"Abunai Deka" drama: Episode 32 of 51(!!!!) recap(season four, episode six)

 

 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 20.6%

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. Beginning with the fourth season she became goofier than ever which has been annoying.

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. Five years ago before coming chief Kondo had killed a Yakuza thug which is one reason he's so feared.

  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

Episode 29 .... Episode 30

 

 Said in the last recap that episode had the second highest rating to date. This show eclipsed that and 20.6% is the highest so far in this series and don't know why as there have been better episodes. After this post there are three more episodes to go in this fourth season, think I will post the recaps for them all at once. Then will take a mini break to view and recap a current drama, need to take a break from this series before I get tired of it as I seem to have been that way the last two shows. Often the cases can be a bit confusing but things fall into place as the episode goes on. Not so for this show as even the Minato investigators were confused about some things right up until the end so this time around it just wasn't me! However am still at a loss about some of what took place, do jot down notes while viewing an episode but didn't do as good of a job for this show. Oh well, hopefully things will fall into place when writing this up and let's get to what took occurred, a rather simple yet confusing story.

 The setting for the opening scene was Yamashita park in Yokohama, that's been a common location in this series. Seemingly the entire Minato force was there undercover as the park was the spot where a man was told to drop a bag of money at and to depart quickly His name was Masugi and was an executive for the Tonichi Yakuza clan though that ended ip having nothing to do with the story. His teenage daughter Chikako had been kidnapped a few days prior, a note was delivered to his house saying to drop a bag containing 30 million yen at the park if he wants her released. Masugi had contacted the Minato precinct about his predicament and the park was swarming with undercover cops. After Masugi put the case on a park bench a young man quickly dashed up to grab it, within seconds he had been nabbed and that's in the top few screenshots above. This man's name was Hagiwara and he was innocent of any crimes. He had been approached that morning by an unknown man and was paid to pick up the bag and drop it at a different location. Hagiwara was questioned up and down but he was telling the truth and released, now it's back to square one with this kidnapping case.

 But not for long as once again the kidnapper contacted Masugi about his daughter Chikako and this is when the confusion for the police and myself began. The police could tell this new ransom letter was sent by someone completely different, this time around the demand was ten million yen. The Minato chief Kondo wondered were two men involved with the kidnapping which is why this new letter was so different. If so could they have had a falling out and there's just one man left from the small team or was there a third scenario which is that had Chikako been abducted from the original kidnappers by another team of thugs? May sound confusing and it was for the police too, hopefully it'll be clearer by the end. That's Chikako's photo in the middle above, we'll be meeting her soon. Meanwhile while on patrol our two heroes Takayama and Oshita had witnessed a live robbery with the perp firing a gun! They gave chase to this goon and did catch up to him but upon searching this unnamed young man they found no gun. The criminal claimed to have dropped it which was the truth and we viewers had seen someone pick the gun up but couldn't see his face. That person happens to be the young man in the last screenshot above and will start discussing him as he will become the key character to the story.

 The young man's name is Koichi Fukami, he's 21 in age and had been a college student but doesn't seem to be attending school these days. When Takayama was investigating people in the area on what could have happened to that robber's gun he had briefly interviewed Fukima at an arcade and disliked the youngster from the first second, as a matter of fact Takayama became very suspicious of him. Their paths crossed once again at the Minato station and in all honesty can't recall why Fukami was brought in for questioning but he had told the investigators a description of Chikako's possible kidnapper. Everything Fukami had said was a huge lie and was it to possibly throw suspicion off him? Fukami is a sly devil and the investigator Yoshi aka Papa had tried tailing him but he was noticed rather easily. The location for this second ransom exchange was set up for the next day at a coffee shop in Isezaki Mall, the father Masugi would once again bring the bag but this time it would only contain ten million yen. From outside the shop the crew from the Minato station witnessed Fukami going up to Masugi and handing the man a new note, Fukami was somehow able to slip away easily.

 Hate to admit but think I was in a dream state for about a minute during this scene as I completely forgot an important detail or two of why something had to be done. But maybe not as it's becoming a tad clearer thinking of what to write, Masugi had been instructed to now bring the bag with his daughter's ransom money to Shinko Wharf via a bus leaving at 12:30 pm. The father followed the order and also on the bus were Takayama and Oshita whose roles up until now have been rather quiet. Meanwhile at the Minato precinct a call had come in saying there was a bomb on that bus and it would detonate at 1:00 pm! We viewers could smell that was just a ruse and had to be part of a devious plan which it was! Kondo ordered his troops to stop the bus which they did, the minute Masugi departed the bus a young woman grabbed the bag of money! Within seconds a man riding a motorcycle zoomed up and stopped, the woman hopped on and tore off with Takayama and Oshita standing there with their chins touching the ground! The entire Minato force had been duped so badly and they were at such a loss on what's been taking place. But a few strokes of minor luck did come their way, one was that the motorcycle was found at an abandoned warehouse at Shinko Wharf, in the warehouse was the ten million yen ransom and why would it be there???? But soon the biggest enigma happened which is that Chikako had been returned safe and sound to her father, much more on her coming up and in the bottom two screenshots above Oshita and Yoshi were interviewing her at home.

