Japanese Drama 2020

No Need To Know (Shiranakute Ii Koto) Japanese Drama Review & Summary

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Global Granary Drama Recommendation

• AKA: Off The Record
• Genre: Romance, Mystery, Journalism
• Release Date: 8 January 2020
• Origin: Japan
• Dorama: 10 Episodes

Cast

• Yuriko Yoshitaka as Keito (Kate) Makabe
• Tasuku Emoto as Yuichiro Odaka (Ex-boyfriend)
• Daiki Shigeoka as Haruki Nonaka (latest ex-Boyfriend)
• Komiko Ashiyoki as Anna Makabe (Mother)
• Kuranosuke Sasaki as Susumu Iwatani (Editor)
• Kaoru Kobayashi as Notoa Toru
• Takaya Yamauchi – Masahiko Kurokawa
• Soko Wada – Yuji Samejima
• Kinako Kobayashi – Tomomi Kurahashi
• Chikara Honda – Hidenori Higashiyama
• Takafumi Imai – Akihito Onodera
• Yuto Fuchino – Akira Yufuku
• Negisa Sekimizu as Koizumi Aika (Nonaka’s new girlfriend`0
• Munenori Nagano – Ryota Kijima

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Episode 1

If it has Yuriko Yoshitaka then it is more than likely that it will be a good drama.

Yes, this drama is pretty good and interesting based on the first episode alone.

Makabe Keito is a journalist, who is passionate about her job.  Her mother is Anna Makabe who is a popular lifestyle television presenter.

She was busy at work one day when she got an emergency call.

Her mother had collapsed just after her show and was taken to the hospital.

Kate was just able to get to the hospital before her mother was taken for surgery.

Her mother insisted on telling her something.  She told Kate that her father was…

Keanu Reeves.

Huh?!!!

Poor confused Kate cannot check this out with her mother, who passed away after she had said Keanu.

Though the funeral was well attended, Kate did not have any other relatives.

The person she was closest too was her current boyfriend, Nonaka and her ex-boyfriend Odaka, who was a photographer but currently away somewhere in Greenland, or was it Alaska?!!!

Anyway, Kate told Nonaka that before her mother died, she said that Kate’s father was Keanu Reeves.

Nonaka looked at his girlfriend for a long time and then said that though she was a beautiful girl, Keanu of the Matrix cannot be her father.

Kate immediately agreed.

She was looking and sorting out her mother’s belongings when she came across a photo of her mother with Keanu as well as a note from the Hollywood actor saying that he wanted to meet her again.  This was in 1986.

Finally, her ex-boyfriend had arrived from his assignment photographing moose.  Odaka also worked for the same news company as Kate.

Her ex was quite close to her mother as well at some point.

Kate told Odaka that her mother told her about her father and it was Keanu Reeves, the matrix.

Odaka, without batting an eyelid, said that it was possible.  If she grew up in the US and nurtured by Keanu, she would have looked more like him.

They were chatting like good friends and was noticed by her boyfriend, Nonaka.

Anyway, Kate was assigned to interview a woman who was being scammed by someone pretending to be an American called Charles.

This Charles had been emailing the lonely woman who was in her 60s.  His last email was telling the lady that he had had an accident and needed immediate surgery on his legs otherwise they will be amputated.  He wanted her to send him 1000000.

Kate told the woman that it was a scam.

The woman said that she had been told that and deep down she knew it too but corresponding and having an online relationship with Charles was giving her a new lease of life.  It made her feel excited again.

Kate wrote a very moving article about it which became popular.

Again, Kate looked more into her mother’s things and saw a ring that was purported to have been given to her mother by Notoa Toru.  After Checking who Notoa Toru, Kate found out that he was a teacher and a murderer who went berserk in a camp killing some people.

Kate knew that he was more than likely to be her father.

She was rather spooked when the door in her apartment suddenly opened.  It was her boyfriend.

Nonaka found her trembling and almost out of it.  He said that he doesn’t want her to be alone and asked her to marry him.

Kate had to confessed that she might be the daughter of a murderer.  She told him about Notoa Toru.

Nonaka was adamant.  He said he will marry her whoever her father was.

The next day, she told her engagement to Odaka who seemed genuinely happy.  But they also got talking about Notoa Toru.

Odaka lied to her,  he said that Notoa can’t be her father.

She was now all confused again.

