Review of "Triangle" - Winter 2009

Please skip this review if you have not watched the drama and do not wish to know the ending.

I had very high hopes for this drama before it began its run. Firstly, the cast boasted of many actors who are capable of putting up a good performance albeit there are some of them whom I don't think deserves this title yet. Secondly, as this suspense story is not an adaptation, this increases the anticipation level since viewers would only get down to the truth when it ends. Last but not least, the story is based on an intricate web of relationships and an unsolved case which strengthens its appeal as a suspense thriller instead of a mere no-brainer where you can guess the culprit easily. As such, I expected a lot from this drama.

However, I was very disappointed by the time I finished watching this. And this drama made the same mistake as "Koori no Sekai" in 1999. Why doesn't FujiTV learn from its mistakes?! In a suspense story, it is taboo to come up with an ending where the culprit was never in the consideration as a suspect and there were no clues at all indicating involvement. In "Koori no Sekai", the detective's wife who was romantically linked to one of the victims was never potrayed as one of the suspects. Her identity was only revealed in the final episode and this was a bombshell to many viewers because they felt that they were taken on a ride to nowhere.

Likewise in "Triangle", although there was a slight indication that Maruyama was somewhat involved in Shimano's murder (the fact that his name was found in the Customs records of people going to Shanghai), there was no logical ground to suspect that Maruyama was responsible for everything especially when it came to Katsuragi Sachie's murder. And you know what, the ironical thing was that the scriptwriter came up with some last-minute excuse for Maruyama's actions in order to salvage the situation. Why did this revenge-for-the-sake-of-the-sister thing pop up right at the end without any inkling prior to the final episode? Are they trying to justify why Maruyama had to kill Sachie, Shimano, Sachi or even Ryouji's family? That is extremely ridiculous. Frankly speaking, there is no way I can stomach such an ending. It really ruined the whole story.

Actually, the story started off in a promising manner. Besides the beautiful scenery from Paris, the tempo of the story was swift and there were lots of questions in the first episode just to ignite the viewers' curiousity and keep them watching. However, things started to go downhill towards the middle of the season. I found that the drama was throwing up more questions instead of answering questions which were raised earlier on. As such, I was none the wiser about the truth and got really exasperated after episode 5 or so because I felt like I was taken on a wild goose chase. I really wondered if I was going to get anywhere even after finishing this drama. True enough, although I got the answers, it only made me hopping mad instead of being satisfied with the closure of things.

I don't know whether the producers had this agenda in their minds. Since they had a star-studded cast, they made it so that everyone was suspicious or appeared suspicious. However, it only adds to confusion because if these people were not the culprits in the first place, why would they want to behave as if they are up to no good in front of Ryoji? In real life, this is not natural at all. Why would people go out of their way just to arouse another person's suspicion? In order to get the viewers guessing, I guess the producers got too carried away and realized that they had to bend backwards to ensure that the story doesn't go awry. Too bad they didn't do anything to save the story and any last-minute attempts were too late.

Talking about the cast, Eguchi Yosuke's combination with Hirosue Ryoko was refreshing. Well, even though Katsuragi Sachie and Gouda Ryouji were supposed to be classmates, the first 2 episodes made me confused for a while because Hirosue's role, Sachi impersonated Sachie at first but it was so obvious that she was younger than the real Sachie if she was still alive. Luckily, the scriptwriter explained that issue quickly or else the age gap could have been a problem in the story. Nonetheless, even though there were clues hinting that Sachi and Ryouji had feelings for each other, it ended in a tragic fashion for them. As such, for people who were hoping to see some romantic sparks between Eguchi and Hirosue, you will be disappointed. Likewise, for people who were hoping for Kuroki and Yui i.e. Inagaki Goro and Aibu Saki to be together, your wish will not be granted too. It appeared that there were sparks between them at first but somehow they fizzled out. Not that I care though. Inagaki didn't impress nor irk me this time but Aibu's wide grin does get on my nerves at times. She should really work on her acting skills instead of flashing a megawatt smile all the time even when it's not necessary.

Despite the ensemble of stars, I felt that some of them did not get the attention they deserved. The worst was Sakai Masato who appeared here and there in a couple of episodes with a sly smile on his face all the time and then his character Shimano was dead all of a sudden. He can definitely do more than just snigger so I felt that his strengths were under-utilized. Likewise for people such as Oosugi Ren, Sasaki Kuranosuke or Tanihara Shosuke, they had too little airtime to develop their roles and ended up as really forgettable characters.

As for the theme song, I'm not too happy with it. Some of Oda Kazumasa's songs really made a strong impression on me but this time round, the ending song is kinda boring and plain. Maybe it's because of the slow melody which is in stark contrast with the BGM which stirs up a lot of tension and excitement most of the time.

In conclusion, I would not say that this is a must-see drama. Especially for those who like suspense stories, I'm sure you will be disappointed by it. If you are aiming to ogle at your favourite stars, other than Eguchi, Hirosue or Inagaki who appear on a pretty regular basis, you probably won't be able to see the supporting cast as much as you like. Sometimes they disappear for a couple of episodes and pop up again. Although the TV station spent lots of money doing location filming in Paris and Shanghai, I would rather have them spend more money on the story instead of wasting it on beautiful background shots. The story is what matters most. I believe Japan has enough nice places for filming. It doesn't have to be in a foreign country just to show that it is a cross-border story. Anyway, most of the action happens in Japan so there's no need to go anywhere else. At least, in my opinion.

And my ratings for this drama...
Story: 2 out of 10 (I am really tempted to give it one mark only considering how much criticism I have for it in my review.)
Acting: 5 out of 10 (The good actors are severly under-utilized while the leads are taken on a ride to nowhere. Nothing impressive to speak of.)
Theme song: 5 out of 10 (The theme song didn't get into my good books but the BGM was generally OK.)
Visual effects / Scenery: 7 out of 10 (Paris was potrayed nicely but Shanghai seemed lacklustre in comparison. Maybe it's because of the gangster scenes in Shanghai which gave me that impression.)
Teamwork / Chemistry: 4 out of 10 (There were some sparks between Eguchi and Hirosue's characters but they were too short-lived to have an impact. As for Eguchi and Inagaki, they didn't seem to blend well.)

Total: 23 out of 50