates are either false or forged to hide crimes. So in this series the guidelines for the medical procedures and methodologies regarding autopsies, the hospital administrative side to forensics, and police investigative techniques are all put under the microscope.

So the series is at once important and topical. Yes, that does mean serious. But this is not say that the series is all work and no fun. The series has romances, issues about raising kids, work related stress intruding on home life, some comedy, conflicts between the police and the forensic doctors, and some office politics. So it works as not only a medical series, a police procedural, but also as a family series. There are some fine actors and actresses who round out the ensemble cast making the series quite entertaining.

While the stories and cases are interesting yet somehow they all manage to not get solved until we’ve manage t0o reach nearly the end of each episode. While the settings/locations are mostly in the forensic department itself as well as in the lab where the actual autopsies are done, often we go out to a crime scene. I liked the look of the series which involved lots of outdoors location settings, and employed a good many long lens zoomed close-ups which gave us the kind of very attractive facial images with indistinct, or blurred backgrounds due to the reduced depth of field settings.

I thought Makiko Esumi showed a strong screen presence as the tough minded truth seeker who wore either the Doctor’s White lab coat, or the surgeon’s gowns most of the time. When she wasn’t wearing those it was mostly jeans or slacks with that cute hat which we saw mostly while she’s pedaling a bike to work.

On the other hand, Ishihara’s role was more difficult. She’s good in the role, but she’s playing a young female homicide detective, who has some issues to solve away from being a cop. Meaning we buy into her as a character involved, a woman seeking to find her way, but not so much as a homicide detective. Of course she has a tough boss who never wants to see things correctly, or fairly,

or he’s not willing to accept her theories because each time the police department requests an autopsy, he takes a hit on his department. Oh those bureacrats who make a detective’s life miserable. She’s also involved with a doctor in the forensics department – Nakura Sensei played by Goro Inagaki who played his role, through all 11 episodes in a manner that was so low-key that it was off-putting . While his character arc improved greatly by the end of the series, his acting did not. He was the weakest part of the series.

It had 11 Episodes and the broadcast period was from July 6th to September 14th in the Wednesday Night 10:00 PM slot.

I’ll close by telling why the series was called The Bull Doctor. As I said up top it was not about veterinary medicine. Instead think of the fact that Dr. Oodate was so concerned with finding the truth, and overcoming any barriers to the truth, that she operated like a human bulldozer steamrolling through the office, the lab, or over or through her colleagues. The terms stepping-on-toes or following orders were somewhat foreign to her; hence the title: The Bull Doctor. The video below will give you an excellent idea of what the series and cast look like.

What would you say if I told you that Kuroki is in a J-TV series that is currently airing in which she plays a tough as nails lady cop. The full title of the series is: Jiu: Keishichou Tokushuhan Sousakei, but most are simply calling it Jiu.

As the series opens, Kuroki’s character is a member of the SIT (Special Investigative Team). She’s a loner, she repels all and any invitations of friendship from either colleagues or outsiders, at least in the first couple of episodes. She’s barely able to hold conversations with her colleagues; not because she is inarticulate, but because she doesn’t see the point of it.

By the end of the opening episode she has saved a female detective who had been asked to go into a hostage situation by posing as a delivery from a restaurant. Kuroki’s character – called Isaki Motoko, guns down the perpetrator before he can slit his own throat in an attempted suicide.

Isaki’s actions are noticed by the higher ups in the Tokyo police. But they don’t know what to do with her. Is she a loose cannon about to go off like a Dirty Harry. Is she a danger to her colleagues?

Beyond that they don’t even know that she’s gone undercover and infiltrated a small Yakuza cell. This is a mission that is totally unauthorized. But hey – that’s what she’s all about.

Without having any sure answers about her, they do the unexpected – they promote her into SAT (Special Attack Team akin to our own SWAT forces), where she will be asked to work in the most dangerous situations, the ones with the highest risk, or most likely, in their minds, they have placed her on a force that would be deployed where she might get injured or wounded, or even killed. That would protect the risk the city faced because of her quick trigger finger, and her propensity for violence first – ask questions later.

The series began this summer (July 29th) in the Friday, 11:15 PM time slot – which means that it will undoubtedly be more adult than what you might see in prime time. Six episodes have aired, but so far I’ve only seen four episodes with English subtitles, so I can’t go any further into the plot or provide more details other than some images.

I can tell you that you will see Kuroki kick ass. She’ll look great in a one piece swimsuit or in combat boots and camo fatigues, and that even though this is a police drama with another actress, Mikako Tabe as Misaki Kadokura, in a key detective role, and they are polar extremes, they’re going to have to work together to bring down the criminal Jiu who is responsible for a number of brutal crimes.

