Monday, September 20, 2010

Review of Jooubachi (Queen Bee)

Rating: 17.1%

To be frank, I thought this SP wasn't as interesting as the previous I saw from the Kindaichi Kosuke series i.e. the Inugami family case. Although it was as mind-boggling as before, I simply felt that the story or rather should I saw the scriptwriter did not factor in much opportunities for the cast to show off their acting skills. For example, Inagaki Goro's potrayal of Kindaichi Kosuke here did not bring the character alive on screen and seemed to have lost much of the vitality he displayed in the Inugami SP. In additon, Kuriyama Chiaki was supposed to play mother-and-daughter but somehow, both characters appeared so similar that there wasn't much to distinguish between the two and made it seem like Kuriyama was not able to play two different characters at the same time. That was why I didn't enjoy it as much as before.

I won't go into the details of the case as it would definitely involve spoilers. All I can say is that the telltale signs leading to the identity of the culprit was so obvious that it doesn't require a genius to figure out what is going on.

Well, I must make special mention of my impression of Kuriyama Chiaki here. Hm...I don't know whether it is her hairstyle or the fringe that's getting on my nerves but I feel that I get the creeps whenever I look at her. Maybe her tough, cool, uncomprising look is her distinct trait but this may prevent her from taking roles which are softer in nature. In contrast, Shibasaki Kou can also be considered as someone who looks cold and unfriendly but it's not too extreme and you can still accept her playing characters who actually smile. When Kuriyama smiles...that really made me shiver.

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