Kurosagi - Episode 1 overview and picspam
It's time to get the ball rolling on this dorama review.
I watched the first six episodes of Kurosagi while flying to London three weeks ago and I finished it over the next few days while Nicola and I were staying in Gaggio, a small village in the foothills of the Apennine mountains in Italy. I even got Nicola to watch the last few episodes with me, and he liked it. It was a good dorama to start him off with (the tiny bit of Anego that he watched over my shoulder in May doesn't count).
As for me? I loved it.
What is there not to love? Kurosagi is about a twenty-year-old young man, Kurosaki (Yamashita Tomohisa aka Yamapi), who lost his entire family when he was fourteen because of a swindler who ruined his father. In despair, his father murdered his entire family and then committed suicide. Somehow, Kurosaki escaped the fate that destroyed his family, but in living, he has made it his life's mission to destroy other swindlers by swindling them in turn. He has become a kurosagi. As such, he has cut off his ties to all other people and he lives solely on his revenge.
This is how we first meet Yamapi as Kurosaki.
How can anyone resist...
...Pi's hotness? I certainly can't. Just look at the intensity of that gaze.
Kurosaki's family.
We find out that Kurosaki visits an old man who seemingly lives in the building with the restaurant that he owns and from this old man, Katsuragi, he purchases information on the targets of his kurosagi activities. Later in the episode, we discover that it was Katsuragi's swindling plan that led to Kurosaki's father being swindled, even though Katsuragi was not the swindler directly responsible.
Katsuragi
Katsuragi is attended by this young woman, whose father, as we learn later in the series, was also destroyed by Katsuragi.
Kurosaki is a master of disguise.
On this day, Tsurara has just chased her uncle to the train station. The man left a will and ran away, so Tsurara chased after the man's little son to the train station to try to stop him from what she fears may be a suicide attempt. Sure enough, he is planning to throw himself in front of an oncoming train. When Kurosaki hears the little boy cry out to his father, his attention is captured, and he stops the man from jumping, and then tells him that he is standing on the money that Kurosaki has just dropped.
Tsurara sees Kurosaki for the first time.
Unfortunately, the man freaks out and begins screaming that he was swindled. Kurosaki turns again to look (after walking away) when he hears the little boy calling out to his father.
The little boy is pushed down by the milling crowd.
Tsurara goes to his rescue.
And she herself is pushed accidentally onto the tracks.
She is sure she is going to die.
But then Kurosaki is there.
And just like that, it happens. The bond is forged between them in that one moment as he saves her.
Kashima, the policeman who investigates swindling cases becomes interested in Kurosaki.
Their fateful encounter.
Tsurara's friend, Yukari.
Japanese dramas have the most adorable little kids!
Not too proud to drool over Pi...
Pi's look keeps changing!
Our first introduction to another swindler who swindles big fish bad guys.
As aloof and distant as he is, Kurosaki does emote when he sees the family restored with embraces and tears all around.
Tsurara confronts Kurosaki and expresses her disapproval again of his breaking the law. She cannot accept his chosen mission.
The way they stare at each other is scorching!
Tsurara slaps Kurosaki
He still doesn't care.
He brushes by her.
Kurosaki states his mission: to destroy other swindlers.
Pi looks so hot when he emotes.
So...the first episode sets up the general premise and introduces all the major characters - it also sets up the relationships that run throughout the series: Kurosaki/Katsuragi, Kurosaki/Tsurara, Tsurara & her friend, Yukari who eventually evolve into a romantic triangle with both girls interested in Kurosaki and Kurosaki/Kashima, the police officer who chases him throughout the drama.
Kurosagi is superficially about the swindles, and the swindlers and about watching Kurosaki triumph in this episodic drama, but it is also about the importance of connections with people and about children and their fathers, and about the sins of fathers haunting children and about being trapped in the past, unable to move forward and forge a better future. One of my favorite things in the drama is the relationship that evolves between Kurosaki and Tsurara because he struggles against it for so long and rebels against the power she has over him to make him feel. Before she came along, the only thing he harbored any affection for was his cat. But slowly, Tsurara works herself under his skin.
Yamapi is nothing short of a revelation in this drama. Marvelous in all his varied roles as he swindles his way through eleven episodes, he shines particularly in the quiet moments of introspection when he is confronted by people who force him to feel. Yamapi's subtlety is often breathtaking - it is his tiniest gestures and actions that will leave you in a puddle - the way he looks and the way he swallows and closes his eyes, the way he holds his mouth, the things he does with his eyes. Kurosaki never smiles except when he is acting, he is clumsy in private but suave and charming when the role calls for it, and he is thoroughly unhappy, but he sublimates his unhappiness into his mission.
In the first episode, he is deeply affected by the family who was swindled by Shinkawa. He hears the little boy calling to his father, and his own voice echoes in his head as he called to his father who walked toward him with a bloody knife. He sees a family coming apart at the seams and he remembers his own family, murdered by his own father. He sees a little boy in pain and he remembers being that boy. He is that boy, trapped in a cycle of vengeance.
Tsurara is the opposite of Kurosaki, and an excellent foil. She still has faith in the system and believes in the rule of law which Kurosaki has abandoned. She believes in human connection and sees that as what makes life worth living. Kurosaki is like the walking dead - he doesn't care what happens to him so long as he has his mission left to him.
I took a Benadryl before I started writing, and it is now making me fall asleep on my laptop, so I will write more on the rest of the drama another day.
