Shokuzai: Penitências (2012)

Positive thoughts:

-Kiyoshi Kurosawa's films have always had a wonderfully surreal and eerie pitch to them, and the same goes for this TV mini-series. If you didn't know, there'd be no way to tell this was a TV show rather than a film.

-The cast is excellent, no exceptions.

-The premise and format of Shokuzai is highly intriguing: Five grade-school girls are good friends. One is abducted and murdered. Each subsequent episode reveals how this event screwed up all of their lives in completely different ways.

-The plot-line is highly suspenseful and unpredictable. One never knows what exactly is happening with each individual storyline or the overarching plot until near the end of each episode.

Negative thoughts:

-The show goes a bit too far into twisted and disturbing territory towards the end. I do immensely enjoy tragic and disturbing stories, and Shokuzai succeeded in this aspect for most of its duration, but by the end of the show it feels like the show starts becoming as twisted and disturbing as possible merely for the sake of it.

-Nearly every male character is either deranged or evil.

Overall thoughts:

I've always been more partial to Korean dramas, but Shokuzai has launched me into the Japanese drama scene, particularly WOWOW's mini-series'. Great show, and I hope to find more like it.

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In my experience, a good WOWOW noir is a quite effective way to keep one's mind off the heat and the humidity of a scorching summer night. It was with that spirit that I decided to watch this, and indeed I was granted my fair share of thrills - thanks to a superb photography, to some extremely eery music, and to those über-creepy, flickering shadows on the walls which are a constant presence in this dorama. The problem is, though, that this story is waaay too dark and disturbing for my taste!!! Still, the great cast did, as one would expect, a great job, and I have to admit that, had the last episode been differently developed, and had the most disturbing scenes and details been expunged from the whole story, this could've been a perfect noir indeed. Hence my not too harsh vote.

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