Foreign dramas can feel like a mini-vacation, allowing you to fantasize about living in a country where the weather, people, or even the interiors are a stark contrast to what you’re used to. Yet, no matter where you go, it’s difficult not to look for similarities. It’s good news! The Journalist, a new Netflix Japanese drama, is about a corrupt government that embezzles public funds. I’m immediately at ease. Let’s find out is it worth watching or not The Journalist.

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THE JOURNALIST- REVIEW

A deal involving the prime minister and his wife resulted in the sale of land around a school for a low price, while another politician is being investigated for his role in a startup that received excessive government subsidies. Our titular hero, Anna Matsuda (Ryôko Yonekura), a maverick broadsheet reporter known for battering government spokespeople in televised press conferences, is the first to pick up on one of these scandals.

The more jaded, news-saturated viewers may dismiss Matsuda’s interrogations as nothing more than wordy showboating – the kind of heavily editorialized haranguing that pleases those who agree with the point but doesn’t advance the story. She is, at the very least, attempting to bring down the bad guys, which has made her a celebrity. “She is incredible!” exclaims one of the media-savvy young fans, who is sitting in a cafe devouring the latest Matsuda clip on her smartphone.

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The Journalist is a fantasy of fearless, truth-telling journalism to some extent. It would be a straight-up flop if that was all it was. The first episode features childish views of newspaper journalism – ostensibly a noble profession distinct from the fake news spewed on the internet – and government corruption. Senior civil servants order junior civil servants to open incriminating documents on their computers, edit out all references to the Prime Minister, and save the document. We see text being typed over in extreme closeups on computer screens.

The political analysis is equally basic, with the idea of capitalism as the root cause of the characters’ various woes hovering in the show’s periphery but never being identified. Rather than being self-serving corporate entities whose interests align with those they are supposed to hold accountable, media organizations are constantly battling unseen government “high-ups” for their attention.

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Similarly, the police abandon investigations into official wrongdoing on a regular basis – another motif that can be appreciated without any prior knowledge of Japanese politics.

But when tragedy strikes in the second episode, it’s clear that The Journalist isn’t attempting to be a complex drama about power dynamics. It’s a warm-hearted melodrama about good, ordinary people whose health and happiness should be important, who are crushed by injustice. When a life is lost in a corruption scandal, rather than just money being misappropriated, the focus shifts to men in suits whose career aspirations have inured them to the moral consequences of their work over a period of time.

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The Journalist gradually separates its characters into those who can handle suppressing their own humanity and those who can’t. The apologetic bows get deeper as granite professional facades finally crack as the series progresses and Matsuda keeps the controversy alive. “I am truly sorry,” is the most common line of dialogue, and it gets more moving each time you hear it if you can ignore the shameless sad piano in the background.

This is wish-fulfillment, based on the question that nags us the most when we read about corruption and cover-ups: how can the people who perpetrated these crimes sleep at night? We’d like to see them unable to do so, and The Journalist caters to our wishes. But it does so effectively, using simple stories about the emotional consequences of institutional cruelty to remind us of the issues at hand.

Shinobu Terajima gives a controlled, dignified performance as a widow whose befuddled vulnerability gives way to determination, while a heartbreaking subplot about an ambiguous bromance between political colleagues, one of whom deeply regrets how their bond failed to hold when his friend’s idealism cost him dearly, is also featured.

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All of The Journalist’s dramatic payoffs revolve around finally saying what has been kept hidden for so long – whether it’s “I love you” or “I did this and I apologize.” Finally, it shifts the blame onto us. Later episodes make it clear that Japan has descended into a swamp of deception as a result of its citizens’ apathy. The program claims that if you want something better, you must speak up on your own. Even if The Journalist is naive and sentimental, it is correct in that regard.