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Wednesday, September 13, 2017

Million Yen Women drama: Episodes seven and eight recaps


 Air Dates: April 14 to June 30, 2017 on TV Tokyo, Fridays at 1:00 am

Main Cast:

Yojiro Noda as Shin Michima
Rena Matsui as Hitomi Tsukamoto
Rena Takeda as Midori Suzumura
Rila Fukushima as Minami Shirakawa
Yuko Araki as Nanaka Seki(murdered in episode seven)
Miwako Wagatsuma as Yuki Kobayashi
Lily Franky as Tatsuyuki Michima
Takashi Yamanaka as Seiji Sakurai
Tomoya Nakamura as Yuzu Hanaki
Tetsuhiro Ikeda as Ryuichi Moriguchi

  This has been kind of an up and down watch, there's long stretches which very little happens and the show really goes at a snail's pace. But there's also many shows which have been very good and your interest level is very high. Had both of those things in this seventh episode but what happened was truly unexpected and think the final four shows will be very suspenseful.



 The sixth episode ended with Shin winning a major literary award for his latest novel "Drifting Emotions". It was an unexpected honor as most had thought his rival Hanaki would win it as he's the most popular writer around. He may be popular but he's not that talented of an author, he seems to write what he thinks readers will like and unlike Shin has no joy in writing novels.
 At the awards ceremony it was revealed by a reporter that Shin's father is on death row for committing three murders five years ago. There was a big uproar and most felt the committee should take back the award which they wouldn't do, Shin shouldn't have to pay for the sins of his father. But all of the publicity has made Shin's novel one worth seeking out, before long it had topped the 200,000 mark for sales.
 Above is Nanaka asking out Shin for a casual date. She's a twenty year old actress who for the last year has rarely worked and she has many, many fans. For some reason Nanaka really likes Shin, she finds him interesting and may like the fact that they became friends even though he knew nothing about her acting career.




 Though the pair did embrace it didn't go any further or at least for now is what Nanaka was thinking. That's about the only event that took place in the first half of this 22 minute show. Shin's rival Hanaki, who was furious at not winning the literary award, had asked his editor to set a date up with Nanaka which she managed to do. He's a big fan and they did meet back a few episodes ago as she did a celebrity interview with him which didn't make Hanaki look all that good.
 The two go out for dinner and Nanaka slyly really lays her thoughts onto him. She says truthfully that he's not a talented writer as he's just interested in fame and fortune, he holds his anger back but he know she's 100% correct. The dinner didn't last too long as Nanaka couldn't stand being around Hanaki too long, she leaves the restaurant and calls Shin to tell him she's on her way home.




 As you can see above the short kiss the pair had was somehow photographed and it was a headline feature in many tabloid mags. What it did was to make Shin's novel even more popular as by the end of the eighth episode sales were coming close to a million copies sold! Shin had waited for Nanaka to return home which never happened, he ended up going to sleep.
 What happens next was something none of us ever imagined would happen in this show. The next morning Minami wakes up Shin and the other three women and says they had better prepare for a very long day. To all of us viewer's amazement she led the group to Nanaka's room where she was sitting in a chair.... murdered!!!!
 Wow, that was definitely a scene none of us expected and naturally all five of the housemates were in grief. How it happened is a mystery as no one heard Nanaka enter the house nor her murderer as the crime took place in her room as she was slashed with a knife and you would have thought there would have been a commotion.




 The police started an investigation but none of the five housemates were suspects. Shortly after it was announced on the news that a deranged fan had killed Nanaka which may or may not be true and will say why in a bit.
 To me and I'll bet many others Hanaki is the prime suspect. This guy is is setting a new standard for being a class one jerk in this show and after their minor spat at the restaurant have a feeling he set this murder up. Perhaps that was the main reason for having the dinner with Nanaka to draw her out of the house so someone could commit the crime.
 Hanaki also thinks her murder will increase his sales as he was the last one to see Nanaka alive, really hoping he meets a grisly end. One thing that hasn't been talked about is the fax machine Shin has in the apartment. Ever since his father committed the murders he's been receiving faxes with hate messages on them, for some reason he's never got rid of the machine.




 It finally came out that the mother of Moriguchi had been sending them. She's the mother of the police officer Shin's father had killed by accident, she's never forgiven the father for the crime. However she told Shin she's stopped sending the faxes, now it's someone else and he knew that by the writing and tone of the messages.
 Once again to me think Hanaki has a hand in sending the hate messages. Coming to a conclusion as almost all of these events happened in the eighth episode. Looks like once again Minami will be the one to come to the rescue, she did it for Midori in the fourth show. Her driver and bodyguard Sunako has many connections with the police and underworld, it appears he's found out who is behind Nanaka's murder though it's still a mystery to us.
 At dinner that night Minami announced her discovery to everyone but she won't tell them who is behind it. Unsure if that crazed fan actually did the murder but she found out that he had been in debt for 30 million yen, if he turned himself in someone would cover his entire debt. Hanaki seems like the most logical candidate and Minami has also told the others she knows who sent the invitations to live with Shin and why. By the way she was explaining some of her discoveries it seems like this murder could have been planned out many months in advance and that's where the show ends.




 That second episode was such an interesting and suspenseful watch and though we hate to see Nanaka killed it really sets things up for an intriguing final four shows. Have no clue how things will end and like it that way as I've seen too many dramas where you know how they'll end after two shows. Will be back the same time next week with the recaps for episodes nine and ten, if they're superb may recap all four final shows back to back.




























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