No. of Eps: 10Yr/TV Stn: 2011/Fuji TV
Cast:
Oda Yuji ~ Kuroda Kosaku
Shibasaki Kou ~ Ogaki Rikako
Kaho ~ Shimomura Rui
Kagawa Teruyuki ~ Shimomura Takeshi
John ~ Lee Byung Hun (cameo)
Synopsis: (edited from Jdrama weblog)
Kuroda Kosaku, a diplomat with the Japanese Ministry of Foreign affairs receives secret orders from his superior to protect Japanese nationals, and moves from place to place around the world. Kuroda solves a case involving the kidnapping of a Japanese in South America, and heads to San Francisco next. His objective is to protect Mikami Shoko, the Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, who is visiting to attend the WTO negotiations on agriculture. Kuroda, who enters San Francisco and checks on the security at the meeting, meets John, an informant, and listens to the movements of the FBI. After that, he meets Shimomura Takeshi, a former diplomat, again. Shimomura and Kuroda have a close connection from their work at the consulate in Mexico 11 years ago. When they part, Shimomura leaves Kuroda with the cryptic words, “I’m sorry”. At that moment, the murder of a university professor occurs within the jurisdiction Tsukuda Police Precinct in Japan. Detective Ogaki Rikako of Tsukuda Police Precinct is the first person to discover the dead body. Rikako is bothered by the time of the dead body’s discovery and tells her boss about it, but is ignored. At the negotiation meeting, the Vice Minister appears to be attacked by radicals. Kuroda, who suspects they had a man on the inside, is notified that a Japanese has jumped to his death … That man is Shimomura! Meanwhile, a suspect surfaces in the murder that occurred within Tsukuda Police Precinct’s jurisdiction from the footprints, fingerprints and articles left at the scene. The suspect is Shimomura. Rikako goes to San Francisco with his daughter, Rui, to identify Shimomura’s body and the evidence & meet Kuroda...
Slacker's review:
"Diplomat" is actually related to movie "Amalfi: Rewards of the Goddess", which was shown 2 yrs ago in Japan. "Diplomat" is not a sequel of that movie, even though the main character is still Kuroda (and acted by Oda).
Diplomat's storyline is very....serious. I was rather bored with the developments, but did not give up as I wanted to know what is Shimomura up to. No romance in this drama, and even the interactions b/w Kuroda and Ogaki was...cold. (Ok, I did not expect anything from them as well..haha!)
Oda is good in such serious roles, and he's quite charismatic as Kuroda. I liked his solemn face, but that also means he only had one expression most of the time. Chemistry with Shibasaki was alright. From the synopsis, it seemed that Ogaki was helping Kuroda, but in the drama, Ogaki was more following orders. The two of them were very distant to each other, though they were working on the same staff.
It's a total waste to see Shibasaki acting as a flower vase in the drama. They don't need an A-lister to act such minor roles. Ogaki was really plain ordinary and the character restricted Shibasaki's performance.
Nice to see Kaho again, and she's getting better. Lots of emotional scenes for Rui, and her character got more developments than Ogaki!
I think the best actor here is perhaps Kagawa. His performance was really great, and Shimomura is not those one-dimensional baddie.
Last but not least, we got to see Mr Lee cameo-ing for this drama. The guy spoke english throughout and I liked his scenes with Oda. Two charismatic men~~~haha!
Anyway, if you want to see a proper ending to this drama, gotta wait till later of the year for the movie version. I really don't like such arrangements, but that's how they earn big bucks...
