I had a long dry spell with respect to Japanese dramas, or “jdoramas”, as we fondly call them. It is only now that I am starting to ease back into it and, to quench my jdorama thirst, I decided to rekindle the flame with “Bitter Blood”, or “Partners by Blood”, starring Sato Takeru and Atsuro Watabe.
And I am shamelessly admitting to the fact that 80% of the reason I picked this up was because I was having major Sato-Takeru-as-Himura-Kenshin withdrawal symptoms. The other 20%… well, because friends recommended it, and it was easily accessible/downloadable.(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 SPOILER ALERT! Depending on your powers of deduction, that is.
Title: BITTER BLOOD
No. of episodes: 11, ~45mins each
Cast: Sato Takeru (Sahara Natsuki aka Junior), Watabe Atsuro (Shimao Akimura aka Gentle), Kutsuna Shiori (Maeda Hitomi) (Check Wiki page here)
SYNOPSIS: Police rookie Sahara Natsuki joins the First Division of the Ginza Police Department and finds himself paired up with his estranged father, Shimao Akimura, whom he has been resentful all his life since his parents divorced and the latter abandoned him and his sister. Suddenly, father and son are forced to work closely together through cases while dealing with their deeply-buried and thought long-forgotten issues. Meanwhile, a sinister force from the past is back to destroy what the father and son combo are slowly but surely trying to rebuild. (~Jeffer)
EPISODES + THOUGHTS:
Episode One
On his first day at work as a new police officer, Sahara Natsuki gets the shock of his life when he realizes he’ll be working with his estranged father, Shimao Akimura (the feeling is entirely mutual, by the way). Worse, their team’s chief, Inspector Kagiyama, decided to make them partners. We get to meet the other members of the Kagiyama Team: fellow newbie Maeda, Koga aka Bachelor, Inagi aka Chaser, Togashi aka Skunk, and Taka-san. Sahara also gets his nickname, Junior. Shimao’s nickname is Gentle, because he’s a “gentleman” and smooth with the ladies, and he loves the bitter-tasting coffee, incongruously named “Gentle Coffee”.
We also get a glimpse of an event 15 years ago that shaped the lives of the main characters. And we meet the lead antagonist, Kaizuka, with his disconcerting smirk, disabled leg and cane, and his penchant for classical music (oh, and his single-minded desire to make Shimao suffer).
This episode primarily shows the shaky start of the partnership between two people who clearly do not want to be in it. In one scene, Sahara states decisively that he decided to join the force, because he does not want to see people hurt, not after being witness to his mother crying every day.
Grown-up he may be, but there will always be that little boy inside of him that longs for his father. And was failed by that father.
A subplot is a bank heist in a bank where Sahara happened to be in. We see a hint of Shimao wanting Sahara out of the force because he does not want his son to be in danger,
Episode Two
The episode focuses on a kidnap-for-ransom case. A CEO’s son, who is in grade school, was abducted, and the kidnappers are asking for 5 million yen as ransom. Sahara and Shimao find themselves once again at odds at how the father of the child is conducting himself throughout the ordeal. Sahara thinks the father should be beside his wife, comforting her; Shimao thinks the father should continue going to work. We see a bit more of the reason why Shimao did not spend a lot of time with his son when he was still very young. Sahara expresses his bitterness at Shimao’s belief that giving them money is enough to make up for abandoning them.
Basically, the two have it out at their opposing ideas on what a father’s “job” is supposed to be.
On the ligher side, Koga aka Bachelor also dupes Sahara into accompanying him to a goukon (group date), just to even out the numbers. He soon regrets it when the ladies are all fawning over Sahara (and his smile. Can’t blame you ladies, can’t blame you at all.)
And there is the issue of the father and son having the same tie – and entirely by accident, mind you.
Episode Three
Finally, we spend more “time” with the mysterious Kaizuka, who had a “run-in” with Shimao years before, and killed his then-partner Shuichi. This time, he targets Maeda Hitomi, Sahara’s fellow rookie police officer and the daughter of Shuichi. Kaizuka poses as an informer who can help Maeda find her father’s murderer,
And we also find out more about Kaizuka’s motivations.
As a subplot, they encounter the case of a father and son who get into shoplifting scams. Sahara is torn between arresting the father and letting him go. If he arrests the father, he will be separated from his son. But will he just let him off the crime?
And there’s a new character introduced in the show, and her name is CHAPPY, and the father-son team is assigned to dog-sit her for the day. Here’s the thing: Shimao is TERRIFIED of dogs. Even adorable, cute ones like Chappy. And there’s a story behind that too.
Episode Four
A bullied high school senior, Kota, becomes witness to a murder. Unfortunately, the killer spots him and figures out who he is. The manhunt for the murderer begins, and the young man is torn between keeping quiet and telling the authorities what he’s seen.
