"Sutekina Sen Taxi" drama: Episode one recap

 

 Air Dates: October 14th to December 16, 2014 on Fuji-TV, Tuesday nights at 10:00 pm

Writer: Bakarhythm  Average rating: 9.4%

Main Cast:

Yutaka Takenouchi as Edawakare.... Slightly daffy driver of a special taxi that can transport a passenger back in time.

Nao Minamisawa as Natsuki.... Waitress at the Cafe Choice

Nana Seino as Kanna.... Another waitress at the cafe

Bakarhythm as Hiroshi.... Server at the cafe and the writer of this series

Guest Stars:

Ken Yasuda as Hideki Murakami

Manami Konishi as Kaori Urasawa

 Not an odd choice for my next drama series as this had been on my radar for many years now, so many that I'm only about six years late! Yutaka has been one of my fave actors and the first series I saw him in was "Heaven's Coins 1" from 1995 and that's still one classic show. This drama ran for ten episodes but don't think I'll be recapping all of them, have two for today and will have another pair in a week. These are all stand alone shows so it doesn't matter if you read all of the recaps. The basic premise is of a taxi that can go back in time(!), will explain everything in the recaps.

 Though there's a regular cast only taxi driver Edawakare gets much screen time and the series does revolve around him though the key figures are the guest stars. The top two screenshots are from his favorite hangout which is a smallish place called 'Cafe Choice'. Think the name of the cafe refers to the main theme of the show which is that all of us have choices in life and do we take the right one? We don't see too may scenes at the cafe which is a shame as Nao is kind of a fave of mine who I haven't seen in enough shows. At the cafe the workers are usually watching or talking about a police drama called "Criminal Detective", it seems it'd be a cool series of it's own and you'll see it in a few screenshots, let's get to the first story and the guest stars are often faces most drama fans will know.

 The action begins shortly after 9:00 pm, that afternoon there had been a heist at a Ginza jewelry store which we learned of in the beginning and will play a key part in the story at the end. Rushing to a restaurant to meet his girlfriend is Hideki who has with him an engagement ring as this could be the biggest night of his life. It will be but not in ways that he could have imagined. Waiting patiently at the elite restaurant was his girlfriend Kaori who was in a snit as Hideki was twenty minutes late. All of his plans had to be thrown out the window as Kaori was on the offense the second he sat down. For being so late didn't she deserve a call from from Hideki letting her know he'd be running late and to top it off why couldn't he have even apologized to her?!

 Kaori did calm down a tad but was still throwing her boyfriend some barbs. The pair have been going out for eight years now and isn't it time Hideki started to make something of his life? When they first began dating Hideki was a struggling actor, the problem is after all these years he still is a struggling actor with his only claim to fame is having a five second scene in "Criminal Detective". Things went even further downhill and Kaori suggested the pair call it quits and fled the restaurant while Hideki was talking with the manager. He chased after his girlfriend but was detained for a few seconds by the police who were searching the area for the Ginza store thieves. That gave Kaori just enough time to hail a cab and zoon away. Luckily for Hideki in the area was another taxi which was driven by Edawakare and he's about to have the ride(s) of his life!

 Edawakare caught on real quick to Hideki's dilemma, woman running out of a restaurant followed by a frantic man must mean just one thing, the pair had a major spat. Of course mumbled Hideki but it's no time for playing detective as a cab needs to be caught up to but Edawakare is someone who obeys all speed limits and the other taxi was soon out of sight. 'Not all is lost' remarked Edawakare to a dejected Hideki as he has a possible solution and one that was unfathomable to his passenger. For a 'price' Edawakare can transport Hideki back in time, perhaps not that far back but Hideki only needs to go back about twenty minutes. Edawakare went on his spiel about how we've all come across situations in our lives where we wish we could go back and change a few things on how it was handled. That event to a person could be about a job, their children, school and many other things, for Hideki it was trying to change how he acted at dinner. Almost forgot to mention the charge for going back. It varies according to how far you need to go back in time, the twenty mi9nutes for Hideki set him back 10,000 yen, back in 2014 that was a little over $91.

