Well-known character actor Fumiyo Kohinata not only gets a rare opportunity to star in a two-hour drama, but stars twice — playing twin brothers in the mystery "Twins: Saotome Kyodai no Suiri Nisshi" ("Twins: The Saotome Brothers' Deductive Diary"; TBS, Mon., 9 p.m.)
Kyosuke Saotome (Kohinata) is the chief physician at his family-owned hospital, and one of his patients, Eriko (Ryoko Yui), is undergoing treatment after her husband commits suicide. In his note, he confessed to a robbery that took place six months earlier, but Eriko insists he was with her during the time the crime was supposedly taking place. Kyosuke asks his brother, Yosuke (Kohinata), a police detective, to offer his advice.
On Aug. 19, 1980, a 38-year-old man threw burning gasoline onto a bus that was about to depart from Shinjuku Station in Tokyo. Six people died and 14 were seriously injured. The man said he did it out of a sense of frustration for having grown up in abject poverty and a household filled with violence. He expected the death penalty but instead was put in jail for life.