"Abunai Deka" drama: Episode 30 of 51(!!!!) recap(season four, episode four)

 

 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 15.0%

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

 

 One thing I've been talking about more are the guest stars and they've been such a highlight of this series which aired in 1986/87. There's been many guest appearances by newbies who would eventually become stars and many are still acting these days. Then there's also been some established actors who I've seen in many 1960-80's movies. The main guest star for this episode was the above woman and that's her on both the left and right! Her name was Junko Asahina who was born in 1953 and died two years ago, she was 33 in age at the time of this episode. She played a pair of twin sisters, the one on the right was named Masako who was a very sweet woman but somehow got married to a Yakuza thug. Her twin on the left is Yuko who was entirely different, she had a ten year old son who she felt was holding her back and she would have loved to have been married to Masako's gangster husband. You'll be hearing all about their stories in this recap.

 Junko had such an interesting career which began in the early 1970's. She was an actress but also was built up to be a pop star but that didn't work out so she disappeared for a while. In 1981 Junko made a comeback and of all things it was as a AV actress! She was extremely popular and did that kind of work until 1985 as she probably figured being 32 in age was a bit old for AV work. For the next fifteen years she was so busy as a regular actress and it seems Junko was featured in a hundred TV movies and often had the lead role. She did a few other things too and her bio was an interesting read but haven't seen any of those early 1980's movies. Longish intro and in episode 38 one of my fave actors of all time made a guest appearance, will talk about him then. This was one of the better shows to date and the last 2-3 episodes there hasn't been as much action. However the storylines have been so superb and after a few shows without hearing about them the Ginsei gangster gang made a return. They've been the nemesis of Takayama even before this series began and will we ever find out the reasons for that?

 There's never a dull moment at the Minato precinct in Yokohama, this show began off with seemingly the whole squad looking for a.... ten year old! Someone had been smashing the windows of local shops during the morning and these acts of vandalism were taking place one after another! You could tell the windows had been broken by a slingshot and every time an officer appeared at a shop to investigate on the next block another window was smashed, seven within an hour or so. Even called to the scene were the Minato Investigative Unit and they had no idea where to start hunting for his culprit. Luck was on their side as a witness saw a young boy of ten fire something from his slingshot and destroy a window, it being the morning of a school day this lad was quickly nabbed. Only one screenshot above shows the boy but you'll be seeing more of him as we go along, his name is Shinji Kuroda. The Juvenile Unit investigator Kaoru knew this boy slightly as she had to 'arrest' him recently for another act of vandalism. But that doesn't mean Shinji is a young hooligan, he seemed to be a decent young boy whose problem was he missed his mother badly! Her name was Yuko Kuroda who worked two jobs to support her and her son, she's rarely at home and as a matter of fact hadn't returned for three days! So this was Shinji's plea to ask for help and it being a slow period for the Minato station the chief Kondo gave the go ahead to begin a search for Yuko.

 Only being ten Shinji can't remain on his own so Kaoru will stay at his place until Yuko returns or can be found. She actually liked taking care of a youngster and in the last two episodes Kaoru has really begun to turn her thoughts to getting married.... having a boyfriend first would help! So the hunt for Yuko was on and besides not being at home for three days she also hadn't been showing up for work. A tip had come in that Yuko was hanging around some thugs who were with the Ginsei clan, that's when Takayama began to have an interest in the case. In the third to last screenshot above the Juvenile Unit detective Suzue was telling Takayama that info, Suzue was helping Kaoru out and we've been seeing much more of him the last few episodes. What Ginsei member Yuko has been seeing is unknown and Takayama has his own methods for finding things out. He had trailed one of the clan's goons and told the thug he had dropped something.... a small envelope with drugs in it! Of course it was a set up but when it comes to taking down the Ginsei clan Takayama will do anything, tell him where Yuko was and the whole incident will be forgotten. You can see above where the thug said she may be, Takayama dashed there but found no Yuko. But he did find someone else who was a Ginsei executive named Yasuoka and after a brief struggle with his cohorts he nabbed Yasuoka dragging him down to the Minato station, some of that is below.

 Nabbing Yasuoka was another 'false arrest' for Takayama but through some legal loophole could keep the Ginsei executive for a day. Arriving at the Minato station to bail his mate out was the man in the third screenshot above, his name is Sasaki and we'll be seeing much more of him later on. Sasaki is a bit above Yasuoka as he's the leader of the local Ginsei chapter and you can also see how Takayama got right into the thug's face, Takayama is one investigator you don't want to get angry! A furious Sasaki soon left the precinct and a bit later Yasuoka will give the investigators some info that will get the ball rolling in this case which will soon become very confusing for the Minato staff. Did mention that Kaoru was taking care of Shinji while his mother remained AWOL, that evening he had returned home and she discovered Shinji had been beaten up! Not by boys at his school but Shinji claimed two goons jumped out of a car on his way home and gave him a bit of a licking! That's a bit of a low deed from the Yakuza and to say the Minato station was incensed was an understatement. But before that it appeared that Yuko had finally been found but was she really, this is where the case became confusing for the investigators.

