Review of Higashino Keigo Mysteries Ep 4 - Reiko to Reiko

The episode opens with a rainy night where a woman is waiting at a dimly-lit street with minimal human and vehicle traffic while holding a red umbrella. When a man drives into the street and stops at the T-junction where the woman is waiting, the woman suddenly charges at the man with a knife and stabs him forcefully. The man crumbles in shock as he succumbs to the attack while the woman runs off.

At the same time, Asano Yoko (Mizuki Arisa) is holding a press conference for a case which she has recently won. Apparently, Yoko managed to get a favourable judgement for an underage boy who was charged for murder but the media attacks Yoko for defending a murderer just because he is underage.  Yoko is unfazed by the criticism and declares that she believes that people are kind by nature and she calls upon the public to be more receptive about the idea of giving people who repent a chance to change for the better.

When Yoko returns home, she hears strange noises at the bicycle parking lot and goes to check things out. She is surprised to see Yamashita Reiko (Ohno Ito) curled up at a corner, drenched from the downpour earlier and mumbling that she doesn't know who she is. Yoko wants to send Reiko to the police but the latter is adamant about not going there because she can't even remember who she is. Out of no choice, Yoko brings Reiko back to her apartment for the night.

Meanwhile, Inspector Imanishi appears at the crime scene where the murder took place and is rather grumpy as he hears the debrief from his colleague. However, he suddenly takes notice of the unique nature of this case when his colleague relates that there were people who saw a young woman waiting in the rain with a red umbrella before the murder took place.

The next day, Yoko finds a handphone strap among Reiko's possessions and finds out that this is her first name. However, Reiko seems to have no recollection of this. While out to buy something from a convenience store, Yoko hears about the murder last night and is startled to know that the eyewitness accounts seem to point to Reiko as the murderer. She calls her friend Fujikawa Shinichi (Yoshida Eisaku) to come to her house without telling him why. In order to find evidence, Yoko goes back to the bicycle parking lot and finds Reiko's red umbrella and the murder weapon.

When Yoko returns to her apartment, she is surprised to see Reiko reacting strongly against Shinichi's appearance and keeps telling him to go away. Yoko finally manages to calm Reiko down but the latter soon loses consciousness.

Shinichi tells Yoko that she should inform the police about Reiko but Yoko is adamant that this is not the right time yet. He realises that Yoko intends to help Reiko because there is a likelihood that Reiko could have suffered a trauma during her childhood and hates men for some reason and Yoko had a similar experience when she was abused by her own mother. Shinichi reluctantly agrees to Yoko's request but warns her against being too emotionally involved in Reiko's case.

Just then, Yoko and Shinichi realise that Reiko has woken up and to their surprise, she seems to have gone through an entire personality change and becomes extremely violent and rude. Reiko holds a knife to herself and threatens to commit suicide if Shinichi does not get her neighbour Ichihara Sanae to appear in front of her.

It turns out that Reiko had killed the man she thought was Sanae's boyfriend because she thought that Sanae was going to ignore her after she gets married. However, Sanae states that this can't be possible because she was with her fiance last night. This makes Reiko very agitated as she realises that she has killed the wrong person. Just when Reiko tries to charge at Sanae for attempting to betray her, Imanishi and his colleague charge into Yoko's apartment and stops Reiko.

Although Reiko claims ignorance as to why she committed the murder, it is slowly revealed that Sanae was wary of Reiko growing too reliant on her as the latter was trying to control her life with her sudden violence outbursts. This seemed to lend credibility to the theory that Reiko has multiple personalities within her. However, when Shinichi and Imanishi raise the likelihood of Reiko putting on a pretense to escape responsibility, this is immediately shot down by Yoko who believes Reiko wholeheartedly. At the same time, the police also found out that Reiko was made use of by Fukuzawa, Sanae's colleague who had been attacked by Reiko before, and his married lover Maemura Katsuko (Asami Reina) who wanted her husband out of the way as they were in the midst of divorce proceedings. Katsuko had apparently lied to Reiko that her husband was Sanae's  boyfriend in order to get her to kill him.

Just when the police are getting to the bottom of the case, Fukuzawa killed Katsuko in the spur of the moment because of disputes over her dead husband's inheritance. As a result, Reiko is unable to stand trial for the murder because she was instigated by Fukuzawa and Katsuko and that she had a psychological condition.

After the case is concluded, Yoko and Shinichi go to the hospital to meet Reiko who is about to be discharged. However, they get the shock of their lives as Reiko reveals her true colours and that she has been lying all the time in order to evade responsibility for the murder. Reiko knows very well that Yoko wouldn't expose her and laughs heartily about her "victory" as she leaves the hospital.

No doubt Yoko is stunned by the betrayal and her misplaced trust, she repeats her usual stand about giving repentant teenagers a chance to change during the press conference for Reiko's case. However, the same words now ring hollow because Yoko had just been betrayed and deceived by someone who she trusted wholeheartedly...

This episode wasn't very strong in the story aspect not really because we already knew the culprit beforehand but rather the way the sequence of events was presented. It seemed to be such a huge coincidence and good luck for Yoko that she managed to deduce the truth from the facts that popped up at convenient junctures. The suspense factor was seriously lacking and I felt as if facts were shoved into the viewer's face so that the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle can fit nicely. It would have been better if the presentation of the case was done with more thought.

As a result, the only thing left for the viewer to guess is, was Reiko really suffering from multiple personalities or was she putting on an act? I for one, didn't believe her at all but towards the climax, there was this hint that she might not be as evil as I thought because she got away scot-free. The sole redeeming factor which saved this episode from being a total failure was the fact that Reiko was indeed playing tricks on Yoko and I like how Yoko had to sit through the same press conference despite having her convictions shattered, her trust misplaced and being betrayed by someone who acted well in front of her. It felt like a tight slap to Yoko's ego and that made the story more memorable.

I've never been a fan of Mizuki Arisa but I don't dislike her as well. There wasn't anything particularly outstanding about her acting this episode and I found my attention drifting to Yoshida Eisaku and Ohno Ito instead. No doubt Yoshida had very little airtime this time, he was still a joy to watch on screen. Ohno did quite well to show the two sides of Reiko and to be frank, she was more eye-catching that Mizuki's portrayal of Yoko. That can't be helped in a sense because Reiko's character was supposed to be more engaging.

After watching four episodes of this drama, I can't say that there is any particular episode which was satisfying from beginning to end. They all had their own flaws (and good points too!) which I felt boiled down to the execution of the material. It can't be that Higashino Keigo's short stories would differ so much from his long novels in that the suspense factor is so much lower and there isn't a lot to reflect on after watching the drama. 45 minutes for one story may be too short but too long for a SP of 2 hours. I think FujiTV really set a huge challenge for themselves by taking this up because even with a good story, if the developments are not laid out properly with enough thought given to the presentation, it will still bore viewers no matter how many A-listers you feature in the cast.

I just hope episode 5 can offer something more interesting and hopefully, reflect a change in direction especially after the drama suffered from some bad press in the early part of the season for its poor execution.