N NO TAMENI (Nのために)

Fall 2014

N No Tame Ni is a drama based on a best selling novel by Kanae Minato. The story is based on four young adults, Nozomi Sugishita (Nana Eikura), Shinji Naruse (Masataka Kubota), Nozomi Ando (Kento Kaku) and Masato Nishizaki (Keisuke Koide) who are found at a crime scene with Naoko Noguchi (Manami Konishi) and her husband Takahiro Noguchi (Yoshimi Tokui) dead on the floor. Nishizaki is sentenced to a 10 year prison term for confessing that he committed the crime and that no else was involved. 10 years later, when Nishizaki is released from prison, a former police officer Shigeru Takano (Tomokazu Miura) who worked on an island in the Seto Inland Sea has doubts about the verdict in the case, especially because he was acquainted with Sugishita and Naruse 15 years ago when they both lived on the same island and were involved in an unsolved crime.

Recommendation: So it's been about a year since I posted on my blog and I do deeply apologize as I was busy with other hobbies of mine. Nevertheless, I am back and I watched this drama because a friend recommended to me. I usually try to avoid possibly dark, moody, creepy crime dramas but this one was actually not as heavy as other ones that I've seen. The acting is also very good and the chemistry between the actors/actresses were quite smooth in my opinion. It is a bit on the slow side, but it has its moments of suspense and the story keeps you on your toes as the crime unfolds, teetering back and forth 10 and 15 years ago and then back to the present day to offer clues of the crime that took place. If you like mystery crime dramas, this is one to watch. It's all about misunderstandings so I was caught off guard in terms of how it all played out.

Story: 1.0
Acting: 1.0
Directing: 1.0
Character Development: 1.0
Emotional Factor: 0.5

4.5 Out Of 5.0 Crowns