"Abunai Deka" drama: Episode 37 of 51(!!!!) recap(season five, episode two)

 

 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 16.9%

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. 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 ran from the nineteenth until the 26th episode. Season four has been completed which is episodes 27 through 35. So now were down to the last two seasons which each have eight episodes.

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 .... Episode 31 .... Episode 32 .... Episode 33 .... Episode 34

Episode 35

 Tend to have a long intro paragraph or two for drama recaps and don't know how that began. It does help setting things up so you could call it a big positive if you read them. No intro was needed for this post but hard not to have something in this section so let's just get right to this episode which involved some kidnappings plus the humor did return for this show.

 Two kidnappings occurred in this show and actually a third at the end that was done by the 'heroes' Takayama and Oshita. But the first case involved a company president named Doi whose daughter was kidnapped. A location was set up for the ransom to be be paid which was 50 million yen and the Minato force was seemingly all there. Perhaps too many of them as the kidnappers called Doi to abort the deal and he was blaming the police for this screwup, "if anything should happen to my daughter!!". Also fuming was the Minato precinct chief Kondo who was in many more scenes than usual and I really like his character. Kondo has had the rookie investigator Machida tally up the station stats for the past year and naturally Takayama has led the precinct in bullets fired. Just trailing by only two was his partner Oshita and that 'competition' was brought up often. But to Kondo he can't take the chance of his loose cannons firing in a possible delicate kidnapping situation so both are off the case! However we know the pair so well by now and of course neither will stop the pursuit of justice! In a very odd twist that evening the daughter was returned to the father Doi at midnight and it appears the man secretly paid the ransom, sure it was a case of if he contacted the police the girl would be snuffed out! 

 Takayama was not pleased at all with what Doi did and confronted the man at the Minato station to the fury of his chief Kondo, last we saw and heard of Doi in this show. But not the last of a kidnapping as the following day another occurred, this time with a little boy named Takashi. The Juvenile Unit investigator Kaoru had been out on a case with her Unit rounding up some hooligans, that was an easy task for her team but after that was done she noticed an odd incident taking place. A screenshot above shows two masked men hijacking a car, in it was the boy Takashi and his father Saito who owned a real estate firm. Kaoru immediately called into the station and arriving in the scene was of course Takayama and Oshita who gave their chief Kondo the slip. Kaoru had taken down the license number so it was easy enough to trace Saito who claimed there had been no kidnapping! Because of that none of the detectives believed Kaoru but  Takayama and Oshita did, an hour or so after the car hijacking they began to follow Saito. His destination was an abandoned building and there were too many of them to count in Yokohama during the late 1980's, most of what took place is above.

 Takayama nabbed Saito as he was leaving the warehouse and asked what happened to his briefcase? That had been packed with 50 million yen just like the first kidnapping case and Takayama was irate with this man paying some lowlife kidnappers, how can they ever be caught if people such as Saito keep paying them? But later on at the Minato station Saito said 50 million yen to him was chicken feed(!) and were these kidnappers targeting rich men? At that warehouse Takayama found the boy safe and sound, then heard a shot in the next room and rushed in to see a man named Osawa dying on the floor. He heard a car start up and rushed outside, seeing a motorcycle Takayama jumped on to give chase and he is a world class driver. But Takayama held back to see where this car was heading which was yet another abandoned building. There this culprit switched cars and tore away, Takayama never saw this other car but did notice the tire tracks were a bit odd. As you can see above twice more Kondo told his best investigators to stay off the kidnapping cases, wonder if Kondo realizes he's fighting a losing battle?!