Kuroki plays the eye candy rough neck cop role, and Tabe plays the cerebral detective who gets her answers by out thinking the criminals and by charming the witnesses.

Quite a duo!

The star of the film is Yui Aragaki who is affectionately known as ‘Gakki‘ by her legion of fans. In this film she’s the central character. As the film opens it is in the early 1980′s and a small Japanese girl is reaching upward to the blossoms on the tree. Flash forward to 2005, and we find ourselves tracking a bus as it drives along the coast of Nova Scotia in Canada.

It is then, on this bus, that we meet Gakki as the now adult Sae Hirisawa. An English speaking young girl ask Sae some questions and we find out that she is headed for a lighthouse where she says, “… I am meant to be…”. The camera pans down and we see a framed photo in her hands.

The image is of a small child and a mother in the shadow of a lighthouse. Quickly the film flashes back to an earlier period in Sae’s life, this time it is 1996, and she’s a senior in High School, and there’s another lighthouse, this time in Eastern Hokkaido, Japan. So within the first 2 minutes of the film, we’ve covered a lot of years, going back and forth, and we know, for certain, that these lighthouses will figure prominently in this Japanese drama.

The story sets up with a High School senior on her way to take a college entrance examination. She’ll meet a boy on the train. He’s in school too – only he’s in a trade school for the fishing industry. The train hits a deer and is delayed. Sae’s going to miss her exam.  One thing leads to another and they become friends. Eventually they’re going to have to separate because Sae does take the exam and passes and is accepted into a prestigious university in Tokyo. The boy follows his family heritage and like his father and his grandfather, he becomes a fisherman.

Sae heads off to school. She’s going to meet a photographer in Tokyo.  The boy, Kouhei, played by Toma Ikuta, still pines for Sae. He heads down to Tokyo to see her. There’s a misunderstanding and some confusion.  That’s the way things go in life and in dramas. Times passes. Sae can’t get a job in Tokyo. Kouhei marries a different girl. Eventually Sae gets a job in New York.

Imagine my surprise to see Yui Aragaki in a New York street scene. Or on the promenade in Brooklyn Heights. Sae heads back to Hokkaido for a friend’s wedding. Naturally she will run into Kouhei at the wedding. Her presence is going to put a strain on Kouhei’s marriage. Sae heads back to New York.  Lo and behold the photographer appears in New York. And so it goes.

No need to tell you anymore. The film is beautifully shot in Japan, and New York, and Nova Scotia. Gakki will speak plenty of English in the film. She’s wonderfully attractive, as is all of the cast. They do manage to get you to invest emotionally in this story.

But the problem is that the story, while it has reversals of fortunes, deaths, separations,  and plenty of what might be difficult moments for the audience, doesn’t quite hit its marks. It isn’t a case of being done badly, or poor acting – no everything is handled very well – only the script has been engineered to present you with dramatic moments that just miss being exhilarating, or don’t quite get you to cry.

I wanted this film to make people cry. I had hoped to enter a film world where there’s a strong payoff for your emotional investment. Only it isn’t up to it.  Yes there are high points which you will make smile in expectation. There are low points – some of which you can see coming and others that do catch you by surprise.

I’ll say that I did like the film. The two hours and eight minutes were worthwhile, only not quite to what you might call memorable.  The film ended on an upbeat and positive note only without a payoff.

When you finally get home, all the lights are out. Tadaima! (I ‘m home!), you say but there’s no answer. When you turn on a lamp – your wife jumps out and says turn it off. You’re dumbstruck – you have no idea. What’s wrong?

She directs you to get a flashlight, and to take a look out in the courtyard. And it is out there, in your own courtyard, which is your enclosed back yard – a young girl lies dead in your back yard. Hello…!

Not quite the Okari (Welcome home) response you expected. This is how the latest entry from the producers of Shinzanmono which I reviewed last year here, begins. This time, the series has returned to the broadcast medium in the form of a 2 hour Special Movie. The title is Red Finger.

Hiroshi Abe returns as Detective Kyouchiro Kaga

Detective Kyoichiro Kaga, portrayed once again by the wonderful Hiroshi Abe, returns to TV. This SP is a prequel to the series and takes place two years earlier. Kaga is still a great detective. And the beautiful Meisa Kuroki is once again on hand as a local reporter Aoyama.

Meisa Kuroki as Ami Aoyama

As the DVD cover tells us – when Maehara returned home to find a corpse on his property, this average salary-man and his family, were looking at just the beginning of a tragic chain of events.