That night her boyfriend came by again but all agitated.

He told her that he had another think about the marriage and in all conscience and good faith, he could not marry her after all because of her DNA.  He does not want his children to have murderer’s DNA.  He said he loved her truly but he had always thought that he will have perfect children one day.  He said to forget about his marriage proposal and he promised not to tell anyone about her father.  He then left the key to her apartment on her side table.

Episode 2  – It is about the DNA

Kate did not give up immediately on Nonaka.  She tried to convince him that it was not even 100 percent sure that Notoa Taru was indeed her father.  There was really no proof to it and Keanu Reeves must still be her father.

Nonako, unfortunately, had really made up his mind.  He rebuffed every effort she made including when they were both working overtime.  Even the mere act of her giving him a can of coffee frightened him so much.  He seemed really to believe that she was a potential murderer.

Kate, at that moment, fell out of love with him.

She was walking half-heartedly home when Odaka saw her.

Odaka offered to give her a lift home but she opted instead to watch him photograph bats.

She hung with him all night and when he was finished with his job, he invited her for ramen.

She made him tell her the truth about Notoa Taru.

He confessed that when he and Kate were still dating, her mother asked to see him in secret.

Her mother tried to persuade Odaka not to go too deep investigating Notoa Taru because he was Kate’s real father.  Anna, kate’s mother said that she was leaving Kate to Odaka to look after and protect for the rest of her life, which Odaka agreed to do.

Meanwhile, on the job front, Kate and her small team had been tasked to write a story about blind dating based on DNA compatibility.

Though Kate was rather doubtful about it, she was willing to be convinced.  But the last blind date couple seemed not compatible at all and the man was not willing to pursue a relationship with his partner.

They found out later, that the man had already fallen in love with one of the administrators of the DNA Blind Date club.

Kate followed the couple going to the man’s apartment.  The woman said that she only had 10 percent DNA compatibility with the man so she was not sure how a relationship between them will pan out.

The man, however, said that he does not care about the DNA, because he loved her and wanted to marry her.

Kate told the girl that she was lucky.  She found someone who was not bothered about DNA and willing to marry her.  What they have was real, true love, forsaking all others and everything.  Special!

The resultant article she wrote, was once again, came good and was very popular.

Kate saw a professor on DNA & genetic. He told her that DNA does not only stop at inheriting physical features from parents and grandparents, it seems the experiences, memories, and talents are also written in the DNA.

Having found out about this, Kate went to look for Odaka.

Apparently, three years ago, Odaka resigned from being a news photographer to become a nature/animal photographer.

Kate was so angry and dismissive of his decision she turned down his marriage proposal.  She then dumped him.

Now she wanted to know whether he was already aware that her father was the murderer Notoa Toru when he proposed to her.

He said yes!

Kate started sobbing.  She realised and regretful of what she had done.  How can she have turned down such a caring and generous man?

It is now too late because Odaka is married to someone else.

Episode 3

Odaka was not only married, but he has also got a son.

Kate was kicking herself from dumping such a good man, someone who loved her, warts and all.

Anyway, it was too late but this did not stop her to have a bit of a nostalgia trip on who she got together with Odaka in the first place.

It happened 8 years ago. They were both newbies.  She was a news reporter and he was a news photographer.  They used to team up and his car became their second home as they spend so much time together cooped up in the car, lying in wait for their person of interest.

One day, the waiting got tedious, Kate said she wanted to kiss to break the monotony.

Odaka was surprised but gave in to her request nonetheless.

They were both pleasantly surprised about the kiss and that was the start of her happiness.

She was happy about everything, her work, her life and being with Odaka.

That is until he took a photograph of Notoa Taru coming out of prison and that changed everything.

That was Odaka’s last news photograph before he drastically transferred to photographing animals.

Kate did not like the change, so she dumped Odaka and his proposal of marriage.

She immediately hooked up with Nonaka.

Odaka, married someone a year later,  a woman he met while photographing dolphins.

Anyway, the new item that Kate had to work on in this episode was a rising contemporary dancer.  He was hailed as a pride of the country until an old video of the dancer surfaced showing him being dismissive of the elderly.

Suddenly the dance became a persona non grata and even the minister who was hailing him to high heavens had unceremoniously abandoned him.

Kate came to the rescue.  She later found out that the dancer’s outburst was taken out of context.

And all is all again.

But not between Odaka and Nonaka.

