"Abunai Deka" drama: Episode 29 of 51(!!!!) recap(season four, episode three)

 

 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 17.9%

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:  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 him referred to as 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.... that may have been a lie.

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.

  In the third season the roles of Yoshi and Tanaka have become much larger, will add them in for season four. In the two screenshots below Yoshi is on the left, Tanaka is right next to him.

 

Previous recaps: There's 51 episodes but they were divided into six seasons, there was no break between them. Season one was episode one to nine, second season was ten through eighteen and this third will run from the nineteenth until the 26th episode. Now we're up to season four, that will be episode's 27 through 35.

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 .... Episode seventeen .... Episode eighteen

Episode nineteen .... Episode twenty .... Episode twenty-one .... Episode twenty-two

Episode 23 .... Episode 24 .... Episode 25 .... Episode 26 .... Episode 27 .... Episode 28

 

 That's Kenichi Endo in that bottom screenshot above, he made a guest appearance as Akira Takasawa in this episode and it was one of his first acting jobs. He's been one of the top actors for about 25 years and though I haven't seen many of his things from the past five years bet I've seen him in a combined twenty movies and dramas. My personal fave is the 2002 film "Deadly Outlaw: Rekka", think I've viewed that 25 times and if you love action/Yakuza movies highly recommend it. He's getting up there in age as Endo turned 62 earlier this year. 

 Dressed in pink below is another guest star who is Yuko Kikuchi. Don't know much about her but I really like the way she looked in this episode, she was born in December 1967 and would have been nineteen when this episode aired. She was a semi-popular child actress but after this appearance only appeared in two more shows and then disappeared, wonder if she retired? Yuko played the character of Risa in this episode and she was one of the key figures to the story. Every episode up until now has been solid but this show began out a bit too slowly but by the halfway point things picked up and it turned out to be a decent watch though not as good as many previous episodes. EDIT: After writing the above up did watch episode #30 and that's the next post, bring it up for that was one of the more interesting shows to date in the series.

 In a rarity one half of the 'hero team' Oshita had the day off but when there's as many thugs in Yokohama as there appear to be a day off lasts for maybe twenty minutes! Oshita was roped into helping the Juvenile Unit investigator Karou out, the pair ended up driving to a reformatory school. While the pair were going to pick someone up there had been an incident down at the Honmoku Pier, that's the first two screenshots above. At the scene was Oshita's regular partner Takayama who on the day was paired up with Yoshi, aka Papa. You can see in that first screenshot there was a brutal murder as a young man's brains were blown out in the back of a car! His name was Koji Hirata who was 21 in age and though we never saw him alive he and a few of his mates are the keys to this episode's story. Back to Oshita and Kaoru who at the reformatory picked up the girl dressed in pink above, her name is Risa Moriyama and is eighteen in age. Three years ago Karou had arrested Risa for attempting to murder an American GI at a Yokohama wharf. At the time Risa was just fifteen in age so was sent to this school, now that she's done her time was being released.

 Karou had taken a liking towards Risa and felt she was a decent young girl who really had no chance at life due to such a bad family situation plus the crowd she hung out with. So Karou wanted to make sure there were no screwups with Risa this time around and would make sure she would be safe and sound after her release. At first Risa was such a difficult person to like, she had such a vicious tongue and being in a reformatory couldn't have helped. Before Risa was arrested three years ago she had been in a small time gang with five other males, their ages ranged from seventeen to twenty. That young man Hirata, who was just murdered, was also part of the gang though it didn't seem as though Risa cared for him all that much. Two of the other gang members, Abe and Kono, have attempted to turn their lives around and are doing well. Satoru was another member and Risa really liked him, he too was doing well and that's Takayama bending over him above, will say why in a moment. The fourth living member and the key to this story was Akira Takazawa in the second to last screenshot, he owns a bar and before it had been an arcade where the gang used to hang out at. Karou had figured Risa had no place to go as her mother could care less about her, that assumption was correct and for now Risa will be staying with Karou at her small apartment.

 The attention soon turned to the murder of Hirata, could Risa's discharge from reform school be any connection? Her old mates were being interviewed by the investigators from the Minato precinct, for the most part seemed liked that old gang had changed their ways and were trying to live a decent life. Not all for it seems Risa is still overly rebellious and there is one other man who is slightly suspicious. Takayama ended up questioning Satoru and now will say why he was bending over the young man. Takayama had visited Satoru at the repair shop where he was a mechanic, Satoru excused himself for a moment to take care of a customer and that was the last anyone saw him alive!!!! For ten seconds later Satoru was gunned down by a man on a motorcycle who quickly tore away, Takayama rushed over but it was too late as Satoru was dead. Takayama is an Ace motorcycle driver, he hopped on one at the garage and tore after the killer. He gave a valiant effort to catch up but this other cyclist was also an Ace and eventually escaped, could this man have also been the killer of Hirata? Once again Risa claimed not to know why one of her old gang mates had been slain, that infuriated the chief Kondo above who knew Risa was hiding something. Which was true and though such a arrogant and stern eighteen year old Satoru's death hit Risa hard as she had really liked the young man.

