Currently watching: Tantei no Tantei

In this show a woman whose sister was murdered becomes a private detective to try and find the other private detective who she believes fed information to the person who killed her sister. And so she works for a detective agency as the only person in the “Versus Detectives” department, tracking down misdemeanors by rival detectives.

Episode one set everything up very neatly, with allies and enemies all put in place. There’s also some kind of connection to the murdered sister and a new detective who recently joined the agency. The storyline moves at a decent pace and it shows plenty of potential.

This show has a strong cast, and I'm especially happy to see Arata Iura as the head of the agency. But this is very much a Kitagawa Keiko vehicle. This means there's a lot riding on her performance. Despite her long and successful career, when I think of Japanese actresses best suited for a cop drama, her name isn't on the list. In episode one, she treads a fine line between looking stern and just looking miserable. However, I do remember her being the best thing in the film Elevator to the Gallows (although in a minor role) so I hope she can take this opportunity to show what she's got.

Furthermore, she gave a convincing performance in the flashback to the scene of the murder. Which is good, because I get the feeling we'll be seeing that flashback in every single episode.

Just finished: Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de

Just watched the last episode and, well, that’s a lot of talking. On the bright side, there’ll be no spoilers in this review, because it would take at least two whole paragraphs to explain the twisty turny solution to the final murder.

In the last episode, the writers give us a lengthy solution to the two murders from the previous episode. There’s a little bit of comedy and investigation, but mostly it concerns endless flashbacks and explanations to every tiny detail. The trouble is, it was far too complicated for such a simple murder.

That was also a problem with episode eight, in which the murderer is revealed halfway through and the rest of the episode was just talking. It was as if the makers of the programme just thought that as long as Kitagawa Keiko and Sakurai Sho were onscreen then that was enough. It didn’t seem to matter that they weren’t saying anything useful.

I enjoyed this show, the comedy was funny and some of the crimes were interesting. But the programme often got the timing wrong on when to change from investigating to explaining, so that there was too much time spent with people sitting in one room discussing the crime.

It ends with the hint of a second series. I’ll be watching it when it comes out, and hoping that they get the mix of words and action right.

Currently watching: Nazotoki wa Dinner no Ato de

Perhaps the main thing I noticed about the first two episodes of this series was how glad I was to see that the cast of Yuusha Yoshihiko to Maou no Shiro are still getting work. Kinami Haruka is the murder victim in episode one, while Muro Tsuyoshi is a suspect in the second.

That aside, this series is a murder mystery show with a rather unlikely premise. Kitagawa Keiko plays a rookie detective who also happens to be an heiress to a huge fortune. Her boss is an incompetent, vain buffoon (played by Shiina Kippei), so she relies on help from her butler to solve the cases.

At only two episodes, I can’t really tell how well written the mysteries are. The conclusions to both episodes have been a surprise, but I can’t tell if that’s due to the clues being cleverly hidden, or if it’s because the ending is so unlikely I never even considered it.

But it’s not really about the murders. This is a comedy and most of the humour comes from Keiko’s boss’s inflated self-opinion and from Keiko’s ineptitude. Meanwhile the butler (played by Arashi’s Sakurai Sho) is calm and collected, as he guides his employer to the solution. I feel a bit sorry of Sakurai Sho who has to stand almost perfectly still while Kitagawa Keiko takes up the rest of the screen but then the tables are turned when she’s the newbie detective and she has to play second fiddle to Shiina Kippei’s larger-than-life character.

This is a lot of fun, but I found I had a strange reaction to the show: The moment the murderer is revealed, I lost interest. Instantly. As each story closed with a scene or two about how sad it is that someone died, I was sighing heavily and looking around the room for something to distract me. Odd, that.

Just watched: Elevator to the Gallows (2010)

This is a remake of a 1958 French film (which I haven’t seen but it has 8 out of ten on IMDB) and while it tries to be sophisticated and intelligent, it’s a fairly empty tale.

A man (Abe Hiroshi) kills his lover’s husband. But a minor mistake quickly escalates, and he finds himself stuck in an elevator. Meanwhile, his car is stolen by a cop who is following a crime boss and... well, it’s all very complicated.

At first, it does feel a lot like the two stories are entirely unconnected, which makes it quite frustrating to watch. Then the lover (Kichise Michiko) has some sort of dream sequence halfway through, and I turned off.

