"Black Familia" drama: Episode nine of ten recap

 

 Air Dates: October 5th until December 7, 2023 on NTV/YTV, Thursdays at midnight

Ten episodes that are 42 minutes in length, subs done by eveychooey at DA

**** There are two mini 'special episodes' that total about 23 minutes. The subber eveychooey said they should be viewed after the eighth and final shows so will somehow add those into the recaps or perhaps have two posts for those episodes.

Main Cast: With my #1 woman of all time Risa(above) having a major role in this series there was no way I was not going to recap this but think it's a show I may have ended viewing as the plot seems so intriguing. Just wrapped up the "Akai Meiro" drama and the storyline is so similar to that as a major character was killed in the first episode of the series and after that the main story is seeking out the answers to the killing. Am writing much of this up after viewing the first two episodes and will be editing the info as we go along and I'm really looking forward to this drama. As usual will have a pair of recaps for today and like that previous series will be writing many posts up before publishing them as not to have along gap between recaps. 

**** This drama begins off in the present day, am presuming 2023. But at the end of the first show it's quickly a year later though there will be many flashbacks to 2023(?). In the sixth episode we did learn the date was early November 2023 so this series may have begun about two months prior.

Yuka Itaya as Kazuha Shindo and Shinkawa.... Wife of Kosuke along with being the mother of Sana and Riria. Kuzuha had been a housewife until the death/murder of Riria, while the whole family wants to find out the truth of what happened none as much as Kazuha does. She's the mastermind behind the plan hatched a year later and she got a job as a cook in the Saotome household, there she uses the name of Shinkawa who claimed to come from Fukuoka. Kazuha is looking for any kind of evidence she can find at their glamorous estate but by the end of the second show suspicion has fallen upon her. Too much has happened to Kazuha since then so hope you've been reading these recaps.

Takashi Yamanaka as Kosuke Shindo.... Husband of the above woman and the father of the two daughters below. Kosuke works at an exclusive salon where many models, actresses and celebs go so that's how he makes a decent salary. A very mild mannered man though think when the chips are down he's someone you can depend on. In the fourth episode Kosuke met the evil Reimi and is about to become her full time makeup artist, with her he uses the name of Koo.

Risa Watanabe as Sana Shindo.... Obviously talking about herself below!!!! Sana is an aspiring journalist about 25 in age though don't think she had a regular job when this series began. Sana is very adept when it comes to investigating and she gives much credit to her Master Serizawa who is at the bottom of the list. Sana opened a web page after the death of Riria to gather information and helped her mother Kazuha immensely with learning to become someone from Fukuoka. In the third episode Sana began to work with Serizawa to get closer to Rintaro and she's been successful. While undercover she uses the name of Sarina Shinatani. In the seventh and eighth episodes Sana posed as a twenty year old aspiring actress named Wakana to infiltrate the corrupt Venus Factory agency.

Win Morisaki as Yuma Igarashi.... Kazuha's younger brother who moved in for a month when he lost his job.... three years ago! Yuma hasn't been a freeloader as the family does like the man and he does help out around the house. He did find a job in the first episode working at a Gaming company but had to decline the position because of Riria's death, that's Yuma in the middle below. Yuma is very good at creating gadgets, he's made some recorders for Kazuha to plant at the Saotome estate. Yuma is using the name of Park to get closer to Aoi, he's claiming to be a 27 year old English teacher living in Korea and the two chat via a camera. At the end of the seventh show Yuma was pushed down a steep stairwell and has been in a coma since then.

 Yuna Hoshino as Riria Shindo.... Eighteen year old high school student and the youngest of the Shindo family. Just before the first show Riria had won an award at the Tokyo Venus Auditions and was scheduled to have a small role in a drama the following week. Which never happened as she was killed halfway through the first episode, it took place at school as Riria had fallen from the roof. The police have ruled it a suicide and quickly closed the case, after that so many untrue rumors about Riria began to pop up. That infuriated the Shindo family, especially the mother Kazuha who is leading her family on a quest to find out the truth about her death, we will see Riria often in flashbacks. By the ninth episode we did learn that Riria was the one who had leaked that damaging video of Rintaro, also in that show who the person that killed her was.

 Above are the five members of the Shindo family, the rest of the main characters.

Yusuke Hirayama as Akio Saotome.... President of the Saotome Holdings company and it was him who put pressure on the police to close Riria's death case quickly and call it a suicide. He's still a mystery after two shows though we can tell there's something very suspicious about him, that's Akio below on the left with his slimy son Rintaro. Akiko has always felt he married his wife Reimi at too young of an age but is trapped as she may take it all with a divorce! Akio was arrested in the eighth episode for forcing many Venus Factory girls to have sex with him and many other older men, also arrested was the agency's president Mika.

