Entertain your BRAIN Robert J. Terry 8/2006

Ikegami Police Station Again on MagicBell

Once again MagicBell Communications, Inc. is showing “This is Central Ikegami Police Station” on Sundays at 7:00 pm on Channel 44, KXLA and subtitled in English. This is the latest installment in the story of an ordinary police station in Tokyo and how the men and women who work there deal with an assortment of emergencies and other problems.

It stars Takashima Masanobu as Shiina Keisuke, Police Chief of Central Ikegami Police Station. As a graduate of prestigious Tokyo University, Shiina was expected to follow a career path into the upper echelons of law enforcement. However, his mindset was far removed from that of the elite class or a cool and sharp man. His daily routine includes a morning jog, which in hyperactive Japan is considered a leisure activity. He loves his wife dearly and is also tremendously fond of children. Concentration on a top career necessitates that such feelings be suppressed as well. In lines with those attitudes, Shiina turns over the leadership of the police station to his second-in-command.

But this blockhead police chief is no ordinary person. He has an innate sense of what to do when there is a crisis, and a wonderful sympathy for his fellow human beings. On top of that, he knows the geography of the precinct better than anyone, and has a special talent for remembering the names and faces of the people who live there. Shiina has his own philosophy of the law, using unique insights and ideas to detect white collar crime, juvenile delinquency and con artists. In addition, since he has no interest in promoting his own career, he often lets subordinates who are on the scene take credit for solving matters that he himself has actually done, while posing as a man who has no abilities at all.

The police station contains a wide variety of personalities and the situations that are depicted are typically melodramatic, with humorous or absurd scenes thrown in for comic relief. The program often borders on situation comedy, but never ventures into tragic or disturbing territory.

In a recent episode, the station is in the process of holding a ceremony to commemorate an unprecedented period of safety and tranquility and law and order when a malevolent-looking man peers from the distance. He scoffs at the activities and vows to cause trouble.

Some time later the man calls the station using an electronic device to disguise his voice. He says that he has placed a bomb in the building which is set to explode shortly. Naturally, this throws the staff in the command center where the call was received into confused commotion. Steps are taken to evacuate the building while a bomb squad searches it. However, a female officer just entering the lobby before beginning her shift notices a box festively decorated that has been placed in a corner. She retrieves it and brings it into the bustling command center.

“Look what I’ve found! Someone must have forgotten it,” she cries out. Shiina sees it and understands instantly what it must be. He leaps into action, grabbing the box and taking it out of the building where he hands it over to the bomb squad. One of that crew places it in the open and all retreat to a safe distance. At that point, the top of the box pops open and a red balloon starts floating up out of it before it bursts in a cloud of confetti.

The station realizes that it has been made the butt of a joke and steps are taken to find out who has been behind it. As more threats come in and investigated, those efforts are doubled. Analysis is made of the electronic voice that repeatedly comes over the telephone, but everyone is baffled as to who the perpetrator could be.

That is, until Shiina notices that the voice has used a colloquialism prevalent in the southern island of Kyushu. In a short time it is determined that the word has a nuance that is characteristic of Kagoshima, and Shiina suggests that a former officer connected with the station might have a grudge against it. Find a dismissed or disgraced officer with a Kagoshima background and the criminal just might be discovered.

Before the Ikegami police can home in on the suspect, he appears at the station wearing a time bomb strapped to his waist. He declares that he is ready to blow up the station and everyone in it with him. It turns out that his daughter died as a result of bungled police work and he holds the chief detective of Ikegami Station responsible.

As the bomb ticks away, Shiina reasons with the man. At the same time, the chief detective stands stone-faced with his head hanging beside the two. Using his understanding of psychology, Shiina understands that the chief detective must have guessed the truth, but was hiding it because he knew how grief-stricken the man must be. In fact, he was covering for the man while he wracked his brain to find a solution.

Shiina couches his language in terms intended to comfort the man and appeal to his humanity. He points out how ashamed the chief detective is. Finally, the man switches off the timer for the bomb.

The synopsis above should give the reader a feeling for this program. It is subtitled in English, but the phraseology is often awkward. The funny thing is that years ago subtitling done on shows like this used to contain outrageous mistakes, showing a hilarious misunderstanding of English. In Ikegami Police Station, there are frequent mistakes, but they are ones that show a sound grasp of the fundamentals. In fact, American high school students might easily make the same mistakes! Perhaps that shows the natural evolution of foreign language mastery.

“This is Central Ikegami Police Station” Sundays, 7:00 pm, KXLA, Channel 44, subtitled in English