MOZU Season 1 Episode 5

This was one epic episode! So many fighting scenes, moreover Miki may be the badass of the badass among females from dramas. She pretty much owns them all.

MOZU Season 1 Episode 5

Other than that, I liked seeing Osugi, Kuraki and Miki working together, even though Osugi and Miki were pushed back to make space for Kuraki’s memories, I still loved them working together to protect Nakajima.

This episode starts with Shingai who has been caught by Nakagawa’s people. When Nakagawa arrives at the place where Shingai was being held captive, he pours water on Shingai and threatened him to give back some chip while putting him through electro-shocks. Still not believing that Shingai truly lost his memories, Nakagawa electroshocks him once more, however this second time seems to have made Shingai remember small bits from the past afterwards leading to fainting from the power of the electroshock.

Osugi and Kuraki continue their investigation so they went to watch the video Minami recorded during the bombing incident (remember how the first episode started, with a guy recording everything, even a little girl who was crying). After copying the video from Minami and also telling him not to dare to upload it anywhere on the internet, the two leave to visit the little girl who keeps making the same drawings over and over (the one who was seen on the recording of Minami).

At the hospital where the girl was, the doctor tells Kuraki and Osugi that the girl said she saw a monster and that she keeps drawing since that day. While the two were talking with the doctor, the little girl comes and tells them that it’s finished; it seems that her drawings connect into a bigger picture. After Kuraki put every piece in it’s place, what the girl was trying to say had been revealed, the bigger picture showed, according to the girl a monster who tore people’s body apart during the bombing incident. When Osugi asks the girl if the picture portrays a woman, the girl simply answers “It’s a monster”.

After the meeting with the little girl, Osugi and Kuraki went to Miki’s office where she showed them CCTV recordings from a night before when Shingai who was waiting for Nakajima, was kidnapped. Meanwhile, at the place where Nakagawa is keeping Shingai, Higashi appears and asks him about who Nakajima is, and if she knows anything about them. Knowing that Shingai meet her after the he lost his memories, Higashi still tells Nakagawa to kill her since she may know something about them.

Tsuki tells his new team of 3, Osugi, Miki and Kuraki to go after Nakajima to find and protect her. However, before that, Nakagawa got his hands on her phone number and gave her a call in front of Shingai telling her that he is a friend of Shingai and that he will soon send someone for her. Luckily before she entered the care with one of Nagakawa’s people, Osugi beats the guy, but she gets scared and runs away, after that the chasing and who gets to Nakajima first game starts. In the end, thanks to Kuraki, Nakajima is saved from Nakagawa however she is severely hurt and rushed to the hospital.

While waiting for Nakajima to wake up, Kuraki reveals to Osugi that he knew his daughter wasn’t in fact his – after she got hurt once, he saw on the doctor’s paper that his daughter was blood type B, however neither he or his wife are B type – after that both him and the wife started to put a wall between themselves; Kuraki also tells Osugi that his wife may have killed the daughter since she loved him too much.

Kuraki meets Miki in the elevator, but for a while neither of them asks or speaks anything. But before leaving, Kuraki is the one who breaks the silence and asks Miki if she is going to the hospital and if Nakajima wakes up to contact him right away.

Kuraki goes to see his wife’s friend where he is informed about how she was during the last period. The friend tells him that she provided consouling for Chihiro, however for a while she couldn’t get a hold of her. But when Chihiro finally appears, she confessed to her friend that she is the one who killed their daughter. The friend also tells Kuraki that she recommended Chihiro to go to the hospital but she refused saying that she didn’t want to be apart from him. Lastly Kuraki asks the friend if Chihiro ever talked about her dreams, and the friend says that she did spoke about it. Apparently in Chihiro’s dreams the same man appeared over and over again.

Nakagawa succeeds in kidnapping Nakajima from the hospital and takes her where he was keeping Shingai. Back at Kuraki, he remembers a time when his wife wanted to cut herself saying that she doesn’t need anything, but when he asks if she doesn’t need Shizuru as well (their daughter), Chihiro falls on the floor and asks him to remember and trust her when she says that she loves him.