 Took a break to clear my head, think I'm doing much better and did fix up the above section which is close to 100% accurate. Now that Chikako is home safely she was visited by the investigators Yoshi and Oshita who didn't work that closely with his regular partner Takayama in this episode. Chikako didn't have much info to give about her kidnappers and you could tell she was hiding many things. Oshita realized that from the get go and he was fairly mum during the interview studying the way Chikako acted. After leaving the house Oshita had a brainstorm and he was right on the money with his theory. He felt the driver of Chikako's car was involved in the kidnapping, she claimed during the abduction he was beaten. Which was semi-true as this unnamed man is lying in the hospital badly hurt but the beating didn't happen during the abduction. It's now the nighttime and Yoshi said let's wait until morning to follow up on Oshita's theory but he said not to wait, on to the hospital! Right at that time their chief called to say there was a murder in Isezaki, right outside the coffee shop they were at earlier in the day. But Oshita said it's too late now to save the victim(!) and it's on to see the badly injured driver! Who could barely speak but was able to use hand signals to communicate with Oshita.

 The driver, who was also Chikako's father's chauffer, did admit he was involved in the fake kidnapping, so wasn't Chikako and for the first time we learned so wasn't Fukami! Somehow the driver and Chikako had a falling out so she ended up pummeling this older man with a beam and her intention was to kill the man who could reveal her secret! So the hunt continues on for Fukami and he's not keeping himself hidden too well. Arriving at the Isezaki murder scene was Takayama and by all indications it looks like the gun from that very early robbery had been used which meant Fukami was probably the shooter. For the second time Takayama paid his mother Atsuko a visit as she managed a nearby shop. Though she loves her son Atsuko knows his life has taken a turn for the worse but had no info to give Takayama about his location. But while at the shop a call came in from Fukami as he was outside and could see Takayama there. Fukami admitted he was the shooter who had just killed that person and he's not done yet, there's two bullets remaining in the gun. One he said would be used on himself(!) and who would he use the other on???? Perhaps Chikako as when Oshita and Yoshi returned to her house after talking with the driver she jumped out of a window and quickly fled away. She soon came upon Fukami who was in the investigator's car(!), she got in and the pair zoomed away almost running over Yoshi!

 Down to the final segment and Chikako was wondering what Fukami did with the ten million yen ransom? Of course we know that the investigators had found it at the wharf, seems like Fukami could have cared less about the money. Not so for Chikako and perhaps my main beef with this episode is that we never learned why she wanted to swindle her father? Fukami told her he had two bullets left, perhaps he should use the two on them which did frighten Chikako badly but Fukami said he was just joking.... he wasn't! Eventually Chikako was able to flee from Fukami and went to the Minato station to confess everything.... all except why the kidnapping happened! She had met Fukami recently and though just a senior in high school she brought Fukami to a love hotel for his first ever tryst! She said during the kidnapping Fukami had betrayed her yet Oshita had told her Fukami had said the same thing about her, who was lying? A call came into the station from Fukami, he wants to meet up with Chikako at 4:00 pm at a pier and the investigators had an inkling this could be the final move that Fukami will ever make as he appears to be on a suicide mission. 

 Which he was and you can see above a bit of what took place in the final four minutes. Fukami called the restaurant they were at and said he wanted to see Chikako alone with she agreed to. At the pier Fukami pulled out his stolen gun that had two bullets left and said let's leave this world together! There was no way Fukami wanted any part of this suicide pact so tore away but was shot in the leg leaving Fukami with one bullet left. Knowing that the game was up he pointed the revolver at his head and was about to pull the trigger when appearing behind him was Oshita who shot the gun out of his hand and because of that saved Fukami's life. Takayama dashed up and grabbed the pistol thinking that Fukami had fired two bullets and played a round of Russian Roulette! However he had just fired one shot and Takayama came so close to blowing his brains out!!!! So ends this recap, as mentioned was a bit confused coming in but think everything ended up being described accurately. Will have the final three recaps for season four all in a row but that may not be for ten days, think I need a bit of time to clear my head as I've viewed fourteen episodes in three weeks.