W no Higeki
Because if you've ever wanted to see Takei Emi covered in blood while lightning flashes behind her walk of murder, this is your drama. If you've ever thought The Parent Trap had a good plot but lacked the revenge schemes and cross-generational incest, this is your drama. If you ever watched Jotei and thought "you know, this is just too realistic," then this is your drama.
Basic plot: long-lost twins meet by chance and decide to exchange lives. One is an orphaned prostitute who makes her living cleaning the toilets of a cabaret, and the other is a rich, well-to-do heiress of a huge family fortune. When they trade places, HIJINKS ENSUE.
And by hijinks I mean doom.
This is Mako! Pretty, perfect, etc etc.
This is Satsuki! Pretty, perfect, etc etc, except she slouches and wears hoodies and does a lot of angry gazing into mirrors and other reflective surfaces, so we know she's the troubled twin.
You may be asking yourself, why would a rich girl want to trade lives with a glorified street rat?
That is her grandfather.
AUUGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.
Mako is in the one who contacts Satsuki with the idea to switch lives. Satsuki, you see, has just killed a man for $300.
She'll "do anything for money" (hint), but this guy didn't feel like paying. Satsuki takes the beating, glares at him as he walks out the door, then puts on a dark baseball cap and follows him into an alleyway and kills that motherfucker dead.
And then she steals his money.
THE MOMENT I FELL IN LOVE WITH SATSUKI. I DON'T EVEN CARE. KILL ALL THE TRICKS!
Of course, now she needs an alibi because of the hot, improbably young police detective who makes it his business to poke in hers.
This is where the twinswap comes in. Mako, pretending to be Satsuki, will provide her with an alibi for the night of the murder. All Satsuki has to do is survive her rich family...
...and you know, tolerate the gross incestuous grandfather.
This lasts like three episodes and then he winds up dead, so, um, LOLOLOL. Satsuki's method of problem-solving, guys. I feel obligated to mention that she doesn't actually kill him, but she gets this great moment when she yanks a knife out of his chest while DRAMATIC LIGHTNING flashes behind her, and then she takes this gothic slow-mo walk through the family mansion covered in the blood of its patriarch. SO YES, I LIKED IT.
Satsuki negotiating terms over the corpse. While her mother is like ?!?!? and Satsuki is just cool as shit.
Satsuki is totally my favorite character so far. She starts the drama like IDGAF, not caring about anything or anyone and only playing the twinswap because it's in her own best interests. She walks out of Mako's expensive lessons, makes hilarious faces at her girly wardrobe...
...then she gets a whiff of the family fortune and realizes it could be hers, so OUT COMES THE SLYTHERIN.
It's like a tiger in a den of sheep. She gets focused and sharp and smart and it's AWESOME. She starts eavesdropping and pumping the family for information on inheritance. She pretends to be Mako to manipulate Mako's allies. At one point everyone is talking about her future marriage, how she'll have to marry well and support her husband in taking over the family business, etc etc. And Satsuki declares in front of them all that actually, SHE would like to take over the family business, kthx.
"I don't like it. That my happiness is influenced by a man. I don't want to entrust my life to man who can't be trusted."
FUCK YEAH.
Mako, meanwhile, is set up as a very innocent character, very sheltered and sweet. She's willing to live Satsuki's life because it gives her the one thing she's always wanted - freedom - and it's a welcome escape from her rich confining life. That said, I am CONVINCED Mako is more than she seems.
For one, she lies way too well. Don't forget that the entire drama is only taking place because she snuck away from her family, contacted a strange girl and offered to help her cover up a murder. That isn't the kind of thing you pencil in between kimono fittings and tea lessons.
Mako also gets moments of agency and initiative that are totally inconsistent with her being some sheltered wallflower. Like, she takes Satsuki's life and transforms it. She goes from cabaret janitor to cabaret star, and she does it right under the noses of all the catty jealous co-workers trying to thwart her at every turn.
There's also a really telling scene between the twins, right after they've switched lives, when Satsuki confronts Mako about her creepy grandfather and his wandering hands...
...and Mako just smiles and says, "You'll do anything for money, right?"
Bwuh? Bwuh????? THAT IS NOT AN INNOCENT AND DELICATE FLOWER. That is a girl who just covered up a murder and pimped out her sister to their grandfather. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON IN THIS DRAMA, I JUST KNOW I LIKE IT.