The uninhibited island nation of "WOWOW" recently produced a crime drama that is not small, broadcasting two episodes to win Douban 8.7 - "The Blade of Wandering".
The series is based on Keigo Higashino's novel of the same name.
Anyone who has seen it will not forget the heart-wrenching case in the story.
The male protagonist Nagamine Shigeki and his daughter Emo were dependent on each other for their lives, and after the death of his wife, it took the father and daughter a long time to get out of the pain of bereavement.
But not long after the peaceful life, Emo suddenly encountered an accident - on the way home at night, she was followed by three high school students in a car and forcibly dragged into the car, taking her to a remote hut.
Sano and Kazaki, the high school students who headed the group, not only injected Emo with drugs, but also sexually assaulted him and filmed him.
Fuerdai A-makoto, who provided the car, was scared halfway through and drove back to his home alone.
Although he did not participate in the crime, he also acquiesced and concealed the evil deeds of the other two.
After a night of abuse, Eima was unfortunately killed.
Sugano and Kazaki wrapped her body in garbage bags and threw it into the river.
A few days later, the male owner, who was anxiously looking for his daughter, waited for the police to identify the body.
He braced himself to see his daughter for the last time, and when he came home, he curled up and cried, holding the shirt that his daughter had told her to dry properly...
The police then launched an investigation into the murder, but did not disclose to the male owner that the murderer had injected his daughter with drugs.
Until the media reports were overwhelming, the male protagonist found that his daughter had died, and then became angry with the police who concealed the truth.
At this moment, the male protagonist received a mysterious information, not only pointing out that the murderers were 17-year-old Sugano and Uzaki, but also providing the detailed address of the crime scene.
According to this address, the man quickly found the residence.
Inside, he found not only photographs of several of the victimized girls, but also videos of Eima's assault.
The heart-rending cries of his daughter and the laughter of the two teenagers made him extremely heartbroken and angry.
Unexpectedly, at this time, Uzaki suddenly returned.
Without saying a word, the male protagonist pounced on him with a knife.
He originally wanted to force Sugano's whereabouts, but Yukizaki guessed his identity and constantly stimulated the male protagonist's nerves with arrogant words.
The male protagonist was overwhelmed by anger and killed the killer on the spot.
The police soon found Uzaki's body and then began to hunt down the missing Kanno and the man at the same time.
Surprisingly, it didn't take long for the male protagonist to send letters to the police and the media, not only acknowledging the fact of killing Uzaki, but also declaring that he was pursuing and killing Kanno, and vowing not to give up without personally hand-bladed the enemy...
As can be seen from the plot of the first two episodes, "The Wandering Blade" is a typical social reasoning, opening up to the audience to reveal the real culprit and its crime process, and then focusing on distorted society and human nature.
The focus of the whole story is Japan's Juvenile Law.
According to Japan's current Juvenile Law, anyone under the age of 20 is a "minor".
For juvenile offenders over the age of 14, the law will, based on the concept of "protectionism", try to rehabilitate them through corrections and reintegrate them into society, rather than punishing them with heavy sentences.
However, this law, which attaches great importance to the human rights of minors, has been controversial because of many cases of vicious juvenile crimes.
From November 1988 to January 1989, six high school boys abducted and imprisoned a young woman, during which they sexually assaulted and abused her, including drinking, bolster, burning, beating... As a result, the victims were tortured to death, and several people put the bodies into gasoline barrels, sealed them with cement, and threw them away.
The tragic condition of the deceased when he was found shocked the forensic doctor.
At that time, public opinion believed that this gang of juveniles had committed such heinous crimes and should be sentenced to death.
However, under the juvenile code, four of the principal offenders were sentenced to only 17, 8, 5 and 2 years in prison.
The main offender who has been imprisoned for the longest time, after being released from prison, entered the palace for fraud twice, and he has no remorse for the murder he committed, and even shares it with others as a talking point...
Between March and May 1997, a 14-year-old boy killed 2 people and seriously injured 3 people, all of whom were elementary school students.
