Minami Hamabe: "Talio Fukushu Daiko no Futari" drama episode one recap

 

 Air Dates: October 9th until November 20, 2020 on NHK... Friday nights at 10:00 pm

Title roughly translates over to Eye for an Eye Revenge Agency's Two People

Main Cast: Just three characters for this first show but may add in Mami's father in later

Minami Hamabe as Mami Shirasawa.... Twenty year old lawyer which may seem hard to believe. Mami never attended a regular college but passed the difficult 'Bar Exam Preliminary Test' which seems to be the same as a law degree. She's working at the Armstrong Law Firm but is the lowest on the totem pole and doesn't have the respect of her co-workers yet, especially Kogure.

Masaki Okada as Kensuke Kuroiwa..... Runs the Kuroiwa agency which is a shady operation that scams those down on their luck which is how he met Mami. However he's quite an intelligent man who appears to know more about how the law works than she does.

 Guest Stars:

Ito Shiraishi as Yoriko Watanuki.... Mami was her lawyer in a court case as Yoriko had been sexually assaulted by Zaitsu who somehow was acquitted but that wasn't the end of the case.

Ryosuke Miura as Hiroki Zaitsu.... The assaulter of Yoriko who got off innocent with the help of his powerful father but he got his just dues at the end.

 Been a while since I viewed a prime time show or at least one that I'll be sticking with. This series lasts for seven episodes, will be watching them all but not sure if I can keep up with posting a recap every week as there's two other dramas I'm currently doing that for. But that may not matter as these are stand alone shows and for now there's no ongoing storyline but think one may arise for Mami finding her long lost father. Minami is the star of this show which is often the case for her in dramas. This is the fifth one I've watched with her since the beginning of 2018, that first show was "Kakegurui" which I still consider to be her best leading role. Haven't done a regular post for her in a while but she has been busy as she had another drama that just ended a few weeks ago. Let's get to the action, solid first show which has the potential to improve a bit and this episode was 43 minutes in length.

 Mami is just twenty in age but is already a lawyer following in her father's footsteps. However she hasn't seen him for over a decade as he was the target of a coverup and took the fall for a crime he didn't commit. Shortly after he was falsely charged the elder Shirasawa fled the household and not a word has been heard of him since. Mami's mother was so distraught on his fleeing that she hung herself and Mami ended up living with relatives until her high school graduation. Her dream was to become an attorney like her father but had no intentions of attending a university for six years. So Mami took a course which I had never heard of called 'Bar Exam Preliminary Test' which is quite difficult with only 3% passing. She was one of the few that was successful and at the tender age of twenty Mami is a lawyer but wouldn't you think a bit more training was or should be involved?

 The Armstrong Law Firm was Mami's landing spot but it's been a rough go for this wunderkind. Until this episode she had never represented a client in a court case and her 'peers' considered Mami to be too young and inexperienced which they still do by the show's conclusion. The firm has a client lodging a sexual assault case against a young man whose father is quite known and wealthy, the woman Yoriko has no chance for a victory yet wants to pursue justice. Knowing the case was a lost cause it was assigned to Mami as the office thought the case had no chance in court which was true as the fiendish man Hiroki walked free. Even if Mami had prepared a solid case there's no way the man would have been sentenced, what made it worse is that Mami learned Yoriko was the victim of a scammer because of the case.

 This scammer runs a revenge agency and claimed to Yoriko he could set things right if the court couldn't. Of course that wasn't the case but Mami said to go through with the meeting so she could tail this scam artist. He wanted a million yen at their bogus meeting which Yoriko said she'll pay at their next encounter, as this man left he was followed(quite badly) by Mami. The destination was the office of the Kuroiwa Agency, that's the man's last name with his first being Kensuke. It's not just a fake revenge agency but one that scams others in so many other activities but for now Mami could care less about them. She's come to collect Yoriko's 100,000 yen deposit and for Kensuke to write a letter stating how he duped her. Which he did but it came out later that it was written in invisible ink and though she's quite smart it's kind of easy to fool Mami.

 We did see much of Kensuke in this episode and he does have the second lead in the drama. But he didn't make too much of an impact in this first show or at least one which was very noticeable. Have to say that Kensuke is quite an astute man and seems he may have made a better lawyer than Mami as he also has those 'street smarts' about him which she doesn't. Mami's returned the 100,000 yen to Yoriko who still wants to see justice done even though the trial was a failure. It being her first case Mami was all in agreement and she's back on the case a bit secretly as she doesn't want her immediate supervisor Kogure to know it. That woman is close to fifty in age and really hasn't taken a liking towards Mami. Kogure originally had the case but knowing it would be a lost cause she gave it to Mami however Kogure was a bit inept in how she first set up the case.

