spsn | Akutou ~ 悪党 (Reply)

Another year just passed and I just spent it watching a dark drama on rape and murder, but I have no regrets LOL. I definitely now need sparkling rainbow and glitters and will have Arashi's Kohaku performance on repeat to remedy what I just watched. This drama focus not on the criminal but on the victim's family (because the victim are dead already) and their revenge. Why did I watch this SP drama? Off course, the pulling factor is none other than Tackey. He doesn't have any drama since 2009... until now. But how does it fare?

OK, let's start with the story line. We have a detective agency which is definitely too free that it starts taking cases to find the whereabouts of those juvenile criminals requested by the victim's family members. It assigns its one and only detective, Saeki Shuichi (Tackey) to go investigate and report back to the victim's family members. Here Shuichi met Sakagami (a disgusting human being, in my opinion, just like the rest of the criminals in this drama) who has criminal record of extortion and murder a high school boy when he's still underage. Well, Sakagami grows up to be an asshole, unrepentant and now even has his own team to scam old people out of their money. Shuichi reported back Sakagami to his client and the next day he found out that his client sabbed Sakagami and now Sakagami is on wheelchair. Shuichi himself has a dark past of finding his own sister's dead body after 3 under aged boys gang raped and killed her. So traumatized that he grew up carrying the hatred and desire for revenge. While investigating the whereabouts of her sister's murderers, he met Haruka, the bartender and seems that Haruka managed to open Shuichi's heart a bit but does it work? Will Shuichi get his revenge?

Japanese TV is quite weird that they tone down so much for drama but when they do SP drama, they add the graphic and gruesomeness by quite a number of level up, and this one is no exception. The rape scene is quite... yeah... I even cringe but at the same time it tells you how horrible crime it is and what impact does it leave on the victims and the family. The pain and the hatred is dissected and covered in a quite range of event here. From the cases, Shuichi learns that there are different type of revenge, physical and mental (let the person live with the scar in their heart). There are points that are open for debate as well, which mainly come from Sakagami point of view as the villain. From the beginning Sakagami keeps on saying that Shuichi is the same as him, a villain, from his eyes. Then he goes on saying that a person knowing that what he does is wrong but still doing it makes him a villain. He won't seek forgiveness or hope that the victim's family members forgive him, hence he has no remorse. Then come the last saying that impacts Shuichi in his action which is a villain knows that he will lose something important in the place of things that he take away from. Debatable? Off course! The victims are no longer in this world. The lost and suffering that the family left behind experience, nobody can understand. This drama also depicts the seen as injustice in the eye of the law that so long the person is under age, seems that he could do whatever he wants and get a light punishment and that includes rape and murder.

OK, enough about the heavy part. What's good about this drama? The story line, as dark as it gets, at the very least it doesn't let the hell break loose that the ending becomes a screw up one. On the contrary, the ending is sort of heartwarming. There are reviews saying that the first half is good but the other half is sort of lost its appeal. Well, you may feel like it if you keep on expecting a screw up ending, but I don't because I seriously hope Shuichi doesn't do anything stupid or equally evil as those criminals. The acting? I never expect that Tackey can act with this much intensity though the potential was there in Orthros no Inu. This drama is enjoyable to watch despite all those screwed up criminals, those graphic scenes and the dark and gloomy story because of it. Also kudos to Kaname Jun as well. His Sakagami is equally dark and psycho, not really disgustingly sickening, but we get to see how evil his mind is.

I've never seen Tacky with this kind of dark hatred expression, have you? Quite scary eh?

Gee, Psycho A and Psycho B, which one is darker? Kudos to Kaname Jun here, he's really good in this drama as Sakagami. Look at that expression, menacing eh? Very different from the usual suit/uniform wearing character that he plays.

More dark expressions, so intense! You cannot go wrong w/ black haired Tackey! He means serious business yo! *He dyed his hair back to black too for Orthros no Inu, also playing as psycho*

Oh my heart is also crying when I saw this scene, not gonna tell you which one, watch it for yourself!

I love this scene, his dilemma, contemplating whether to cross the line or not. His expression... intense, intense, you should get this kind of role more often and moreover, please take more drama job!

I'd think you'll believe it if I told you that this cap is taken from a rom com drama. But sadly it's not if you heard how he laughed here. So bitter and sounds so screw up as well.

I'd think this can be a message of encouragement to those that become a victim of some bad circumstances or event. May not be easy, but if you see this drama, you'll get what I mean, to not to succumb to the misery plagued by those disgusting evil horrible people.

Love Tackey's expression here, when his dad told him that he should smile more. A very kind parent, and as if all his sorrow and misery just overflown with that 1 dot of tear.

Off course! This is the usual Tackey smile that we see! See? Happy ending!

And now I need to find Tackey's clip on Johnny's Count Down and lastly I hope after this new year Arashi starts performing other songs than Wild at Heart ~~*I love the song but come on, there should be a limit to how many times they can perform this song in 1 day!*~~