As implied above, Yakou Kanransha delves into the effects a shocking murder has on two families (and the town in which they live). It is an emotional story marked by highs and lows, much like the ever-rotating path the titular Ferris wheel follows. Other issues tackled over its course include bullying (by neighbors and classmates), ostracization, domestic violence, and societal pressure. Unlike many other Japanese dramas with such a focus, family is not held on a pedestal. Instead we're shown a realistically flawed structure, full of secrets and misunderstandings. Despite this, beauty remains to be found in the connection between friends, brothers and sisters, parents and children; something so imperfect can still be wonderful.
Most incredible might be how deftly these emotive aspects are combined with exciting, cerebral ones. Character development intermingles flawlessly with shocking revelations and startling secrets. Scenes are rarely lingered on; the pacing maintains a seamless stability throughout the series.
Japan excels at the ensemble piece; Yakou Kanransha boasts a large cast which more than lives up to this standard. Suzuki Kyoka clocks in a believable and solid performance as Endo Mayumi. This role is written simply so she might serve as our eyes into this fantastic circumstance; despite this, Suzuki-san completely brings her to life. Among the other adults, Yasuda Shota and Natsuki Mari are of great interest. Natsuki-san plays an especially polarizing part, yet her consistent and complex portrayal makes quite the impression.
But young actors Nakagawa Taishi (15) and Sugisaki Hana (16) completely steal the show. Both deliver honest and affecting performances beyond their years. Particularly Nakagawa-san; it floored me how drawn into his scenes I became as the series rolled along. Definitely a budding career to watch.
If like me, music comprises an important part of your viewing experience: take heart. Yakou Kanransha posesses an immaculate soundtrack, full of richly mysterious strings and hollow piano. There are also fine vocals, such as those from Ai (ending theme "Voice," which exudes action), and Reiko Oshima ("Daydreaming," a hopeful ballad with a bittersweet feel). Other highlights include the masterful use of sound effects; during particularly intense scenes, one can sometimes hear the grinding machinery and clacking carts of the Ferris wheel. Also take note of its use as imagery between scenes; you'll never forget the way it looks, brightly lit at night.
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I'm giving this a perfect score in all aspects because I thought it's that perfect. The suspense was held evenly throughout the drama, although the jittery feeling might be felt the most at the first episode (I almost puked to be honest. Such injustice).
It doesn't bore at all and it does not try to preach, like what many other family dramas might do (although to be honest, this is my first time watching a drama directly about family relationships). Rather, it lets you look at yet another (perhaps distorted, perhaps not) side of reality and exposes you to the emotions of the families which may be suffering from any or - goodness forbid - all of the issues tackled in it.
The music is perfect, the sound effects and the music come in and out at the right times and fit every scene appropriate for them. I like the ending so much, and the allusion of life to the ferris wheel really is a deep one, but it fits perfectly.
Gave a perfect score for rewatching because I'd like to see the superb acting and all those raw emotions all over again if I could help it. (To be honest, I'm not much a rewatcher though).
I recommend this to anyone who would like to be reminded that there is hope in spite of whatever storm that comes to your life... just look around and there are people willing to support you no matter what - in totally not a melodramatic way such as what I've just written (because goodness knows we're all sick of it).
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Drama effectively portrays the complicated relationship between family members. A person trying to show their love to one party can be taken as additional and unwelcomed pressure from the other party, who would feel not good enough for attaining what is expected of them. It's never black and white between family members. Its always love and resentment, co-existing. Sometimes they over do-it, a particular character I felt like beating up half the time, while the other half I felt bad for her.
Even so the drama did manage to keep us in suspense. Half way through the drama, the suspects get narrowed down but another mystery gets revealed, and keeps you wondering what the truth is.
No complaint in the acting department. Actually there are some young talent to look out for. Some actors we usually see in secondary roles are put under the spot light which was nice.
As for the music, I loved the ending theme song, it was upbeat soundtrack added to the last scene of each episode, encouraging you to watch more.
I didn't start watchign this drama for a particular actor so what kept me going and enjoying this is the story, executiong and talent. It has a nice balance in many themes like family, love, friendship, mystery, crime.
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Each episode starts with a different person talking about their feelings and that episode will give you better insight into that persons point of view shedding a different light on what's going on.
That way the mystery is unraveled step by step, keeping it interesting until the last episode.
You might not come around to like all of the characters, but you will be able to understand all of them and cheer for them.
But what makes this drama so special is not the mystery, though it's really well done, but the character's realationships and interactions that are also unraveled bit by bit. Especially family relationships like mother-daughter/son, husband-wife or brothers-sisters really stand out in this drama, in a gripping and sometimes moving way.
