Review of Shukumei

Title: Shukumei
O.A. 26 Dec 2004
Theme Song: Shukumei by Fujiki Naohito

Cast:
Uryuu Akihiko (Fujiki Naohito)
Wagura Yuusaku (Kashiwabara Takashi)
Uryuu Misako (Honjo Manami)

The story is based on a suspense novel by Higashino Keigo thus to people who have read the book, there may be nothing new about the plot. As for me, I find it quite interesting as the usual standard of Higashino's works is maintained and there are a number of unexpected twists along the way. To avoid spoiling the drama for you, I'll not talk about the plot here and will focus more on the cast instead. All I can say is that the story seems very much unfinished and has an ending open to the viewer's imagination. Maybe 2 hours is simply too short to conclude the story?

Fujiki Naohito and Kashiwabara Takashi are the leads for this drama SP. Just looking at two good-looking guys together on screen is quite enjoyable especially if you are a fan of the two of them. The fact that they play rivals increase the tension on screen but I must say that Fujiki is better in his potrayal of his role. As such, the gap in their performance did not bring about the much required sparks to get the viewer more engrossed about the story.

Their characters are supposed to be childhood friends where Uryuu (Fujiki) always got No.1 in everything and Wakura (Kashiwabara) had to play second fiddle. Fujiki managed to show the elite and superior side of his role but Kashiwabara seemed to be quite uneasy about fitting into the role of Wakura. It seemed that Wakura wasn't affected by the presence of Uryuu at all when he could have shown a bit of the indignance about losing his No.1 spot to his rival every time. It was quite puzzling to see the final scenes when he started to cry and then snapped out of it almost immediately. That wasn't convincing in my opinion.

As for the female lead Honjou Manami, I think she must have been quite out of touch with acting in dramas ever since she got married and concentrated on publishing books. Thus, I thought that her emotional scenes were not too impressive even though her role can be considered to be a strong link between the two guys. One is her ex-lover while the other is her husband but she doesn't seem to show any sign of a struggle when she's caught between them. On the appearance front, she looked OK with both guys but chemistry-wise, this is quite lacking.

On the whole, I would rate it 7 out of 10 mainly because of the story and Fujiki's acting. Maybe if this was expanded beyond the 2-hr SP restriction, the development of the story might be better.