Oh, he also happens to be the son of Inspector Kagiyama. The son he barely gets to talk with because he spends almost all of his time at the police station, and they honestly do not know how to communicate.
In this episode, Shimao is utterly confused at the lure of social media. “What is so special about uploading a photo and getting 1000 likes on it? WHAT’S THE BIG EFFIN’ DEAL?!
Unknowingly, Sahara offends an otaku, who then proceeds to hostage Shimao at the police station until Sahara shows up. Kagiyama finds himself torn between saving his son and doing his job as a cop.
Also, as a thank you for saving her life in the previous episode, Maeda asks Sahara to have dinner with her. Will he be able to go, considering his packed schedule for the day?
Episode Five
Sahara’s grandfather and Shimao’s father-in-law shows up at the police station with a stab wound. He is a retired police officer, and the former partner of Inspector Kagiyama. He’s back after he spotted the thief named Jounochi from his last case reappear, supposedly to get the money he stole from that time. The team has been tasked to track down the thief, and it involves a stakeout on his girlfriend, with Shimao and Sahara put in charge.
You know what a stakeout means, right? Junior and Gentle are forced to share a smaller space than usual, for hours on end. And they end up ragging each other on hygiene, cleanliness, and the importance of using spoon and fork in eating…pizza.
Sahara also gets to go undercover as a… plumber.
We also have a bit of enlightenment on what caused the divorce between Shimao and Sahara’s mother.
Episode Six
Somebody stabbed Inspector Kagiyama and, while he is in critical condition, the culprit is yet to be found. Here’s the thing: the crime happened within the police station, and Kagiyama knows who he is.
Now everyone in the Kagiyama Team is a suspect, and Sahara and Maeda are tasked by the top brass to spy on their comrades.Will they, or will they not? What secrets will they find out from their “spying”? It’s going to be a very long day as the faith of the team members in each other is tested. (And it’s Sahara’s birthday, too! DARN!)
And here’s another snag: the lead investigator is someone that Shimao is not in good terms with. And he won’t go easy on them as he subjects all of them to endless interrogations, until someone breaks.
Now the team has to find out who is the perpetrator before the latter could finish the job once and for all.
In this episode, we see more of the father in Shimao. I like.
Episode Seven
UH-OH. Newsflash: Sahara and Maeda wake up in Sahara’s bed, and they both could not remember everything that happened last night! Of course, Shimao gets wind of it and, in no time at all, the whole team finds out about how Sahara and Maeda “slept” together.
As they try to piece together what really happened (or didn’t happen) the previous night, Shimao is panicking. He is not ready yet to be called “Grandpa”! So he takes matters in his own hands and starts to instruct Sahara on how to interact with women.
And Bachelor’s days may be numbered now, since he finally found someone he could marry! But, oh? There is a marriage fraud case going on, and Sahara and Shimao suspect Bachelor is the next victim!
Episode Eight
At this point, we already have an idea how Sahara feels for Maeda. There’s some serious crushin’ going on. But Sahara may just get his poor heart broken as he finds out that Maeda has feelings – romantic feelings, likely – for someone in the team. It’s not Sahara, and it’s actually someone he does not expect.
Today, there seems to be a heat wave going on and the vending machine is out of Gentle Coffee. Sahara, meanwhile, was tasked to go buy refreshments. In the end, Shimao, Sahara and Maeda end up going together to the convenience store.
All hell breaks loose when a suspect Togashi was interrogating turns rogue. The entire police station goes on a lockdown as everyone looks for the suspect, who is somewhere inside the building.
Meanwhile, something goes wrong with the elevators, and it becomes stuck, with Shimao, Sahara, and Maeda stuck inside. They have no idea of the ruckus going on outside the elevators. Shimao does not care either way, because he just. needs. to. pee.
For some reason, this is one of my favorite episodes. It’s just so funny and brought on lots of laughs,
Also, we get a glimpse of Togashi’s family life. And what a big family it is.
Episode Nine
Sahara gets ribbed even more for having a crush on Maeda after saving her during a shootout with drug traffickers. But that issue takes a backseat when Inagi, aka Chaser, is suspected of being in cahoots with a group that reportedly sells drugs. The rest of the team compares notes on how Inagi seems different from usual, and decide that he must be hiding something.
It also does not help that the leader of said drug-trafficking group is seen meeting up with Inagi. And Shimao and Sahara find themselves in the awkward position of having to investigate one of their own.
Meanwhile, Shimao is hell-bent on instructing Sahara on how to finally confess to Maeda. Father’s Day is also coming up, and Sahara may be forced to do something special with Shimao.
Episode Ten
This is, essentially, part 1 of a 2-part finale. Kaizuka is still alive, and he won’t rest until Shimao is “in despair”.
