魔女裁判

Spoilers ahead

Poster

This drama was broadcasted in conjunction with the introduction of lay-judges for serious trial cases in the Japanese jury system starting May 2009. The lay-judges are chosen from the electoral register, with pre-requisites of at least 20 years old and with a secondary level education. Chosen citizens who do not wish to serve in the panel will be fined 100,000 yen.


Court Layout

From Wikipedia
"The Japanese system is unique[citation needed] in that the panel consists of six lay judges, chosen randomly from the public, together with three professional judges. It therefore places a large amount of judicial power on randomly chosen members of the public.

The verdict requires the numerical majority of judges as well as at least one professional judge in favour of the majority to deliver the verdict. Therefore, three professional judges as a collective have a veto on the majority verdict delivered by the lay judges. The Ministry of Justice specifically avoided using the term "jury" (Baishin-in) and use the term "lay judge" (Saiban-in) instead. Therefore, the current system is categorically not a jury system though this misunderstanding persists in common law countries due to lack of understanding of civil law criminal procedure."

The drama was actually quite slow-paced in the beginning and I keep wondering if Ikuta Toma is a eurasian since he looks very much like one.



Yoshioka Toru (Ikuta Toma) is a 24 year old part-time designer who was selected to be on the jury panel for "The Witch Trial" along with 7 others from all walks of life. Kashiwagi Kyoko (Ishida Yuriko) is charged with the murder of her husband, hitting him on the back of the head with a brick and then shoving his head into the fireplace.

As the plot progresses, one by one, the saiban-ins started acting in a suspicious manner, with fear of their darkest secrets being exposed, while casting votes for which they cant explain their grounds. It appears that a professional underground organisation, headed by Kurokawa Ryuichi, is blackmailing them for its client.

The story only got better around the 5th and 6th episode when Toru starts his counter-attack against Kurokawa's underhanded coercions and when all the votes started switching sides.


Saiban-ins


Ikuta Toma as Yoshiyoka Toru, codenamed Mr Orange, was tricked into placing a big order for the printing of his t-shirts and hence incurring a one million yen debt.


Kato Ai as Watabe Izumi, a regular housewife, codenamed Ms White, was blackmailed with the safety of her daughter, and later on, tricked into bribing a public official of a prestigious primary school that she enrolled her daughter in.


Hirakata Genki as Soma Suguru, a law school undergraduate, codenamed Mr Blue, the only one saiban-in who was not blackmailed, probably due to his law background.


Nakamura Yasuhi as Tatokoro Hideo, a teacher and family guy, codenamed Mr Purple, the first saiban-in that was shown to be extorted with photos of his gay exploits and forced to work under the direct instructions of Kurokawa.


Suenaga Haruka as Okudera Rika, a hostess by occupation, codenamed Ms Donperi, was a former "soap lady" (probably some ero video series) and had kept this secret from her fiance.


Matsumoto Jun (not to be confused with Matsumoto Jun of Arashi) as Utsumi Nobue, a house keeper/nurse, codenamed Ms Pink, who had been secretly taking money from her employer's account.


Nakamura Kaori as Nedzu Yoshiko, an office lady, codenamed Ms Brown, is one of the two reserve saiban-in who will be activated should one of the regular saiban-ins fall ill during the trial and unable to attend or choose to drop out during the proceedings. She was intiminated by Kurokawa's gang who attempts to release her whereabouts to her abusive ex-husband.

Yamaya Hatsuo as Izutsu Hajime, the other saiban-in, codenamed Mr Brown, was seduced by one of Kurokawa's underlings.


Higa Manami as Motomiya Kaori, Toru's journalist girlfriend, who was used by Kyoko and Haruka to mislead everyone.


Hmm.. the twists are pretty good but the show's kind of draggy. A bit messy I would say.