Mariko Tsutsui as Reimi Saotome..... Akio's wife who works as a TV commentator. She's an excellent dancer and loves to entertain her high class friends at the family estate, Reimi was the one who hired Kazuha aka Shinkawa as a cook, she too is quite mysterious so far. She and her husband Akio do not love each other and sleep in separate bedrooms. For close to five years Reimi has bene having an affair with a much younger actor named Ishimine.

Akihisa Shiono as Rintaro Saotome.... The slimy son of the above two characters. Rintaro was a member of the Liberal Party and held a seat in the House of Representatives but was forced to resign in the first episode because of a possible scandal involving the harassment of women. However a year later Rintaro was re-elected and he is not a likable young man who loves to drink and do drugs to the disgust of his father Akio. Rinataro did get a bit close with Sana however he's still a lowlife as he abducted her at the end of the eighth episode!

 Nanami Taki as Aoi Saotome.... High school senior who was best friends with Riria. Aoi was so upset at her death however it appears she knows things about it which no one else does, did her father quash the case to protect her? Aoi is on the left below, two of Riria's other fiends are on the right. Though best friends with Riria surprised Aoi didn't know that her mother was Kazuha, when she began to work at the Saotome estate Aoi didn't recognize her. Though it appears Aoi is such a nice girl deep down she could be the daughter of the Devil, she was involved in the death of Riria which was explained in the ninth recap.

Takehiko Ono as Taizo Saotome.... Akio's father and founder of Saotome Holdings. He's originally from Fukuoka which is why Kazuha learned so much about the city and area. Tazio was the main reason Kazuha was hired, that's him on the right below and don't think his role will be large. In the beginning of the sixth episode Taizo died but shortly before that he had net with Kazuha and said he knew her real name wasn't Shinkawa! Taizo didn't reveal how he came upon that info and also added in he didn't know who had killed Riria.

Yusuke Shoji as Ayumu Serizawa.... Magazine reporter for the "Weekly Starryu" tabloid who wrote a very damaging article about Riria after her death. But actually it was just his name attached to the article as Serizawa believes Riria was killed and told that to her mother Kazuha. He too will be working to discover the truth behind the killing and believes the Saotome family is involved. Serizawa helped train Sana to be a reporter but for now don't know the background between the two.

 Shinsuke Kato as Takuro Takase.... Riria's ex-homeroom teacher and resigned a few weeks after her death. In a shocker Takase appeared on a web show and said he once had a sexual encounter with Riria, after that he paid her to keep her mouth quiet. However Takase also added in he believed she had other 'Sugar Daddys' and was he paid to say those horrible lies???? Not with cash for Takase reappeared a year later teaching English at a Saitama cram school, his wife Namie knows Remi Saotome so did she get Takase this new gig which was discovered by Sana. Takase was married to a cruel woman named Namie and was going to add her onto this list. However she was killed at the end of the third episode and was it an accident? Also at the end of that episode Takase was arrested and we never heard from him again.

Reo Nagatsuma as Kazuya Ishimine.... Young actor whose popularity is rising and his fan base consists of mostly women.... especially older ones! Ishimine himself may dig older women as he's having an affair with Reimi who has to be twenty years older. Ishimine is also the mysterious Mr. Salvage(second screenshot below) who has a controversial YT channel and Reimi is the one who created it, Ishimine may just be following her orders.

 Prior recaps: Of course will refer back to some things that took place in previous episodes but don't have time to go into a lot of detail so could help reading some of these. What I thought is a good idea and it goes for all dramas is to wait until the final show has been completed. Then from that post you could start from the first recap and read them all in a row which would be better than searching for them though it would be a lot of reading but in a way easier.

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

Episode five .... Episode six .... Episode seven .... Episode eight

 

 

 Final pair of recaps and this series has gotten so much better as we've gone along. So the question is what will be up next to recap? Will take it slightly easy for the next 7-10 days, there's two special TV movies that add up to be three shows so will get those out of the way(maybe) as I've been holding on to them for a while. Then may do some regular movie reviews and have been slipping on those. What I had planned on doing next was the "Chief Detective 1958" Korean series that recently ended, it's only a ten episode drama that looks so good. Have the series but noticed the episodes average 68 minutes(!) so the recaps would be way too long, at least five segments instead of my usual four. So just may end up watching that and not recap it which is what I'm leaning towards. So for now would say the next show to be recapped will be a very, very old one that aired in 1966-67!!!! It's called "Ultra Q" and I've wanted to watch this series for years and finally got the show which is 28 episodes but only 25 minutes an episode. So for now that's my plan and am looking forward to this show, it's a different kind of Tokusatsu series as it was inspired by the "Twilight Zone" and "The Outer Limits".

