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Hiroshi66
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Re: J-Drama: 相棒２ (Partners 2)
Episode 17
This was a good episode. I kept thinking that this would be another two-parter, but Ukyo and Kameyama ended up solving the whole case by the end of the episode. It turns out that the culprits behind the kidnappings were the owners of the orphanage. Their orphanage (known as The House of Hope) was on the verge of going out of business, and the couple thought they could arrange for the kidnappings of 16 children (as well as feigning innocence by pretending that one of their own children had been kidnapped) and collect the ransom money. With the ransom money, they were planning on paying back their debts and keeping the orphanage open.
One of the kidnapped children was the son of a rich company owner. The ransom the company owner had to pay up was 1 million yen, and his wife was told to personally deliver the money to the kidnapper by boarding a bus and heading towards a rural location.
The culprits also enlisted the help of one of their former employees. The man was pretending to be a bus driver taking the mother of one of the kidnapped children to exchange the ransom money for her son. However, he set off a smoke bomb and ran off with the money. The children were eventually freed, and half of the 1 million yen was returned to the rich company owner. The orphanage owners probably took the portion of money they needed to pay off their debt and then just returned the rest.
However, Ukyo realized the orphanage owners were the culprits when he saw the young orphan (who was pretending to be one of the kidnapped child) run to his mother after being 'rescued' and exclaimed, "I did it, mom!" The female orphanage owner slapped the child to silence him, since the boy had just revealed to everyone that he had managed to successfully feign being kidnapped, as he had been taught to do by the orphanage owners. But Ukyo also thought it was suspicious that the rich company owner's description of the bus driver was completely different than the orphanage owner's version.
Kameyama's GF had to write an article about the closure of the orphanage and the arrest of the owners, but she said she couldn't write it harshly, having known about the dire financial situation that the orphanage was in.
The culprits were trying to make the kidnappings seem like it was a well-coordinated operation with many different people involved, which misled the police into thinking it was a terrorist attack. But while the police department was busy assembling the riot police, Ukyo and Kameyama were investigating the orphanage owners themselves.
Episode 18 airs next Thursday, November 19th!
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11/15/2009, 7:48 am
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nchristi
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Re: J-Drama: 相棒２ (Partners 2)
Wow. What a convoluted, unexpected ending to last night's episode. I had suspected there was a possibility the wife had killed the other woman and that the husband then killed himself to make it look like a lovers' suicide—to cover up for the murder his wife committed in passion. And that is what happened, except....
That big "except" was the hidden basis for the "other woman" in the first place. She was only a cover—a duped cover. Yes, the husband was having an extra-marital affair, but it wasn't with a woman—it was with the "Pill Eater" official at the Police Department! They covered their homosexual love by the married one pretending to have an affair with a woman. The wife focused her attention and jealousy on this 'other woman,' never having a clue her husband's lover was a guy at the Police Dept.
I thought the ending was interesting. The facts of the case were that the wife killed the "other woman," the husband killed himself to look like a suicide to save his wife from prosecution, the wife killed herself out of guilt and anguish. Murder, suicide, suicide.
Pill Eater was sad over his lover dying but also knows there is no crime to be pinned on him. He threatens Ukyo and Kameyama to keep the truth to themselves—he doesn't want anyone else to know about his lifestyle and his involvement in this situation. Ukyo acknowledges there's nothing to be done legally to Pill Eater, though both the 'other woman' and the wife are "turning over in their graves," now knowing the truth. In their culture, I would imagine that's a rather heavy burden for Pill Eater to bear. He's always got to worry about those two sweet, innocent women and what they might do to him in both this world and the next.
Very good mystery this time. Skillfully woven to hide the truth till the very end.
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11/20/2009, 11:47 am
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Hiroshi66
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Re: J-Drama: 相棒２ (Partners 2)
Episode 18
Yep, we had a very good mystery in last night's episode! Lately, the cases on Partners II had been getting a little predictable, but the outcome of this case turned out to be quite unexpected and surprising. It was interesting to find out that the husband had used the other woman to cover up his relationship with Mr. Pill Eater. The wife (who ended up committing suicide) had killed the other woman, and her husband later killed himself to make the whole thing look like a double suicide.
Ukyo is as sharp as always, remembering every single comment. When he and Kameyama confronted Mr. Pill Eater at the end of the episode, Ukyo told him that he thought Mr. Pill Eater's comments about the husband "never committing suicide with a woman" were strange. Later on, Ukyo realized that Mr. Pill Eater and the husband were using the other woman to hide their relationship. Now, Mr. Pill Eater realized that his actions resulted in the death of not only his lover, but also the murder and suicide of two other individuals.
So it turns out that Mr. Pill Eater wasn't eating pills after all, LOL! He intimidated everyone at the police department because they thought he carried around a bottle of white pills that he would finish eating by the end of the day. But it turns out they were ramune candy!
Ramune Bottle Candy
Ramune is a tangy soft drink in Japan that is also a popular candy, especially among children. Mr. Pill Eater admits that he's loved ramune candy ever since he was a little kid, and he still eats it everyday. Everyone at the police department were scared of him because he was the tough guy that was popping pills throughout the day, but he was only eating candy!