 So Hideki said sure, if you can go back in time he'd be willing to pay. Edawakare's cab is something quite unique and wonder if we'll ever learn how it works. There was no sort of explosion or time tunnel travel but within moments Hideki was back to 9:20 pm and attempted to do everything all over again with hopefully better results. Kind of worked at first as he apologized profusely to Kaori in a respectful manner though he wouldn't stop until she told Hideki to shut his trap! Dinner went much smoother this time, least now they were eating and before they didn't even make it that far. It was finally the big moment for Hideki who had the engagement ring burning a hole in his jacket pocket, he slid it across the table to the love of his life though never said a word. Not the most romantic way to propose murmured Kaori but deep down she was jumping for joy and was gong to respond with a YES!

 Before that could happen she noticed sitting at a nearby table was a man who she seemed to know or actually would rather not know. He approached the table and knew Kaori's name, didn't she recognize him from a drinking party that took place a few nights ago? 'Probably not' this unnamed man said as Kaori was a bit tipsy that night but amused the other party goers with her tales of her failed actor boyfriend! Needless to say Kaori couldn't look Hideki's way and with good reason, now it was time for someone to flee but now it Hideki who grabbed the ring and departed the restaurant. Still outside was Edawakare and Hideki briefly explained what Kaori had done. Besides having a magical taxi Edawakare is also a semi philosopher and told Hideki it probably didn't come mean like it sounded, shouldn't he give Kaori the benefit of the doubt? Hideki sighed and said Edawakare was right, once again a fee of 10,000 yen was spent to return back to the dinner.

 Didn't happen in the next show but it did in this one which is that time 'stopped'. When Hideki went back into the restaurant everyone was frozen and that also happened to other things such as coffee being poured. Second time may be the charm as Hideki heard the rest of what this man had to day about Kaori at the drinking party. It's true she did say some unkind things about her boyfriend but also couldn't stop gushing about Hideki and how in love she was with him. Hideki was grinning ear to ear and looks like the engagement is back on but before the dinner could be finished tragedy struck. Entering the place was the trio of thieves who had robbed the Ginza jewelry store, they had been chased there by the police who were outside ready to invade the restaurant. To them a way to get the police to retreat would be to take some hostages, more to the point was to shoot one to show the police they mean business.

 Of course Hideki was the person chosen to be shot and his life had only a few seconds to go. But as you can see above jumping in the way was Kaori who truly did love Hideki regardless of some mean things she's said to him. The trio didn't care who the victim was so they shot Kaori who quickly bled to death with Hideki holding her helplessly. Meanwhile Edawakare was at the Cafe Choice where he saw the hostage situation on TV and knew he had to rush there. Which is what he did and in the nick of time as Hideki had a thought and dashed out of the restaurant to hopefully find the magical taxi. And it was there but Hideki only had 3,000 yen left to his name but Edawakare said that would be enough as he only had to go back five minutes. Wonder what Edawakare would have done if he was flat broke?

 So now it's back to the restaurant, what took place stayed the same as the criminals took Hideki and said he would be their sacrifice. This time he said some words to Kaori which made her stay in her place and in a heroic act took a bullet in the chest to save the other hostages. Naturally Kaori was beside herself with grief but then did something unexpected which is that she dashed out of the restaurant and tore through the line of police. Behind it was Edawakare waiting in his taxi, don't know how she knew but Kaori was aware of it's special powers. In a bright move to end the show off she too asked to go back in time but not just a few minutes but a whole day. When Kaori was transported back the first thing she did was to text Hideki and say that dinner was still on for tomorrow but could they go do a different restaurant? And that scene ended this show which was an enjoyable watch but a bit long.

 What I mean by a bit long was that it was 57 minutes in length which is common for a first episode in a Japanese series, rest are 46 minutes long. This first show was decent and so wasn't the second episode though it did start off a bit slowly. Did say I may not recap the entire series but then again if the shows stay enjoyable and interesting just may do all ten episodes. The recap for episode two is the next post and have plenty of screenshots to help you follow the story a bit better.