When I went on Twitter and asked for recommendations of a jdrama that will relight that torch I always had for the genre, there were a lot of recs that came my way. One of them is TV Asahi’s Border.
I picked up Border after Bitter Blood (which I wrote a recap-slash-review of here) for two reasons: first, it came recommended by a friend WHO KNOWS her jdramas, and second, it has Oguri Shun in it. And, all right, I already have a soft spot for Aoki Munetaka after his memorable turn as Sanosuke Sagara in the Rurouni Kenshin live-action film series.
And the third reason is the storyline: a cop that can see dead people. This ought to be interesting.
(A reiteration: This is, in no way, a professional review. I am no critic, so do not look for highly technical or “deep” critiquing here. That’s not fun at all, IMO.)
And there might be spoilers, though I will try my best to keep them to a minimum. But you’ve been warned.
Title: BORDER
No. of episodes: 9 ~50mins each
Main Cast: Oguri Shun (Ishikawa Ango), Aoki Munetaka (Tachibana Yuma), Haru (Higa Mika)
SYNOPSIS: Ishikawa Ango (Oguri) is a fast-rising star as a detective in the Department, and he works hard for it, even forsaking his personal life, preferring to work on cases more than anything else. Young, ambitious, and keen, he has a promising future ahead of him. However, one night while working a case, he was shot in the head and died, only to be revived but with the bullet lodged in his brain. An equally life-threatening surgery is the only way to take it out.
With this incident came a new development: Ishikawa can now see and talk to dead people. This new-found ability, along with the help of a ragtag team composed of shady and eccentric characters, aids Ishikawa along in his pursuit of justice for victims of crimes. But is this ability a gift, or a curse? Is it a light that will guide him, or a darkness that will suck him in and consume him? (~Jeffer)
EPISODE RECAPS + THOUGHTS:
Episode One
We meet Ishikawa Ango, a workaholic detective who has no personal life – no friends, no girlfriend… After working on a murder case, he gets to go home for the first time in 3 weeks, but he’s not really all that hyped about it. He even admits that he’s actually praying for someone to get killed so he’d get called to the scene.
Then a call comes in about a murder that has gone down, and all is well again in his world.
When he arrives at the scene of the murder of a former police officer, we also get to meet his superior Ichikura and his colleague Tachibana (Sanosuke Sagara alert!).
As was his personal SOP, Ishikawa goes around to check the perimeter prior to entering the actual scene of the crime. In an alley, he spots a suspicious-looking guy and follows him when, out of nowhere, another guy comes out with a gun. The gunman shoots Ishikawa on the head at point-blank range, killing him off.
….
But that’s not the end. You see, after dying for several moments, Ishikawa is revived and comes back to life.
But that’s not the end of it. You see, the bullet remains lodged in his brain, in between arteries, and it is what saved his life. Unfortunately, taking the bullet out requires a dangerous surgery, where he has a 50-50 chance of surviving and dying.
…it also suddenly made him start seeing dead people. And have conversations with them.
Back on duty after recuperating, his first case is the gruesome murder of a family of three.
Soon, Ishikawa finds the husband and wife providing information on who committed the crime. The problem is, although they know who actually killed them, they have no idea if the culprit was acting alone. It is now up to Ishikawa to break through the perpetrator’s alibi and nail him.
Haru also enters the scene as Higa Mika, a coroner, who will turn out to be a useful and staunch ally to Ishikawa. At this point, I still couldn’t figure her out.
Ishikawa also, for the first time, seeks the help of Akai, an informant-slash-contractor who seems to be a powerful figure in the underworld and underbellies of society. This, despite the fact that his superiors in the force forbid him from associating himself with the likes of Akai.
Episode Two
A serial rapist and murderer of high school girls has been identified but, when cornered in his apartment by Ishikawa and Tachibana, he kills himself, but not before telling them that “there is another one”.
This time, Ishikawa is dealing with a narcissistic killer who taunts him about “another one”, another high school girl trapped somewhere. It’s a race against the clock as Ishikawa tries to figure out where the girl is kept before she dies of suffocation, while the soul of the dead killer plays a game with him. Now it’s up to Ishikawa to beat the killer at his own game.
In this episode, two recurring characters are introduced: Garfunkel and Simon (or Ga and Sai), a pair of nerdy hackers who are… well, just plain weird and eccentric, but hella smart and knows their way around cyberspace.
Episode Three
A young man is found stabbed to death in a park in a small town. The victim tells Ishikawa that it was an act of revenge. Unfortunately, the victim does not know the actual person who killed him, although he has suspicions.