Watch MOZU Season 1 Episode 6 online at dramanice.com

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MOZU Season 1 Episode 4

Because of my break from dramas, I decided to stop recapping MOZU for a while, but since I like this drama more and more, I’ve returned to recap it.

MOZU Season 1 Episode 4

We are still at the point of understanding our 3 main characters, Kuraki, Miki and Osugi thus this episode was mainly focused on Osugi’s story and his family problems.

Episode 3 ended with Kuraki being hurt after the car accident, he faints at Miki’s house so she sends him to the emergency room. Meanwhile, Osugi goes to the police station to bail out his middle school daughter who at first seems to be a normal girl going through puberty therefore she acts rather aggressive towards Osugi, who scolds her.

Nakagawa informs Higashi about completing his task of attacking Kuraki. Afterwards Higashi tells his right hand to go after Shingai and capture him alive.

Miki goes to meet Osugi to tell him a message she Has from Kuraki – when she arrives at the police station she sees Osugi and his daughter fighting. At the same time, Nakajima comes to Tokyo to meet up with Shingai after agreeing to help him find more about his past so he could gain back his memories, however, while Shingai was waiting for her, when she arrives, he meets the eyes of someone who was tailing him.

After Miki told Osugi about Kuraki’s accident, he goes to the hospital where Kuraki reveals his insight over Miki who works for Tsuki. Kuraki tells Osugi that they may have been used by Miki and her superior into this investigation. After that the two come to the conclusion that the one who planted to bomb may be someone from the police, since Tsuki’s job is to investigate other policemen and detectives. Before Osugi left, Kuraki asks him to investigate Miki since he currently can’t move away from the hospital, but Osugi give a negative reply, telling him that he doesn’t want to do so; then Kuraki gives Osugi the advice to get away from the bombing investigation since the people involved in it may attack his family.

Later, when another investigation meeting ends, Osugi asks his superior not to close the case, however, the superior seems kind of irritated with Osugi and tells him that he has no right of any words in this investigation, and brushes him off. Seeing the superior’s attitude, Osugi goes to Miki to ask her if she doesn’t find it strange that the evidence found in Shingai’s house was sent to another place, and makes it clear to her that he thinks of her as being a suspect. To his surprise, Miki gets rid of him pretty easily.

Osugi receives a phone call to inform him that his daughter was caught stealing from a store. When he arrives, the owner of the store agrees to let go after Osugi apologizes, however when he tries to scold his daughter, the girl makes a scene and remembers him about someone who committed suicide and puts the blame on her father.

At night, a journalist waits for Osugi and pretty much threatens him with publishing an article about his daughter stealing, but if he doesn’t want the article to be published then Osugi has to give him information about the bombing investigation.

Nakagawa pays a visit to Kuraki at the hospital. When he wakes up, Kuraki sees Nakagawa watching him; afterwards their conversation if rather threatening from Nakagawa’s part towards Kuraki.

The next day, Osugi comes to pick up Kuraki from the hospital. Still thinking about what the journalist said, Osugi decides to record their conversation. However Kuraki seems to smell something and starts asking why he hates the Public Safety Bureau. Even though hesitating at first, Osugi reveals the reason to Kuraki – two years before the present time, Osugi was in charge of investigating a mother whose daughter died, and while doing the investigation, the PSB gave him documents that lead him think that the mother was at fault. More over the woman was the mother of Osugi’s daughter’s best friend. When his daughter told him that the woman wouldn’t do something like that, he didn’t believe it since he already saw the documents from the people from PSB. After that the woman committed suicide, Osugi’s daughter also started changing putting the blame on him for her friend’s mother’s death. However Osugi tells Kuraki that the reason why he hates the PSB is because after the suicide, he went to the PSB to search for those who gave him the documents, but the PSB hide everything.

Shingai calls Nakajima to set up a day for them to meet. Meantime, Kuraki, Miki and Osugi meet again, and Miki tells them that she lied to Kuraki only once. She reminds them about the time when she told them that Shingai was the one behind the bombing and the killing, but in truth the one who did the killing was Shingai’s younger sister. Miki also tells them that on the day of the bombing incident, the one she was tailing was Shingai’s sister not Shingai. However, the one who hired Shingai, Anthena Security, doesn’t know that the real killer is Shingai’s sister, they still think that the only one who performed everything was Shingai. Even after revealing everything, Osugi tells Miki that she and her superior were using him and Kuraki to investigate something more than the bombing incident, but right at that moment, Miki’s superior, Tsuki appears in the room.