Nonaka had asked to speak to Odaka. He wanted to know why Odaka broke up with Kate?  He was very insistent to find out whether it was because Kate was not marriage material because she was the daughter of a killer?

Odaka could not believe how stupid Nonaka was.

Meanwhile, during the new year, Kate got really curious about Notoa Taru.  She went to see where he lives and saw him and he saw her and that’s that.

Episode 4

There was a popular seer who calls himself Jesus Tomioka.  He seemed to be able to predict what was going to happen.

He predicted that there was going to be a tunnel that was about to collapse.  Not long after a tunnel did collapse trapping more than twenty cars and a microbus containing a local rugby team.

Everyone was intrigued by his supernatural power especially students who paid him thousands to attend his study program because he had been able to predict what would come out during examinations.

Kate later found out that it was all bogus.

Meanwhile, despite Nanako not wanting to be married to Kate, he was finding it hard to see Kate happy with her job and having an easy relationship with everyone, especially with Odaka.

Kate had told Odaka that she wanted to know what happened in that camp where Notoa Toru committed murder.

Episode 5

Odaka took Kate to the camp where Notoa Toru committed his atrocities where he ended up killing two people and five more seriously injured thirty years ago.

Kate was thinking the ‘what ifs” but Odaka told her not to waste time thinking about things that she does not have the power to change.

Kate asked him why he brought her to the camp.

Odaka said that he can’t bear imaging that she was standing all alone in this place.

Odaka asked her when she wanted to put her mother’s ashes in the tomb.

Kate said that she had already done it.

Odaka was surprised.

When she got home, her mother’s ashes were still there.  She lied to Odaka because she cannot bear the thought that they may be mistaken as lovers or a married couple.  That would just be too sad.

The story for this episode was about a high-ranking police official at Central Tokyo Detention House.  He was Okita Hidonori who killed his grandson with a golf club.  He brought up his grandson when his son died.

Okita admitted to killing his grandson without giving any reason.  He was sentenced to 1 year in prison.

Anyway, Kate put forward this case as her next article because she felt that there was something fishy about it.

Anyway, Kate did her research and she got more and more suspicious that Okita was covering for someone else.

It turned out that he might be covering for his own grandson, which he refused to admit to the very end.

But Kate put two and two together and came into the conclusion that Okita found out that his grandson, who was said to be a totally nasty unlikable character according to those who knew him, was building a homemade bomb.  He got the recipe for it from the underground psycho community.

The grandson posted on the community that he was going to blow up a nursery school of Halloween, and that was when the grandfather killed him with the club to try to stop him from leaving the house with the bomb.

Anyway, Nonaka had moved on and has a new girlfriend, Koisumi Aika. She was the one he sits next to in the office.

Meanwhile, Kate got drunk and Odaka had to escort her home.  He immediately noticed that her mother’s ashes was still in her house.

Kate said that she knew it was the 49 days but she can’t let go of her mother because then she would be all alone.

Anyway, the next day she sent a selfie to Odaka of her finally letting go of her mother’s ashes into the tomb.

That night she called him to help her buy an altar for her mother.

For once Odaka refused her request.

She was fine with him but she was feeling down especially after the story of the grandfather that she had written about. She wanted to know what makes someone protect someone else.

Odaka saw Kate leaving the office.

Still thinking about the story, Kate ended up at Notoa Toru’s place by the sea.

She told him that she was Kate Makabe, Anna Makabe’s daughter.

Notoa looked at her and then asked for money.

She asked him how much money does he need to talk to her?

I love, love this drama.  Can’t wait for another installment.

Episode 6

I love, love, love this drama.

Kate approached NotoaToru in order to speak to him about her mother, his crime, the truth of it.

He started to ask her first for money but when she could only show him a bit of money he turned on the hosepipe on her and soak her to the skin and this must be wintertime.

Anyway, Kate ended up walking away all wet and shivering.

But not for long because the gorgeous Odaka suddenly turned up and opened his jacket and hugged her and giving her warmth with his body and jacket.  He then completely removed his jacket and put it on her.  He then helped her to his car.

Seeing that she was still shivering, he stopped off in a love hotel to get her all dried up and warm.  He then told her that he saw what had happened to her.  He confessed that he saw the face she was making when she bumped into him outside their office so he followed her.

Kate admitted that she did not notice him.

