KINPIKA – Review

KINPIKA is a five-episode subtitled Japanese crime drama that manages to spin a complicated tale with all the efficiency one expects in a Toyota factory. No fat on the bones here as an ex-cop recruits three wrongfully-convicted felons to right the wrongs that were done to them, and to the country. One of them, Kenta Sakaguchi (Kiichi Nakai), is a Yakuza assassin, the second, Isao Okawara (Pierre Taki), was a hard-nosed soldier, and the third, Hirohashi Hidehiko (Yusuke Santamaria), was the top aide to high-ranking government officials. The first was abandoned by jealous under-bosses after years of loyal service in the trenches and time in the slammer. The second was drummed out of the Army for opposing a bill that would waste money and lives, while lining certain pockets. The third took the rap for a honcho’s embezzlement, thinking it was his duty to his country and wife to go to jail for him, and let the great man rise to the top.

Each of the first three episodes sees this version of our A-Team tackle one of the agencies that ruined their lives. While they make progress, it takes all five episodes to clean up those messes, overcome various obstacles and setbacks along the way, and nail the perps. The stories play out with relatively little violence but plenty of character development and some touches of humor. The grizzled detective who set them up for their missions, Mukai (Katsuhiko Watabiki), has the look and world-weary gravitas of crime-film superstar Takeshi Kitano.

In the same vein as the aforementioned A-TEAM, or con-game series like our LEVERAGE and England’s HUSTLE, the villains represent the worst of corporate, political and personal greed and corruption, making their undoing a visceral pleasure. Though set in Japan, the depicted institutions and jerks running them have all-too-familiar counterparts in every country, providing relevance in any language.

KINPIKA is a self-contained miniseries that wove the three story lines smoothly and coherently, with little wasted time or detail. That’s fairly rare among such series from any country. I often feel that the impact of such series or single-crime seasons would have been stronger if they’d edited the package into fewer episodes. This one left me hoping they might get the band back together for another round of wrongs to right.

KINPIKA, in Japanese with English subtitles, debuts streaming Tuesday, Oct. 4, on MZ Choice.

RATING: 3.5 out of 4 stars