Title: Jimenshitachi / 地面師たち
Rating: 8.5 / 10
Recommended for:
Those who like white-collar crime stories based on real cases presented in a sleek way with nail-biting moments and/or are fans of the cast members
Liked:
- Much as the story may seem far-fetched and incredulous at certain points, the fact that the original novel inspired by an actual land fraud case in 2017 actually added much credibility and reality to the plot. On hindsight, many fraud cases could have been seen through but when people are caught in the midst of a scam and various factors come into play, it can be difficult for people to think straight. As such, stories of this nature can serve as a timely reminder for everyone especially in this era when there are scams of all sorts happening around us. With just 7 episodes, the pacing of the storytelling was well-managed with hardly any draggy moments and also provided a nice balance of nail-biting moments threatening to expose the scam.
- It's been a while since I was impressed with the BGM and sound effects of a work. Kudos goes to Ishino Takkyu this time for the BGM which was spot-on in accentuating the atmosphere and tension of the scenes. Sound effects deserve special mention especially during the more violent and gory scenes. You actually don't get to see what happened but the sound effects were so realistic and compelling enough to make me grimace and cringe through my imagination because it was as good as seeing the bloody violence unfold in front of me. I felt that this left a deeper impression on me as compared to seeing the gore dished up on screen.
- The acting was simply superb especially the interaction between Toyokawa Etsushi and Ayano Go which felt like an evenly-matched ball game with a never-ending rally. The supporting cast lineup was charismatic and they delivered memorable performances. Unfortunately, if there is ever a sequel, the cast lineup would pretty much see an overhaul because of the high body count towards the end of the story.
Disliked:
- Illogical loopholes in the stories of dramas and movies are aplenty but I get it that in this drama, it was probably meant to show that despite how far-fetched this scam was, it was still successful due to greed, complacency, urge to succeed, lack of compliance and checks. The thing is, some parts were just too ridiculous to be true and failed to convince me. For example, the owner of the house is in a taxi heading towards her house on a straight road and she is definitely not more than 1km away from her gate. Yet, she fails to see a bunch of people coming out of her supposedly locked house and two men trying to close her wooden gate frantically before she alights from the taxi. When she reaches her gate and sees that it was unlocked with a new lock that she had never seen before dangling there, why wouldn't she feel alarmed about it? Seriously? Was she looking elsewhere while in the taxi or had poor eyesight?
- Insensitivity or harmless humour? To be honest, using the name Sekiyo House in an obvious reference to Sekisui House which was the victim in the 2017 land fraud case could be seen as either being insensitive to the victim or the creators of this drama/novel engaging in harmless fun. I wasn't so bothered by this but when Pierre Taki's character criticised Kitamura Kazuki's character in jest for being addicted to drugs, I thought that this was inappropriate. Especially when you consider that Taki himself was convicted for cocaine possession and consumption offences and left a trail of mess for those who worked with him, I wonder if those who were affected adversely by his actions back then and had to deal with the aftermath would still be able to laugh at these joking remarks. Whether these were part of the script or ad-libs from Taki, I wasn't that amused by these jokes which appeared more than once in this drama. No wonder there was criticism towards Taki as to how he could have the cheek to say such lines after what he did.
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