ザラ Notes: 鍵のかかった部屋 Kagi no Kakatta Heya

26 June 2012

鍵のかかった部屋 Kagi no Kakatta Heya

Title: 鍵のかかった部屋 Kagi no Kakatta Heya
English Title:

The Locked Room
The Locked Room Murders

Country: Japan
Language: Japanese
Year: 2012
Episode: 11
Cast:

大野智 Ohno Satoshi
佐藤浩市 Sato Koichi
戸田恵梨香 Toda Erika
宇梶剛士 Ukaji Takashi

SYNOPSIS

嵐 Arashi - Face Down

Enomoto Kei is a security otaku working for a security firm. He is unapproachable and weird at times but his vast knowledge about locks and extensive experience in security measures make him the go-to-person for unlocking locked doors and fixing broken security systems.

While working on an emergency repair service at a bank vault, Kei encounters lawyers Aoto Junko and her superior Serizawa Go. Junko is handling a peculiar case that involves a locked room and after witnessing Kei's expertise, she asks for his help.

REVIEW
The plot of Kagi no Kakatta Heya is very interesting because the protagonists' task is not just to figure out who is the killer but also to find out how the crime was committed considering that the place where the crime occurred was closed or locked. More than that, it is also important for the protagonists to determine the killer's motivation and to gather evidence because without these, they are just speculating and won't be able to get the authorities to take them seriously.

I honestly liked Enomoto Kei as a character because he takes his interests seriously. Since he is very interested in locks and security, he is well-versed in history, lock mechanisms, and technology.

Enomoto Kei: There is no locked room in this world that cannot be unlocked.

I like Enamoto Kei as a character because of his mannerisms. I especially like how he does not answer questions he doesn't want to answer, or rather he answers questions but without actually giving any information.

I had hoped that during the course of the drama, Kei and Aoto Junko would be paired off and eventually get together but that did not happen, of course. There are some scenes that seemed to take their relationship to a romantic direction but I think I have to consider that my interpretation could be just influenced by wishful thinking.

Nothing much is known about Kei except his intelligence so later on in the drama, there is an opportunity to figure out if Kei is a good guy or a bad guy. I would like to believe that goodness rules the world so I would like to think that he is a good guy. However, I am also a realist and I have to acknowledge that the evidence is stacked against him. Besides, even if I want to believe in his goodness, there is no way that Kei's smirk is a good one, right?

That twist in the end was definitely unexpected, and certainly unwelcome on my part. I would still like to believe in Kei's inherent goodness so I'm hoping he is using his ill-gotten wealth for good. It is not presented in the drama that Kei is a modern interpretation of Robin Hood but of course, I can always hope.