Quick Review #51: Samayou Yaiba - Spring 2021

Title: Samayou Yaiba / さまよう刃

Rating: 8.5 /10 

Recommended for: 

For those who have read the novel and didn't find the movie version satisfactory, those who haven't read the novel but want to watch stories about the injustices suffered by victims of crime and their families and fans of Takenouchi Yutaka

Please refer here for my review of the 2009 movie version.

Liked:

- As you would have seen from my review of the movie back in 2011, I didn't really enjoy it. The biggest issue I had was the story structure which didn't flow very well and that was partly due to the challenge of fitting in the entire novel into a 2-hr movie. This WOWOW drama adaptation had the luxury and advantage of using 6 episodes (some even longer than the usual 45 minutes) to tell the story in a very sequential and logical manner without cutting out critical parts thus allowed the build-up of emotions from start to finish at the right pace with the right amount of intensity. 

While the first episode was filled with shocking and very uncomfortable scenes to watch and some viewers may question the necessity of going to that extent, I felt that it was necessary because that was exactly how the novel was like - very raw and painful to read even if it was just words. To have the scenes brought to life was terribly excruciating to watch but the pain and humiliation suffered by the victim had to be conveyed in the most accurate manner so that viewers could understand and empathise with Nagamine's (Takenouchi) anguish, anger and helplessness. 

There were some changes in the settings vs. what was in the novel but on the whole, it didn't really affect the overall vibe of the drama. The ending, while not something which would satisfy everyone given that the theme was so controversial, was true to what the novel had and left this feeling of helplessness, self-doubt and self-questioning for the viewers about the what-ifs if they were in the same situation.

- Takenouchi had appeared in the movie but to be honest, his role as Oribe back then didn't really strike a chord with me (partly also because I really didn't like the movie and the attention was more on Terao Akira who played Nagamine so he didn't get much of a chance to shine). However, by becoming Nagamine in this drama version, it felt as if Takenouchi had come full circle and really nailed the role so well with such depth in his acting.

Kawai Yumi was phenomenal. Truly great acting in such difficult scenes and made such a deep impression even though she technically only appeared for less than one episode.

As for Ishida Yuriko, I think she had more chemistry with Takenouchi than what Terao had with Sakai Miki in the movie and her back story was described in greater detail here. Compared to the movie which showed Wakako struggling with whether to help or report Nagamine to the police, the Wakako in the drama going all out to help Nagamine would not have been believable if her past was not depicted properly to show why she sympathised with him to this extent and understood how he felt.

Disliked: 

- I don't recall seeing the media angle from the movie and novel but to see that there were no repercussions for the reporter Odagiri played by Takiuchi Kumi who made use of people and had no regard nor respect for the victims and their families, I thought that was simply infuriating. Perhaps more so than seeing the criminal get away with such a light sentence for his heinous crime. Of course, she did a good job playing such an obnoxious character but still, I wondered if there was a need to spend so much time on featuring her fanning the flames of revenge at other people's expense. And not to mention that she had a chance at redemption by changing the article's caption but still decided to go with sensationalising the news to get the maximum impact. In this sense, this reporter is probably the worst scumbag of all the baddies in this story.

- This is not something against the drama but more of like, since I already knew the story because of the novel and the movie, there wasn't a surprise element for me while watching the drama. I felt that episode 5 was a tad draggy so the drama could have been wrapped up in a more succinct manner if it was one episode shorter.