Burn the House Down Review: Intriguing and Engaging Thriller In Its Own Way | Netflix Series
Cast: Mei Nagano, Kyoka Suzuki, Yuri Tsunematsu, Asuka Kudo, and Taishi Nakagawa
Creators: Yuichiro Hirakawa and Koji Shintoku
Streaming Platform: Netflix
Filmyhype.com Ratings: 3.5/5 (three and a half stars) [yasr_overall_rating size=”large”]
Adaptation of the manga Burn the House Down by Moyashi Fujisawa, the new Netflix series created by Yuichiro Hirakawa and Koji Shintoku tells the intriguing story of a woman, Anzu, who tries to shed light on the facts that destroyed her family, many years ago. The protagonist, together with her little sister Yuzu, will join, incognito, the golden world of the influencer Makiko Mitarai, responsible for her when they were children of the separation between their parents. Over time they will uncover countless secrets, buried in their past, but things will soon become very dangerous. As we will see in this review of Burn the House Down, the Japanese series is immediately quite engaging and interesting, a pity for a rhythm and tone that is not always homogeneous, to the point that in certain moments they end up diluting the necessary tension. A series that we recommend to Asian drama lovers who don’t disdain the thriller atmosphere, a genre that always enjoys enormous success on the big and small screens.
Not necessarily a TV series to be beautiful must also be “perfect”. The smears, the imperfections, and the small plot errors, after all, are what give a story, real or imaginary, humanity and, consequently, a sense of identification. And it is precisely these small scene “errors” that make the new Japanese Netflix series Burn the House Down extremely “human” and fascinating which, despite its structural limitations and cultural narrative differences, welcomes the public with such sweetness that it becomes impossible to remain indifferent to this sort of “narrative purity”. Thus, what was supposed to be a dark-toned thriller on paper transports us into a world that attracts us not so much because it leaves us speechless but because it surprises us with its sweetness, the delicacy in writing the characters, the ability to deal with some subjects with such heart-melting grace. And since it is a Japanese series, we could not but expect this.
Burn the House Down Review: The Story Plot
The plot of Burn the House Down takes place on two different time levels, the present, in which the protagonist Anzu (Mei Nagano) investigates what happened when she was a child, and the past, in which we follow the terrible events that marked the fate of his family. In the present, Anzu gets hired as a maid in the Mitarai house by Mrs. Makiko (Kyoka Suzuki), a successful model and influencer: we soon discover that the woman is the second wife of the father who abandoned her, her sister Yuzu (Yuri Tsunematsu) and her mother when they were children. The man had left after a tragic fire, which had destroyed their villa, apparently started by his first wife. Anzu’s plan is very simple: infiltrate the Mitarai house and find out what happened that day. The woman is convinced that the real person responsible for the fire was Makiko, to take over their life, which she envied so much.
Over time, Anzu begins to get closer to the truth, uncovering countless secrets in the Mitarai household, a pity that soon Makiko’s children, Kiichi (Asuka Kudo) and Shinji (Taishi Nakagawa) will discover her plan and decide to put a spoke in her wheels. Burn the House Down tells the story of a girl trying to get justice for her mother, who is blamed for a fire she didn’t commit and that will change her life forever. The plot, of this Netflix dark thriller, exploits the classic elements of the genre to which it belongs, sweetening them with all the charm of Japanese culture and managing to bring to the screen not only a compelling story full of twists but another thing a story with a strong moral behind it, a story that prompts us to reflect on universal themes such as motherhood, love between sisters, revenge, fear of judgment from others and much more.
Burn the House Down Review and Analysis
As we anticipated at the beginning, the plot of Burn the House Down is immediately quite engaging and intriguing: the viewer feels immediately stimulated to find out what happened on the day of the fire, and how Makiko managed to so shamelessly take possession of the life of the protagonist and her family. The non-homogeneous tone of the narration, which jumps a little hesitantly from that of drama and comedy to the more tense one of the thrillers, however, ends up creating detachment in the viewer: in our opinion, the ideal choice would have been to focus everything on the crime side of each other, making the story rawer and with a darker atmosphere.
Working particularly well in the series is the pair of actresses made up of Mei Nagano and Kyoka Suzuki, the scenes in which the two are together are the ones that convince the most. The rest of the cast compared to the two women, even the male one (mainly made up of brothers played by Asuka Kudo and Taishi Nakagawa), takes a back seat, drowned by the charisma of their characters. In particular, Mei Nagano can infuse her Anzu with her proper duplicity, quickly moving from astute manipulator to kind and helpful maid. Kyoka Suzuki also gives life to a particularly multifaceted character: Makiko is a nuanced antagonist, manipulative and cruel, but at the same time with her weaknesses. The characterization of the supporting actors and secondary characters would have deserved greater study, apart from Anzu and Makiko the characters of the series remain a bit two-dimensional.
Overall, however, the story remains sufficiently intriguing and captivating at the right point. Burn the House Down is a series to be taken for what it is, not to be judged for its “mistakes”, for its being at times slow and repetitive in underlining some obviousness in the plot but it should be appreciated because it offers us a different approach to the way to make TV series, a purer, simpler, more exciting approach that detaches itself from the robotic “copy-paste” of most Western serial products which are no longer able to have their own identity, to distinguish themselves, to tell a culture one of a kind and not be afraid of the judgment of others. Give Burn the House Down a chance, let yourself be inspired by the elegance of Japanese ways of doing things, by the sweetness of those who live without having to prove that they are equal to each other, by a fascinating culture, and by characters who in their simplicity can become memorable much more than others built at the table by expert screenwriters and ready to launch the next blockbuster.
Burn the House Down Review: The Last Words
An intriguing and engaging thriller in its way, a pity for a rhythm and a tone that is not always homogeneous. The interpretations of the two protagonists, Mei Nagano and Kyoka Suzuki are convincing. Burn the House Down is a very delicate series that, to be appreciated, needs to be seen by delicate souls who are not afraid to look at life a little deeper and to do it with sweetness.