 Did say that Risa would be staying with the Juvenile Unit investigator Kaoru for a while that didn't even last one night! In the middle screenshot above when Risa entered the apartment for the first time she bashed Kaoru over the head, told her only she knew how to help out her old gang and fled. Not that Kaoru deserved a licking but she can be a bit overbearing at times so it's okay when she's put in her place now and again. A screenshot above shows a trio, on the left is Takazawa at his bar. He was joined by his two old gang mates Abe and Kono, they were discussing who could have killed Hirata and Satoru and why???? Something did happen three years ago, the Yakuza thug in that screenshot was mentioned but for now we were in the dark about that. Risa also entered the bar and said which of the three was going to be next as she had a strong inkling that the entire old gang is now being targeted! One of the members, Abe, was brought into the Minato station for more questioning and dropped a huge bombshell on Takayama and Oshita. Three years ago the gang had stolen five kilos(11 pounds) of meth from a Yakuza member, was this man now out for revenge? It didn't seem the gangster knew who had beaten him and stolen the drugs, he didn't for three years but has recently found out. Eleven pounds of meth may not seem like a lot but it certainly is and was worth quite a bit of money.

 Risa didn't trust the police to solve the murders of her friends Hirata and Satoru so took matters into her own hands. There was one other member from the disbanded group who was Ito, she grabbed him and said it's up to them to find the gangster and kill him! This Yakuza was a thug named Tomura, he's the one that Risa's gang had stolen the meth from and when the robbery happened he had no clue who the culprits were but soon after learned one name. During his questioning Abe had told Takayama and Oshita the gangster was named Tomura, did he find out the names of those who had stolen his meth and was now eliminating them? Tomura was dragged into the station and in a surprise move confessed to the two killings but it was all part of a plan of his. Tomura was buying time and it was found out that he had a perfect alibi for the two murders.... he had been locked up in a cell at the Yamashita precinct's jail! Though Tomura had confessed Takayama and Oshita knew something was amiss, both are extremely tough investigators but also very astute. Tomura's pistol didn't match up with the weapon that had killed Hirata and Satoru, a little more questioning by the Minato staff found out what Tomura was up to and though a brutal thug was innocent(in a way) of any current murders.

 Will get back to Tomura shortly but meanwhile what was going on with Risa and her old gang member Ito? They knew where Tomura's clan would be and went to an abandoned warehouse to enact revenge. However they walked right into a trap and they themselves were now prisoners, unless Risa said where the meth was they were goners. That's because after stealing the drugs from Tomura she hid the meth and had told no one where it was, to this day she thinks it's still there and for now Risa won't utter a word. Back at the Minato station Tomura told the investigators what had taken place five years ago, he told them at the time he had no clue who had mugged him. Which was the truth for if Tomura did all would have been dead by now!!!! But shortly after that drug theft Tomura did learn the identity of one culprit, that's the man in the bottom screenshot above. Who is the bar owner Takazawa and said he himself hadn't known where Risa had hid the meth. Tomura at the time didn't believe him so his goons gave Takazawa a severe beating, such a bad one he's been walking with a limp for three years. Lately Tomura has been coming down on Takazawa even harder to find the five kilos of meth, though good friends with his mates Takazawa did squeal about who else had been part of the robbery. So Tomura is out for revenge, first Hirata and then Satoru were slain, unless he gets his meth back the other members will suffer the same fate! But in a twist we will learn that Tomura hadn't killed anyone, it was Takazawa for if he didn't then his own life would be snuffed out!!!! Hope that's not too confusing....

 Final segment and that's a good screenshot of Risa right above. She was played by Yuko Kikuchi and it's a shame she didn't have a longer career. There were a few unexpected twists in the ending and after talking with Tomura the main suspect is Takazawa. Takayama and Oshita had visited his bar which was empty as Takazawa had closed up early. What made my eyes roll is that the investigators walked right into the bar and Takazawa didn't lock the doors? In the top screenshot above Takayama had found a slug at the bar, it was a .38 and the same make as the one that had killed Hirata and Satoru. Three years ago Risa had buried the five kilos of meth on a hill outside of Yokohama, she had been saved by Kaoru from Tomura's thugs and finally realized only the police could save the day. Risa brought Karou and her assistant Suzue to the hill and began to dig for the buried drugs but they were no longer there! Takazawa knew exactly where Risa would be heading and he too arrived at that location. He told the group, Ito was still with Risa, that he had followed Risa when she buried the drugs which was unknown to all. After she was sent to reform school Takazawa returned to hill and dug up the drugs, he sold all five kilos and with the money opened the bar.

 That raised the suspicions of Tomura who hurt Takazawa badly after that but he still wouldn't reveal the name of Risa or his ex-gang mates. Until recently that is and do you call Takazawa a traitor(?), if he didn't open his mouth he would have been a goner! But then again Takazawa did murder his two old friends and there is no excuse for that.  Also soon to be goners could be Risa, Ito, Kaoru and Suzue on the hilltop, Takazawa had them trapped with nowhere to go. Suzue was shot but not severely, Kaoru and Risa hid behind a tree but there was only one bullet left in Kaoru's pistol. Risa did show she knew right from wrong, she would bait Takazawa out and Kaoru better not miss with that one bullet! Which she didn't but only grazed Takazawa who wasn't hurt badly and he took aim at Risa who was frozen. But in the nick of time as usual the two heroes Takayama and Oshita arrived on the scene to save the day, they shot at Takazawa putting him out of commission and ending this case that did have many twists in the storyline. Of course this ended up being a decent episode but still thought it paled a bit to most other shows but when writing these up often makes my opinion grow a bit more. The following post has the next episode's recap which I thought was one of the better stories of the series.