Appointment with Death - Fuji TV

Appointment with Death follows on from the two popular Fuji TV dramas, Murder on the Orient Express (2015) and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (2018). The detective Takeru Suguro returns in 2021, once again played by the pioneer of Japanese 'Kyogen', Mansai Nomura. The screenwriter is Koki Mitani. The show will be broadcast on Saturday, March 6th at 21:00 on Fuji TV.

About the show

Takeru Suguro was on a vacation to Kumano Kodo in the Wakayama prefecture when he greeted the doctor Kinuko Sara reading a medical book in the hotel lobby. They knew about one another from the newspapers, and the two immediately get along. Then, an unusual family comes in. Sara says that they are the Hondo family, and she is going to visit the main shrine with them, and invites Suguro to come with her. According to tax accountant Kota Jumonji who has known the family for a long time, the master of the house, Mr. Hondo, left enough money so that the whole family can live affluently for the rest of their lives, so they spend their time traveling around Japan. However enjoyable that may sound, they never seem like they are having any fun, and they look like they are being controlled by their oppressive mother.

Suguro arrived at the shrine and was taking a walk when a congress representative, Honami Uesugi, and editor Hana Asukagreeted him. Honami came to Kumano Kodo for personal reasons, and it seems like she has known Suguro for a long time...

The next day, the Hondo family, Suguro, Sara, Honami, and Asuka go to investigate local roads on a bus. Kumano, often regarded as a sacred mountain, has lots of divine mountain roads, and sightings of mythical creatures like ‘Tengu’ are common. As the sun is starting to fall, Mrs. Hondo’s corpse is found on a bench. The chief police of Kumano, Taisaku Kawabari, asks for Suguro to investigate the incident. Mrs. Hondo always had a weak heart, but Suguro finds a mark from a syringe on her right hand. Did she die from a sickness, or is it a murder? Suguro then remembers a conversation he overheard the night he arrived at the hotel.

“Do you not understand? The only choice is to kill!” . The family was not a happy one, and everybody seems to have a motive, but at the same time they also have an alibi. In the lounge of the hotel, in front of everybody, the most complicated mystery of Suguro’s career is about to be solved.

Cast

Mansai Nomura is Takeru Suguro
Manami Higa is Kinuko Sara
Yoshiyuki Tsubokura is Kota Jumonji
Kyoka Suzuki is Honami Uesugi
Satomi Nagano is Hana Asuka
Kanji Anan is Taisaku Kawabari

Producer: Koya Watanabe, Masataka Takamaru (Kyodo TV)
Director: Hidenori Shiroho (Kyodo TV)
Production cooperation: Kyodo TV
Production: Fuji TV