MOZU Season 1 - Mozu no Sakebu Yoru (2014)

Mozu has been one of my top anticipations for this year’s Japanese spring season. Apparently, I had too much hope that I ended up with partial letdown.

Don’t get the wrong idea, this drama is better than other Jdramas I saw this season; it’s also unique and quite exciting to follow but it simply couldn’t keep the pace. Mozu started amazingly; packed events, intriguing characters and an involving high-scale mystery. With such a promising beginning, you would draw certain lines in your head, such as “this drama will be some sort of masterpiece”. However, that never lasted for too long.

The problem with Mozu is the unbalanced events and empty parts that made concentration almost impossible. The screenwriting of this drama failed to keep thing coherent and well-built even with all the potential they gave it at first. Some episodes were too slow to ingest while others were too packed to fully understand, the screenwriter couldn’t spread his story the right way. Moreover, the high-scale conspiracy turned out to become too predictable for my taste; that was almost a criminal act against mystery/suspense lovers, I surely expected more than that from a drama co-produced by two of my favorite Japanese channels TBS and WOWOW.

The acting was superb; Nishijima was really good as Kuraki, he had an aura that I love to see in my male lead’s character especially with his tone and facial expressions. Maki and Kagawa were great main characters too; their acting was well suited for their characters. The remaining cast were remarkable, especially Ikematsu and Hisegawa; these two actors gave a chilling performance to make their character feel so complicated, hateful and even lovable.

The characterization for this drama was really nice especially with the back stories given to many characters in order to explain their behaviors. Although some characters weren’t that interesting and others didn’t maintain their involving traits until the end but overall, they were acceptable and even enjoyable.

The soundtrack for Mozu isn’t forgettable; I liked the way it connects with what’s happening. The cinematography was also dark and gloomy in a way that fits the drama’s tone.

Watch if:
-You like action, crime dramas.
-You like interesting characterization.

Do not watch if:
-You’re looking for a mind-blowing drama.
-You’re looking for a puzzling mystery.

On a personal level, I really didn’t hate Mozu despite all of its flaws. It sneaks into you somehow and makes you addicted especially if you’re into crime oriented stories. I enjoyed this and I certainly tried to overlook many of its obvious flaws. I call it a guilty pleasure but I surely liked this drama. I am only hoping that the screenwriter will revise his way of making events in the second season.

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