Summary
Burn the House Down is a solid Japanese drama with plenty of mystery, suspense, and surprises.
Revenge is a dish best served in several binge-ready installments, or at least that’s what Netflix thinks. Hence Burn the House Down, a new eight-part Japanese drama about an enigmatic young woman befriending the new owner of her childhood home, which was once consumed in a devastating blaze that her mother apparently started.
If points were awarded for obvious titles, this would certainly be atop the leaderboard of recent international dramas that wear their intentions on their sleeves. A house literally burns down! In its aftermath, the steady fires of revenge burn away in the gut of protagonist Anzu Murata, who wants nothing more than to return the ruinous favor. Will another house burn down? Only time will tell.
Burn the House Down Season 1 review and plot summary
Anzu (Mei Nagano, charming and enigmatic) watched her family home go up in flames when she was young. Her mother, Satsuki, apparently left the stove on. All her material possessions were lost and, soon afterward, her family broke apart. Satsuki developed generalized amnesia, and her husband, Osamu, married her former best friend Makiko. The two of them now live in the same house, which has been restored.
Working with her sister Yuzu, Anzu adopts the identity of Shizuka Yamauchi and gets a job as Makiko’s housekeeper. Now a famous model who claims to be able to juggle all of her professional and homemaking responsibilities, Makiko is self-obsessed enough not to realize who Anzu is.
As the season progresses, Anzu conducts a personal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fire, with the story – really, in a lot of ways, a family drama disguised as a thriller – taking many twists and turns throughout. Mei Nagano provides a capable emotional anchor as we navigate the secretive and facile life contained in a house of cards.
Complementing Nagano is a litany of supporting actors giving similarly inscrutably performances. This is all in service of the show’s underlying sense of mystery and ambiguity, with intentions never quite being clear, backstories never explaining everything and ultimate intentions kept deliberately vague.
This could have easily become a frustrating show, but it’s surprisingly well-handled. Episodes are paced well, twists crop up in the right place, and the balance between character and plot development is reliably achieved. Eight episodes sound like a lot, but they’re not overlong individually, so the binge-watch experience – and, trust me, this will be binge-watched – is satisfying enough overall.
Is Burn the House Down worth watching?
Burn the House Down is a handsomely crafted and consistently engaging mystery with relevant themes and impressive performances.
More importantly, though, it’s a show with a firm grasp of storytelling structure and pacing, finely-tuned for the binge-watch era.
The recommendation is easy enough. It might not be entirely original, but it is a very distinguished version of a familiar genre, and the production can’t be faulted. J-Drama fans will be well-served here, but really anyone with an interest in well-made mystery thrillers with a bit of meat on their bones will find something to like in Burn the House Down.
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