"Abunai Deka" drama: Episode eighteen of 51(!!!!) recap

 

 Air Dates: October 5, 1986 until September 27,1987 on NTV, Sunday nights at 9:00 pm

Director: Toru Murakawa, this episode's rating was 17.4%

Subs were once again done by GEO9875, this was one huge project to do so will give a huge thumbs up for doing the subs and hope the recaps gives the series it's proper justice. 

Main Cast: Wrote much of this up after viewing the first two shows and know there will be a lot of editing to the bios as we have so much to learn about the characters. The first two get the most screen time by far but the other four main characters are also very key to this drama. The setting is the Minato Police Station in the Naka ward of Yokohama and the station is part of the Kanagawa prefectural police. If you enjoy J-Pop songs then this show has some superb tunes, most know I'm a fan but do prefer the music from the 80's. Plus there's no beating the hairdos of women from that era! This series also goes by the name of....

 Hiroshi Tachi as Toshiki Takayama.... You'll see Taka often in the screenshots. He's about a 35 year old man who is an investigator of serious crimes and the gangsters go out of their way to avoid him! Takayama has a bit of a 'cool persona' about him and is an ace with guns, he's the partner of Oshita but seems they didn't start working closely together until the first episode. While both are aces with guns their methods also get them in hot water with their superiors but the pair usually come out on top at the end as far as solving cases go.

Kyohei Shibata as Yuji Oshita.... About the same age as Takayama but looks younger. During the first episode Oshita blurted out he's got a bit of a shady past and it surprised many he became a sergeant. He knows how to pick a lock and some other methods criminals use, sure we'll find out more as time goes on. Like his new partner Takayama he is quite adept using all guns, unlike his partner Oshita isn't much of a 'people person' as Takayama is the one who often interviews witnesses, criminals or others. 

Atsuko Asana as Kaoru Mayama.... Member of the Juvenile Division which shares the same office as the Investigative Unit which Takayama and Oshita are a part of. Karou has gone out to crime scenes with the detectives but they never let her get in on the real action. However she is a tough woman who used to be a regular officer and knows how to use a gun well.

Toru Nakamura as Toru Machida.... Not a rookie but hasn't been an inspector for all that long. Machida is the best fighter in the unit and also the women swoon over him but he does have a girlfriend which he said in the first show. 

Nana Kinomi as Yuko Matsumura.... How about that hairdo?! Yuko is the chief of the Juvenile Division but haven't seen her make much of a contribution to any cases so far. She does share some unknown secret from the past with the Investigative chief Kondo that took place ten years ago, will that become part of the story? She's also quite the 'Fashion Queen' who often shows up at the station in some new glittering outfit.

Shizuo Chujo as Takuzo Kondo.... Chief of the Investigation Unit, smart man but seems to be more concerned on what he'll be having for lunch! But at one time Kondo was feared by the Yokohama gangsters and has been on the force for thirty years.

 There's a few more minor characters such as the detective Yoshi, chief Tanaka and female officer Hitomi,  if their roles become larger will add them onto this list.

 

Previous recaps

Episode one .... Episode two    Episode three .... Episode four .... Episode five

Episode six .... Episode seven .... Episode eight .... Episode nine .... Episode ten

Episode eleven .... Episode twelve .... Episode thirteen .... Episode fourteen

Episode fifteen .... Episode sixteen

   

 

 The rating for this episode was 17.4% which was the highest by far to date. This series just kept getting more popular as it went along as so many shows ended up going well over 20%. Have said a few times how this is the final episode of the second season though there were no breaks between any of the six seasons. Also mentioned that after the two recaps for today would be taking about a three week break from this drama as I don't want to get tired of it plus there's a few other shows I need to view and recap, let's get to things and of course this episode was another winner!

 This was another show where two cases ended up merging into one and that was mainly because of the culprit who ended up being the key figure in both of them. In this second season we've been seeing much more of the others who work at the Minato precinct. As this episode began off the rookie officer Takeda was making the rounds for only his second time, up to now he's always worked at the station's info desk or do other clerical work. With Takeda on patrol was of all people Takayama and you'd think his chief Kondo wouldn't want him teaching others about his 'not by the book methods' though they always work. The pair responded to a call at an abandoned warehouse and there's been one of them in every show. What the pair witnessed was in the top screenshot, to Takayama it looked like World War III! The two spilt up and shortly after Takayama entered the building a man jumped behind him with a machine gun, that's the second screenshot. It would take Japan's elite troops to bring Takayama down and maybe even they couldn't! Takayama quickly whisked the gun out of the soldier's hand while pulling out his own revolver, would Takayama have shot the man?

 Probably not but soon rushing up was Takeda and guess what, all of what they witnessed was a Survival Game and I had the inkling that's what it was all about. Takayama had never heard of that game and for some reason he was beyond furious with the man he subdued along with all of the other 'soldiers'. Before he left Takayama gave that man named Nozawa such a berating, you could tell then we'd be hearing again from this man. Right away as a matter of fact for that evening he visited his girlfriend Yuko and told her all about this investigator named Takayama. Yuko couldn't stop laughing at the story which infuriated Nozawa to no end, so much he ended strangling the woman to death! Don't think Nozawa thought he could do such an act but doing that will soon open the floodgates. He covered his tracks at Yuko's apartment well but did leave a message in the bottom screenshot above. It was for Takayama but what did it mean, with the other officers all thought the killer was referring to another man named Takayama which we soon found out wasn't the case.

