Review of Strawberry Night (drama SP)

Note that this review relates to the 2010 drama SP of Strawberry Night, not the current series which is showing on FujiTV this season. I will probably write the review for the drama when it finishes its run.

Just to give you a short background about this drama SP: Himekawa Reiko (Takeuchi Yuko) is an assistant inspector in charge of a team in Metropolitan Police Department's 1st Investigation Division. Despite the fact that she made it to this position at a very young age of 29 and didn't have any special connections to help her, she is belittled by her peers at work and constantly given unflattering nicknames like Ojou-chan as if to show that she is like a pampered girl who can't do anything in the police organisation. Nonetheless, she has a team of faithful subordinates who trust in her e.g. Kikuta Kazuo (Nishijima Hidetoshi), Otsuka Shinji (Kiritani Kenta) and Ishikura Tamotsu (Ukaji Takashi). Unknown to everyone else, Himekawa has a dark secret that she is still trying to overcome which also happens to be the motivation behind her drive in becoming a police officer.

Himekawa's team is assigned to handle a case of a dead man whose corpse was wrapped up in plastic and dumped just beside a reservoir instead of being disposed into the water. As they try to investigate the bewildering turn of events, more bodies turn up and the team has to contend with competition from other teams especially Katsumata Kensaku (Takeda Tetsuya) who tries to keep all the leads to himself in order to get to the mastermind earlier than Himekawa.

I wouldn't go into too many details about the story or its conclusion since that would mean having to put down lots of spoilers in this review. Just some thoughts about this drama SP:

- This type of prejudice against a woman in the workplace despite her achievements is something that's not new at all especially when you see all the taunting Himekawa had to withstand. Having seen exactly what she had to go through in order to get to where she is, you have to hand it to Himekawa's determination.

- I like the way Himekawa's character is crafted because you don't see the tough side of her only. The displays of vulnerability were also left quite a deep impression on me. I like Takeuchi Yuko's acting which tried to balance these two sides to Himekawa but it can be a bit difficult to get used to Takeuchi speaking so roughly on screen.

- The case itself was quite intriguing for 3/4 of the time but when it was getting near to the end, it was rather easy to see where the story was heading and who was the culprit. Seems like this idea of having someone who looks the least like the culprit be the mastermind is very popular but frankly speaking, the concept's getting a bit stale especially when you have that exchange of words between that person and Himekawa in the climax. One is trying to justify the reason for killing people while the other is trying to preach by saying things like you are wrong. It might be a better to reduce the words spoken during such scenes because ultimately, it's a war of words which come to nowhere.

- What intrigued me to watch this wasn't really because of the story. The assembly of strong actors such as Nishijima Hidetoshi, Ukaji Takashi, Watanabe Ikkei (he's always shouting at the top of his voice though), Takashima Masahiro (he's one suave and hot guy in this SP!), Endo Kenichi (his appearance was very limited though), Takeda Tetsuya and Namase Katsuhisa made this SP really appealing. It would be worth watching if the drama series gives these actors enough room to develop their characters. I certainly hope that all these talent would not go to waste.

And my ratings for this drama SP...
Story: 7.5 out of 10 (If only the climax could be a bit more succint, I would have given this a higher score.)
Acting: 7 out of 10 (Generally good but felt that some of the supporting actors didn't get enough time to show what they've got)
Theme song: 6 out of 10 (I only heard Shibasaki Kou's song at the credits section but I liked what I heard. BGM-wise, it was also OK.)
Visual effects / Scenery: 4 out of 10 (Most of the scenes take place in the police station or outside on streets where there isn't a lot of scenery to speak about)
Teamwork / Chemistry: 6 out of 10 (The chemistry in Himekawa's team was quite good so I guess there is more room for improvement when they get to the drama series)

Total: 30.5 out of 50