Sunday, June 03, 2012

Review of Kagi no Kakatta Heya Ep 3

As with the earlier episodes, it's very apparent that this drama has absolutely no intention of concealing who is the culprit behind the case. What matters most would be how the closed room situation was created and the reason behind the murder. However, I felt that something was seriously lacking even before I got to the end of the story. It just didn't provide the same intense feel experienced while trying to solve the closed room mystery nor the sleek packaging of the earlier two episodes. I can overlook the fact that the culprit didn't need to be guessed because I enjoyed the part about finding out how the closed room situation was created but I don't like it when the story is too simple and offers too little to challenge the viewer's mind.
It looks like each episode will have an unique theme/topic which Enomoto has to learn about before he can solve the closed room mystery. In the first episode, he had to learn about biology while in the 2nd, he needed to know about chemistry. In the 3rd episode, the theme was shogi. A professional shogi player named Takewaki was found dead in a hotel room and of course it has to be a closed room situation in order for Enomoto to come into the picture. Serizawa gave Takewaki legal advice before he passed away so he's being singled out as one of the suspects for his client's murder. As such, Serizawa wants Enomoto to help him by solving the closed room mystery.

Next, we have the arrival of Takewaki's girlfriend Kurusu Nahoko (Aibu Saki) who comes to the crime scene to identify the belongings left behind by Takewaki. Now, if you closely observe what she did in this scene, it is apparent that she has something to do with the case. No, it's not because she doesn't appear sad enough or anything but I think the scriptwriter did it on purpose and it was really too much and too obvious. It would have been better if the camera didn't show so much detail on what she did and could jolly well just go with a fleeting shot rather than a close-up. Her persistent questioning of Serizawa and wanting to find out from him what Takewaki had sought legal advice for just adds more credibility to the notion that we have the culprit staring right into our faces. The issue next is to find out what exactly caused her to do that.

By the time we get to the point where Enomoto has more or less done his research, it's quite clear why the murder took place. For people who still haven't watched this, I'll refrain from spilling too much details but would just like to say that I find it difficult to sympathise with why Kurusu did despite the fact that she was at the edge of crossroads and had to do what she did. Yes, she was made to do things she didn't like but in the first place, she had done wrong and still conveniently blamed it on the circumstances for causing her to go a step further. Now, that's something bordering on self-denial.

Another key reason why I wasn't that satisfied with this episode was that it offered too little insight into Enomoto's background. The first two episodes gave tiny titbits on his character traits or experience but this episode merely showed him flaring up a little at Aoto who wanted to ask about his romance history. Maybe he feels that her line of questioning is slightly intrusive or he feels uncomfortable about this topic? I wonder why though but frankly speaking, I wanted to see more revelations or suggestions on Enomoto because that itself is a mystery which I'm sure most viewers would want to know. The good thing is, he seems to be warming up to Aoto especially in the last scene when he sees her being slightly upset at how things have turned out in this case and wanted to say something "interesting". And his idea of interesting would be asking Aoto in turn about her romance history! It's obvious that he wasn't really interested in knowing but just wanted to liven the atmosphere and he remembered Aoto's words that finding about someone's romance history is of interest to her. He definitely isn't as cold and indifferent as he thinks but I can see that things between them might not be so smooth-sailing though because it looks more likely that Aoto might fall for him later and he may be dense enough not to realise it until Aoto shoves her confession right into his face. It will be very "interesting" if that really happens. ^__^

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