 The main storyline has always been of the Shindo family trying to find out the true cause of Riria's death/murder in the first show, that's her right above. But for the last two episodes the focus seemed to be more on destroying the Saotome family and that was a success though not much evidence was found connecting them to Riria's death/murder. However in this show almost every detail about her death was found out by the Shindo mother Kazuha and much of what happened was so shocking! Plus there's another major development going on between Sana and the Saotome son Rintaro so this may have been the best episode to date, let's get to the action. **** Did some more editing to the above character section and that should be the final time for that.

 This has been a rare series as every episode for the past four have been slightly better than the previous one. There were a few intense scenes that ended the eighth episode and do recommend reading at least that post. One incident was that the Saotome Holdings president Akio Saotome was arrested along with the head of the Venus Factory agency Mika. Not much was mentioned about either arrest in this show but as the Shindo family mother above says Akio is now free and it truly appears he wasn't the person that pushed her daughter Riria off a roof to her death. Though in a slight way Akio was involved with what took place, we didn't see him in a present day setting in this show but in some flashbacks from a year ago. Kazuha, along with her husband Kosuke, opened the show by meeting with the reporter Serizawa who was also the mentor of their 25 year old daughter Sana. From the day of Riria's death Serizawa knew the Saotome family was involved but the magazine he worked for quashed his original story due to pressure from the family. Now a year later it's finally being released along with more damaging articles Serizawa has written about the Saotome family. That was Serizawa's only scene but he's been so key to the story.

 In the more dramatic ending to the prior show Sana had been zapped with a stun gun by the Saotome son Rintaro who is the youngest politician in the House of Representatives. While with Rintaro Sana had posed as a reporter named Sarina who worked at the same magazine as Serizawa. After what took place in the first half of the eighth show Rintaro began to think about all of the damage done to him and his family even prior to that. The most logical person to have done most of that was Sana(Sarina) and that's why Rintaro used the stun gun on her. He dumped Sana into his car trunk and brought her to an unnamed bar he frequents, for some reason it's closed and did he pay the owner off to have the bar for himself? There he's tied up Sana and keeping her as a hostage, why is not entirely known at this point but Rintaro does want some revenge and did tell Sana why he abducted her, for what she's done to him and his family. You'll be hearing a bit more about this through the recap, meanwhile at the hospital Kazuha and Kosuke were visiting Yuma who is right above.. He's been in a coma since the end of the seventh show after being pushed down a steep stairwell, who did it is still unknown. The pair checked his phone and the last call Yuma made was to a number which at first didn't make sense. The number was 01271 and that's not a phone number, could Yuma have instead left a clue on who pushed him before he passed out? Kazuha left the hospital on her own, right after Kosuke above received a call and it was none other than Rintaro!!!!

After the call we didn't see Sana and Rintaro for a while because there's an extremely long scene coming up. Sana had told Rintaro she used him to bring the Saotome family down but it was the other way around he said for that's exactly what he had been hoping for as he despises his father Akio. Sana did reveal her true name and why she was looking so closely into the Saotome family, to find out who killed Riria! Rintaro honestly knows zero about that death and was beyond stunned when Sana said her mother Kazuha was posing as their cook Shinkawa to also obtain evidence about Riria's death/murder! Back to the phone call Rintaro made to Sana's father  Kosuke, he said they were going to play a game called Desperate Search, Rintaro wanted to see how strong the Shindo family bond was.  The time was 1:00 pm, Kosuke has until 9:00 pm to find out where Rintaro is holding Sana hostage or else! That is a huge or else for if Kosuke can't discover his daughter in time Rintaro will do a live stream of Sana to the entire world.... of her naked!!!! Of course that infuriated Kosuke to no end and where does he begin his search, for now he's keeping this evil threat under wraps from his wife Kazuha. Not that I would want to see it happen like that but will admit there's no one more I would love to see sans clothes than Sana or should I say Risa!