I watched the first six episodes of Kurosagi while flying to London three weeks ago and I finished it over the next few days while Nicola and I were staying in Gaggio, a small village in the foothills of the Apennine mountains in Italy. I even got Nicola to watch the last few episodes with me, and he liked it. It was a good dorama to start him off with (the tiny bit of Anego that he watched over my shoulder in May doesn't count).
As for me? I loved it.
What is there not to love? Kurosagi is about a twenty-year-old young man, Kurosaki (Yamashita Tomohisa aka Yamapi), who lost his entire family when he was fourteen because of a swindler who ruined his father. In despair, his father murdered his entire family and then committed suicide. Somehow, Kurosaki escaped the fate that destroyed his family, but in living, he has made it his life's mission to destroy other swindlers by swindling them in turn. He has become a kurosagi. As such, he has cut off his ties to all other people and he lives solely on his revenge.
This is how we first meet Yamapi as Kurosaki.
How can anyone resist...
...Pi's hotness? I certainly can't. Just look at the intensity of that gaze.
Kurosaki's family.
We find out that Kurosaki visits an old man who seemingly lives in the building with the restaurant that he owns and from this old man, Katsuragi, he purchases information on the targets of his kurosagi activities. Later in the episode, we discover that it was Katsuragi's swindling plan that led to Kurosaki's father being swindled, even though Katsuragi was not the swindler directly responsible.
Katsuragi
Katsuragi is attended by this young woman, whose father, as we learn later in the series, was also destroyed by Katsuragi.
Kurosaki is a master of disguise.
On this day, Tsurara has just chased her uncle to the train station. The man left a will and ran away, so Tsurara chased after the man's little son to the train station to try to stop him from what she fears may be a suicide attempt. Sure enough, he is planning to throw himself in front of an oncoming train. When Kurosaki hears the little boy cry out to his father, his attention is captured, and he stops the man from jumping, and then tells him that he is standing on the money that Kurosaki has just dropped.
Tsurara sees Kurosaki for the first time.
Unfortunately, the man freaks out and begins screaming that he was swindled. Kurosaki turns again to look (after walking away) when he hears the little boy calling out to his father.
The little boy is pushed down by the milling crowd.
Tsurara goes to his rescue.
And she herself is pushed accidentally onto the tracks.
She is sure she is going to die.
But then Kurosaki is there.
And just like that, it happens. The bond is forged between them in that one moment as he saves her.
Kashima, the policeman who investigates swindling cases becomes interested in Kurosaki.
Their fateful encounter.
Tsurara's friend, Yukari.
Japanese dramas have the most adorable little kids!
Not too proud to drool over Pi...
Pi's look keeps changing!
Our first introduction to another swindler who swindles big fish bad guys.
As aloof and distant as he is, Kurosaki does emote when he sees the family restored with embraces and tears all around.
Tsurara confronts Kurosaki and expresses her disapproval again of his breaking the law. She cannot accept his chosen mission.
The way they stare at each other is scorching!
Tsurara slaps Kurosaki
He still doesn't care.
He brushes by her.
Kurosaki states his mission: to destroy other swindlers.
Pi looks so hot when he emotes.
So...the first episode sets up the general premise and introduces all the major characters - it also sets up the relationships that run throughout the series: Kurosaki/Katsuragi, Kurosaki/Tsurara, Tsurara & her friend, Yukari who eventually evolve into a romantic triangle with both girls interested in Kurosaki and Kurosaki/Kashima, the police officer who chases him throughout the drama.
Kurosagi is superficially about the swindles, and the swindlers and about watching Kurosaki triumph in this episodic drama, but it is also about the importance of connections with people and about children and their fathers, and about the sins of fathers haunting children and about being trapped in the past, unable to move forward and forge a better future. One of my favorite things in the drama is the relationship that evolves between Kurosaki and Tsurara because he struggles against it for so long and rebels against the power she has over him to make him feel. Before she came along, the only thing he harbored any affection for was his cat. But slowly, Tsurara works herself under his skin.
Yamapi is nothing short of a revelation in this drama. Marvelous in all his varied roles as he swindles his way through eleven episodes, he shines particularly in the quiet moments of introspection when he is confronted by people who force him to feel. Yamapi's subtlety is often breathtaking - it is his tiniest gestures and actions that will leave you in a puddle - the way he looks and the way he swallows and closes his eyes, the way he holds his mouth, the things he does with his eyes. Kurosaki never smiles except when he is acting, he is clumsy in private but suave and charming when the role calls for it, and he is thoroughly unhappy, but he sublimates his unhappiness into his mission.
In the first episode, he is deeply affected by the family who was swindled by Shinkawa. He hears the little boy calling to his father, and his own voice echoes in his head as he called to his father who walked toward him with a bloody knife. He sees a family coming apart at the seams and he remembers his own family, murdered by his own father. He sees a little boy in pain and he remembers being that boy. He is that boy, trapped in a cycle of vengeance.
Tsurara is the opposite of Kurosaki, and an excellent foil. She still has faith in the system and believes in the rule of law which Kurosaki has abandoned. She believes in human connection and sees that as what makes life worth living. Kurosaki is like the walking dead - he doesn't care what happens to him so long as he has his mission left to him.
I took a Benadryl before I started writing, and it is now making me fall asleep on my laptop, so I will write more on the rest of the drama another day.