Tsuki asks Kuraki and Osugi for help in the investigation, but before answering, Kuraki wants to know who is behind Higashi (who is in a higher position is helping him) and after receiving the answer, Kuraki may help Miki and Tsuki. Tsuki agrees to answer, telling Kuraki and Osugi that the ones backing up Higashi is the higher ups from PSB.

Osugi goes to pick up his daughter from school, when they meet he tells her that he saw the CCTV recording and saw that she wasn’t the one who stole from the store and that a senior of her put it in her bag, and so he apologizes to his daughter for not believing her words. He also tells his daughter, Megumi, that no matter who wants to put her down she should never give in. In reply Megumi tells her father to do the same, no matter who wants to take him down, he should never give in. After that Osugi asks his daughter how did she knew about her senior putting the accessory into her bag so she could be blamed for stealing, then what Megumi replies brings tears into his eyes:

Megumi: “Because I am the daughter of a detective.”

While on his way to meet up with Nakajima, Shingai is caught by people from Anthena Security.

Watch MOZU Season 1 Episode 5 online at dramanice.com

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MOZU Season 1 Episode 3

This episode didn’t give much to the story, however the producers knew how to fill the emptiness….with 20 minutes of half naked Nishijima Hidetoshi – yep, it was worth the time.

MOZU Season 1 Episode 3:

Before entering the apartment, Shingai runs away. As he successfully entered, Kuraki starts looking around the apartment; when Miki appears he tells her that he never heard (from her) anything about Shingai having an younger sister and asks her if she will tell everything she knows. Miki agrees and tells him that she needs to bring another person as well.

Higashi tells his right hand that he finds Kuraki an eyesore thus orders to be “taken care” of.

Later Miki and Kuraki meet up with Osugi. Miki tells the two information regarding Shingai having a memory loss being real after judging from his reactions and his killing method – by stabbing on the back of the neck. She also tells them that Shingai isn’t the one who planted the bomb. Because the day of the explosion she followed Kakei who meet a mysterious woman, and Shingai was following the two as well, however when Kakei went to the toilet, his bag was too far from Shingai so there was no way that he planted the bomb. However, Kuraki and Osugi seem skeptical in regards of Miki’s information. After she leaves, Osugi asks Kuraki about his wife and if he knew anything about the investigation she was working on 5 years ago, but Kuraki tells him that they never talked about it, she never spoke and he never asked about it.

Back home, Kuraki looks at the drawing of his daughter, but when he wanted to open a drawer he couldn’t; taking away his attention from the drawer, he notices something on the back of the drawer, it’s the same drawing as the one from the police box.

Shingai gets in touch with Nakajima, the girl who helped him at the hospital in the first episode, to ask her to do some search about him since he still hasn’t gained his memory back. Narumiya tells Osugi that the bomb used can’t be found in Japan and it might be possible brought from abroad.Nakajima goes to Shingai’s former school to find more about him.

Kuraki tells his superior that the explosion may be connected to the next month visit of the President of Republic of Sardinia. The two also talk about the possibility of Sardinian terrorist coming to Japan to assassinate the Sardinian President, however because the visits will be celebrated at a large scale, if something happens to the President, it will also be a blow to Japan because it may lose the new petrol route plan

Kuraki meets with Osugi and asks him if his wife has a drawer locked whose content he doesn’t know, or if he knows the content of his wife’s drawer. Osugi replays that he doesn’t even understand his daughter moreover know about his wife’s drawer. Then Kurkai remembers about his wife having strange dreams; Osugi asks if it may have something to do with the “Gurag alfa” (I suppose it’s called like that) investigation she was doing, but Kuraki says he doesn’t know. Still, he asks himself if his daughter may have the same dreams (because he found the strange drawing on the back of another drawing of his daughter).

