[Criticism] Rakuen: a detective J-Drama where women are the pillars!

This month, as usual we invite you to discover our opinion on a drama. This is a very recent J-Drama since it was released at the beginning of the year. We talked about it with you last January : it's the story of a journalist who will have to investigate a murder case with the help of four other women… Rakuen!

Rakuen

Original title: Rakuen – 楽園

Alternative title: Heaven – Paradise

Country: Japan

Episodes : 06

Release period: January 08 to February 12, 2017

Director: Hajime Gonno

Writers: Miyuki Miyabe (novel) – Eriko Shinozaki

Genre: mystery – thriller

Channel: WOWOW

Synopsis

The story is about an incident told all over Japan. The case concerns the Doisaki couple, who killed their fifteen-year-old daughter and hid her body in their home for sixteen years. One day, Toshiko Hagiya, a housewife, visits Shigeko Maehata, who works for a small publishing company. Toshiko then tells her that her twelve-year-old son, Hitoshi, might have a special ability: to see other people's memories. She pulls out an image drawn by Hitoshi. The image is of a girl with a gray face in a house. On the roof is a weather vane in the shape of a bat. The image appears to represent the incident involving the Doisaki couple. Shigeko decides to do some research, but Hitoshi dies in a car accident. Meanwhile, the couple's lawyer Doisaki meets their second daughter Seiko who has cut all ties with them.

Adaptation of the novel by Miyuki Miyabe.

Main cast

Silence

The plot of this J-drama is not long in coming and is revealed quickly. It all starts with a fire in a family home. While the Doizaki parents escape the flames, Sakiko searches for her daughter Akane. But can't find it… Impossible when you know that she died and was buried under the floor of their home. The macabre discovery made headlines across Japan. 

For the neighbors, it was only a runaway, given the difficult behavior of the fifteen-year-old girl.However, Gen, his father, reveals without any hesitation that he is the author of all this and refuses any further comment.

Harumi Takahashi, a lawyer, decided to represent him when, for her part, Shigeko Maehata, a journalist, was still haunted by an old case. However, she receives a strange visit: that of Toshiko Hagiya who claims that her son, twelve-year-old Hitoshi, can see people's memories, which he draws on notebooks. After the implementation of these different tables, we are not at the end of our discoveries on his two parallel cases… Anyone who knows the Doizaki doesn't dare to talk about it and Hitoshi doesn't seem to want to talk much either… A case that promises to be most mysterious, and above all, tough!

A feminine universe

The unfolding and progress of the drama revolves around a core of women, four in number: Shigeko Maehata, Toshiko Hagiya, Harumi Takahashi and Seiko Inoue. But beware! That's not to say that men aren't present in Rakuen, or that they don't have a say. However, it is the fate of these women that allows us to follow two different directions, which are ultimately linked to each other. And the death of young Hitoshi will reveal many clues, including the explanation of the drawing he may have made before the fire occurred. 

The lawyer, who seems not to want to help Maehata will end up doing so in order to help her client and especially Seiko Gen's youngest daughter. Motivation and silence will give way to revelations and reversals of situations more or less predictable, until the very end. Besides, you may be surprised by this, unless you had a suspicion from the beginning! Akane's past will also allow us to see a rather charismatic character: Aiko Miwa (Nobuaki Kaneko) who will give you some chills.

An ideal format

If the drama seems short to say the least by its number of episodes, it remains a classic format of the broadcast channel WOWOW. A positive point, which also seduced us in Ishi No Mayu.A format that allows you to keep a fairly sustained pace and not to drag on or get bogged down in a story that could go around in circles. Here, we were not disappointed and we enjoyed the unfolding of events that remain natural. and above all… We enjoyed the stage performance of our four heroines who, under their weaknesses, know how to face the best and the worst. We hadn't seen Yukie Nakama since his success in Gokusen. This new role really sticks to her skin and it is a pleasure to discover the evolution and maturation of her acting career. 

Kaho is not leftover. Even if sometimes his character is erased, it is easy to understand his desire for truth and also his desire for filial love and above all, that of being able to live an ordinary life. Strong subjects are dealt with in this plot that is not only about a parricidal murder, but also about the look of society when something is beyond them. As well as the duty of remembrance towards the dead or the truth behind the silence, of a family that refuses to see a man become a monster … A series that, although violent in the psychology of the characters, is a nice surprise of the year 2017 that we recommend!

Rakuen is a captivating J-Drama, raising many social issues through four women who, despite their weaknesses, are thirsty for truth. If you do not like drama too long but you want a little action, this format will suit you and help you spend the change of season warm in your sofa!