[REVIEW] Atami no Sousakan

[sukaretto]

Atami no Sousakan
Japanese Drama
 

Episodes: 8

Genre: Crime, Supernatural, Comedy

Cast:

• Odagiri Joe as Hoshizaki Kenzo
• Kuriyama Chiaki as Kitajima Sae
• Matsushige Yutaka as Jusaka
• Fuse Eri as Keito
• Shoji Yusuke as Inuzuka Hakken
• Yamanaka So as Shinguchi Arimoto
• Miyoshi Ayaka as Shinonome Mai
• Nikaido Fumi as Amari Remi
• Hagiwara Masato as Hirasaka Ayumu
• Iwamatsu Ryo as Sagami Tokusaburo
• Tanaka Tetsushi as Sakasen Masamichi
• KIKI as Hagio Sayaka
• Gin Pun Chou as Urabe Himiko
• Hirota Reona as Suzaki Michiyo
• Dan Jiro as Amari Mashiko
• Fujitani Ayako as Shimashima Mio
• Sometani Shota as Arisawa

Synopsis:
      The story begins with the disappearance of a school bus and four high school girls. Still unsolved three years later, the case gets revived when one of the girls reappears. Odagiri plays a sharp national investigator searching for the truth behind the incident, which leads back to a seemingly peaceful town. 

info credits:  http://wiki.d-addicts.com/Atami_no_Sousakan 

Sukaretto says:
p.s. major spoilers coming up. read at your own risks.
     i wasn't expecting this to be good when i downloaded it. honestly, i thought of watching this because of Odagiri Joe and Kuriyama Chiaki. ah, but just 2 eps and i was hooked. i can't say that it's altogether comedy drama, but the humor was of enough level, it's not much and it's not lacking. the reason why i liked it. and yes, they managed to stretch the story up to 8 eps and it was kinda dragging sometimes. just when i thought i'm getting it, the ending happened. and i was like "EEEHHHHHH??!!" i didn't get it all! hahaha and so i had to resort to reading others' deductions and thoughts about this drama for me to be enlightened. and true enough, after reading, i thought of how stupid i was. i was just looking at the surface and never really thought of reading in between.
     IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THIS DRAMA YET THEN IT'S BETTER TO STOP READING HERE. i think you won't be able to enjoy watching if you already know what's happening.
     these are the theories of others who had seen this drama. (they said it's like a reference to an American series "Twin Peaks")
     South Atami is in fact, the world "in between", limbo, purgatory. everyone in there are either dead, in a coma or trying to survive in the living world. there were keywords like what Joe said to Chiaki when they were passing the tunnel to South Atami (something like "it's a different world"), "crossing the line", what the Mayor and Hirasaka said about the balance of South Atami being stirred, and "2". and there were hidden meaning to plate numbers and other numbers appearing in the series.
     i still don't get what's behind Hirasaka's deed. did that happen in the living world? maybe it did and then when he died, he tried it, thinking it's a way to go back to the living world? the other 3 girls talking to Mai at the end and they're all conscious, was it in the living world or heaven? cox in South Atami they're all still unconscious. Hirasaka waking up alone with a dead nurse at the end, was it in hell or in the living world? and Shinguchi, Mai and Hoshizaki in the bus leaving South Atami, where they moving on to heaven or to the living world?
     it kinda feels sad that Hoshizaki left Kitajima.

My Ratings: i'll give this 8.5/10 :)