Wednesday, May 02, 2012

Review of Kagi no Kakatta Heya Ep 2

Looks like the beginning of each episode is going to be marked by this "standard" introduction where the main trio gets all serious in a typical mystery-thriller style setting as Enomoto goes through the key points of what the mystery is all about. It may seem rather ironic as he does this play-act like a famous detective but this way of "delivering" the case in question is exactly what Serizawa dislikes the most about holding people in suspense instead of revealing the truth immediately! It was rather funny to imagine Serizawa having to bear with Enomoto's "performance". The contrast with the lighter mood of the drama itself on the whole really cracks me up when I see this intro scene. Actually, Serizawa and Aoto do not speak at all during this opening scene so this is pretty much an one-man show for Enomoto. Not that I think Ohno fans would mind this though. :-)

It's pretty much like any other day for Serizawa  as we get introduced to his high-class and luxurious lifestyle. He lives in a nice apartment and sips espresso while reading the newspapers so you get the drift that he's really living it up because he can afford to. However, Serizawa is horrified when he suddenly realises that there is a big hole in his glass window and finds that his apartment has been burglarised.

Enomoto comes to the rescue, well, it isn't exactly so because he's not here to help Serizawa find his missing branded watches. It almost feels like a sales talk as Enomoto explains the security measures Serizawa should have implemented to prevent such a theft. According to him, it is extremely easy for someone to rappel down from the rooftop to the unit on the highest floor and commit a burglary, contrary to what Serizawa's thinking that his unit should be the safest. Enomoto prepares to leave after leaving the brochures behind for Serizawa to consider when Aoto asks how they should pay him for helping to solve the previous case. He doesn't want any money since that was done outside of his working hours but agrees to take up the offer that Serizawa will help him if there's a need in future.

Not long after, Enomoto shows up at Serizawa's office with someone else in tow. I think Serizawa and even Aoto were probably thinking that Enomoto would never ever need that offer he just accepted so they were surprised by his sudden appearance. Serizawa may have thought that he would never need to make good his promise. Anyway, it's actually Enomoto's friend Aida (Nakamura Shido) who needs help so he's here to introduce both parties to each other.

To cut the story short, Aida's nephew passed away recently in an apparent suicide so he wants Serizawa to help with investigating this. Given Serizawa's interest in only things which would benefit him, he wants to turn down Aida. Moreover, Serizawa views Aida with a wary eye because he became a victim of burglary recently and the latter happens to be an ex-convict caught for being a repeat burglar. However, Aoto jumps the gun again and takes it up enthusiastically, much to her boss' reluctance. Frankly speaking, without Aoto, there would never have been a connection between Enomoto and Serizawa and the cases they are looking at so she should be irritating Serizawa with her enthusiasm even more from now on! Aida suspects that his elder sister's current husband may have killed his stepson for the inheritance and that his niece Miki (Fukuda Mayuko) may also be in danger.

By now, I think it's quite clear how the case is going to proceed because we know the story won't hold itself if it is proven to be a suicide after all. From the looks of it, we are going to get an obvious suspect each time so the enjoyment in watching this drama will be more on seeing how Enomoto solves the closed-room mystery. Apparently, how the culprit is also not of concern here because we don't get to see whether the person is nabbed by the police, he turns himself in or Serizawa & Co. informs the police to come and get their guy. This is in line with Enomoto's philosophy that he just wants to crack the closed-room mystery and doesn't bother himself with the criminal side of things. I don't mind that though so I'm OK with not seeing how the culprit gets punished by the law since this isn't a legal drama after all.

It's a pleasant surprise to see Fukuda Mayuko after some time. I get the impression that she's not as active as before during her child actor days so she could be busy with her studies or in movie works. Anyway, her role this time is extremely small so there's not much of a development here but still, I'm happy to see her again just like a long friend whom I've not seen for ages. As for Nakamura Shido, I don't remember watching any of his recent works except for Red Cliff (the Chinese hit starring Tony Leung and Lin Chi-ling)  so it's been ages since I saw him in Ima Ai Ni Yukimasu with Takeuchi Yuko. He seems to have aged considerably and sports a more scruffy image these days.

This time round, there's quite a bit of scientific talk surrounding how the culprit went to lengths to create the perfect "suicide" so it does get a bit mind boggling at times. Nonetheless, I think it was a well-crafted scheme so you won't feel as if there's a big hoo-ha over nothing.

What's more intriguing to me this time is, we get to know something more about Enomoto. Serizawa was asking Aoto if she found it strange that Enomoto would have a friend like Aida who was a perpetual burglar and they simply laughed it off when the notion of Enomoto being a burglar himself was brought up. However, when the scene switched to Enomoto next, the viewers were shown how he was picking the lock of an apartment's main door but in the end, it was just a scare because he was helping a client to open her door since she lost her key. No doubt I don't think Enomoto was a burglar, I think his fascination with locks and association with a burglar do bring up a lot of questions. Maybe he got to know more about lock-picking from the "professionals" i.e. burglars so that's why he became friends with them? Looks like we can only get a teaser lead about Enomoto with each episode we watch until we find out his background and past at the end of the drama's run!

The second episode was fun to watch without the lengthy introductions at the beginning of Ep 1 but I really dislike the blankout screens when there is a transition of scenes. It cuts off the momentum built up by the previous scene and I have to adjust to the tempo of the story again in the next scene. It does take a bit of time to get accustomed to this so I wish there would have been a smoother transition of scenes rather than the abrupt stops.

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