The next day, I gave it another try and the second half does get better once the murder(s) are discovered and the police slowly tie the two crimes together but even at its best, this is a fairly mundane film. The acting is okay (Kitagawa Keiko makes a good impression as the cop’s girlfriend) but the directing is slow and ponderous. Shots are held for too long – far longer than necessary. The photography isn’t interesting enough that you appreciate the chance to linger over the lighting or composition etc, so I found myself getting quite impatient.

That’s the second crime thriller I've seen this week that was all style and no substance. And, frankly, not much style. Pity.

Currently watching: Mop Girl

I first saw the first episode of this years ago and then, for reasons I can’t remember, didn’t watch any more. But then it popped back into my head recently, so I thought I’d give it another go.

This series from 2007 is about a woman who, when she touches the personal possessions of someone who’s died recently, is transported back to the beginning of that day and has to make sure she’s in the right places at the right times to try and save that person’s life.

After Tsuki no Koibito and Lady Saigo no Hanzai Profile, it’s nice to be reminded why Kitagawa Keiko is famous. She bounces through this comedy, full of energy and amusing faces. It’s certainly funny, although the jokes are never going to win any awards for subtlety, and a slap on the back of the head while yelling “Baka!” seems to be the punchline to most of them.

For anyone looking for something to fill the gap left by Reinoryokusha... this is definitely has the same feel. And it also has Tanihara Shousuke in the role of Keiko’s unwilling crime-busting partner. It’s a comedy first and a murder mystery second, so don’t expect any clever storylines, but as a comedy it works fine.

Just finished: Tsuki no Koibito

* tiny spoilers *

The last episode of this series set in the giddy jet-set world of furniture design and retailing ends with a double-length episode. Watching it wrap up all the loose ends with a whole bunch of happy endings was pleasant enough, though I was left wondering what the attraction to Rensuke was.

With barely any emotional display on his part, I was reminded of an experiment I read about when people were shown a photo of a baby next to a photo of someone with a blank expression. They described this person's expression as caring. Then they were shown a photo of a knife and the same photo of the person again. This time they described the person's expression as being angry.

This is kind of how I felt watching the show. Rensuke hugs a woman with the same expression as when he carves a bit of wood or looks for his keys. I felt like the show was asking me to read into those scenes whatever I wanted. I'm aware of the fondness in J-dramas (and videogames) for the hero to be a blank slate, tongue tied and distant, but it's one I'd never really liked. Give me Final Fantasy 9's wise-cracking romantic Zidane over FF8's sour-faced Squall any day. And so it was here. After Mr Brain I did hope for something more from Kimura Takuya, and reading people's reactions on various forums, he's been better in other romantic comedies, so I'll hunt around, give those a go. Perhaps.

Shinohara Ryoko, though. Aces ten.

Currently watching: Tsuki no Koibito

It’s weird, but sometimes you meet people who really impress you. They’ve got a confidence and an air about them that makes me want to like them. Although I’m old and cynical and should be above being so easily led and even though when I think back and look at it dispassionately, I’m sometimes left wondering about my eagerness to please.

Tsuki no Koibito has a similar effect on me. If you were to describe it to me, I wouldn't give it a chance. But having watched it, I find a super confident, charismatic show that’s clearly had a lot of money and talent thrown at it. Japanese is joined by Chinese and English in the dialogue to give it a jet-set international feel, and it’s all done with such chutzpah that it’s easy to get swept along.

Set in a successful company that runs up-market department stores, it follows the adventures of the dispassionate president (Kimura Takuya, Mr Brain), his scheming PA (Matsuda Shota, Liar Game), the President’s girlfriend who’s more of a business deal than a life choice (Kitagawa Keiko) and a Chinese woman made unemployed by the company and then hired as a model (Lin Chi Ling) on the orders of the President, who’s in love with her. Maybe.

Should this sound too glamorous, there’s the down-to-earth designer (Shinohara Ryoko, looking fantastic in casual clothes) and her assistant who seems to take a similar delight in the gossip as the viewer is supposed to. Add some neat cameos, and you’d be hard pressed to find a weakness in terms of performance.

The story, too, is solid. Although there’s an uncharacteristic dip into sappy cliché at the end of episode one when the opening of the company’s first store in Shanghai is accompanied by the usual feel good images, which don’t really sit well with the rest of the show. Obviously, the main story continues throughout the series, so my guess is that this scene was added on just to give some kind of conclusion to part one. Things are looking interesting enough that I'm going to give this a shot.