The Maehara’s: a death in their own family might have preferable to this nightmare of a situation

I won’t tell you anymore about the plot – but I can tell you that Detective Kaga is once again a breath of fresh air as far as television detectives go. He’s not stylish, he doesn’t toss off memorable one-liners, and he’s not run by an overbearing boss who questions his every move.

No sir, this is straight detective work which requires diligence. The production is a little heavy-handed in that they make sure you are shown some major clues, but still converting clues into proof is never easy in real life, nor in a television mystery. It is also true, that as a viewer, you may miss the significance of what they show you. So pay attention!

They don’t make these made-for-tv movies to be over and done in an hour. This one runs two hours, and while the murder mystery genre is turned inside out – this is not a ‘who is the killer’ deal, instead it is how will he be caught, or can he be caught?

Abe is marvelous – his observational and listening skills are superb, as is his ability to ferret useful information from the way people speak as well as what they actually say. All of us have seen so many television and film detectives. Mysteries along with the detectives that solves them are a staple of the book industry.

So it is both a pleasure and a reward to watch an intelligent detective work his way through the case. Not a bullet is fired, there are no car chases, and the detective, and the beautiful reporter do not get close for a night of heavy breathing.

As Red Finger closes, we get a voice over spoken by Meisa Kuroki’s character, the reporter Ami Aoyama. She is actually quoting something that Kaga told her. She says, “A detective is not only responsible for unlocking the truth, he not only captures the offenders, but he also needs to save the souls of those related to the case.”

That’s not in the spiritual sense only, but it is reflected in the care that Kaga shows everyone in the case – be they his colleagues, or people he meets along the way to solving the case, the victim’s family, as well as the criminals. Aoyama concludes, “And this is the Detective named Kyouchiro Kaga.”

“I’ll be back … “

As such, I will recommend this Red Finger. It is available through amazon.com. To demonstrate further proof of Kaga’s popularity, there will be another movie coming out next year.

The sudden suicide of Akari’s father sets off a chain of events. Members of Dojima family gather and their servants are killed one after another and an investigation begins. After that, the body of their driver (Kitaro), who had hung himself, is found in the garage.

So there’s your set-up for the March 2011 release Gaze (aka Mesen) taken directly from the DVD box cover. I decided to watch this one because I’ve been a fan of Yukie Nakama for a long time.  She’s the cover girl , and the lead actress, but this is far from a glamorous role for her.

In fact even though we get a brief peek at her in a hot-springs (onsen) this made for TV movie is definitely short on glamor. This is not to say that the female actresses are unattractive. No, with certainty I can state that all of the three daughters are quite nice looking, as is the girl friend of one of the sons. She’s played by Misa Uehara. While I’m at it – let’s not forget the family housekeeper either.

Misa Uehara as the girl friend who is marrying into this family

The head of housekeeping

The eldest sister

There is a detective and his assistant who meet at bars or restaurants for the evening meal – which gives them an opportunity to relax, eat, and have some drinks – all the while, they’re batting around some theories about the case, like who the culprit might be.

The homicide cop - you won't be confusing him with either Hercule Poirot or Lt.Columbo

They create possible motives, and then discard them. They bring out some alibi’s for us to ponder. After all, in the space of a day or so – 4 people, all within the sphere of one family, are found dead. And while they’re there in the bar – it’s Hey, another bottle of sake please. But these detectives are not the comic relief. In fact, there is no comic relief.

Yukie as Aki taking a dip at the onsen

Well, they fill out 94 minutes, and most of this, which is set up like an Agatha Christie mystery story, isn’t really that hard to figure out. Sure there are some decided red herrings which come into play, and which may confuse you would-be-homicide detectives in the audience.

Aki has to figure out where's she going to find replacements for the family chef and limo driver

But my over-all impression is that this production wasn’t a standout from any angle. The production wasn’t bare-bones or made inexpensively – but it didn’t show up as a costly production either. The acting was adequate at best, and the script and direction lacked any kind of flash, pizazz, or even – real drama. In short it was mundane.

Nice hat - but the cost of this outfit won't make the film's accountants cringe

As a fan of Yulie Nakama I was disappointed in Gaze.It’s not really bad, and despite being billed as a Japanese TV Special, it really wasn’t. I wonder what Nakama saw in this role, and why she signed on. Not recommended.

My Darling is a Foreigner

The story has some humor to it, but not nearly enough. The tale has all the expected speed bumps:

Her father is against it and about his hoped for approval – ‘Not in a million years’, he says.