 When Takayama and Oshita found out the dead man was Osawa who was known at the station they began to question his associates and really did rough up one man badly. But it did work as this unnamed thug said Osawa had been doing some underhanded work for a man named Kudo, his photo is above along with his underling Katoda. Kudo was also known at the Minato station for a gun smuggling case from six years ago, seems he was able to skate away from any major charges. These days Kudo is the president of Saluwa Products, no clue what they did but the company isn't doing so well. It became apparent to the investigators that Kudo may have planned these kidnappings that netted him 100 million yen to save his company or perhaps he had something else up his sleeve? Yes he did for at the end it was discovered Kudo would use the cash to purchase a hundred guns. Those odd tire tracks were from a 1959 Mustang and they didn't even make them back then! It just so happens that two days prior Kudo had reported the car stolen, obviously to give himself an alibi. But he wasn't involved in the actual kidnappings, it was his employee Kadota and the now dead man Osawa, did Katoda shoot the thug to death to silence him?

 It was easy enough to put all of the pieces of the puzzle together which was that Kudo had planned the kidnappings with his right hand man Kadota and the dead Osawa doing the dirty work. However knowing and proving things were two completely different matters, what can Takayama and Oshita do to bring this creep Kudo down? This pair of investigators have their own ways of doing things, often they don't go by the official book but they're almost always successful. Oshita came up up with a plan and it may have been their most daring one yet, even his partner Takayama rolled his eyes at the idea but said what did they have to lose? In the second screenshot above Katoda was leaving Saluwa Products at the end of the day and heading home, he didn't come close to arriving! That's because he was nabbed and taken as a hostage himself by Takayama and Oshita, perhaps this could be the only way to make Kudo confess or at least get the 100 million yen ransoms back.

 Oshita called acting as a gangster, not the first time he's had to do that in the series. He offered to swap Katoda for the 100 million yen but Kudo wasn't buying, wonder if he thought it was some sort of trap? Which of course it was but have the impression Kudo thought it was the police who were setting the trap and that too was right in the money! Kudo was a smart and devious man as two can play that game! He notified the Minato precinct about the kidnapping, he had told Oshita to call the following day as Kudo needed some time to get the cash. So the colleagues of Takayama and Oshita will be at Kudo's office to trace the call and of course what a shock they had upon hearing the voice of Oshita! The investigation is now being led by Yoshi aka Papa, him and the others knew within one second who the kidnappers were. Yoshi notified the chief Kondo and what should his team do? To Kondo there was only one thing.... to arrest Takayama and Oshita for being kidnappers!!!! Of course that's one action no one wanted to do as the Investigative Unit was quite close but there were no other alternatives. All were hoping the call couldn't be traced but it was, the location was a warehouse in Honmoku. Yoshi is on the left in the next screenshot, his role has become quite large as the series has gone on.

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 So on to the abandoned warehouse where of course none of the Minato squad wants to make as arrest. Takayama and Oshita felt confident that the call hadn't been traced as it hadn't been a long one, needless to say they were dumbfounded when they heard their mates say come out and surrender! Which of course was the one option the 'heroes' wouldn't do, the case still hasn't been solved and they need to find evidence to nab Kudo before he flies the coop. Which he was preparing to do as at that time was at his company's office filling a bag full of the 100 million yen. The Minato investigators caught on quick with what Takayama and Oshita were up to when they passed by with Kadota as their hostage. The investigators quickly jumped into their vehicle and zoomed away to the office of Kudo, Yoshi and his troops did follow but gave Takayama and Oshita a head start. All of this is above and when they arrived with Kadota at the office the Juvenile Unit investigator Kaoru was already there, she didn't appear to know of Yoshi's semi-plan and told her mates to surrender.... or she'll shoot!

 Which was an impossibility but Takayama did fire though not at the stunned Kaoru! The bullet did whiz by her as Takayama saw Kudo trying to flee with the bag of cash, he shot it out of his hand. With Oshita in tow the pair saw him escaping over a bridge, both fired and hit Kudo in the leg thus ending this case. Takayama now has a three shot lead over Oshita in the 'duel' on who can use the most bullets in a year at the Minato station. Which naturally did not please their chief Kondo who of course was glad his two Aces solved yet another case but told them as a punishment for disobeying his orders are on phone duty! Which will last only until the next episode which can not please the endless number of gangsters in Yokohama. Should be back in about a week with the next pair of recaps, still have a goal of finishing this series by next month.