Kage No Chitai

Tashiro Keisuke (Tanihara Shosuke), a reporter for Maichou Shimbun’s regional information desk, used to be the ace of the local news desk with a series of scoops, but was transferred to this department due to an offending article on a prefectural police’s dealings with bribes. Tashiro intends to come along for the “Famous Waters Special” trip organised by his colleague, Kizaki Kaori (Okamoto Rei). Their destination is his hometown, Kurumi Village, a mountain village famous for spring water and fireflies. Shukan Maichou’s well-known reporter, Kuno Shoichi (Kamikawa Takaya), is visiting the village with Kawashima Eiko (Aoyama Noriko), his junior during his time with the local news desk, to cover the whereabouts of a missing university professor, Yamakawa (Watanabe Kenkichi). Kuno is a gossip rag who is capable, but will do whatever it takes to achieve his goal. Arriving at the location, Tashiro starts taking photographs by a river in the mountains. Then he senses the presence of a person, but there is no one in the surroundings. While pursuing the unseen presence, he proceeds further along an animal trail and ends up slipping off a cliff. Realising that Tashiro is not with her, Kaori seeks the help of Kuno and Eiko and the three of them search around. They soon find Tashiro lying in the wilderness. Kaori and Eiko are concerned about his welfare, but Kuno picks up Tashiro’s camera and turns it on. The camera was in video mode at the time it was dropped and had captured a small hut in a dense fog. A man in a suit whose head was covered by a bag was being taken to this small hut … … Kuno concludes that the man in the suit is Professor Yamakawa and Tashiro contacts the police. Tashiro visits the police precinct and meets with detective Tsutsui Takanori (Takito Kenichi). He turns on the camera to show the recorded video to Tsutsui. However, the memory card is not inside. It appears to have been taken out by Kuno. Tsutsui refuses to investigate without proof, and delivers a parting shot on the article Tashiro had fabricated about the bribes of the prefectural police. Tashiro is frustrated, but is dragged by an indignant Kaori to start probing into what is happening in this village. ~JDrama Weblog~