Tony’s use of spoken Nihongo (Japanese) is excellent but that doesn’t mean he will use the right word all the time.

Saori’s English is a work in progress.

Each of them, Saori and Tony, will be the one that is different at a key social setting – Tony is mistaken for the Minister who performed the service at Saori’s sister’s wedding by Saori’s Mom. When Saori finally says, “This is my boyfriend”, her mother is shocked and immediately pulls Saori off to the side (right in full view of Tony).

At a party of Tony’s friends – Saori is the only Japanese – and she feels so isolated that she drinks herself into a stupor.

And so it goes. They set up together in a house, and for a while all is going smoothly. Although they’re not married or even engaged – this is the honeymoon phase. But Saori doesn’t tell Tony of her father’s objections. Eventually, there’s a family emergency, and Tony gets the bad news about the hoped for parental approval directly from Saori’s Tou-san (Father).

Saori has no answer when Tony decides to confront her about why she hadn’t told him. Meanwhile the pressure is building on Saori’s career. When the honeymoon stage has passed, and the pressure of internalizing the fact that her Dad was against the relationship continued to mount – Saori had to struggle more and more to be creative and keep up with her work.

There’s your set up. In the role of Saori, Mao does good work. She has a built in audience due to her fabulous performance in Boys Over Flowers (Hana Yori Dango) which was so successful as a TV series that it ran for two seasons, and a movie was made from the series.

I don’t know much about Mr. Sherr. But his role didn’t give him much of an opportunity to do much except show off his Japanese language skills. I’m not saying this as a negative about him, but his role was far more narrow than Mao’s.

They are a cute couple

The Good: every so often, there would be a cute animation of Tony and Saori – it was marvelous and it added considerable brightness and laughter. Mao Inoue’s performance. Jonathan Sherr’s Japanese. Nicely shot with lots of sunlight and pretty settings. For certain they did make a cute couple.

The Bad: The animation was the source of most of the laughs. In a cross-cultural, racially diverse relationship – there are going to be misunderstandings, miscommunications, and the like. In this film almost all of them were played seriously rather than for laughs. Often slow moving, and almost devoid of passion – there’s only one kiss and you’ll have to wait for it.

Summary: Worth seeing but not a must see. It has is it moments, but not nearly enough of them to fully impress.

A sheet of glass is placed on his chest. We can see the terror on his face.

Another masked man approaches. He carries a baseball bat. Without a word, he swings the bat with all his might bringing it down on this bound man. Again and again. The camera pulls back and we see that this event is being watched by a group of about 15-20 people, mostly men with a few women. We only see them briefly. The bat repeats its deadly journey again and again.

This is the first couple of minutes and how the Japanese TV Special, Strawberry Night opens. We have just witnessed an execution, an execution clearly not sanctioned by the state.

This special aired last fall on November 13th, 2010 and a series will begin in January  2012. The star is the beautiful Yuko Takeuchi. I think she’s irresistible. In this show, and coming series, Yuko plays Inspector Reiko Himekawa who is the only female section chief in the Tenth Homicide Section of the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department’s First Investigative Division.

She is a woman, and in this kind of environment, she’s subject to harassment and the jealousy of her male colleagues and some subordinates as she has swiftly risen through the ranks. Of course the jealousy is misdirected at her because she is truly a superb detective who has solved numerous difficult cases.

One of the most attractive women in the world is being asked to play a tough, no nonsense cop, and she’s going to have to solve this brutal murder. There’s your set up for the Special.

Special or not, this is a made for TV (Japanese TV) movie. Special usually refers to an event of this kind. In some places they might be called a ‘pilot’ for a series. Given that we know that this will be a series, the question has been answered.

In this one, Inspector Himekawa must solve the gruesome murder described above. We come to learn that while her immediate staff adores her, she has enemies amongst other lead detectives on other squads, as well as in the bosses who are often called the suits upstairs.

In a crucial meeting to get the ball rolling, Himekawa says that she’s got a theory about why the body was found where it was. She’s heard out and then her theory is immediately dismissed as invalid.

But she also has friends in the department. So the investigation proceeds despite the awkward start. She has a crew of about five detectives working for her, and she’s called ‘Chief’ by all of them.

They have a group dinner at least a few times a week to rehash what they know, explore possible theories, and as a way to offload the stress,

Takeuchi is marvelous. She’s not so hard-boiled that she can simply laugh off what some of the others toss her way, and she does show a soft side. She’s also got some personal demons and issues to work through.

But she can stand her ground when necessary, and she can protect her crew from the unpleasantness that often comes her way from above.