 Mami's doing everything in her power to find evidence against this Hiroki character which is proving difficult. His father is very powerful and wealthy, with that combo he's ben able to influence others on what to say about the case and has destroyed or hidden evidence. Hiroki's popular hangout was a hostess club but he wasn't around when Mami paid a visit but it almost got her into hot water as there were minors present. Mami's had a lot of potential leads but all were blocked by the father or his devious lawyer, there may be one saving piece of evidence which is a videotape of Hiroki and Yoriko entering his building. It was first presumed lost or erased but that may not be the case as the previous manager of Hiroki's apartment building was fired to hush him up, The video containing the damning evidence of him with Yoriko could be with the ex-manager and it's a hunt to find him.

 Have been able to keep hour long Korean dramas at three segments so should be able to do it for a 43 minute episode so this will be the final part. That second screenshot above is of Mami talking into a recorder which she does often, she's keeping a journal of her activities for when she decides to write her autobiography! At the end of a fruitless day Mami returned to her apartment which is owned by the law firm, there was a threatening note on the door telling her to drop the case. But it was all a ruse by Kensuke who wanted to get into Mami's place to retrieve some documents she took from his office. Mami wasn't duped this time and the pair did come to an agreement about Yoriko's assault case. Wasn't fully explained why but Kensuke does want revenge on this Hiroki scumbag and is willing to help Mami out, he's also worried about her as she's so easy to deceive.

 Takaishi was a friend of Yoriko's and it was him who set up the date for her with Hiroki. He owns a small real estate office and owes the father a large debt, for that he agreed to set up Hiroki with his friend and also to help suppress evidence after the incident. Mami caught on quickly to Takaishi's intentions and really plead with him to come clean about everything which didn't work but did plant the seed in Takaishi's mind to bring Hiroki and his father down. Takaishi has a small family which he's worried about and if he could only give his wife the business without it coming off as a scam. Mami knows every law in the book and with Kensuke's help was able to do that for Takaishi though his wife was clueless what took place. Kensuke had arranged for Takaishi to accompany him to a hostess club where he got quite tipsy, Kensuke took pictures of him flirting which seemed to be enough to give the wife rights to her husband's real estate business.

 It was quite a nice plan and we didn't realize what had really happened until the end. But now Takaishi has said he'll do whatever it takes to bring Hiroki down and he was able to locate the ex-manager of his apartment who does have that video tape of Hiroki with Yoriko. A meeting was set up to obtain the tape for a large sum of money that was supplied by Kensuke and no doubt from his scamming profits.The exchange went slightly awry as Mami attempted to steal the hard drive from the laptop but Takaishi was able to grab and ran away. However he was chased by the ex-manager of Hiroki's apartment and when cornered threw the hard drive into the ocean and along with it any hopes of Yoriko getting revenge?

 No is the answer to that as justice was served in the show's final scene. Of all things it took place at Hiroki's wedding and what woman would want to get hitched with such a low life yet a rich one? Once again we learned something after the fact which was that Takaishi hadn't thrown the real hard drive into the ocean but an extra one he had for the occasion. So at the wedding he played the video in front of a hall packed with so many elite guests and there was no way Hiroki could get out of this jam. So justice was done for Yoriko as Hiroki will now be awaiting a long prison sentence and could this be the beginning of a long partnership for Mami and Kensuke?

 Did enjoy this first episode but do have a complaint. That's of us viewers learning about so many details 'after the fact' such as that second hard drive, the invisible ink, the plot to switch ownership of the real estate business and a few other minor ones. It often does happen when we learn things later on but wish there weren't so many and also hope the trend doesn't continue. Next week the "Do You Like Brahms' series will be ending and will be working on the final four recaps starting next Wednesday.

 So that will be taking up a lot of my drama watching and recapping time, also am planning on watching and hopefully writing up the first few shows of "Startup" which starts up tomorrow. Once those are all done will get back to this series and the second episode airs tonight. But with only one airing a week even if I fall behind it won't take long to catch up. This first recap was a bit longer which is always the case for an opening episode as so many things need to be explained. Plenty of screenshots from this show to help you follow the story a bit better.