Title: Brutus no Shinzou (Brutus' Heart)O.A. Date: 17 June 2011
Shown via: FujiTV
Cast:
Suenaga Takuya (Fujiwara Tatsuya)
Amamiya Yasuko (Uchiyama Rina)
Nakamori Yumie (Kato Ai)
Hashimoto Atsushi (Ookura Koji)
Nishina Hoshiko (Ashina Sei)
Sayama Souichi (Kondo Yoshimasa)
Sakai Goro (Takahashi Tsutomu)
Takashima Shuji (Oshinari Shugo)
Nishina Naoki (Hakamada Yoshihiko)
Munekata Shinichi (Tsurumi Shingo)
Nishina Toshiki (Kazama Morio)
Suenaga Takuya is a rising star in industrial machinery maker MM Heavy Industries after his industrial robot system Brutus is recognised as a promising invention by the management. The president of the company, Nishina Toshiki, seems to be keen to let Suenaga date his daughter Hoshiko although Suenaga is very much aware that Hoshiko doesn't feel the same and detests arranged marriages. Unknown to them, Suenaga is involved in a secret relationship with Amamiya Yasuko who also happens to be Toshiki's secretary.
Suenaga's path to success is unexpectedly interrupted by Amamiya's announcement that she is pregnant. Amamiya insists that she's not keen on marrying Suenaga but wants him to pay for the baby's expenses. Suenaga knows that Amamiya has been sleeping with other men as well and insists that he shouldn't be made to bear the responsibility alone. Amamiya isn't bothered by his reaction and hints at exposing their relationship which will definitely spoil Suenaga's career prospects and his relationship with Hoshiko.
Just as Suenaga is troubled about Amamiya's pregnancy, he gets called to a meeting with his boss Naoki and another colleague Hashimoto. It is then when he finds out that the three of them are all involved with Amamiya and have been told to support the baby she's carrying. Naoki then suggests killing Amamiya in order to solve their problems and asks them to take part because this will allow them to create alibis for themselves. The trio draw lots and decides who does which task. In the end, Naoki has to kill Amamiya in Osaka, Suenaga to transport the body from Nagoya to Tokyo and Hashimoto to dispose the body. In order to prevent anyone from backing out of the plan and revealing the others' involvement in the case, Naoki who is responsible for the actual killing gets to keep an agreement with their signatures.
However, when it comes to the day when Amamiya is due to be killed, something happens which causes the plan to go haywire...
This SP started with something which seemed unrelated to the main story of how the three men set out to kill their lover. The death of an employee in MM Heavy Industries actually fits in as a puzzle piece in the whole mystery of why the murder relay didn't work out. I won't go into too many details on what happened in case it spoils the fun for you so I'll focus more on the story's structure and acting.
Although the story did seem quite engaging initially, I think the editing was kinda choppy especially when the scene was on the trio planning Amamiya's murder and then suddenly, we moved to the time when they were already in action. In addition, the pace slowed down considerably and the story was clearly dragging its feet especially when the number of suspects who could be the culprit withered down to almost none. From that point onwards, the story seemed to have lost its direction and was seemingly leading the viewers to nowhere. In particular, I took offence with the fact that someone who didn't get enough attention in the drama turned out to be the culprit. This person wasn't even part of the main story and seemed to have popped out of the blue to be the murderer. This really affected how I viewed this drama and sad to say, I really hated the climax scene. In the end, you get a lukewarm showdown between Suenaga and the murderer ending with something which feels a lot like preaching to me (the usual drift about good and evil).
As compared to the first drama, there aren't that many "nostalgic" faces other than Uchiyama Rina who I've not seen for some time (she may have appeared in recent dramas but I'm not following the new releases as closely as before). Nonetheless, I think she really shone as Amamiya as a sexy, scheming and shrewd woman. I've always have the impression that she's more capable of the sweetie and kind roles so it's a refreshing change from the past. I wouldn't call it a completely radical change though because there's not enough airtime for Amamiya to be developed as a more complete character but she did OK in the restricted time.
As for Fujiwara Tatsuya, I have to stress that I've always been neutral about him. I don't dislike him but I am also not particularly fond of him either. He's a good actor nonetheless, just that I think this role of Suenaga reminds me a lot of Yagami Light in Death Note. The same self-confidence, haughtiness and belief that nobody is above him are some of the similarities I noted while watching the SP. However, unlike Light, Suenaga's mindset is probably shaped by the fact that he didn't have a happy childhood. There were certain junctures when I thought I was looking at Light but I could also see the differences between both characters. That being said, it was rather difficult for me to empathise with Suenaga's plight because he had it coming after all. Initially, he might have been an "innocent" party since he didn't plan the murder but still, some of his actions were indeed controversial in deciding whether he deserved to be treated like what happened in the ending.
Compared to the first story in this series, I think the lack of tension in the second half of the story was a huge disappointment. Acting-wise, I think most of them were doing OK just that nobody really shone in such a way that made me sit up and take notice. And I still don't quite get why the title is "Brutus no Shinzou". Does that refer to how Suenaga got to see a reflection of his life through Brutus' heart in the ending scene? Well, that's the only explanation I can think of now.
And my ratings for this drama...
Story: 4 out of 10 (It would have been a better idea if the story's pace could be managed in a better way and they didn't follow the same pattern as Koori no Sekai)
Acting: 6.5 out of 10 (Generally passable acting)
Theme song: 3 out of 10 (The BGM didn't leave much of an impression and I can't even remember hearing a theme song at the end - goes to show if there had been one, it wasn't strong enough to make me remember it)
Visual effects / Scenery: 5 out of 10 (Nothing particularly nice to see and there were quite a lot of indoor shots)
Teamwork / Chemistry: 4 out of 10 (Nothing much which stands out to me)
Total: 22.5 out of 50
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