Solomon no Gisho (2021)

ソロモンの偽証

Solomon no Gisho is about a story that a Christmas morning, Fujino Ryoko finds her classmate Kashiwagi Takuya’s dead body at their snow covered school. The police and the school conclude that Kashiwagi Takuya died by suicide. At that time, an anonymous letter is delivered to Fujino Ryoko. The letter states that Kashiwagi Takuya was murdered by a group of students including Ooide Shunji. The media and SNS begin to question whether Kashiwagi Takuya really died by suicide or was he murdered. The school principal tries to take control of the narrative, but this leads to a more chaotic situation.
This drama started off being light and then it became very dark. But if you like mystery dramas I really recommend you to watch :)

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Third Time is Not the Charm

Solomon's Perjury is based off a book with the same title and has been adapted on screen three times. The first time as a two-part movie series in 2015, a K-Drama in 2016, and finally this 2021 J-Drama. It just so happens that I have seen them all. While every adaptation had their own flaws, I would wager that this is the worst of the bunch.

In my view, this J-Drama is just bad. The acting in the show is too exaggerated (for this type of story), events are over dramatized, and many of the changes in the story feel reductive in nature. I am primarily writing this review to help people make a decision on whether to watch this so I will focus on explaining how it compares to the other adaptations.

The 2015 duology had a better flow to its storytelling, a sense of mystery, and had a better cast/actor (as always since can simply be due to the direction they were provided). The main flaw of the movies is how it tries to condense six volumes of content into two movies. At minimum, the duology should have been a trilogy. The result is a story that cuts too much content, leaving many plot points and characters feeling underdeveloped/unexplained.

As for the K-Drama, it has been a long time since I have seen it so I do not remember too much but I do remember it being a better watch than whatever is going on in this J-Drama version.

If you think this will be your kind of show, I think you could give the K-Drama a watch. If you prefer a slightly grittier version, you can watch the movies.

If you want to give this drama a shot, I would say there is no real reason why the first 1-2 episodes wouldn’t suffice to make a judgement on whether it is for you. I just recommend not expecting more than what you see on the surface.

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