Years before, the victim killed a young woman and was let off due to the fact that he’s still a minor. Despite moving away, his past sin continues to haunt him, and there are quite a number of people who would want to make him pay for it. Ishikawa now has to dig deeper and retrace history to figure out who the killer is.
In this episode, the question on whether one person deserves to die or not is tackled. Is justice served properly in this manner?
A new recurring character joins Ishikawa. He is know as “Suzuki’s Handyman” (you’ll remember him as Shishio’s henchman, Hoji) and he can be – and do – anything you want him to be – and do.
On the other hand, Ichikura is starting to hear rumors that his subordinate Ishikawa is seeking the help of shady characters in solving the cases.
Episode Four
A young couple having a date at a park spots something in the middle of the field. It turns out to be the corpse of a homeless man, with a knife staked on his chest, and a seal on his belly. According to the dead man, he was killed and used as a “bait”.
In an ensuing explosion, Higa, the coroner, was in critical condition, making Ishikawa and Tachibana hell-bent on finding the culprit, who seems to be targeting the homeless and using them to bait the police.
Clearly, they are dealing with a someone who holds a grudge against the police force and will stop at nothing to make them look incompetent.
At this point, Ishikawa enlists Akai’s help to use his below-the-radar connections to lure the culprit.
Ishikawa is once again confronted with the reality of the bullet in his brain, and that he must make a decision about having it taken out soon.
Episode Five
A dead person can have amnesia. Huh.Who knew?
A middle-aged salary man is found dead of a head wound in front of a house. Here’s the thing: he does not remember who he is, and why he died.
Ishikawa has his work cut out for him. He has to solve the murder case, and he also has to identify the victim. Also, he has to bear with the company and constant chatter of the dead guy, who decided to stick to Ishikawa until he finds out who he is. It’s a haunting, all right, but not what you’d expect. And, in a slightly off-kilter way, Ishikawa finally found someone he could confide in about this “gift of sight” he has acquired. After all, he couldn’t very well talk about it with his colleagues!
Also, more and more people are noticing how weird Ishikawa has been acting lately (when really, he’s only talking with dead people).
I personally enjoyed this episode. It added a bit of levity to what would have been a real somber episode.
Episode Six
It looks like a usual suicide case.
A high school girl with a history of depression, mental illness, and a previous suicide attempt, jumps from the rooftop of a high-rise apartment building. However, Higa notices a number of things that seem to be off, despite the top brass, Inspector Kamogawa, ruling it as suicide.
And then another girl jumps, with the same signs Higa spotted before. She then enlists the aid of Ishikawa and Tachibana.
Let me just say, since Episode 4, I’m loving the dynamics among this three. Quite the menage a trois, Without the sleaze factor.
What started out as a “babysitting” job for Ishikawa becomes more personal as he reveals a glimpse of his past, and how suicide figures in it. Did the girls really commit suicide, or is there something more to it?
Episode Seven
It’s a classic case of hit and run: a bright young man who works part-time while studying at a university gets hit by a speeding car, with the driver fleeing the scene with no one to identify who he is.
Ishikawa finds out, however, because the victim also knows who he is. However, arresting the perp may be more difficult than he thought, since he happens to be the son of the Minister of Foreign Affairs.
Money and power talks, and while Ishikawa tries to come up with a way to bring in the kid, a “cleaner” comes to the scene, removing anything pointing to the rich kid, He’s always one step ahead of Ishikawa, who also piques his interest.
There is also the fact that someone from high up is pulling the plug on the investigation, much to Ishikawa and Tachibana’s frustration. However, Ishikawa is not to be deterred, and he resolves to play as dirty as necessary to match wits with the “cleaner”.
Can Ishikawa nail the driver and reap justice for the loss of such a promising young life?
Episode Eight
There is another shooting incident, and it’s exactly like the one during the night Ishikawa was shot in the head. In fact, it was exactly like how Ishikawa was shot.
There is finally a lead on the person who shot Ishikawa. However, the scene was clean, and there’s no evidence. The only evidence is the bullet in Ishikawa’s head. And a common denominator among the other victims: they were all former police officers, and they used to belong in the same unit.
The same unit that two of Ishikawa’s superiors also belonged to many years ago. Now Ishikawa has to deal with the possibility that the bullet in his head could have been put there by someone he actually knows.
At this point, Higa also becomes more vocal about her concerns for Ishikawa’s health, warning him about the dangers of bottling pain deep inside him. Clearly, the pressure is building up within him.