The right-hand-dude of Higashi follows Kuraki around, and after some time of following, he goes with his car straight into the taxi Kuraki took. When the taxi driver goes towards his car he runs away, but when the driver turns his head towards Kuraki, he was also gone.

Kuraki goes to Miki’s house and tells her that she didn’t tell the whole truth. That the one she was tailing that day was Shingai, because she might’ve knew that he was contracted by terrorists. He also tells Miki that he went to the same tea house she saw Kakei, the strange woman and Shingai. But when Kuraki showed a picture of Shingai to an employee, the employee said that she doesn’t remember him coming to the store……(bonus on this scene, a half naked Nishijima Hidetoshi)

Nakajima informs Shingai that she went to his parents’ house. Unfortunately she didn’t find much there, however she tells him that in his sister’s room she found a book with a Shrike (note: MOZU, the bird) on it, and if maybe he will see the book he may remember something.

Back to Kuraki and Miki; Kuraki asks her what she know about Shingai’s sister, but when she says she doesn’t know much, he doesn’t seem to believe her. After that he tells Miki that the other day he saw her with inspector Tsuki, and asks her what’s their relationships, but she refuses to say, implying that it’s private. Kuraki says that the two didn’t seemed like lovers, but again she implies that they may be since Tsuki is also single. Lastly Kuraki says to Miki that he is starting to be interested in Tsuki’s line of work (investigating the internal affair of police, stuff not being leaked outside to the media and so on).

Still not believing Miki, Kuraki regrets coming to her. As he is leaving, she says that she needs to call the ambulance (for him) but he still refuses. Still struggling to walk from the accident, Kuraki slides over her, and whispers: “Chihiro (his wife)….in that drawer….” but doesn’t finish his sentences and leaves.

Kuraki goes home to find out what his wife was hiding. To his surprise, his wife was hiding a letter of their daughter to Santa Clause where it was written “Santa, please give me a pair of shoes” and a pair of red shoes with the message: “Merry Christmas, from Santa-Mama”.

Made by Soori @ shikidrama 

Watch MOZU Season 1 Episode 4 online at dramanice.com

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MOZU Season 1 Episode 2

MOZU Season 1 Episode 2

A little girl keeps drawing in her recovery room, concerned the mother asks the doctor what it’s the meaning of it, and he answers that what the girl is drawing it may be what she witnessed during the explosion, and because he was concerned about it, he contacted the police. Next we see Osugi Ryota (Kagawa Teruyuki) who checks the spot of the explosion incident from the surveillance camera from Narumiya Keisuke (Ito Atsushi)’s police box. However, a part of the recording is missing.

Meanwhile, Kuraki takes lunch together with Miki where he ‘reveals’ that he investigated her. Kuraki asks her to tell him everything she knows about the incident and being rather forced/pressured to talk about what she knows in regards with the explosion, Miki tells Kuraki about Shingai Kazuhiko and Athena Security. Later, Kuraki goes directly to Athena Security to question Higashi Kazuo, but he doesn’t find much from him since Higashi takes his leave shortly after Kuraki’s appearance. At the same time, Osugi Ryota goes to Miki to try and find out more, but Miki keeps her mouth shut, still he thinks that she is hiding something and is determinate to find what.

Because he didn’t find much from Higashi, Kuraki (who seems to want to get on Higashi’s nerves) breaks into his car and takes the gun found there to put it into Higashi’s gym locker, lastly he calls the police. Even so, Higashi is released quickly afterwards making Kuraki more curious about his and what he may hide.

Shingai who still hasn’t got his memories back, goes to the explosion scene and while watching the wall full of messages for those who lost their lives, he asks himself if he really is the one who did it.

Kuraki goes again for lunch with Miki, where she exchanges a small amount of information with him, but when she is called to be informed that Shingai returned to his apartment, Miki doesn’t tell him about it and just goes directly to find Shingai. At the same time, Higashi’s right hand is informed about Shingai appearing to his apartment.

At his apartment, Shingai finds a (hidden) wall with pictures and information about Kakei Shunzo.