 First Takayama had discovered Yuko playing Mahjong at a parlor with other Ginsei members. He kept his distance and just took a photo of her, she's in the middle screenshot above. However Takayama's regular partner Oshita, who was paired up with the young detective Machida, had also taken a photo that day of Yuko. The location was at a culinary school and that photo had been taken about the same time as the one Takayama took his, who was the real Yuko? Shinji was brought into the station and asked which photo was of his mother, both women looked exactly the same. Shinji stalled for a while but finally fessed up to who the women were in the second to last screenshot above. On the left is his mother Yuko, on the right is his aunt and Yuko's twin sister Masako who Shinji seemed to like more than his own mother! Shinji also told more of the story about his beating, the thugs had told him if he said anything about his mother having a twin sister the goons would kill Yuko! So this went from a Missing Person case to one that may involve murder but it became much more complicated than that. Below the Ginsei executive Yasuoka did reveal a bit of that possible murder scheme and he did so for he didn't want to see anything happen to the possible victim, Masako.

 Sasaki is the man dressed in blue above, in the bottom screenshot Yuko is on the left while her twin sister Masako is on the right and most of the remaining time in this episode is devoted to the three. At the Minato precinct the Ginsei exec. really opened up to Takayama and Oshita as he explained most of the story between the trio, this is his tale and I added a few things in he didn't mention. About three years ago in an unexpected encounter Sasaki had net Masako and fell head over heels for her, it was a whirlwind romance and the two ended up getting married. Sasaki was able to separate his criminal activities from his home life but after a while started to become bored with the meek yet smart and interesting Masako. Sasaki came up with a plan to eliminate his wife and it would leave him in the clear but would be so hard to pull off. That was after two years of being married to Masako and up until then he never knew she had a twin sister. That is until one night when Yuko paid her sister a visit but Masako wasn't at home, Sasaki was and this was the woman he had always yearned to be with. Yuko loved to drink, play cards, gamble and he wondered why couldn't he have met her instead of Masako? 

 The pair began an affair and Sasaki told Yuko of his potential plan to kill her sister Masako, would she be wiling to help him out? The answer immediately was YES, Yuko had also fallen hard for Sasaki and once Masako was gone she would marry him! If that happened Shinji would have been left an orphan as Yuko can't stand being tied down as a mother to him. Sasaki's grand plan was for Yuko to buy a life insurance policy for Masako and it would leave all of the benefits to her twin sister. The policy was for 100 million yen and of course Masako had no idea what her husband and sister had planned. It's now a year later and we're back in the present time, Masako had been getting a bit suspicious of Yuko and Sasaki as the pair have been spending so much time together. The policy has been paid up so it's time to put the final step of the plan into action, that's to eliminate Masako! Much of what was just said is in the above screenshots, Sasaki had drugged Masako and brought her to a field outside of an abandoned factory. What you can also see above is that Yuko had obtained a license in her sister's name, for some odd reason that was so easy to get. Here's one semi spoiler which is a bit key towards the end. When Takayama had observed Yuko playing Mahjong she signed something with her left hand, when Oshita had spied on Masako at school she did things with her right hand. At the time the camera was focused on their hands so you knew it had to be very important.

 Final segment, our two heroes above Takayama and Oshita have found out where the murder of Masako will take place, can the pair make it there in time? Yes they did but first here was the plan of Sasaki's to kill his wife. Masako would be knocked out and then be driven in a car by her sister Yuko. The factory was right near a pier, when the car was close enough to the water Yuko would jump out and her unconscious sister would drown in the sinking car! But as mentioned Takayama and Oshita arrived in the nick of time, they were joined by many of their Minato station mates. They easily took care of Sasaki and his Ginsei goons, during this time Yuko had jumped into the car dragging Masako in with her. Yuko floored it and the investigators were helpless as by shooting at the car they may hit Masako plus the car was near the water, a shot to the tires may send it into the bay! Which did end up happening as Yuko knew there was no escape so one of two things could happen. One is that both would die, the second was that if Masako died perhaps Yuko could act as her sister and walk away a free woman! Yuko drove into the water as Takayaka and Oshita both stood there watching it sink, would either sister survive the crash?

 One did and as she says above it was Yuko, both her and Masako had been wearing the same dress so the investigators believed her. However Yuko would still be under arrest for attempted murder, back at the station she pleaded that Sasaki had forced her into following his plan plus with a ten year old son couldn't the police be lenient? Yuko was forced to sign her testimony and that's when Takayama noticed her signing with the right hand, this wasn't Yuko but her sister Masako and why was she trying to fool the police? Unlike Shinji's real mother Yuko Masako did care for the boy and by acting as his mother could bring him up in a safe and loving environment. Hmmmm, Takayama and Oshita knew the truth so what can they do(?), the only solution was to bring Masako to Shinji and let him decide. At the encounter Shinji wavered for a few moments as he knew who the woman was, not his mother Yuko but his aunt Masako. Which was fine by Shinji as he loved her more than his real mother, he told the investigators this was his real mother as he walked hand in hand away with Masako. That shocked our heroes above and they thought that Shinji would never go with Masako but luckily he did as this one of the few episodes that had a happy ending. So that concludes the recap and this was one of the best shows to date, thanks for reading this and will be back within the week with the next pair.