Episode Nine – Finale
A little boy is abducted in the middle of a shopping mall. The next morning, the corpse was found in a public park, with no clues left as to who kidnapped and killed him. Except for the letter “A” marked on the body using saliva.
This time, the audience knows who the kidnapper is from the beginning of the episode. He looked like any normal middle-aged guy, but he’s darker than that, and he just might be the trigger that will set off Ishikawa. Will he succeed? And, more importantly, will Ishikawa cave?
The final episode is not quite what I expected. I expected something explosive befitting a climax. However, they went about it a different way. If there were a Season 2 (and I am hoping there will be), this episode is a very good run-up to it. It sets the tone for a second story arc that will allow us to look more into Ishikawa’s psyche.
REVIEW:
The Casting
I love this role on Oguri Shun.
And I love Oguri Shun in this role.
(It also made me forget his Lupin III turn which, IMO, was a film that is so disappointing on so many levels. Yes, even on Shun.)
Oguri Shun has a strong presence in this role. In fact, he totally owns this character. This is quite an impressive feat, really, since it’s not what you’d call an ensemble drama. There is no large team of people always backing him up. Mostly it’s just him, so it may be quite a burden to carry most of the weight of the drama alone. And, I think he carries it quite ably.
But the supporting cast also pulls off the job nicely. Aoki’s Tachibana as a co-detective provides some of the comic relief (Sanosuke Sagara mode still on, I see) although he also proves to be quite a staunch ally when he puts his mind to it. Haru as the coroner is, I think, this drama’s way of injecting some femininity amid all the testosterone. Did it work? To some extent, it does, considering how her character is quite gloomy (she conducts autopsies for crying out loud!) and clinical most of time. Hints of a deeper connection between her and Ishikawa are also there, although I sorta enjoyed her bickering with Tachibana more.
The Story
I like the execution of the detective-sees-dead-people plot. I’d say this is a gift that most detectives would definitely want. It would save them a lot of time and effort in solving crimes if they can talk to the soul of the victims and find out the culprit that way. But this drama does not do things that easily. Sure, Ishikawa manages to have conversations with the victims, but not everything is handed on a silver platter. He still has to use his powers of deduction and put his investigative skills to use to get the full picture. And then the harder part: bringing the crime to light without letting anyone catch on the fact that he is getting his evidence in ways that will not really make them admissible in court.
All throughout the series I kept thinking back on that bullet in his brain. It’s like a ticking time bomb, although this drama does not really treat it as such. Sure, they make references to it, but it’s not made out to be this huge shadow hovering over Ishikawa. Instead, it’s this small, fleeting mirage that moves swiftly. If you ask me, I think this subtle treatment made it more threatening.
This drama started out for me as a crime/procedural drama with a ghost story feel to it. As a police or crime drama, Halfway through the series, the creepy-eerie-ghost factor took a backseat and it became a psychological drama.
As a crime-slash-procedural-slash-psychological drama, I thought it was well-written. Which did not surprise me when I saw the other screenwriting credits of the writer Kaneshiro Kazuki. (He wrote Security Police, or SP, another drama I enjoyed back in 2008.) Ishikawa’s “descent” into darkness was done so gradually. There are no slam-bang, in-your-face lightbulb moment where you get to see that he’s sinking. It’s so gradual, so slow, and that, to me as a viewer, made it even more effective.
The music used was very fitting, too, especially during the “encounters”. Several times it made me stop and look behind me. You know, just in case I’m not alone.
But that isn’t to say that I did not have questions, and my biggest question is: WHAT DRIVES ISHIKAWA?
From episode 1, the writers drove home the fact that Ishikawa is a workaholic – one who has no personal life. And we see that. Except for some token expositions where he speaks of his older brother and one scene where Akai mentioned his father liking golf, we do not really get to see him anywhere other than in work mode. Not his apartment or even the building where he lives. What motivates him? He can be quite relentless in seeking the truth; where is his sense of justice coming from? Or is he really one of those rare people that want to fix everything?
He is also not above soliciting the help of underground characters in solving the cases, but where does he get the money he pays for the information and “help” he gets? Does he get paid that much? These are simply some of the questions I want answered.
And, until the very last scene, I was holding my breath, not really knowing what’ll happen, or how Ishikawa will turn. Or if he WILL turn.
I’ve a feeling there’ll be a Season 2. I am crossing my fingers for a Season 2.
CONCLUSION
That being said, I am soooooo damn glad I picked this up.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Watch it or not? Watch it. You’ll be glad you did.
(Border is a TV Asahi production, and aired in Japan from April 10 to June 5, 2014. Screen captures are from MyAsianTV.com.)
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