Hancho : Intro

About The Subs

For this review of Hancho I am watching a 720x400 .mkv version available from GiriGiri Fansubs, a relatively new group on the scene. I have nothing but great things to say about GiriGiri's work. I love the .mkv container because of the multiple track availability, so right there they get a "Kon Kon!" from me. Great clean work and excellent timing make the viewing process easy. Update: Thanks to sayochama of GiriGiri for the additional info here! The .mkv was encoded by a D4rkfactor, a member of D-Addicts.com, using GiriGiri scripts. Much thanks to D4rkfactor for their great typesetting and awesome container format! Aside from their great subtitiling work, GiriGiri also provides extensive notes on their website which clearly take a lot of time, effort, and knowledge. For me, having come from a long history in the American anime dubbing industry and watching so many things fly out the window in favor of bias and money making, GiriGiri's dedication to "preserving and accurately transmitting the Japanese culture inherent to the Japanese programs", is something I strongly admire and respect. Their strong philosophy on education, cultural awareness, and openness to answering questions from fans is something that I think will help them to grow even further within the scene and makes them, already, a great group.

On With The Show!

At first glance, Hancho is a police drama full of action, intrigue, and team comradery. Even in the logo above you can see glimpses of strong character types, hints of unique personalities, and a sense of dramedy within. However, as I have found with a lot of Asian entertainment including film, anime, and drama, things are rarely what they appear to be on the surface. Never judge a book by it's cover or, in the case of a lot of dramas, by a horribly written synopsis. *grin* I try to watch at least the first two episodes of anything I can get my hands on, just to try and sample as many different dramas as possible. Some of them really don't stick out, some of them I have to see at least three or four episodes to get a decent feel, and some of them I can tell right from the first episode that I will be hooked for the duration. Hancho is one of those dramas. From the moment Sasaki Kuranosuke smiled and gave us our first glimpse into the soul of the character Azumi Tsuyoshi, I knew.

Sasaki-san is an actor who can really convey a tremendous amount facially. There is a great depth in his smile and the way he looks into another person when he is in a scene that draws you also into whatever truth he can see within them. There are moments in Hancho where you are easily drawn into feeling something simply because of how he is looking at someone else. He has a face you trust instantly, a face that has everything written upon it clearly, a face that can deconstruct a lie as quickly as it can uplift a broken heart.

In the United States, as far as acting goes, there is often this mistaken belief that powerful acting is something you can see on screen depicted more verbally than physically. That is hardly accurate. Powerful acting is often a subtle kind of acting that affects you viscerally because it's not about what is said, but rather what is implied and unspoken. That doesn't mean that I didn't like to see Lee J. Cobb hammering out his lines in 12 Angry Men in that distinctive style and vocal strength as much as the next person, it just means that sometimes Lee was at his best when he said nothing at all, as rare as that was *grin*. There is theater acting AND television acting and those are two distinctly different things.  Traditional acting training begins with theatrical style. However, in the mediums of television and film we don't need things to be so overwhelming and theatrical. Unfortunately, in the United States, actors seem to forget this fact. Asian melodrama on the other hand, doesn't suffer from this problem for a variety of reasons, mainly cultural (I could write an entire essay on that alone). The bonus for us is that the melodrama isn't so melodramatic when it's unnecessary for the scene and the emotional purity; the melody of the drama; comes through in a way that is visceral without being overdone (Though I have met a few Japanese people who think Jdrama is very overacted which I find interesting). I would love someday to be able to study more on how the acting technique is further cultivated in Japan and Korea. I have watched enough DVD commentaries to be fascinated by their base acting concepts and creative development process.

At it's heart Hancho seems to be a drama about truth seeking. While I have only seen the first three episodes so far, the consistent theme seems to be far from just "good cop catches bad guy" because there is no such thing in the reality of crime-solving situations. I suppose in a lot of our manipulated media there is often no gray in the area of crime and punishment, but the truth of the cases are often buried beneath lies, prejudice, and idiocy rather than any level of honest scrutiny. In Hancho, the 5 member police team of Jinnan Station work hard to uphold the law while at the same time digging deeper into the heart of the criminals to find not only motivation but also to free their tortured, misunderstood, and lonely souls.