Adaka said he gathered that.  He also said that he was expecting she was going to get a soaking from Notoa because he got the same treatment when he first went to see him.

Kate really wanted to find out what happened because Notoa was an unlikely killer.  He had a family and he was a professor.  Kate decided to go and see Notoa’s lawyer, who was no help at all.

Odaka started to become obsessed with Kate again and he can’t just help himself.  He always checked where she was when he gets into the office which was noticed by Nonaka.

Nonaka, despite having moved on, can’t help but be a little jealous when Kate is happy.

Anyway, Nonaka was having dinner with his new girlfriend when Kate called regarding a new assignment.

She was working on an adultery case/gossip.

The wife of Shoji player came to see her saying that her husband was having an affair with the nation’s new pure sweetheart.

At first, Kate couldn’t belive it but the wife showed her the text messages between her husband and his mistress.

So Kate and team got to work.

Kate realised that she was not as shocked about infidelity anymore.  There was a time when she would have been in the forefront in humiliating the erring couple but now she felt a curious sympathy for them.

She realised that she might be thinking of her own situation with Odaka.  Granted that she had not down anything with him but she knows in her heart that she was already committing adultery with him.

Anyway, Kate and her team got to work and followed the husband and his mistress.  Kate needed the help of Nonaka to break the code that the couple was using.  It was based on Shoji coding and Nonaka used to play shoji.

Spot on, Nonaka was able to tell them the exact location and date of the tryst between the couple.  They caught them together and were able to photograph them being intimate.

The woman bravely admitted that she was having a relationship; with a married man but he was going to divorce his wife soon.  Man back up her claims.

Again, Kate’s article was a massive hit.

Meanwhile, Odaka was looking happily at his secret folder of Kate and his photos together in his computer when there was a knock.

It was Kate.  They talked about work and they touched on infidelity.

Odaka honestly confessed that he had never stopped thinking of her.  He said that he loved his family but Kate has always been in his heart.  He said this has to end.

She agreed.

But before she knew it, he started snogging her.

Can’t wait for the next episode. I saw a trailer where Kate was stabbed by a woman in the office.

Episode 7

Kate and Odaka’s snog ended up in bed.

Kate told Odaka afterwards that she would not expect anything from him but would just like to see him now and again.

Odaka, however, told her that he was not the type of guy who can both keep his wife and Kate with nonchalance.  Meaning he had to choose.  He did say that there was nothing wrong with his relationship with his wife.

Anyway, Kate, though, prepared to be Odaka’s mistress, this relationship also comes with some stress.

Kate was just telling her colleagues that they should have proper security in their office where not everyone was allowed to just walk after an irate pop star came in and slapped their boss when the ex-wife of the Shoji player walked in and went immediately to Kate and stabbed her.

The ex-wife was so annoyed and outraged. She reckoned that it was all Kate’s fault.  She went to Kate with her story so that her husband drops his mistress rather than actually leaving her to be with his mistress.

With this commotion, everyone in the office seemed to have turned into stone because no one intervened.

The ex-wife was about to stab Kate once again who had now fallen on the ground but the newly arrived Odaka covered her with his body and he got stabbed in the back instead.

Finally, the men at the office subdued the woman for further mayhem.

The stabbing trended immediately.

For some reason, Nonako instead of feeling concerned for Kate got very jealous of her popularity.

So to get back at her, he contacted a rival newspaper reporter and had a told all about the life of Kate and that she was a daughter from an affair of the notorious killer Notoa Toru and the movie critic, Anna Makabe.

Episode 8

Kate and Odaka both ended in the hospital.  Kate was just about to go see Odaka at his hospital bed when she saw Odaka’s wife with their baby coming out of the room.

This made her felt so guilty so when Odaka called her later to check on her, she told him that she was already at home.

After a couple more days, she went back to work still with a broken right arm.  She told her colleagues that she was Ok as she was left-handed.

Not long after, the news broke that Kate was the daughter of a murderer.

This caused so much problem for Kate.  Suddenly she was being chased like those people who she was chasing for news.

Odaka immediately suspected that it was Nonako who blab about Kate and the murderer, Notoa Toru.  He confronted Nonako and gave him a bit of smack.

Episode 9

Kotako, a contestant at Big Eater Championship, went to Us Weekly and spoke about her suspicion that there was something anomalous with the contest.