 Gulp, hard to write with that photo staring you in the eyes! Kazuha had left the hospital to visit the Saotome estate, the mother Reimi and her daughter Aoi are hiding out at a hotel. That's because the media is swarming around her house, to Kazuha it meant the place was empty and she could continue her search for clues relating to Riria's death. Kazuha slipped in unnoticed through a side door and immediately went to Aoi's room. In the sixth episode Yuma had discovered an Exchange Diary that Aoi had written however it was just the first of two. The second should have details about what was going on just prior to Riria's death, Kazuha wanted to find that second diary and did. She began to read it but just a few minutes later walking in was Aoi to Kazuha's amazement. Aoi's mother left the hotel to get some food, Aoi slipped out and returned home so wonder if she was expecting Kazuha to be there? On the cover of the second diary were the numbers 01271 so it was a clue that Yuma had left, if you translate that into Hangul it spells out diary. Instead of Kazuha reading her lengthy entries Aoi said she would tell her everything about what had taken place up until Riria's death. The pair were best friends in high school, Riria's dream as to be an actress and Aoi was petrified for her friend when she learned Riria was going to work for the Venus Factory agency. Her father Akio was involved with them and knew that they forced many young aspiring actresses to spend a night with the sponsors, Aoi couldn't let that happen to Riria and told her all about the seedy agency.

 This scene, which was mostly a flashback from what took place a year ago, was very long but it also could be the most important scene of the entire drama. By now it was the evening and Aoi suggested the pair visit the school roof where Riria fell from but not sure why, perhaps because of the media outside the Saotome house or Aoi was thinking her mother Reimi may appear? After hearing about the horrific acts the Venus Factory agency made their actresses do Riria thought she should quit the place. Aoi said that's a wise idea but not until she attends their next party which just happened to be at the Saotome estate. Aoi wants to bring her father Akio and Venus Factory crashing down, Riria was invited to the party and Aoi asked her if she would wear a hidden camera and mic which Riria agreed to. So that party is when the damaging video of Aoi's brother Rintaro was taken, also it showed the many older sponsors leaving with much younger women though not against their will. Aoi had asked Riria to hook up with her father Akio and that's what she did, the pair soon left to spend the rest of the night at a hotel! But there was no way Aoi would let that happen, at home she pretended to faint and her mother Reimi called Akio. Who had to cut his night short with Riria to return home so despite what Akio said in the eighth show he never did sleep with his daughter's best friend!

 Rintaro and his former assistant Kamata were positive Riria leaked that damaging video of him but it was his sister Aoi. That was the only part of the video she leaked to the public, the rest Aoi wanted to keep in hopes of destroying her father but it was never used and what became of it? So that scheme was a success and Riria had cut all ties with Venus Factory but to the shock of Aoi she still wanted to pursue acting. This is all in the above screenshots and this last flashback took place on the day Riria died. Aoi was really hurt by those words as she thought that Riria would give up acting and the pair could be together even more, Aoi had dreams of them living together after they graduated! That really spooked Riria as Aoi was becoming a bit crazed, she tore out of the classroom and tried calling her mother Kazuha who with the Shindo family was waiting for Riria at a restaurant. Thanks to Aoi that call was cut short, Riria tore away once again and the chase ended up on the school's roof. There Aoi continued telling Riria her dreams of them spending their lives together but Aoi also added in because of that does Riria now hate her? Sadly Riria had only a few seconds to live, in what is a common saying in movies Aoi said if she can't have Riria then no one can and proceeded to push her over the roof's ledge to her death!!!!

 Most of the above and the next few sentences is the story Aoi was telling Riria's mother Kazuha. After Riria had been pushed off the roof such an unexpected event took place, arriving on the roof was Aoi's father Akio. He had been worried when Aoi didn't arrive home and went to the school to find her, he did and though a creep himself Akio was quite stunned at what his daughter had done. He grabbed Aoi and zoomed home with her in the back seat, that's the reason Riria's ex-teacher Takase had seen Akio at school and that finishes Aoi's tale. But there still is one minor mystery about that, whatever happened to the phone Riria dropped? That tale of course was so shocking to Kazuha and she didn't know what to think, even after a year Aoi is so distraught at what she did she asked Kazuha to kill her! So that was the end of that scene in this show and for now we viewers don't know the outcome of it so wonder if it will be continued in the next episode? There was then a one minute scene with Reimi asking her younger lover Ishimine to do a new video for his Mr. Salvage web show. She wanted him to announce that it was Reimi who killed Riria and that she was the one who pushed Yuma down the stairs, that scene too had no conclusion so there's two cliffhangers going into the final show.

 There's less than a minute to go in this episode, there will be a third cliffhanger and probably the most intense one. The time is now 9:01 pm, Kosuke couldn't find where Rintaro was holding Sana hostage and as he says above it's time for the streaming to begin! Rintaro can be a slimeball but would he really go through with his plan of stripping Sana naked and streaming it live to the world? That and many other things will be in the final episode which I won't view until this post is 100 % complete. What a terrific drama this has turned out to be, the next post has the recap for the finale.