Squad chief Azumi Tsuyoshi is a healer.

Azumi-san listens. Azumi-san contemplates. Azumi-san FEELS. His instincts about people are what drives him to investigate and question more. He is not satisfied simply with what he is presented with. Azumi-san peers beneath the outer appearances and he can see into your heart with those gentle and yet dominating eyes. What I love about him is that he understands people. He empathizes, he sympathizes, and his whole team does as well. They are out there with their suits and guns chasing criminals and trying to bring the truth to light while at the same time they have the most open minds and hearts for all people involved - victims and criminals alike. No one is purely a victim and no one is purely a criminal. Everyone is suffering in their own way, everyone has their own reasons, everyone is hurting.

The foundation upon which you pass any kind of fair judgment is made up of the balance created between truth/motivation and action/consequence (again, something most Americans seem severely lacking in the ability to do). Something I find incredibly satisfying as a behavioral therapist watching Asian drama is their exploration into character development - and by that I don't mean the character depicted by the actor on screen - I mean moral character. What I am drawn to in Hancho is the way the stories are written to explore the difficulty and necessity of exploring that foundation. Beyond right and wrong there is always why. To ignore that question of why is to ignore the truth. The truth of people's actions and motivations can be complex but our ability to comprehend and give validation to them is what will allow a more morally balanced judgment.

I have often used Asian drama and even anime in therapy to teach emotional comprehension and vocabulary. Without the ability to understand the spoken language, the student (I dislike the word patient) has to rely on physical cues, determine emotional markers, and be able to assess the situation visually and aurally only. This is a really excellent exercise to determine the level at which people are able to "read the atmosphere" of situations and the emotional levels of their fellow human beings. Why is the character reacting this way? What do you think they are feeling right now? Why do you think they feel this way? Why has the character taken that responsibility? How do you feel about what has happened? Etc, etc. These questions and determinations help build basic foundations from which one can develop healthier emotional recognition capabilities and reactions.

The first episode of Hancho exposes you to characters whom you cannot judge on first sight - not that you should ever do that anyway. You find yourself being drawn into 45 minutes of real balanced exploration in order to get to the bottom of what seems to be, on the surface, a cut and dry case of murder. The more Hancho and his team explore the factors, persons, and circumstances surrounding the murder victim, what comes to light isn't some deep seeded crime of hatred, greed, or murder most foul. The truth of it all is much more tragic and complex than the actual murder itself and the realization of that is enough to send any true soul spinning wildly into an empathetic (or even sympathetic) tornado of tears.

I said at the beginning that at it's core Hancho seemed to be about truth seeking but there is another core element to the show that I am also drawn to - the love. The characters depicted both in and out of Jinnan Station are people who love and support one another. Beyond the obvious team comradery are some delightful friendships and relationships including the reporter (Yamaguchi-san?), Mama Kojima-san who owns the sushi bar the team frequents, and even the Erik Estradian motorcycle cop, Hayami-kun. In addition to the solving of the crimes, the interactions and interpersonal relationships bring an additional depth to Hancho that give me a great feeling at the end of each episode as well as throughout the show. I am looking forward to any additional development of these relationships as well as the exploration into each character. In an ensemble cast sometimes secondary or tertiary characters can become wallpaper and you never really get a chance to know them or have them blended into the show as a whole. I hope this doesn't happen in Hancho as the team is an integral part of the "police drama" genre and I'm intensely curious about them all.

I look forward to more of Hancho and I am thankful to GiriGiri Fansubs for their dedication, time, and detailed effort to make this excellent drama accessible to an American audience through subtitles and extensive cultural reference notes. Keep up the good work!