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Outside of the video and ending theme song that will be heard by you below and the poster above, that's all I could find of the early 1990s TV Tokyo historical drama "Edo Nakamachi Bugyoujo"（江戸中町奉行所...The Nakamachi Magistrate's Office of Edo）. I can only assume that it deals with samurai dealing out their own brand of double-edged justice to evildoers in Edo Era Japan.
Up to now, I've featured singer-actress Ai Kanzaki（神崎愛）singing her early 1980s fare of City Pop (which has currently been excised due to copyright strikes) and Fashion Music. So it was with some surprise that I discovered that Kanzaki had also been one of the cast for "Edo Nakamachi Bugyoujo" (I'm assuming that's her in the video thumbnail...usually I would imagine her holding a flute instead of a katana). Another surprise is that she sings the theme song for the first season of the show titled "Ai no Refrain".
Considering the name of the singer, I can translate the title as "Ai's Refrain" or "Love's Refrain". But let's assume that Ms. Kanzaki was never self-serving and go with the latter translation. Without knowing the release year of 1990 initially, I had thought that the song was heading into Fashion Music territory but the arrangement just had that urbane sophistication (but with no City Pop groove), and then when I did read up on its 1990 release, I concluded that this was more along the lines of New Adult Music of that decade which mixed some of the traditional enka/Mood Kayo with more pop stylings, usually of that sophisticated brand. Lyricist Akira Ohtsu（大津あきら）and composer Keisuke Hama（浜圭介）were responsible for its creation.
In any case, it's quite the song for a samurai drama. I would usually think that something like "Ai no Refrain" would be used as the ending theme for a contemporary mystery/suspense drama or a cop show.
Here is a summary of the first episode:
ReplyDeleteEpisode 1: “No Need for Judgment!”
Former Nagasaki magistrate Niwa Tōtōmi-no-kami recruits the members of the Yami-sabaki (Shadow Judgment) when founding the Nakamachi magistrate’s office. To test their skills, he has Oshino ambush each one. At Saikaku-ji Temple’s festival in Saga Seiryō-ji—suspected of harboring thieves—Minamimachi constable Mizusoe Gadō enters to investigate but is reprimanded for trespassing. The temple shelters bandits, supplying them with women by kidnapping townsfolk. When one husband comes searching for his wife, he’s killed; soon both their bodies wash up under Arashiyama’s Nakanoshima Bridge.
Mizusoe raises suspicions with his superiors but is told to stand down. Disillusioned with Minamimachi, he switches allegiance to Nakamachi, in exchange for a promise to petition the Temple Magistrates. But those very magistrates are in league with the villains and act as go-betweens for the thieves. The new magistrate tells the story of Nakamachi’s founding and, enraged at the corruption from the very start, declares his vow of Shadow Judgment. Other members are quickly drawn in: womanizer Kogure Rakutarō, a constable from Kitamachi; shinobi Oshino, now a restaurant proprietress; and Takichi, a fishmonger. Taking one character from each of their names, the group is dubbed “Garakuta”—“junk.” The gang of thieves tries to slip out of Edo, disguised as mountain ascetics, crossing Kizu River’s Nagare Bridge. Kogure and Mizusoe close in from front and rear, while Takichi waits below the bridge. Needless to say: total massacre. That night, when the Temple Magistrate and a priest arrive to collect their share of the loot, they too are cut down—Oshino joining in. The mood is pure Hissatsu (assassin drama). Even the swordplay is first-rate.
You can find more here:
https://agua.jpn.org/film/c14.html