There's no such thing as a perfect murder but the killer in "The Wrong Man" probably comes as close to it as is humanly possible. Not only does he flawlessly set up a locked-room puzzle, but the crime is not even discovered by the end of the episode! It would have been interesting to see how Furuhata would have solved the murder that opens "The Wrong Man" but writer Kôki Mitani, a cold-hearted troll indeed, had other plans.
Instead of being a murder mystery, "The Wrong Man" plays out as a pitch-black farce in which a brilliant murderer gets caught up in an astounding streak of bad luck. The more he tries to dig himself out of the hole, the deeper the hole gets. The entire episode reminded me of that brilliant Rodney Dangerfield joke: "I put on a shirt, a button fell off. Grabbed my briefcase, the handle came off. I'm afraid to go to the bathroom."
This is an astoundingly tight piece of screenwriting. Throughout the 45-minute runtime, Kôki Mitani delivers twists upon twists. Continually, whenever I thought I had a handle on the situation, something completely different would end up happening. What is especially impressive is that Mitani is able to subvert every expectation with such good humour and devious relish. Besides being a delightfully suspenseful thriller, "The Wrong Man" is also absolutely hilarious. Look at the extended sequence in which the hapless killer (pretending to be the man he killed) tries to find a piece of paper in someone else's apartment or the wonderful scene in which Furuhata utterly ruins Shintaro's bowling night or the killer's frustration when he realizes why his victim was going to a hotel! This is one of the funniest episodes of "Furuhata Ninzaburô" so far.
Speaking of previous episodes, "The Wrong Man" has a very similar premise to "Message from the Dead" but is played in a completely different tone. Whereas "Message from the Dead" was wistful and gothic, "The Wrong Man" is a comedy of errors in which Furuhata intentionally drives the killer to distraction. In that, the episode is reminiscent of "The Contradictory Corpse" in which Furuhata employed similar cruel methods of torturing the truth out of his suspect. Masakazu Tamura is always at his best when he can play coy and here he is clearly having a blast.
The guest star Morio Kazama is great as well. He is especially good at portraying the killer's frustration with his perfect plan getting so spectacularly unravelled. The smug self-confidence he has at the beginning of the episode will be left in tatters by the clever end. I love his reaction in the bowling scene when he finally gets a small victory over Furuhata. As insignificant as that little bit of oneupmanship is in the grand scheme of things, it is still the first thing that's gone right for him that night. Or has it? Kôki Mitani takes that away from his as well with another clever twist...
"The Wrong Man" is one of the most unusual and most finely tuned episodes of "Furuhata Ninzaburô" so far. It's a wonderfully effective blend of Kôki Mitani's particular brand of humour and Furuhata Ninzaburô's signature style of detective drama. Never have the two felt so inextricably entwined before. Here we also finally see that Keita Kôno is able to be stylish with some very evocative use of dutch angles, deep shadows, and the snowy setting of the episode's ill-fated prologue. Unlike for the killer, the stars truly aligned for "The Wrong Man".
Instead of being a murder mystery, "The Wrong Man" plays out as a pitch-black farce in which a brilliant murderer gets caught up in an astounding streak of bad luck. The more he tries to dig himself out of the hole, the deeper the hole gets. The entire episode reminded me of that brilliant Rodney Dangerfield joke: "I put on a shirt, a button fell off. Grabbed my briefcase, the handle came off. I'm afraid to go to the bathroom."
This is an astoundingly tight piece of screenwriting. Throughout the 45-minute runtime, Kôki Mitani delivers twists upon twists. Continually, whenever I thought I had a handle on the situation, something completely different would end up happening. What is especially impressive is that Mitani is able to subvert every expectation with such good humour and devious relish. Besides being a delightfully suspenseful thriller, "The Wrong Man" is also absolutely hilarious. Look at the extended sequence in which the hapless killer (pretending to be the man he killed) tries to find a piece of paper in someone else's apartment or the wonderful scene in which Furuhata utterly ruins Shintaro's bowling night or the killer's frustration when he realizes why his victim was going to a hotel! This is one of the funniest episodes of "Furuhata Ninzaburô" so far.
Speaking of previous episodes, "The Wrong Man" has a very similar premise to "Message from the Dead" but is played in a completely different tone. Whereas "Message from the Dead" was wistful and gothic, "The Wrong Man" is a comedy of errors in which Furuhata intentionally drives the killer to distraction. In that, the episode is reminiscent of "The Contradictory Corpse" in which Furuhata employed similar cruel methods of torturing the truth out of his suspect. Masakazu Tamura is always at his best when he can play coy and here he is clearly having a blast.
The guest star Morio Kazama is great as well. He is especially good at portraying the killer's frustration with his perfect plan getting so spectacularly unravelled. The smug self-confidence he has at the beginning of the episode will be left in tatters by the clever end. I love his reaction in the bowling scene when he finally gets a small victory over Furuhata. As insignificant as that little bit of oneupmanship is in the grand scheme of things, it is still the first thing that's gone right for him that night. Or has it? Kôki Mitani takes that away from his as well with another clever twist...
"The Wrong Man" is one of the most unusual and most finely tuned episodes of "Furuhata Ninzaburô" so far. It's a wonderfully effective blend of Kôki Mitani's particular brand of humour and Furuhata Ninzaburô's signature style of detective drama. Never have the two felt so inextricably entwined before. Here we also finally see that Keita Kôno is able to be stylish with some very evocative use of dutch angles, deep shadows, and the snowy setting of the episode's ill-fated prologue. Unlike for the killer, the stars truly aligned for "The Wrong Man".