The teenager also arrogantly sent a confession to the newspaper, calling himself the "Drunken Rose Holy Bucket".
According to the murderer's method of dismemberment and the traces of bodily fluids left at the scene, the police once suspected that the culprit was an adult male aged 30-40, until the handwriting was compared to lock the teenager.
But also because of the "protectionism" of the Juvenile Act, the "Drunken Rose Saint" was only sent to a correctional institution for treatment and reintegrated into society in 2004.
His name has not even been made public by the media, only as a synonym for "Junior A".
What is even more ironic is that in 2015, "Juvenile A" published a high-profile book, reviewing the beginning and end of his crime, and hurting the victim's family for the second time.
Because of the "Drunken Rose Holy Fighting Incident", the Japanese Diet lowered the minimum applicable age for criminal offenses from 16 years old to 14 years old.
But this revision does not seem to bring about any essential changes - in 2004, 11-year-old "Girl A" used an art knife to slit the throat of the girls in the same class to death...
This time, the killer is not held criminally responsible at all.
"Maiden A"
Keigo Higashino's purpose in creating "The Wandering Blade" is to explore the paradox between law and morality through this revenge story--who is the "protection" mentioned in the Juvenile Law?
Why does this "protection" turn into kindness to the perpetrator and cruelty to the victim?
Before the drama version of "Oh Oh Tai", in fact, China, Japan and South Korea all made film versions.
Except for the mainland version that has not yet been released, the word of mouth of the Japanese and Korean versions of the film is average.
In fact, in the novel, the author not only tells the revenge of the male protagonist, but also has a detailed portrayal of the police handling the case, the family of the murderer, the families of other victims, and bystanders.
These characters, like the male protagonist, are the core of the story.
There is a scene in which the father of a victimized girl accepts an invitation from a television station to attend a seminar on the Juvenile Act. Also present were the editor-in-chief of a weekly magazine who insisted on exposing the murderer's personal information, as well as a lawyer who protested the editor-in-chief's human rights abuses.
The two men talked about each other in the show, one advocating heavy punishment for juvenile murderers, the other emphasizing the human rights and privacy rights of minors, and the victim's father did not have much opportunity to speak.
After the show, the father was surprised to find that the editor-in-chief and the lawyer, who had just been hostile to each other, were talking and laughing like friends in private—their argument was nothing more than a gimmick for the show to win ratings.
Although the background of the story version of the drama has been changed to the current situation of the new crown epidemic, the focus of the media on juvenile crimes is still the current traffic and heat.
They chased and blocked the families of the victims, constantly intensifying public sentiment on the Internet, but forgetting that the root cause of this crime and revenge lies in the imperfect family education and legal system.
When the police find the parents of the murdered Company, the other party said that the son was only a victim, and it was all seduced by Kanno that he had now a pitiful end.
He did not mention that he was neglectful of his son on weekdays.
From the perspective of adaptation, the drama version of "The Wandering Blade" makes full use of the advantages of length and restores in detail many details and essences of the original novel.
In the story, the person holding the "blade of wandering" is, on the one hand, the male protagonist who has lost his beloved daughter.
He had pinned his hopes on the police who would do justice, but in the long wait, he gradually fell into pain and despair.
He knew that revenge was a sinful act, but he chose to fall into the abyss— "After this happened, I learned that the law did not understand the fragility of human nature at all." ”
On the other hand, there are police officers in charge of the case.
Hunting down the murderer is the unshirkable duty of the police, but for the police officer who is also a father, it is really impossible for the male protagonist who will avenge his daughter to be regarded as a person who is equally evil as the murderer.
Obviously, it is the work of justice, but it gives him a sense of entanglement.
And this is exactly the question that Keigo Higashino asks everyone in the novel.
Does the so-called blade of justice really have the ability to kill evil?
What the hell is a cop? Are they protecting citizens? No, what the police want to protect is the law, to prevent the law from being broken.
Is the law absolutely correct? If so, why are they frequently modified? If not, does it not matter if you trample on the hearts of others in order to protect imperfect laws?