While this particular case has a particularly cruel element to it, and is solved or should I say, Himekawa and staff kind of tumble their way into resolving it, the resolution itself wasn’t all that satisfying. But the fact that there will be a series is very promising.

If you haven’t figured out by now that I not only adore this actress, but I also think this character (Inspector Himekawa) is bold and brave along with beautiful and as such I will certainly be eager to see it.

How could I not? Just look at that promo image up at the top.

This show is available as a DVD with English and Chinese subtitles at jpdorama.com

Gary Oldman stars as the head of the CIA’s Tokyo office. He chews up the scenery in an over-the-top performance. Oldman’s character, William Holtzer, is mostly office-bound where he commands his men from a state-of-the-electronic-arts war room. When he’s not barking orders like ‘Take the shot, TAKE THE  SHOT!, he’s cussing up a storm or bemoaning (Jesus Christ!) yet another missed opportunity.

The gorgeous Kyoko Hasegawa is on hand portraying the daughter of a Japanese whistle-blower. It will be Rain’s job to protect her.

Also on hand are a few Japanese police detectives, and the Yakuza. The detective is a wise and savvy veteran who gets a good handle on the case, but he can’t prove squat. The Yakuza are a shadowy presence. We will see the head guy a few times, but will meet some of his street soldiers on more than a few occasions.

The film was written and directed by Max Mannix. This was just his second time at directing a film. Names with two X’s are pretty rare; Xerxes, anyone?

The story is about a Japanese minister of public works who has discovered and been compiling a dossier of evidence about some of his fellow ministers in public works who have been getting rich through corruption – as in the construction of bridges to nowhere, unnecessary roads, and the kickbacks involved to the ministers who signed off on these useless projects.

He, Kawamura, wants to give this data to a reporter. In short – go public. Meanwhile the CIA and the Yakuza want  to get their hands on this info, so that they can become the puppet master with the Japanese government being the puppet, by means of blackmail. Meaning that threatening to embarrass the Japanese government is something that our government was more than willing to do.

We aren’t particularly clear as the film begins about what Rain’s role is, or how he is involved. But something happens to Kawamura, the whistle  blower, and now everyone we know in the film is desperate to get their hands on a memory stick that contains all the data that Kawamura had.

That’s about all you need to get you started.

The film has all the ingredients of being an excellent thriller set in Japan. Only it never reaches the level of excellent as a whole. Some scenes, and some of the performers are superb – however, the film lacks a cohesiveness. Too many questions and too many plot holes. In short, it is less than the sum of its parts.

Shiina who plays Rain has the right looks. He doesn’t miss a thing, he’s Bond and Bourne, and he is the perfect example of lethal. But his character doesn’t have a lot of depth to him. He lacks Bond’s wit, and while he does try and show a sensitive side ala Bourne, it comes off as unnecessary, and only adds time to the film.

He is what his dossier says he is, but we need to know more in order to root for him. Only we don’t get it.

Kyoko Hasegawa looks beautiful but she has mostly night scenes and wears dark clothes. First she must be fearful, and then once the circumstances get amped up, and she realizes that she really is in danger, she comes around to understand what Rain tells her is all too true.

That leaves us with just two interesting characters – The Japanese police detective Ishikura played by Akira Emoto. He’s not stylish, his hair is more gray than not. It is fun to watch him at work as he pieces together the truth and is more right than he knows or can prove.

Oldman snarls, curses and barks at everyone. He too is fun, but sadly we all know that as written, he is the most paper-thin of all the characters in the film. He probably has the most lines, but he sleeps on a couch in his office, or is at work. We see him in the Tokyo streets only once. Beyond that we know nothing else. His role will mirror that of Joan Allen from the Bourne films, only where Allen’s Pamela Landy could be fierce but was mostly contained – when she was angry we’d see it on her face or expressions, whereas  Oldman’s Holtzer is always angry, and it is all outward and external meaning we hear it rather than seeing it on his face.

Okay, so I am laying the blame on the script. Since Director Mannix is also the author of the screenplay, he’s going to have to be the one to take the hit. There’s action but not enough, and of what we do get was done so quickly or in a low light situation, that you can’t see enough of it to appreciate it. I am of the belief that this is always a signal that the director didn’t want to work too hard on the action sequences.

Since it is available as DVD rental from Netflix, I’ll recommend it, but I am doing so with reservations. It runs 110 minutes, and is forgettable. See it for Oldman, Shiina, and Hasegawa, but Mannix borrowed heavily from the style and look of Bourne. The film is based on the Barry Eisler novels with John Rain as the title subject, but based on this film, I don’t see a Rain franchise in the cards.