She could not understand why the winner, Maria, a middling girl could eat so much compared to her with a bigger frame and big appetite.  She reckoned that Maria was being given a smaller portion.

They looked at the footage but they can’t see any difference with the sizing of the food given to Maria and Kotako.

Still, Kate was intrigued and with her newbie assistant, Ryoma Kajima they went to the studio for the Big Eater Challenge.

They did not see anything underhanded during the show but there was something niggling Kate about Maria and the big boss of the company.  He was giving Maria preferential treatment.

There was a newbie at the company who was an assistant and seemed to be doing everything.

Kate had the idea for Ryoma to befriend the other newbie.

It worked too because the guy talked about what was happening, why Maria was winning.  Apparently, just before the eating contest happens, they would scoop out most of Maria’s portion from the bottom, so the outside looked the same as the other but quite hollow in the inside.

Again another big story for Kate with Ryoma.

Nonako was not having a fun time.  He was unceremoniously dumped by his girlfriend because she reckoned he was more fanciable when he was with Kate.  Now he was just boring.

Kate was so tired coming home but she was surprised by a very drunk Nonako who was blaming her for his misfortune.  He said if she had been a normal girl, they would have been so happy together.  All he wanted was to be simply happy.

Odaka had a divorce paper in his car.  He then told Kate that they would have a proper talk once her issue with Notoa Toru has been cleared.

Odaka had taken Notoa to Tokyo because he learned that Notoa was being hounded by the press and can’t leave his bicycle shop and had not eaten for days.

Odaka then invited Notoa to stay at his studio for the meantime.

Kate spoke to Notoa about inconsequential things as she was wary that he might run off if she gets in too deep.

Any Notoa’s former lawyer called Odaka to meet up.

Odaka and Kate went to see the lawyer who said that he met Notoa a day ago and he noticed that Notoa was keeping Kate’s business card carefully in his pocket.

When the lawyer asked Notoa if Kate was his daughter, Notoa immediately said ‘No’ which finally convinced the lawyer that Kate was really Notoa’s daughter.

He then said that Kate might not be a murderer’s daughter.

He then related something about Notoa’s real family.

His wife agreed to divorce Notoa immediately when the case came up about the murder.

He noticed that when Notoa’s ex-wife was signing the divorce paper, her son came to help her make the tea. The son put the herbs into the pot.

And the lawyer reckoned that this was what had happened all those years ago.  The young boy unwittingly put poisonous herbs/weeds into the drinking jar in the camp, as he would do at home, not realising that the herbs they had at home were edible.

Having realised this Notoa confessed that he was the murderer and would not give any reason why he did it.  He was covering for his four-year-old son.

I love this drama so much and it had ended.

We will probably get the final 10th episode soon.

Love Kate and Odaka so much!

Episode 10

This final episode was tieing off loose ends.

To the end Notoa Toru won’t admit that she was Kate’s father.  Odaka said that it was because he did not want Kate to think that she was a murderer’s daughter.

He was not the murderer of course.  It was Notoa’s four-year-old son who added the poisonous herbs in the drinking jar at the camp.

Kate went to Sweden (somewhere in Europe) to find the brother but in the end, she did not confront him or even introduced herself to him because she decided that he seemed to be in a happy settled place with a foreign wife and a young child.

Kate got back at the office and was told that it would be better if she writes her life story rather than her boss.

But in the end, the company CEO rejected the story and to sweep it under the carpet.

Nonaka was fired from the company because he created so much scene.  But he told them that he will be famous one day and they will rue the day of having fired him.

As to Odaka and Kate, well Odaka told her that he was divorcing his wife.  And he would like for Kate to marry him because he had always loved her and never ever stopped thinking about her.

Kate felt guilty about his wife and child.  She said that under the circumstances, she can’t really separate a family.  She was willing to be a bit on the side but not a full-time partner because that would make her feel guilty.  So she turned down his marriage proposal again.

Odaka went ahead and divorced his wife and as a payback, his wife left him custody of their baby.  He found his baby crying his eyes out, all alone in the house.  Overnight, he became a single parent.

When Kate found out about his new circumstances, she told him that she would like to marry him and they would bring up the baby together.

This time Odaka was the one to turn down her proposal.  He said that they do love each other very much but time was never kind to them.

Three years later….

Nonaka was right.  He became famous. He was a very much sought after writer.

Kate is now an editor and while out and about, she saw Odaka taking his child for a walk.

The End