Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo - Hong Kong Kowloon Zaiho Satsujin Jiken Special review

I have never watched Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo before. It's a manga that got adapted many times into a drama. I think it has 3 drama series and some TV specials.
Here I will review the latest TV special of Kindai Shounen no Jikenbo which aired in January 2013.

I like this poster!

 

Synopsis (from DramaWiki): 

A Korean exchange student working part time in a hotel in Hong Kong is suspected of murder. Kindaichi tries to uncover the truth.

Cast:

• Yamada Ryosuke as Kindaichi Hajime
• Kawaguchi Haruna as Nanase Miyuki / Yang Lan
• Arioka Daiki as Saki Ryuji
• Seung-Ri (승리) as Kim Yong-Dong
• Wu Chun as Li Bai Long
• Kiritani Kenta as Takigawa Ryuta
• Yano Kouji (矢野浩二) as Zhang Yong Fu
• Komatsu Takuya as Xin Li
• Judy Fukumoto as Yang Mei Qin
• Mizuta Kouki (水田航生) as Saku Takeshi
• Vivian Hsu as Ivy Liu
• Eric Tsang as Wang Long

My review

Story

I am not familiar with the Kindaichi Shounen series. The story is about an adolescent boy who is the son of a famous detective, that somehow finds himself in an hotel where there is a series of murder. He tries to find the murderer while discovering the truth about a mysterious treasure.
Even if I was not familiar with the series, the story is presented in a way that I was not lost. I thought that the story was very good. It was full of action, unpredictable and the mystery mostly made sense (except for 1 murder). A interesting point is that it is taking place in Hong Kong, with history elements of the Kowloon walled city. It also has actors from other countries like Korea and Taiwan.  

One of the murder case was not very believable.
Other than that, it was a very good murder mystery 1 shot drama.

Acting

I thought the acting was fine. There is an actor who was not Japanese that I think he was dubbed over. It took me a while to realize he was dubbed so it was not badly done.
I think all the actors played their parts well.

Music

It was a Tanpatsu (1 time drama), so I didn't really notice the music. I thought the music was funny and kinda old school during action scenes. 

Recommendation

I really enjoyed this show! I am now curious about all the previous series of Kindaichi Shounen no Jikenbo. Some were played with Domoto Tsuyoshi, and then with Kamenashi Kazuya as the lead.

I have also seen a TV special of Detective Conan in 2006 with Oguri Shun as the lead. I do not remember much, but I remember at the time I thought it was not that good so I would not recommend it.

One detective drama special that I really liked was the Galileo special episode 0, from 2008. It is not need to have watched Galileo series before but recommended.

Wu Zun, a Taiwanese actor