It looks like a normal day, but it really is not.
Sahara and Maeda find themselves inside a hijacked bus, held at gunpoint.
Shimao receives an offer of a promotion and a transfer to the Metropolitan Police. But the excitement is short-lived, as he bumps into Kaizuka and ends up in his clutches.
Meanwhile, the Kagiyama Team gets a call about a woman threatening to jump off a building.
Are these isolated incidents, or are they simply part of an elaborate plot?
Episode Eleven – Final
Kaizuka reveals his plot – or, at least, part of it. He wants father and son to suffer, and he has an elaborate scheme set up to accomplish exactly that. Now Sahara must make a difficult choice: act as the detective he always wanted to be, or be the son of a father he used to resent but is now seeing in a different light. Which side will prevail?
I will not say any more on the final episode to avoid spoilers.
Let me just say one thing, though. They could have just compressed episode 10 and 11 into one finale. There were certainly subplots in ep10 that they could have done away with, and some parts of the final episode were long drawn out. Still, I think it was done quite all right.
OVERALL REVIEW:
I had major issues with how many of the police “business” was handled in this drama. To be honest, if those were the kind of cops that I’d have to rely on for my life, I’d be APPALLED.
Case in point: a deranged/fanatical guy has one of your fellow cops held up at gunpoint, and you take turns negotiating haphazardly, even provoking the hostage-taker? Or, how about the police conducting a search in the offices of suspected drug dealers and intentionally smashing and breaking things, even valuable antiques?
Also, you do NOT admit that you are nervous about interrogating a suspect IN FRONT of the suspect, do you?
And this is not how you tail someone.
Granted, those moments made for some funny parts but, really, if you try to look beneath the levity, there are serious issues here that could be tackled. Clearly, they decided not to focus on those issues and stick to the highlight, which is the relationship between Shimao and Sahara.
The main antagonist, Kaizuka, was also a gray area for me. One, there was no clear explanation on how he (spoiler alert!) survived that bomb explosion and faked his death. Or how he was able to hatch up elaborate plots considering his other foot is pretty much useless. There were revelations of him being in cahoots with some cops, but really, how did he get it all done?
What I was really curious about, however, but remain unresolved – at least for me – was Kaizuka’s motivation. He clearly hated Shimao, and even has an entire wall of slashed photos to prove it. And there were implications that Shimao somehow was at fault for Kaizuka losing the use of his leg, then losing his family, friends, and social standing. But I don’t think the details were fully explained.
I thought the romantic angle was done right. It played out with subtlety, and there was a sweet and shy connection between Maeda and Sahara as played by Sato and Kutsuna.
Now we come to the “heart” of the story: the shaky relationship between Shimao and Sahara. Sahara grew up hating his father, whom he thought abandoned his family. He grew up thinking his dad deserted him, his sister, and his mom. But it was revealed that it was not Shimao who was at fault. Then it was left hanging at that.
Here you have two men who are in constant denial of their true feelings for one another. A part of Sahara will always seek for his father’s approval, but he refuses to look past the “sins of his father”. Shimao, on the other hand, has always kept track of his son, but would not admit it, nor does he know how. They bicker, they argue, they help each other out, and they work well together on cases.
The two actors have good chemistry, and I had no trouble believing that they are estranged father and son. It was also obvious to everyone (but them) that they care for each other. They just (a) don’t know how to show it, and (b) don’t want the other to know it. Pride of a man, or something.
This is my first time seeing Watabe Atsuro in a drama. I think he played the multifaceted Shimao very well, hitting that balance between being comical and serious when the situation calls for it. Sato Takeru as Sahara essays innocence but still with a hint of someone who has seen and experienced major disappointments. He is, by nature, a gentle soul. He is unhesitating when it comes to showing compassion for others, but he also makes no secret of his resentment of his father, now his senpai (mentor).
CONCLUSION
Family is the pervasive theme in this drama. Every episode has something to say about the different dynamics that goes on in a family. The father-son relationship of Sahara and Shimao and of Kagiyama and his son. Maeda clinging to memories of her father through Shimao. Bachelor’s desperation to get married so he could make his mother happy. Skunk being revealed to be a loving father of such a large brood. Inagi willing to do everything for his daughter, and his brother-in-law willing to give up his life for his niece. Even the interaction of the team, After all, in the words of Inspector Kagiyama, “we are a family”.
Rating: 3.8 out of 5 stars
Watch it or not? Watch if you are a Sato Takeru or Watabe Atsuro fan. And if you like some drama with light comedy. Don’t if you are looking for a serious police/cop show.
(Bitter Blood is a Fuji TV production, and aired in Japan from April 15 to June 24, 2014. Screen captures are from MyAsianTV.com.)