NHK's "Drama 10: The Uncertain Courtroom of Themis" (General TV, Tuesdays at 10pm), starring actor Matsuyama Kenichi, will resume broadcasting on February 24th. From the sixth episode, which will be broadcast on the same day, Saito Asuka will make her full appearance as the daughter of a former death row inmate. Tomizawa Akifumi, who directed the episode, spoke about the highlights of the show and Saito's acting.
"The Uncertain Courtroom of Themis" is based on a unique legal mystery by Sho Naoshima. It is a courtroom drama about a judge with a developmental disorder who struggles with his own unique characteristics while taking on complex cases. The screenplay is written by Hideya Hamada, who has also written the Fuji TV series "Ichikei no Karasu" and the "Absolute Zero" series.
The subtitle of episode 6 is "Request for Retrial." The "Maebashi Family Murder Case" involved the brutal murder of a family of four. After being arrested, Kazuma Akiba was sentenced to death and the death sentence was carried out.
Twenty-five years after the incident, Akiba's daughter, Yoshizawa Aki (Saito), claims her father's innocence and, armed with new evidence, seeks a retrial. Ando (Matsuyama), struggling with whether to allow the retrial to begin and whether he should be involved in the proceedings, is reminded of bitter memories he had suppressed.
It turns out that this is due to an indelible past with Yuki (Ogi Shigemitsu), the prosecutor who once sought the death penalty against Akiba.
Tomizawa predicts, "The Maebashi Family Murder Case appeared occasionally in episodes 1 to 5. The full picture will begin to be revealed little by little in episode 6, when the show resumes."
"In parallel with the details of this incident, we will go back in time to the moment Ando was born, shedding light on his father-son relationship with Yuki. What I was conscious of when directing the film was that there are things that change and things that don't change. In other words, I wanted to clearly depict whether the characteristics that Ando has as an adult have been the same since he was a child, or whether they have changed as he has grown. There are three scenes in which Ando grabs his father's arm: when he was a baby, when he was in elementary school, and in the present day. Each scene has a different meaning, so I hope that the differences will be conveyed well to the audience."
He also said that the presence of Saito Asuka, who plays Yoshizawa Aki, a key character from episode 6 onwards, "will be very important towards the end."
"There's a scene in which Aki becomes emotional after looking at her father's belongings, and that was Saito-san's first day of filming. I think it was a very difficult performance, but the expression in her eyes really conveyed Aki's conflict and her thoughts about the trial. It was also wonderful how she made the effort to actively join the team that was already in place."