Kuraki confronts Higashi with questions about Shingai and why he wants to catch him, however Higashi acts nonchalant about the whole issue; when Kuraki asks Higashi if he is the one behind the explosion then Higashi asks Kuraki back why he is mind-set to find more about the explosion, but Kuraki says that all he is interested in is to find why his wife had to die then. Before leaving, Higashi tells Kuraki that it is better for him not to know (the truth about the explosion).

Unfortunately, Shingai doesn’t have much time to find things about himself that may help him regain his memories, because Higashi’s right hand sent some dudes to catch him. Luckily he gets to escape. After escaping from being caught, Shingai starts having some visions with what it seems to be his sister’s apartment. At his sister’s place, when he enters, Shingai is taken aback by a strong smell, which seemed to come from a frog that was stabbed and placed into a bird cage. Shortly afterwards, Miki who was pretending to be his sister’s neighbor, knocks at the door acting as if she is concerned about his sister because she didn’t see her for a while. Shingai tells her that he is looking for his sister as well, later confessing that he lost his memories. He asks her what is her relation with his sister, and she tells him that they meet from time to time at the supermarket and also that once she borrowed some money from the sister. She continued that the next day when she wanted to give the money back, his sister was missing.

But when Shinge asked her if she saw him together with his sister until then, Miki answers that she surely did 2 times, however that pulled some strings with him making him think that something was fishy, because when he opened the door she said that judging by his face she knew it was the sister’s brother, however because Miki said that she saw them together 2 times, she should’ve already knew that he was the brother; At the same time, the door of the neighbor made a sound as if someone entered the apartment, making Shinge more suspicious of her leading to ask who entered her apartment.

In the end Shinge finds out that Miki is a police worker so he tied her up and started asking questions. When asking if he indeed is the one behind the explosion, to his shock, Miki says that he isn’t the one behind it. However, they can’t continue the conversations because Kuraki appears at the door, but before he breaks it down, Shinge takes Miki and escapes.

Made by Soori @ shikidrama

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MOZU Season 1 Episode 1

For those who watched “Double face” the names of Nishijima Hidetoshi and Kagawa Teruyuki may made them look forward in excitement for this drama, and of course I am one of those people. However, given the past high hopes I used to have for different dramas, I tried not to have over the top expectations out of it. Luckily, “Mozu” surpassed every expectation I had.

It’s a little hard to understand the whole story and concept behind the drama just from an episode, even if it was a 90 minutes one. Of course, there are a lot of hunches regarding a lot of things, but for now I’ll try to let it go and think about the story and motives after watching more episodes.

But now, why were my expectations surpassed? Well, that’s easy to answer. Although it may sound unsuitable to say this just after one episode, I’ll take my chance and say that “Mozu” is a well polished show, which has everything you could ask from a drama that will keep the views on the edge of their chairs.

The flavor of “MOZU” are definitely the well portrayed characters, be it sides or main ones. Even if there are Kuraki (played by Nishijima Hidetoshi), Osugi (played by Kagawa Teruyuki) or Miki (Maki Yoko) as main, were the story –for now- spins around them, those characters are highlighted with the help of the side characters.

For sure this drama will be compared with “Hanzawa Naoki” for the time being; even before airing those two dramas were in a “battle”. The question now is if “MOZU” will be able to beat “Hanzawa Naoki” in terms of ratings, because as already known Hanzawa had great rating points (surpassed the 40 mark) and those numbers aren’t something easy to beat. However, it has been anticipated (in the media) that “MOZU” may break the 40-50% rating points. Honestly speaking, this drama may indeed hit that mark. I mean, it has everything – great acting, directing and script.

If I were to compare it to Hanzawa, but from my own point of view, “MOZU” is better (and I mean way better) in terms of acting, because it is made in a more natural way, where the acting in Hanzawa was a bit more stiff/forceful and made in a rather clenched teeth kind of way. There is tension in both dramas, but in “MOZU”, the tension is more laid back, making way for the hints of the story.

As for the characters, for now I’m confused. There was a lot of information about every character of this drama, however, although it may seem like a lot of things said about them, at the same time I feel like there weren’t enough to actually get a hold of the whole situation.