There's a lot of issues, like domestic violence, bullying and social pressure, so it's a bit of a heavy drama, but it is in no way depressing. It has an uplifting note and leaves you with a warm feeling at the end.
I considered reducing one point for acting, because I found Suzuki Kyoka a little stiff, but everyone else does an amazing job so it outweighs her shortcomings. She's not bad though, just not as good as the rest imo.
I love the music, especially the ending. I think it fits perfectly.
Rewatch value is low, because part of it is a mystery, which of course looses tension when you already know everything, and I'm not much of a rewatcher anyway. But I might watch it again for those elaborate characters and their relations.
I can really recommend this show wholeheartedly to anyone looking for a not-just-fluffy drama.
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The story is engaging and the acting is brilliant. specially Nakagawa Taichi. He would have been really small, around 15 here but he does a good job, I read thathe joined a talent company when he was 10 so I guess he got a good training since young. No wonder he's awesome in Hana Nochi. This kid is talented like hell. Honestly (no offence to anyone) I think he's much better than Sota Fukushi even. The story as I mentioned before is very fast moving. You wouldn't want to miss any and it being only 10 episodes is good factor. The end was a bit too mellow for me so I guess that's why I gave the overall rating as 9.0 instead of a 9.5.
I read somewhere that people were comparing this to kdramas and telling that kdramas can never come to this level which I think is not true. Stories like Stranger and Signal are good examples of good mystery stories in Korean drama world too.
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I want to like it more than I do :/
It took me about two episodes to get into this show. It was initially a little too cookie-cutter for me; I've seen bullying and rich people ostracizing less-rich people in a dozen kdramas, and at this point I don't find it too compelling. But the murder mystery kept me on the hook, and I'm glad I watched the rest. The twists and turns of the mystery were really well executed, both in terms of them being interesting as well as their pacing. There was so much drama that was compelling to watch, particularly within the Endo family. The struggles and fights that they had actually echoed some that I've experienced, so while it may have felt overly dramatic to some people it felt realistic to me. I felt so tensed and stressed at various points throughout this show. The writing is clearly excellent, from the dialogues between characters to the unfolding of the murder mystery. It didn't stick the landing for me though. The final big reveal in the last episode really negated a lot of the story for me; it made me question why various things had happened because they didn't make sense with the final reveal. Previous explanations for events turned out to not be true, but those explanations almost made more sense than the real one. The final twist does make sense, in that the motivations and what unfolded seem realistic given the known facts, but in light of the truth the actions of certain characters didn't make sense. It's hard to explain without spoilers. I do think the character and relationship development that happened were well-done, so that part of the finale worked well for me. It's frustrating, because everything right up until the last episode was really good, but... darn, I wish they hadn't done that final twist.Was this review helpful to you?
A great mixture of family lessons and mystery
This one reminded me a lot about Nno tame ni and sky castle. It's a
honestly a perfect fusion of two
amazing dramas but I don't wanna
compare masterpieces to other
masterpieces. Although the dramas
do has a lot of similarities to N no
tame ni and I think that is because
the author of both of the dramas is
the same. So the narrative is kinda
same. This drama is more of a
family drama than a mystery one. I
also started it for the mystery of
who is the killer? But when I
reached the end of the drama the
killer didn't matter anymore. I was
more interested in the character's
life, their difficulties and how would
they overcome them. If you like
mystery dramas you'll surely like
this one but if you like family
dramas then please watch this one
cuz it's truly good!
The shows focuses on two families,
one is rich and the children in the
family all are gifted students plus
they all are the kindest people in
the world. The other family is also
kind but they are not at all rich and
hence living with the rich people
resulted in the family losing their
happiness. Now a murder occurs in
our PERFECT family but when?
Why in the world a murder occurred
in a family so perfect like theirs?
The drama literally tells us that
every family has their secret and
the problems a family faces and
how should they overcome them.
I'm not at all the person to watch a
family drama, I watched this drama
for the mystery but the honestly the
family drama is so good that I just
got pulled into it. I'm still not a big
fan of family dramas but I guess
this was an exception. Also I was
very surprised to see Taishi
nakagawa in this drama and he's
so small like a baby ??
The only thing I don't like about this
drama is it's name. It doesn't make
sense. Ok I know the Ferris wheel
has a part in the drama but it's not
that major and it had nothing to
with the murder. I think they
should've named it something
else. Like " family's secret " or idk.
I'm so bad at naming things but
the current name is not good too.
Ok so moving on the drama is literally
gold! And I loved it. I finished it in
3 days ?? every episode is
suspensfull and interesting. The
characters are something very
important in this one. Overall it
deserves to be watch atleast one
time in life!!!
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