Review of Kasha 火車

Kasha, as defined at the beginning of this SP, is a chariot on fire which transports spirits to hell. As such, I get the feeling that the title seems to mean that we are going to see someone's journey to hell or should I say, the point of no return.

This drama SP is based on a bestselling novel set in 1992 by Miyabe Miyuki which won the 6th Yamaguchi Shugoro award in 1993 and No.1 in "Kono Mystery ga Sugoi's Best of the Best" ranking. With a seemingly sound story structure which proved to be popular with readers, this would mean that we are assured of a certain quality in the storytelling aspect of this SP, right?

To begin with, let's start with a summary of the storyline:

Honma Shuusuke (Kamikawa Takaya), a detective in Metropolitan Police Department's 1st Investigation Unit, is chasing after a robber with his partner Ikari Sadao (Terawaki Yasufumi) when he gets shot in the leg. As a result, Honma has to stay at home to recuperate while undergoing physiotheraphy. His wife Chizuko passed away six months ago due to a traffic accident and Honma finds it difficult to communicate with his 9-year-old son Satoru ever since then.

One night, Chizuko's cousin's son Kurisaka Kazuya, a bank employee, comes to look for Honma and pleads with him to find his fiancee Sekine Shoko who had disappeared after it was revealed that she declared self bankruptcy 5 years ago after chalking up debts of JPY 10m. Honma decides to help Kazuya in his personal capacity and finds out gradually that Shoko had lied not only about her financial situation but also her work history. Slowly, Honma starts to realise that the Sekine Shoko who Kazuya is looking for may be an impersonator after all...

From this point onwards, there will be some spoilers so if you do not wish to know the story and ending, please skip this post.

Frankly speaking, if the drama/movie is based on a novel/manga, chances are, the story has a lower probability of going off-course because there is a standard format to follow. Unless the producers decide to change everything from the original, it is usually safe to stick to the existing structure. The worst that can happen is when you have the scriptwriter making every single character in the story look very suspicious and then the culprit pops up to be someone who you would have never guessed because the scriptwriter didn't give any clues for viewers to guess. That was what happened to Koori no Sekai a long time ago. Then again, Koori was an original story after all so it didn't have a format to follow.

Coming back to Kasha, I liked how it was very systematic in introducing every clue and discovery of new facts so it didn't feel as if all the facts were shoved into your face at the end. In fact, most of the jigsaw puzzle pieces had fallen into place way before the two detectives Honma and Ikari met Shinjo Kyoko at the final scene. As such, there wasn't any need for a long-winded confession at the end but this way of presenting the story also had its flaws. For example, questions such as how Shinjo Kyoko befriended Sekine Shoko and killed her were not explained.

Another unusual thing with this SP would be that the so-called heroine i.e. fake-Sekine Shoko a.k.a. Shinjo Kyoko did not speak a single word throughout the entire SP. I have no idea whether the producers were concerned with Sasaki Nozomi's acting skills (or rather her lack of the depth to potray such a complicated role) or they thought that it wasn't necessary for her to say anything since Honma had pretty much deduced what had gone on. I'm quite happy with this anyway but I'm sure Sasaki would have probably preferred to do some talking and make this role a signature one in her acting career.

The chemistry between Kamikawa Takaya and Terawaki Yasufumi was quite fun to watch as one is obviously as cool as ice while the other was cheeky and full of passion like fire. The friendly banter sort of lightened things up in this very serious drama and made the investigation process look more than just a fact-finding mission.

And my ratings for this drama SP...
Story: 8.5 out of 10 (Systematic approach to solving the case and the pace was just right for me)
Acting: 8.5 out of 10 (Even people who appeared for a scene or two managed to make an impression)
Theme song: 7 out of 10 (There isn't a so-called theme song for this SP but I thought the BGM was not bad)
Visual effects / Scenery: 7 out of 10 (As the detectives headed to different places in Japan to investigate the case, there were a number of landmarks to look at and the scenery was pleasant to look at)
Teamwork / Chemistry: 9 out of 10 (Kudos especially for Kamikawa and Terawaki)

Total: 40 out of 50 (I think this is one of the highest scores I've given out recently ^__^)