Lucky Seven – Episode 1 (Review)

Reviews TV/Film

Lucky Seven
Episode 1

Review by David Cirone

Lucky Seven Japanese drama

SUMMARY
Job-hopping part-time worker Shuntarou Tokita (Arashi’s Jun Matsumoto) fills his empty days romancing married women. When one of his affairs is disrupted by a young private detective (Teru Nitta, played by Eita), he chases him down and arrives at the Kita Shinagawa Lucky Detective Agency.

He confronts Teru and the rest of his group for interfering in people’s lives, but agency boss Toko Fujisaka challenges him to show the group how he can do better. Shuntarou takes the opportunity to realize his childhood fantasy of being a detective, but a case about a secret fight club teaches him the surprising realities of the detective business.

Lucky Seven Japanese drama

WHAT’S GOOD
Matsumoto fills Shuntarou with a healthy amount of good nature, and the episode’s main objective is to cast him and Teru as opposites sides of the same coin. They’re both hot-heads, but Shuntarou’s open-eyed optimism is the counter-point to Teru’s cold, weathered view of the job. After all, Shuntarou learned about being a detective from old Japanese TV detectives shows on VHS — how far from reality could they be?

FIRST RULE OF FIGHT CLUB…
…is take off your shirt. Matsumoto and Eita fans get plenty of service as the two men punch and kick their way around an extended, well-directed fight scene. Guy Ritchie buffs will recognize a few familiar slo-mo parts, and I don’t care what the script says — in a steel cage match, Eita wins.

Lucky Seven Japanese drama

Lucky Seven is currently airing on UTB Hollywood in Southern California:
https://facebook.com/utbhollywood