 The second story had to deal with a kidnapping or at least all at the Minato station thought it was. The branch manager at the local Toyo Bank called and told the Investigative Division chief Kondo his daughter Yumi was abducted and the ransom was 30 million yen! The father will pay and was told to go to the Yokohama Station to make the delivery but upon arriving there a call was placed to him changing the location. The father's name was Takahashi and he quickly jumped into a taxi, trailing the vehicle was our other 'hero' Oshita who was with another detective I hadn't seen before. The taxi stopped at a bridge, Takahashi leapt out of the vehicle and threw a bag with the ransom money over the ledge. Waiting below was a young man who took the bag and zoomed off though he was just on foot. Even if this lad Akio had a car there's no way he could escape from Oshita who soon caught up with the young man who ended up falling off a pier into Yokohama harbor. Case solved but Oshita's chief Kondo was furious with the methods used and the pair were lucky things didn't turn out worse.

 As it turned out it wasn't a kidnapping case, this young man told the Juvenile Division's investigator Karou that Yumi was his accomplice! The two were going to use the 30 million yen to elope with and that's not the end of the story as far as Yumi is concerned. Meanwhile Takayama is on Yuko's murder case working with another investigator named Yoshi who we do see often though I don't talk about him that much. Yuko worked at a firm called Keihin Securities, she was 25 in age and guess who else worked there? Her part-time boyfriend and her killer Nozawa, in the second to last screenshot Takayama bumped into the 29 year old man at the firm but at the time had no suspicions of him. Nothing panned out at the firm and upon returning to the Minato station Takayama received a call, that's in the bottom screenshot above. The caller was Nozawa who had his voice disguised, he's told Takayama a game is about to begin and all for now are clueless what this caller was talking about.

 At this point is when the stories combine into one. Nozawa just wanted to commit any kind of crime to humiliate Takayama, he had no definite plans but thought about kidnapping a person. Nozawa headed to a cafe where he noticed a young woman sitting by herself, of all people of was Yumi who was part of that kidnapping/ransom scheme with her boyfriend Akio. At the time Yumi was unaware that he had been nabbed, Akio told the police where she would be so Karou and her assistant headed to this cafe. So both Karou and Nozawa had their eye on Yumi with Karou approaching her before this creep could do anything, she had no idea about Nozawa yet. At the cafe Yumi took out a bottle of some pinkish goop which you can see above, she sprayed it on Karou and her partner which allowed her to flee the cafe. Just as Yumi left the place passing by was Nozawa in his car, what an unexpected gift for him!!!! Unaware of who this man was Yumi jumped in before Karou could come after her and what a mistake that was, soon she was tied up as a hostage at Nozawa's shabby apartment. He soon called the MInato station and is demanding a ransom of five million yen, Nozawa wants the deliveryman to be Takayama and if not the girl is history!

 **** The next longish scene was right out of the first Dirty Harry movie. In that film the villain Scorpio had abducted a teen girl and wanted a hefty ransom. Harry was sent all over San Francisco to make sure he didn't have any police following him but Harry was wired and his partner did keep up with his movements though in the end it didn't help the girl. Same scenario here as when Takayama went to the original location to pay this goon the ransom money no one was there though he did hear a payphone ringing. Takayama answered it and from them on Nozawa, with his voice disguised, sent Takayama all over Yokohama. Takayama just had a certain amount of time to reach each location and he did some running, was impressed with that as Takayama seems to smoke five packs in each episode! Just like Harry Takayama also had a wire and his partner Oshita kept the tail up, this was unknown to Nozawa. Finally Takayama hit about eighth spot which was the final one, he couldn't see Nozawa who was on a building's roof. He told Takayama to drop the suitcase full of money and stand with his face against the side of the building, just like it occurred in the movie. Nozawa then dropped two bricks from above on Takayama which naturally put him out of commission, Nozawa appeared from the building and fled after picking up the ransom money.

 Arriving shortly after was Oshita who saw Nozawa fleeing, he gave chase but couldn't catch the fiend. But then again he had a more pressing matter which was to check on the status of his partner Takayama who of course was hurt by the pair of falling bricks but soon was recovered enough to join in the hunt for Nozawa. During this time Yumi had been tied up at Nozawa's apartment but eventually was able to slither out of the ropes. She couldn't call for help as he had cut the phone line so Yumi left the place and began to knock on the neighboring doors which no one answered. While that was going on Nozawa appeared back at the building, saw that Yumi had escaped and once again captured her. Don't think that Nozawa had ideas of truly killing Yumi like he did with Yuko but he's in a rage that she tried to escape from him. Nozawa didn't have much time as he knew the police were hot on his tail, he grabbed Yumi and dragged her to his car, there he subdued her with some kind of chemical  All that Survival Game training has made Nozawa become a bit ingenious, he brought Yumi to a secluded hill where he attached a timer, at first I thought it was a bomb and it's set to go off in two hours, at 10:00 pm.

 The timer was to release the emergency brake, at the bottom of the hill was a river and Yumi would have drowned to death. Nozawa then called the Minato police station and asked to talk with Takayama if he was recovered, that he was and was currently driving in a car with Oshita. The pair had quite the conversation which took place over the car's police radio, Nozawa's cockiness was sky high and he told Takayama to meet him outside a store. Which took place and as you can see above Nozawa grabbed a female hostage but in no time Oshita and Takayama subdued the creep, with Takayama pointing his pistol at Nozawa's head he confessed to where Yumi was. The pair made it there just in time as the device went off and the car began rolling down the hill. But in some very athletic moves Takayama was able to shoot the car's driver door off(!), jump from Oshita's moving vehicle and jam on the brakes just before the car would have plunged into the river! Wow, that was an exciting ending and the pair do most of their own stunts in this drama. So Yumi was all safe and sound though she wasn't a character you could have any sympathy for. So ends this recap, this has been one terrific series and one that I will highly recommend again. As said a few times prior will be taking a break for a few weeks so I don't get tired of this show and also because I want to view a few others.