Kagi no Kakatta Heya is a mystery comedy, which basically abides by the outline most classic mystery dramas follows, each episode follows a highly similar & slightly changing fixed pattern in each episode, but involving different interesting crimes every time. The pattern is generally the discovery of the crime>>the police's investigation leads to the conclusion that the room where the crime took place was a total locked room or what's called "A Secret Room">>then the trio (Enomoto, Serizawa & Aoto) join the team to find out the secret behind the locked room and the true identity of the criminal.
Despite always following a fixed pattern, the episodes were never boring on the contrary this pattern leads one to expect always the same flow of events which makes any change however slight it might be a surprise in itself. That's what makes the whole idea behind the repeating a fixed pattern a Plus.
The Story(8): The drama is an adaptation of a series of mystery novels, but according to what I've read on Wikipedia, there are numerous differences between the drama's screenplay and the novel, like the fact that in the novel Enomoto is a thief who makes use of his vast knowledge of keys and locks to help Aoto who is a lawyer solve murder cases that take place in a seemingly locked room believed to be impossible to break through. The contradiction of being a thief but yet helping solve criminal cases, is explained by Enomoto's argument that although he steals he definitely can not tolerate murder.
Another difference, is the creation of a character that doesn't exist in the series, this character is none other than Serizawa who plays the role of Aoto's boss and the owner of the law firm.
The Drama basically focuses on the crimes and solving the mystery, so the character & their background development is found to be rather slow. this and the fact I found some of the cases and the basis on which they were solved a bit far-fetched are the main reasons why the story didn't get more than an 8.
The Cast/Acting (10): was by far the biggest merit in this drama, the choice of the leads in particular was spectacular and they all played their roles wonderfully(it's said that the producer/scripwriter had Ohno in mind while preparing for the show because he fitted the image he had of Enomoto Kei's character). Ohno's poker face and robotic moves were AWESOME, and the best part of it were the moments when you catch a glimpse of facial muscle movement that shows how excited or moved he was. I also loved the chemistry between the leads (the three of them) and although this drama has no romance, I still enjoyed the "Enomoto X Aoto" couple a lot
The Music (10) I enjoyed the OST in this show a lot, the music was utterly unique, fitted the scenes very well, and I also liked how the BGM was used to give shape to the pattern that I explained earlier, i.e. the same pieces were always played at the same parts of the pattern. I also LOVED Arashi's Face Down and the lyrics which perfectly fitted the show, it might just be coz I'm a big Arashi fan myself ^^
Though I feel I'll mostly be rewatching this show or some parts of it sometime soon, I only gave it a (9) not a (10) for rewatch value because I'm sure I'll still be fast forwarding and looking for my favorite scenes only and not watching the whole thing all over again. But I can never tell, coz I've just finished it and I rarely rewatch a whole drama through right after I finished watching it for the first time though I HAVE done that before :D
This is one drama that I definitely enjoyed.
I won't be spoiling anything, but the finale is BY FAR the BEST episode in the show so please if you haven't given this show a try or have started it and for some reason decided to drop it, at least try watching the last two episodes (since the 10th episode is a to-be-continued)
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