I wonder if we'll see more of the rivalry between the Criminal and Public Affairs departments that we were seeing today. The department heads hated each other, so they were trying to use this case to get each other ousted. Since the late husband worked for the Public Affairs department, the head of the Criminal department wanted to charge him with murder and have the Public Affairs department head take responsibility and resign. Meanwhile, the head of the Public Affairs department claimed that it was a double suicide, and that both the husband the other woman had committed suicide at the same time. They ended up both being wrong!
When Itami (the rival detective) walked in to "greet" Kameyama today, Kameyama blurted out "I'm Kameyama of Special Missions" before Itami could say a word!
Great mystery last night. Looking forward to Episode 19 next Thursday.
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11/20/2009, 7:07 pm
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Hiroshi66
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Re: J-Drama: 相棒２ (Partners 2)
Episode 19
This episode brought up some very interesting points about Japanese laws pertaining to animals and animal abuse. In Japan, animals are not seen as living beings but rather as 'objects' that are the property of their owners. So, if Love was killed, it wouldn't be considered animal cruelty. Rather, the culprit would be charged with 'property damage.' As Ukyo mentioned, laws protecting animals are almost nonexistent in Japan. This drama was aired in 2003, so I wonder if things have improved over the last six years.
The culprit turned out to be the lawyer husband. He was defending a man who ran over a woman and her dog with a motorcycle, killing them both. The woman's husband barged into the lawyer's office, asking him how he could possibly defend the man. It turned out that the lawyer's wife used to date the man who lost his wife, and they began to have an affair. The wife would take Love and go to the man's house, who moved closer to her home. A month before all this, the wife told the lawyer that she wanted a divorce. The lawyer eventually found out that his wife was having an affair.
So, the lawyer took Love and went into the home of the man his wife was having an affair with. He murdered the man and then confined Love in the man's apartment, making it look like his wife was responsible for the murder by using her glove to hold the knife. He thought the police would prosecute his wife. However, Ukyo figured out that the lawyer was the murderer because he believed that if the wife had been the murderer, she would have surely left food for Love. But, there was no food there -- only water. Also, the lawyer's badge that the lawyer misplaced was found inside Love -- who had swallowed it.
The lawyer had used Love to get his revenge on his wife and her lover. According to him, he couldn't stand for his wife to take Love away from him when she divorced him, because he had "grown tired of people" and Love was the only part of his life that relaxed him. As Ukyo said at the end of the episode, "You used your Love to commit a horrible murder."
I wonder if Kameyama ended up getting a dog after that... he and his GF looked like they were having fun now that they had a puppy around the house!
It was funny when Ukyo told the lawyer's wife to leave taking care of Love to him. So what does he do? He leaves the dog in Kameyama's custody, LOL!
Also loved the scene with Ukyo and his ex-wife. Ex-wife mentions that Ukyo never used to eat her home-cooked meals, and she finds it odd that he comes so often to her restaurant now. She asks him if he's doing it to make up for not eating her meals during their marriage. Ukyo gives her a little smile, and then goes back to his drink.
Episode 20 airs next Thursday.
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11/27/2009, 1:49 pm
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diane18
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…
the writers come up with such funny lines like, "You used your Love to commit a horrible murder".
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11/27/2009, 4:10 pm
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nchristi
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Re: J-Drama: 相棒２ (Partners 2)
In the USA, animal cruelty laws are largely a matter of individual State law. Even though we have some pretty strong animal cruelty laws, animals/pets are still legally viewed here as only property. When an owner has a loss, a court of law will only recompense the owner with the actual dollar value of the animal. Some bereaved pet owners attempt to get 'pain and suffering' type compensation, but it is not allowed, since the pet is legally only property. It's like having your car totaled. You can generally recoup only the Blue Book value, even though it might be worth thousands of dollars more to the owner.
Animal cruelty, on the other hand, is a criminal offense in most States. While the perpetrator is also liable for the costs incurred to fixing/restoring the animal, the real penalty is jail, prison and/or fines. Remember the guy on the freeway who got upset with the woman driver, took her little white dog out of her lap and threw it into oncoming traffic as the woman, in horror, watched it get killed? No amount of money would erase that from the woman's mind. But the penalty was the guy was sentenced to three years prison for animal cruelty.
As the for episode itself, the lawyer husband looked suspicious but I didn't know until the very end what his real motive was. Who would have thought it was because he couldn't stand the thought of the pet dog going with his wife in the divorce? Kind of like a child custody fight, only the lawyer knew he would lose since the dog apparently was a gift to the wife, thus property belonging to her.
The scene between Ukyo and his ex-wife at her café was interesting. It was almost as though he didn't want to admit (or face?) their divorce. It looks as though he is the one who sought the divorce, though I don't recall that it has ever been discussed. But her comment about him trying to make up for the past leads me in that direction. In thinking about Ukyo and what makes him tick, I can imagine that he would divorce her for one of two reasons. First, being married might divide his heart and mind when trying to solve his cases. Second, he might think that his job is so dangerous and time consuming that he wanted to spare his wife from becoming a widow; or perhaps simply because he cannot participate fully in a marriage with his type mind and work, so he turned her loose from her marital obligation. I wonder how he would react if she were to move on and marry someone else? On the other hand, they spend a lot of time with each other, it seems. Maybe this is as close to 'marriage' as Ukyo will ever get.
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11/27/2009, 6:29 pm
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