In regards of the plot, in episode one, a bomb incident occurs that will become the “alter ego” behind the drama. In the bomb incident, Kuraki loses his wife….wife about who there seems to be a lot of questions, but as a whole there are a lot of questions about Kuraki’s family, like for example the wife who killed their daughter, the daughter’s blood type and so on.

We get introduced to Shingai Kazuhiko a young man who may be the one who planted the bomb but loses his memory along the episode. Throughout the 90 minutes of the first episode, he tries to find out who he is, if he has a sister (the dudes who try to get a hold of him keep mentioning his little sister) and if he is indeed the one behind the bomb incident.

There are a lot of questions but also a lot of connections between the characters, however for now I want to enjoy the whole show as it is – enjoying the thrilling story, the awesome directing sprinkled with great acting while catching the hints given in every episode.

 Another review of this episode can be found on psycho-drama written by jedmed.

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MOZU Season1

One of the most waited Japanese drama of the year has been a disappointing rating wise, yet the production and the acting never disappointed.

Seeing the ratings barely getting 13 was kind of sad especially since in every episode it was obvious the detailed work that the staff did to make this drama.

It's been awhile since a drama has blown me away like Mozu has done with Season 1: Shrike. Disclaimer: this is the type of drama I really like conspiracy, dark, full of mystery and suspense. Another series that come to my mind like it is Utopia. This will be a three-part series and as we are just beginning the second part, there is still so much mystery and intrigue that I just can't wait.

The Explosion

The story starts off with a bomb that went off killing and injuring many people in Japan. Akeboshi Misa is there and was working undercover during the explosion. Her objective and actions were top-secret, but she does seem to know a lot more about what happened than anything else. Misa is a key figure in uncovering what happened, as there is a lot more going on. Misa's also a likeable character that has a darker connection to these events. She is looking for her father who went missing and somehow you know her father will be connected with this case. You can tell off the bat that a lot went into producing this drama, and it's not your normal low-budget Japanese drama. This drama is not at all short of the top dorama actors.

Your Typical Hard-nosed Detective

The main character, Kuraki Naotake, is the main man on a mission to find the truth about what happened at this bombing. He has been tangled in a web of lies and untruths, and he is now on a mission to uncover the events of what happened. You can think of him as Jack Bauer / John MacClane type. He's that "don't-take-anything

Man's Search for the Truth

Kuraki lost his wife to the bombing. Is it just a coincidence? Probably not. Kuraki and his wife had a loving but distant relationship over her involvement in some secret spy operation as well as the death of their daughter. The death of her daughter was by "accidental drowning" where his wife was the only one there. I love his wife's character as she is shrouded in so much mystery, and the casting of Ishida Yuriko for this role is perfect.

Conspiracy

Kuraki and Misa (two main characters presented) have some good chemistry as detectives on the same mission: finding out the truth about the bombing. They have good interplay and along with one more hard-nosed detective, form a group that will fight the organization responsible for the bombing. Of course, that's not so easy as there are so many key figures in this conspiracy that have prominent positions in their own organizations.

The Devil

I really like it when the villain is likeable and the villain isn't really good or bad. Okay, this character mercilessly kills a lot of people and is the main character in the first season: Shingai. Shingai is interesting because he is the shrike - a bird who mysteriously impales its victims on a stick and just leaves them there for days. Shingai gets thrown off a cliff where he is recovering from amnesia and is on a mission to find who he is and who is his sister.

The Shrike

Shingai is just a born killer. But there is there is something more interesting about Shingai, he is actually a twin. One twin tells the other one who to kill and the other twin goes out and attacks. I don't want to spoil the story for you, but let's just say there's a lot of interesting development between Shingai and his twin -- and the amnesia. The most interesting thing about Shingai's character is he does not seem to kill for pure evil - he's driven more by impulse much as to the reason the shrike needlessly sticks its prey on a stick.

The Dharma Conspiracy

What is Dharma? This seems to be the big conspiracy in this drama. This man appears in people's sleep repeatedly throughout the world. No one knows who he is or the origin of the word "Dharma." In the first season, there are only a few clues about what this is, but this creepy drawing is more than enough to keep my interest. This is the looming question after the first season, what is dharma? I can't wait to find out!

Watch MOZU Season1 episode 10 online at dramanice.com

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